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Creative Critters - that is the ArtFire studio of Michelle from Ohio.
Michelle says she has been an artist since she was a child and started playing with her first lump of Play Doh. She also says that when she is not outside tending to her gardens, taking walks or watching the animals, she likes to create.
And boy, does she create!
Not only does she work with polymer clay to make sculptures and jewelry, but she also sews and knits.
Her studio is full of great items, whimsical sculptures, dolls, teddy bears and they are mostly inspired by fantasy. Don't expect the usual stuff, though. Michelle definitely gives each item her own special touch.
Now the tough part was to choose some favorites of mine to show to you. As Michelle also loves cats, I thought it would be ok to let my cats help me, but surprise, surprise, they didn't choose any of the cat items. I guess they don't like to share the attention.
Ready? Let's start.
I expect you all to go awwwwww now because that is what this cute little seal deserves. Aren't the eyes just perfect?
"The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew" by Robert Bolt is an English play for children. The "Augsburger Puppenkiste" turned it into one of their puppet play and it's one of my absolute favorites. What does that have to do with Creative Critters, you ask?
Well, this little fellow always reminds me of it!
This piece, the Lion Fish mermaid, just blows my mind. Isn't it gorgeous??
Check out Michelle's studio, I'm sure you will find something that you like, and while you are at it, why not hop over to her blog as well? Have fun!
Huh? If her name is Valerie, why Emily Claire Creations? Valerie says she is so inspired by her two daughters that her studio was named after them.
When I think of her, I think faux. Faux stone, faux ceramic, faux metal - I love how she mastered to imitate things in polymer clay to make them look real.
She herself is not "faux" at all. She is a lovely person, witty, helpful and incredibly talented. I'm very glad to have met her.
Now let's have a look at some of my favorite items in her ArtFire studio.
I love trees and I like the feel of these earrings. They remind me of little tokens that we used to collect as children, only much more beautiful!
With this item Valerie would have fooled me at first sight. I really thought it was precious metal clay and was surprised for a moment because I didn't know she worked with it. She doesn't, it's polymer clay. Isn't it amazing?
Now to my very favorite piece, the Spring Wild Flowers choker. How she made the clay resemble sandstone like this, I don't know, but I love the effect she created.
You can also find Valerie on her blog and now last, but not least at all - she is having a sale, 15 % off!! What are you waiting for? Run!
You remember a few days ago? The birthday gift?
It has arrived safely!
There is this friend, you know. I mentioned her before. She is such a witch! In a good sense. We are both Terry Pratchett fans and that was what brought us together. I like to call her Granny Weatherwax, she calls me Nanny Ogg (for people who don't know Terry Pratchett ... maybe you should check out his books, they are great fun).
And then there is Jamie from Glasstastic Treasures. In her lampwork bead studio you can find sea critters, camels, dinosaurs, hearts, corn-on-the-cob, so cool, and and and ....... and a witch's cauldron. Black with a filling of green bubbly stuff. My friend is not that much into jewelry, so I had to think hard how to do the cauldron justice.
"Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,-- For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble." 
Shakespeare sure had a way with words and then it clicked and I went to do a little magic of my own. Long grey hair, a battered pointed black hat, clutching her broken spoon, stirring the poisonous looking boiling green goo, there the tiny witch (1.5 inch including the "grass") is standing. She looks concentrated, I guess the potion has to be ready in the morning. A love potion? Something to heal sick goats with? Or maybe a facial mask! 
"My" witch wrote that she liked her. I bet the two are getting along just fine! ;-)
I just remembered that I turned another of Jamie's awesome creations into a gift.
This time it didn't become a witch, but ................
The UFO with the seed bead lights is silver tone wire, crocheted in shape.
It has been a while that I wanted to try and make face cabs from polymer clay. But you know how I am. Too many ideas at once, getting distracted easily, feeling the urge to experiment with something.
Yesterday that urge led to me a face cab. All week it had been so hot that my motivation was close to zero. I started a few pathetic attempts at playing with clay, but not much came of them. I was sitting in my "laboratory", thinking, rolling a ball of clay between my hands, mixing colors, twisting it, putting it through the pasta machine and suddenly I found myself with a disk on the table in which I had pressed two indentations with my forefingers. Eye sockets!
I had mixed the colors to make them resemble dark wood which was perfect for a face. I thought it would be really nice if it looked like some ancient tribal mask. And finally my first face was done. But ... what to do with it?
