I Broke My Bone Today

No, not a real bone, but a fake one. Today I tried out making a chicken leg out of Premo for 'The Hole', but it didn't work out too good. I was really testing out a new way of baking clay things so that they wouldn't get scorched like they had in the past. I did this by placing the item in a pile of cornstarch in a foil box which then went into my toaster oven. After I baked the perfect bone, however(I baked the bone then applied the meat), I accidentally cracked it while trying to clean it off and give it a little sheen by rubbing it. I applied the meat to the bone afterwords and then baked that. When I took that out I found that the meat had cracked and the bone broke completely. It would probably be salvageable, at least the bone part, but the meat isn't looking quite as I would like it to and I may give it another go later on. At least I know that baking it cornstarch works pretty well. I'll still need to test the original Sculpey in it though because that's the clay that burnt or turned purple all the time for me.

College Visit and Stocking Up

Today I skipped school and went to visit a possible college choice in my future. Although I didn't go mainly to see their Digital Art Media department, I did get a chance to see it while in a tour. It was pretty neat because as one of the teachers for the department was explaining different things, I kept thinking to myself, yah, I know that. There were also a couple of times I noticed things before he explained them like them using a blue screen in one of their sets. It was also cool seeing the different facilities and things they were working on like their puppets, sets, and their technology and equipment looked pretty cool. They also seemed to have lots of space for what they were doing. He also mentioned some CG stuff a couple of times, and I knew what he was talking about. A lot of terms he used were pretty familiar.

One the way home I also was able to stop at Michaels and stock up on some Sculpey Premo Clay to use for props. I got it because it was on sale(only 99 cents a block), I had a gift card to use up, and since I'm going to be leaving the country, it'll be hard to get my hands on them. I'm going to be trying out some of the techniques shown in the book I just displayed recently, Making Doll's House Miniatures with Polymer Clay. To add a more realistic touch to the things I make, I also picked up some soft artist's pastels that will add shading to the sculpting things. I'll get some pictures up later.

Suggested Book

Today, I'm going to give a book suggestion. This book is called "Making Doll's House Miniatures with Polymer Clay" by Sue Heaser. It's a really good book on how to learn to make props. The book goes through and teaches a variety of techniques to make different objects for doll houses in particular, but can be easily used for prop creation. All that is needed is a little boost in scale since the book demonstrates in 1/12 scale. Everything is very clearly explained and the book is very well done. It is nice quality as well. It is a very good book, if you don't have it at your local library, I suggest that you purchase it or borrow it from somebody that owns it. Right now, on Amazon.com, the book seems to be less than $15 so it's a pretty good buy. That is without shipping costs however. If you would like to learn more about the book, just click on the link below. It will direct you to Amazon.com where you can read reviews, see a little bit inside the book, and more.

Making Doll's House Miniatures with Polymer Clay