Delightful by Heather Miller
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Year: 2011
Size: 2″ x 3″
Delightful was created using polymer clay, beads, a small mirror, and acrylic paint on a mini canvas. The piece has a wire hanger on the back so it can be hung like normal artwork.
The Story:
I’m writing this story in 2016, the piece was created in 2011 so I’ll do my best to remember.
Delightful is a piece I don’t remember much about. It’s basically a simple doodle using polymer clay. I created this alongside of Tranquil. The canvases for both pieces use the same painting technique. After doing a base coat of paint, and letting it dry, I added vertical lines of a lighter pink along with lines of the base coat color. Then I took a toothpick and ran it through the lines horizontally. I did this repeatedly until I liked what I saw.
For the polymer clay, I don’t normally start out with a clear idea of what I want to create. In this case, I do remember I started with the mirror. I had never used one with polymer clay before. The mirror is round so I ended up creating something of a yin-yang with two shades of pink. The other part that was ‘new’ for me was the white loop. It actually stands off the canvas. When I put the clay in the oven, I wasn’t sure if it would remain standing or flatten out. If the clay is too thin, or the loop / curl is too large, the clay can’t support itself without supports. This one baked up just fine.
After the piece was baked, but before I mounted it to the canvas, I decided to do a wash. I painted the piece with a silver paint and then immediately wiped it off. The only paint left is what I worked into crevices and deeper areas…for the most part. I left some areas with more paint than others. In hindsight, I wish I had used a different color or perhaps skipped the wash. I’m not sure it really works the way I was thinking it might, at least for this piece.