At first I thought I'd just make a bezel for it. When looking for a matching color, I stumbled upon my brass wire. It's the wire I had started five projects with which I threw away almost right away. Brass is springy, hard and really makes your hands sore during crocheting. But -
1. hadn't I promised to use what I've got?
2. stubbornness set in.
3. the color fit the cab perfectly.
Sigh. What are fingers good for anyway? They'll heal.
When the bezel was finished, it seemed something was missing. That was when I decided to turn the pendant into a star.
I think it was the right decision and you?
Time for another Smoosher feature!
Into The Dawn is not where I'll be riding to on my horse, not only because lone riders usually ride into the sunset and not because I can't ride and think horses are terribly high, it's the name of an ArtFire studio, Dawn's studio, that is.
Dawn is not only a funny and lovely person that I am very glad I got to know, she is also incredibly talented.
Like always it's hard to choose a favorite, but I'm going to concentrate on my favorites of my favorites - her mosaics.
Let's start with this piece, the Funky Metallic Quilt Block Mosaic Box.
I don't sew (yes, yes, I know I mention it all the time), so the first thing it reminded me of was not a quilt. Instead it reminded me of graph paper. Whenever I was bored at school, I took a piece of graph paper and filled all those little squares with colorful patterns. Admit it, you did it, too! And it was fun, wasn't it? ;-) So is this box.
The Water Spirit Mosaic Box really gives you the feeling of water, the ocean, rain - can't you almost smell it?
This one, though, tops it all for me, the Kuan Yin Mosaic Shrine. So beautiful!
Put a saddle on your horse and try to ride into the dawn, you won't regret it, either at the ArtFire studio or at Dawn's blog. Believe me, I barely touched the surface here.
Poor Toby. All his life he had to compete against his cousin. His cousin is bigger, his cousin is fiercer, his cousin has the book deal and he got to play in a movie with Gregory Peck!
Toby is not amused. His mood does not improve when a boat comes by and they fire off harpoons. Toby has had it and makes it clear. Lashing out with his fail tin once and there goes the boat ...
This is my second piece for the Polymer Clay Smooshers challenge "Oceans". At first I thought about a kraken picking up a ship in his tentacles, but I was running out of time, so I settled for Toby. He has been frustrated enough, this should be his hour of fame, if not fortune ;-)
Toby is 0.4 inch high, his little waterworld is 2.75 inch in diameter. The ocean is made from a silver shimmering blue, the water is made from clear resin. Yes, so basically I know what to do with resin now.
Since I was a child, I loved Andersen's fairy tale about the little mermaid. Of course I always had to swallow my tears when I came to the end. Many of his tales are so bittersweet and I myself am really drawn to happy endings, if not in life, then at least in stories.
I make an exception for Andersen, though.
When the poll result for the monthly Polymer Clay Smooshers' challenge was "Oceans", I thought of fish first, but then I saw one of Dori's layered pieces and the mermaid came to my mind. I started out with a disk of blue clay and wanted to make one of my bas-relief pieces, but suddenly I had the idea of a rock coming out of the sea.
The rock was pretty lonely for a few days because when I started I had not thought about how I wanted to make the mermaid. Then I just started with her upper body and head, then continued with the fish tail, her arms and last her hair. I love long hair (ask my hairdresser, our motto is "as much as necessary, as little as possible" for my own hair) and I love how it flies in the breeze or looks floating in water. So she got a pretty wild hairstyle.
In the end I wondered if I should varnish her, but I liked her much better like this. So now she is sitting on her rock, waiting for her prince or maybe just a friend to have a chat with.
Oh, I forgot to say that the whole sculpture is 1.2 inch high - or low ;-)
That is not just the perfect description for the pieces I chose today, it is also the name of a fellow Smoosher's ArtFire studio, Sassy Clay Creations.
Taking a look into her studio (which you absolutely should!) and her blog (check it out!) will show you that Dori is a lady of many talents.
She covers glasses to make beautiful votive holders of them, she makes great patterns and the cutest little flowers.
Talking about patterns, here is my favorite bowl from her studio. Isn't it darling how Dori wove the green ribbon through the holes in the rim? And that bowl is not only beautiful, but also useful!
As a cat lover I absolutely had to choose this necklace, not only because of the stamped cat image, but also because of the great effect that the copper embossing powder makes on the black clay.
