Marvelous Mermaid Swap!

[bkrenning4]

Post your photos here!

[bkrenning4]

I received the most beautiful baby mermaid today!  Thank you so much norsgoebel!  You are so talented with clay!

[dixie_terror]

I am officially jealous, it is beautiful!

[norsgoebel]

I'm glad you liked her Kristine, I had so much fun making her!

Barbi

[bkrenning4]

I wasn't going to admit this to anyone, but I am so in awe of your clay talent, that I must tell you what happened.  I decided to make a mermaid doll from clay two weeks ago for the swap.  I formed her tail, cutting samll teardrop pieces of clay to place on top of it so that it looked like scales.  I used the skinner mthod so that pinks and purples were blended together with a little silver glitter.  I used a "spaghetti" making contraption to create long tresses of wild hair.  I used my seashell mold to create a little bra/  She was beautiful!  I put here in the oven and, she cracked in half!  I was so upset.  But I decided I could glue her together after she baked.

Well, to make a long story short, time got away from me and soon I began to smell something funny.  MY MERMAID!  I took her out of the oven to find her facial features melted together, and her tail burnt.  I was so disgusted with myself after all the work I put into her that I threw here immediately into the garbage.  That night when I came home, I heard a little voice calling:  "Save me, save me..."  I took her out of the garbage, glued her together, and she now sits on my desk as a reminder of why I am not allowed to play with clay! 

Believe me, Beccajo will be glad I came up with another idea that didn't involve clay!

My 8 year old son came home and asked what that "thing" was on my desk.  I told him a mermaid and he informed me that it didn't look like any mermaid he had ever seen.  Needless to say, he spent some time in his room that night!

Anyhow, any words of wisdom when working with clay?  Or should I just claim it as one of those things I cannot and will not ever do again?

Take care.

Kristine
bkrenning4

[littleone1098]

bkrenning04.....May be it's just me, but I see NOTHING wrong with your mermaid, I think it's gorgeous!

[xmelinda]

Me too, I think she turned out really cool!

Melinda

[iqjones]

Jinkies!
I feel your pain, bkrenning!
My mishap involved a vase & the oven & an explosion, albeit minor. Vase unsalvagable! I am still very upset about it, & cleaning the oven out didn't help improve my mood!

[DeniseM]

bkrenning,

Don't you wish sometimes that our kids would know when it is 'ok' to lie, or better yet just know when to shut up?

Denise

[norsgoebel]

Kristine-

I think she looks fine too.  Unless you had told me there is no way I would have known she had burned.  A really good resource for everything polymer is glassattic.com  the woman who's site it is is a crafster member too!  The only advice I could give you would be to make sure your oven is really at the temperature it says it is.  Get a good oven thermometer and test it out.  Sometimes ovens "spike" when they start to cool down and need to get up to temp. fast.  That can cause problems for your clay.  Ideally you can bake a polymer piece at the recommended temp. for hours and hours and it won't burn unless the temp. changes.  I use a clay dedicated convection oven that keeps an even temp. the whole time.  I would also suggest using a piece of crumpled foil that has really been smooshed into a hard shape (oval for a torso depends what you are making) and using that as a core for any little sculptures.  It saves you lots of money if you don't have to make a solid clay sculpture.
I think you should continue to play with clay as long as you have fun! And I took no offense at your son's remark, I took it as a compliment actually. 
Barbi