IF: Rescue

Painting for the day

 

Browsing Hollywood celebrity buzz, a photo of Rihana caught my eye, it was great for practice. Photoshop.

Hi ho silver!

At about 250AED, this pair of earings, has got to be the most expensive silver earrings I have acquired! But it was worth it.

The other night, we were at the Dubai International Art Centre (DIAC), a lovely villa just behind the Mercato Mall area, learning how to make our own silver jewelery. You see, some clever Japanese chaps invented the  Art Clay Silver which makes it easy to design with silver – you don't need to make molds and melt the metal anymore, you just have to flatten and shape them as you want.

Lisle, our teacher, guided us through all the steps of making our first silver jewelery, patiently answering every question and doling out tips in case we ever take up the craft at home.
 
The medium
Silver Art Clay comes in this small plastic containers and basically looks like light gray clay. You have all these tools to help you create any piece you want. I chose to make a pair of earrings to match a silver ring I already have.

Here's how you can do it:

Put the clay in between two cardboards of the same thickness. With a roller, roll the clay like you're rolling dough to flatten it out. The boards will make sure it's even.

Take the pattern of your choice, better to mull over and finalize your design before you handle the clay because it may dry up on you. If you're using a mold or pattern, press the design on the clay, or if you're taking it by ear, then start creating/etching your design. In my case, I used my ring to create an impression on the rolled clay.

After the design has been impressed on the clay, cut the excess clay. Keep the excess material inside a plastic sheet to avoid drying. Keep every little bit, you can reuse them all. If you feel that your clay is drying as you're working on it, spray a little water to keep it malleable. Put olive oil on any instrument you will use – stamps, knifes, etc – to prevent the clay from sticking to the instrument.

Dry your creations on top of the kiln. When it's completely dry, it will look and feel like dried ceramics or dried clay.

Take a piece of sandpaper and polish the design and the edges. You can use wet ones to wipe off the back.

 Drill the hole for your hooks.

Put inside the kiln. After 10 or 15 minutes it will be ready.

Remove the jewelery from the kiln carefully (remember it's very hot!). With a pair of tweezers, take a piece and dunk it in cold water.

This will cool it off and strengthen the metal at the same time. At this point it will be white and will look nothing like the shiny metal we know and love.

When it's cool enough to touch, dry it off and start polishing.

Now comes the exciting part, as you brush, the white stuff will disappear and the silver will shine through.

Burnish the piece to make it shine, add the hooks and voila – a new pair of 99.9 percent silver earrings.

Cool medium
What makes this all the more cooler is, there's no breaking it. When a petal broke after it was first dried, it was glued back with Art Clay Silver paste. A more diluted form that acts like a glue.

Instead of putting it in the kiln, this piece was fired with a hand-held torch, another option for firing it. And the piece looked good as new.

After three hours, we had brand new silver jewelery that gave us immense satisfaction.

It looks way easier than the real thing and I bet, we need a lot more practice to really master it. The medium is really exciting specially when you start considering the possibilities - it's endless!

Below are some samples shown to us by Lisle. You can view her creations at Wow Creations.

The class cost 175aed plus materials. The materials depend on what you will use (hooks, stones, etc) and on the weight of the Art Clay Silver.

Happy Mother's Day cards

Happy mother's day to all moms out there!

We're pretty sure there are going to be tears in mums' eyes when they read the cards their kids made them.

We couldn't help but say awwwww when we saw the emails kids sent us.

It was hard but we had to pick one winner - and that's Christine, 12 years old, who sent in her card for her Mommy Pearl. We love her use of colorful flower cutouts that frames the front of the card.

Inside, she continued the flower motiff and combined it with illustration - a sweet one of a mom kissing her child and a just as sweet letter. We're sure your mom is going to be so proud of you Christine! Congratulations!

For special prizes, we picked three: IC (12), Tel (9) and Kit (10).


IC used what looks like colorful tin foils which made his card bright and colorful. He also used cutouts from magazines to make his letterings. Very clever! He kept the inside simple which brought your focus to the message immediately, but the borders around the message made it interesting.

Tel emailed saying she also colored the back of the card. That's good design Tel! And she included a very cute picture of her and her mommy on the inside page making it very personal.

Kitkit used a bright yellow paper that added interest to the card and in his letter, he recalled his mom giving him confidence on his first day of school. Awww... we're just wiping tears from our own eyes. 

Congratulations kids, good work! Happy Mother's day to your mums and

all the mums out there!

And a special Happy Mother's Day to Amor Mendoza 

and Monica de Castro!

Celebrities donate crafts for a cause

Just got this link from Neil Gaiman's twit - celebrities donate crafts for a cause (proceeds benefit the victims in Haiti) and the products are all up for bidding here.

"Famed author, Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Sandman, Stardust, The Graveyard,), decorates a few 4-panel postcards and some of his “Scary Trousers” t-shirts for the Crafts For A Cause auction, which begins March 15th at 8am, here: biddingforgood.com/craftsforacause". - Crafts for a Cause (photo by Cat Mihos, also taken from the same site)

Check it out, you might get lucky and get creative works by Neil Young, Christina Aguilera, Kings of Leon and more, and for a good cause too!

Art Dubai

Art Dubai is still on until tomorrow. Be sure to check it out - it's an amazing collection of artworks from 70 galleries all over the world.

Art really is a strange and wonderful thing. There is so much creativity and ingenuity in the world. Here's a little collection of some artworks that were made with the most ordinary items you wouldn't normally think of when thinking of art.

A very colorful piece of of switches.

The little points are little seashells.

Take a guess? This light blue star and red background is made of... matchsticks! 

Side view of the matchsticks. 

Pebbles in a circular format, the mound in the middle looked like semi-precious stones. This reminded me of some sand art I used to work on while just lounging at the beach in Balayan (below).

This beauty is made of incense ashes and glue.

Plenty of blades as you can see.

A very sticky Mona Lisa - she's full of packaging tape!

By Jorge Mayet. This whimsical creation is a real wonder, those real-looking branches are made of electrical wires and everything else is paper mache. 

Here are some of my favorites:

I love the big, bold strokes on these three portraits on the right. Also love the sleeping lady on the left, mighty big creation for pen and ink (on board).

Aboriginal art from Australia. Love the colors and energy of the piece.

Honestly don't know what these little robots are but they are adorable!

Very striking bust.

This one reminded me of LOTR when Arwen with a dying Frodo, on the horse Asfaloth, called to the Misty Mountains to attack the ringwraiths - ahh gotta love fantasy.

I'm just sorry I can't identify them all. But thanks to all these artist for making the world a better place. There's still one full day tomorrow, check out Art Dubai. Have fun!