In a post for the guild blog she mentioned that one of her favorite techniques is layering. There are quite a few items in her studio that show that, but this is definitely the most amazing one, the Green Envy Mask. That doesn't only show patience, but also a lot of talent!
Don't let me forget to mention that I've gotten to know Dori as a kind and lovely person. Just read in her blog about the Round Robin Box that she started within the guild and that is due to come to me next. So exciting.
She is also inspiring. Even if she doesn't know it yet, she inspired me for this month's guild challenge, but that's for another post.
I wish you happy browsing at Sassy Clay Creations now.
You know Tomomi, my dragon. This was the very first picture I got to see of her. Her creator was not totally happy then, but wanted to show me a first glimpse. I was in love right away and as you know I still am.
But as much as I was in love, I was in awe as well.
Meet ColtPixy, the lady behind the dragon.
I had been wandering through her studio before, unfortunately only online although it must be big fun to do it in real life to see her projects and her tools, and to listen to her.
As guild master of the Polymer Clay Smooshers on ArtFire she is doing a great job, holding the pack together (no easy task, I'd say!), blogging, promoting and inspiring.
As an artist - only talking about polymer clay now because there has been so much before - she has made jewelry (I love my bitchy peas necklace which tells my coworkers what mood I'm in ;-)), supplies, but right now her heart belongs to miniatures. Personally I think her heart has definitely shown her the right way because she made some fabulous miniatures!
You want examples? Well, calm down, they are coming right up!
And you know what the best part is? You can get them at ColtPixy's ArtFire studio! What are you waiting for? Run!!!
Stop!! Wait just another moment, I forgot something. If you want to follow ColtPixy's creative journey, head over to her blog and check it out. Ok, now go, go, go! ;-)
No worries, I am not talking about a computer bug. I haven't had to deal with that since I got my new notebook - which by the way is called The Patrician, for those familiar with the Discworld, a name that I find fits very well.
So why am I calling out bug alert?
Well, the Polymer Clay Smooshers on ArtFire had a challenge called "Bugs" this month. It took me a while to have any ideas at all, but finally I came up with two entries.
This is Ms. Ladybug. She stands out between her bug friends as compared to them she's a monster bug with her 1.75 inch length and her (still) shiny copper wire legs. She doesn't care much, though. All she needs is her leaf, a little sun and some love.
My other entry is one of my mixed technique items that I like to make. It's a small black butterfly that has landed on a purple rose blossom. The blossom is lying in one of my wire crochet baskets on a bed of brown "soil".
You can find both entries in my ArtFire studio.
And don't forget to check out the Smooshers' blog to see all of the fabulous entries. Amazing work from amazing artists!!
I guess it was bound to happen.
You can't just go, buy a can of resin and expect it to work right away. A new technique, even if you just want to seal something, needs time. Practice. Patience. An increasing moon in the second house of Venus in retrograde.
Heck, yeah, I have no idea what I'm talking about!
But how embarrassing is it to say - I wanted to open the can and couldn't. There were two clasps on it and when I tried to take them off I broke my favorite pair of scissors (earned the hard way by spending too much money on cat food, it was a gift from my cat food shop, but it was such a good one!). Then I bent up the lid all the way around. It looked a little like modern art, but I tried to get IN there, thank you very much!
Finally I did. At first I thought there was a layer of whatever on it, but I guess it was dried whatever, eh, resin. I got rid of it and hopefully stuck a wooden stick into the resin. Ehm, wasn't that supposed to be kind of, eh, like, eh, liquid? Yes, that was exactly how I stood there. Actually my whole face was one big "eh".
I had read the instructions. This can had not been in the cold for a few days, so what was going on here? I read the instructions again, this time in Finnish. You never know what you miss if you only read the German ones. After noticing that I held the paper upside down, I went back to the German ones after all.
"Put the can in a hot water bath for 10 minutes." I'm not a cook, but that is my easiest exercise. Pot, water, stove, let the water sizzle, but not boil. 10 minutes exactly. Ping.
Another attempt at stirring the mass, but this time it tried to eat the wooden stick. I checked the can again. There, it said "resin", not "alien sticky blobby mass from Vungula IV". Hm, maybe another 10 minutes. Maybe it's like watching milk. I should just let it do its stuff whatever that may be and do something else.
What about that abandoned bezel whose color I didn't like for the Septarian? I could make something for it from polymer clay. I measured the bezel, mixed some blue and black. A deep water scene with seaweed in green and white. Little silver fish. This turned out to be much more fun than watching the can.
