Tuesday 8 June 2010

Playing With Fimo and More Potions......

I decided to have a play with Fimo this week and try to make some ingredients and lids for my potion jars. So I practised twisting, rolling, warming and mixing. Nothing particularly adventurous but a bit tricky for me. I made a few lids and simply baked them together with the jars on a very low heat, 100 degrees and they stuck quite nicely. Perhaps a bit pretty for a witch but they can always go in the shop.

Here are the lids I made. I am quite pleased with the cream and brown ones at the back that I have tried to make look like material. The two tall ones with green and red lids exploded in the oven. This was due, either to the glitter getting too hot or because I had used their original stoppers to give shape. I will glue the tops back on and hide the cracks! The things I have learnt about fimo today are: even when you think you have rolled it out thin enough it is still too thick...... even when you believe the item is exactly the right size it is still too big.....and even when you think you have all the colours you need you are missing the one you definitely need!

I am supposed to be finishing my witch's kitchen this week but when I started sorting through my stash I realised all my jars were too big for the top shelf of the dresser. The dresser I had planned to be full of jars of yummy things and fresh produce. So I had to order some really tiny ones from My Tiny World and today I filled them with lots of fimo cane slices and scenic water.
Scenic water is my new best friend by the way I love the way it makes contents glow with colour. But it is messy, or I am messy, cos it seems to squirt in all sorts of directions. At the moment I am still playing with colours using the ones from De-Luxe Materials but I think you can use food colouring as well, is that right?
I do seem to either put too much or too little at the moment but I am getting there.
I have also finally got a sofa table for the living room which I have crackled. This was a dining table which I cut down and then stuck some beads to the legs to make it the right height and a little more interesting. I have started distressing my witch's rocking chair and I have tried to make a bead bottle which is a bit clumsy but it does look slightly like Nikki's and Debbie's. Oh well back to the drawing board.
All in all it's been a 'Bitsa Week'.....a bit of this and a bit of that which is not my best way to work as you can see
Total chaos and absolutely nowhere to work, looks like I will be tidying up again!

12 comments:

  1. Love your jars! The scenic water looks great, I must get some of that.

    And your workroom looks like my whole house at the moment, I have projects on the go on trays on every horizontal surface.

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  2. Oooooh colourful bottles, I like :):). Thanks also for the link to the tiny jars. Your desk look like it belongs to a busy artist :).

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  3. The potion bottles look nice and the scenic water ones are fab, I have to try mine some day :) And it's good to see someone elses craft table looking like mine :D

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  4. The table looks great.Wish we have scenic water here:)I love the way your work table looks - already one can see you are working hard:)

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  5. Well done they look very effective, what a shame they were too big.
    Fimo can be a great medium but also can be unpredictable, make sure you condition it before using to avoid cracking. Thanks for your comment on my blog too.

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  6. Los tapones estan geniales, son muy originales y los muebles han quedado muy bien, me gusta el diseño de las patas de la mesa,saludos

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  7. MORE potions, !! Mind you , you can never have too many. I havnt touched the fimo myself for quite a while but youve inspired me to get it out and have a fiddle Janice. I need to make some pies and things for Lolas house so maybe some fimo food is on its way! ! Love Kate xx

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  8. Gosh you have been busy and I'm jealous!! lol Your work table is no more untidy than mine and I end up with what feels like a 2 inch square to work in when I have lots of things in progress! My Summer House will be ready soon thank goodness. You have loads of lovely natural light to work in too!

    Very inventive Janice! :o)

    Unsure if you know already, but you can mix FIMO clay to broaden your colour range? ;o) If you have Kato Liquid Polyclay you can use tiny little bits of FIMO mixed in very slowly with this you can make a raw cake mixture look, or something gooey, icing etc. I have Angie Scarr's book on working with Polymer clays and liquid ones, I can take a look and let you know what you can and can't mix with all the clays (you can colour FIMO clay with oil paints too) and liquid clays. You might already have the book. ;o) Let me know and I'll dig the book out.

    Michelle xx

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  9. Enhorabuena por tu trabajo con el fimo, te han quedado unos botes de pocimas genial!!!
    Yo cuando hago mis trabajos de fimo, caliento el horno y cuando coge temperatura lo apago y luego meto todos los trabajos que he hecho.
    Esperas que se enfrie el horno y los sacas, si ves que todavia no estan duros, haces el mismo proceso otra vez, asi evitas que se quemen y que se rajen.
    besitos ascension

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  10. Hi everyone, sorry it has taken so long to get back to you, I have just had one of those weeks!
    Hi Sans,Ira and Susan. I think you should all play with scenic water it is great fun and I am sure you could find lots of very creative uses for it.

    Hi Old Maid, why not drop me an email with your address and I could post you a sample to try. It is addictive stuff!

    Hi Kate,
    fimo should be easy to use but I really struggle with the scale. I will persevere though. One of my problems is that once I start with, say scrolls, I make a few and then think ' Ah but what about the shop?' and then 'Ah but what about Daigon Alley' and I just keep going until everything to hand has been used up!

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  11. Hi Juliet, have not had any cracking yet but thanks for the advice. I am sure practice makes perfect!

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  12. Hi Michelle,
    I have the Angie Scarr book and it is very helpful but why do my fingers turn into huge sausages as soon as I pick up a piece of fimo?!
    How is the summer house project going? I think you will probably enjoy it more in the winter months when you will feel outside while being cosy inside,if that makes any sense at all!

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