From time to time I went over to the stove to check on the alien. It tried to eat another wooden stick, but apart from that it stayed unchanged. Ugly words floated around in my head.
Where the octopus came from, I don't know. He happened, like many of my designs happen, but once he was in my head, I immensely enjoyed the process of wrapping seaweed round his tentacles and the other way round.
The eyes were last. I wondered if I should give him a cutesy look, but suddenly these slightly evil eyes were staring at me. I tell you what, I don't say that often, but I love him just the way he is and I think I'll keep him for myself.
As for the resin? After wasting energy for about an hour I gave up on it. For now, that is. I won't let a transparent alien beat me, no sir!
No, it's not that I'm in a romantic mood, but I felt like making polymer clay roses again.
Probably Mabel was a Mucha lady again today.
One of them (rose, not lady) turned out much larger than I had planned at first, you know how it goes sometimes.
At first I thought about making a pendant out of it, but after I had crocheted the setting, I felt it might make a fun ring.
The wire goes through the rose bead, so that it doesn't move, and it's a very comfortable ring.
Yes, I think I am quite happy with this one! Not all my experiments work so well at the first attempt!
Which reminds me that I need to hurry to get the rest on today's list done ... wish me luck!
But please pronounce it Fronkensteen. Yes, I am a fan of "Young Frankenstein". I might even be able to mess my hair up like Gene Wilder's in the movie, but I doubt I could do the wild look.
Whatever.
I'll introduce you to Lizzy now. Lizzy's name came out of nowhere and so did she. Would you believe she started out as a bird cage that had the wrong size? I got asked if I could make a bird cage with a bird inside (which actually rekindled my polymer clay "career" that had got stuck in its baby shoes, but that's a different story). My first attempt was too slim, so I put it away. As with many of my unfinished projects, though (gee, sounds like I have thousands of them lying around while there are only like ... *mumble mumble*), I looked at it again and again. I rarely throw away a messed up piece because I like how failure can be an inspiration for something else.
The more I looked at this "non-cage", the more it looked like a skirt to me. One too many Georgette Heyer books maybe? (Note: Re-read your Heyers once more.) And finally I took a heart and added a little bodice and puff sleeves. Not that bad, but what now? Put it on a wire hanger? Make a pendant out of it? I thought of putting a body in there, but I had no idea how to do it. Polymer clay, yes. But how? How?
The dress spent quite a while on my desk until I finally decided to make a head. I found I am not a great head maker. A little piggy nose, fat eyebrows (I still use to underestimate how big a speck of clay can become if you flatten it, but I'm working on it), and huge hair, but at least tied in a knot. As it had only been my third attempt at a head, I still felt it was ok (don't ask about the two heads still lying around here, I am afraid I won't be able to put them to good use! ;-)
More time went by. Then, on another inspection of the dress, I saw the long wire ends still sticking out of the sleeves.
That's when my "Fronkensteen" genes started to move. Polymer clay around the wire, a neck, ah, you should have heard my mad laughter. Unfortunately there was no lightning and thunder. It would have been nice and fitting.
Little did I know how difficult the process would prove to be. For a trained polymer clay artist it wouldn't have been a problem, I'm sure, but for me - oh my, I can't count how often the wire went bouncing back just when I thought the clay looked good now. I even tried to make a pompadour to keep her hands together, but I didn't like the look of it. To make a neck for the head was easier, but it turned out to be a little fat.
Into the oven she went (had to be the oven, no lightning, you remember?) and out of the oven she came like this.
The wire color was shining through the clay and the poor girl had the "uneven elbow disease". I thought some lace for longer sleeves and some jewelry for the neckline would be a good idea, hm, and something to fill up the skirt. More lace maybe?
When I showed Lizzy - told you the name came out of nowhere - to my online friends, I got a few more suggestions ... and was told whom she reminded them of. Very funny indeed. Lizzy will have to spend lots of time in therapy! And I almost cried from laughing so hard.
Today was the big accessory day. First I made a wire crochet stole for Lizzy. Although I used the smallest hook possible with this wire, it got - hm, let's call it luxurious. It wasn't easy to bend, but I think it's ok even if it hides the bodice and the sleeves.
Then Lizzy got a simple little necklace with a tiny freshwater seed pearl that doesn't look so tiny on her as she is only 2 inches tall herself.
And last of all I filled up the skirt. If you look very closely at the two pictures above, you can see the red wire peeking through. In daylight you can see it better. Now that she is not that lightweight anymore, she also stands better.
There you go. That is Lizzy. I don't know yet if she will get any siblings, but I promise to keep you up-to-date on the subject.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Fronkensteen ;-)
In German the sentence rhymes by the way.
We used it often when we were children and sitting here feeling chilly which doesn't happen often it came to my mind.
We have all been talking a lot about the weather. The long winter still not over in some places, spring, catastrophes, spring, April weather, spring - yes, we all long for it. And can I please have a consistent one?
April doesn't think so. Yesterday we had rain and the neighbor's kitty had to hide underneath my car (just when I wanted to drive off, of course, when else?). Today we have grey sky and no rain, but it's cold.
Thomas Tusser, an English farmer and writer (what a nice combination) in the 16th century said "Sweet April showers do spring May flowers".
And April showers were one of the ideas for the Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild that I am a member of.
Here is my interpretation. Take your own little rain cloud with you. It's not as wet as the ones above ... A polymer clay cloud focal hanging on four strands of sterling silver chain with three small dangling raindrops.
I like it.
Too late to back out now, the door is locked.
This is not a garden show, you know I don't anything about flowers!
Still my topic today are flowers, but not the kind that withers when I come close. I found the cure. Give me flowers that are tough, that can stand up to me and that don't need water!!
One of them you know already from an earlier post. It had been lying around there and I felt sorry for it, so I decided to plant it. I didn't want to use something store-bought, though.
Then my looks fell on the brown polymer clay that I had intended to use for a tree. The design hadn't worked out the way I wanted it to, but .... hmm .... with a little red in it .... organic look .... rough edges .... oh yes, and a tiny snail on there!
When the bowl had left the oven and was cooling down I started thinking about the "soil". Sand? Nah. I would have to glue it down, so the plant wouldn't fall. Glued sand? I don't think so. Rocks? The deco rocks that I like to use as background props for my pictures? I still had enough of it, so I started glueing the flower into the bowl with the rocks (after checking out if my glue was ok for polymer clay).
When I had about half of it done, I glued myself to the rocks. It was bound to happen. Glue doesn't like me. When trying to get my hand off the rocks, I pulled the whole bowl with me and rocks started flying into all directions. Have you seen that they are black with silver?
I stepped on them. With my white socks I stepped on black, silver and glue. Sometimes you have to sacrifice things, I guess. I sacrificed my socks for this project. They were not the youngest anyway, the heel started to get a little threadbare, and I didn't feel like picking off all that stuff before throwing them into the washer.
I needed two sessions to glue everything so that nothing would fall out.
Here is the result.
The other flowers are totally different. They are roses from polymer clay, much smaller, too. I know there are many rose earrings out there, so I wanted to give the design a little twist.
I love to combine wire crochet and smooshing, in my opinion that can compliment each other very well in a design.
And my head is full of ideas! Stay tuned!
About one and a half weeks ago a project that I started went into a totally different direction, like so often.
Out came a line of small and very small baskets crocheted from wire.
When I showed them in my forum, not quite knowing myself what I wanted to do with them except fill them up - with whatever - , Sue, another member, brought up the idea to put wire yarn in there and one of my kitty heads.
The yarn part was easy. This fine silver basket is not even an inch high, I will add a bail if requested, so it's possible to wear it as a pendant or take the bail off, else you can just decorate it.
About the kitty head I wasn't so sure. Two-dimensional was not what I had in mind. What to do? Polymer clay? The last time I played with clay was at a friend's house with his child. Must have been like 15 years ago and my pretzels were not exactly life-like. So what? I went to town and got myself some clay.
I should have known something like that would happen! When "Charlie" was finished, he didn't know anything better than to jump into a basket full of colorful yarn and play with it! And still he has that look on his face "No, Mom, it wasn't me, the yarn attacked first, I had to defend myself!"
Here is Francie, the doll (please Mattel, don't kill me for saying her name out loud), showing the latest fashion in baskets.
She just came home bringing cucumbers, oranges and a bottle of wine (I don't even want to know what kind of supper this is going to be, but everyone to his or her own taste, right?).
Then she remembered she still had to go by the farmer's house and get some eggs for a cake. A big cake, it seems.
To be true, I don't know myself what is going to happen next, but you'll be sure to find the answer here in my blog eventually. It might surprise me just as much as you. Or maybe not. Who knows?
