Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

June 8, 2013

Not Quite As Advertised....

I got my most recent craft kit of the month club and couldn't wait to start it.  This is the picture on the instructions of what it should look like when done.  Seems easy enough.  Paint the frame white & then add a coat of thinned peach paint, as a wash, over the white.  Then press the enclosed 'clay' into the molds & let dry, paint the leaves and glue them to the frame.  While this frame shows the orange paint sponged on, I preferred to paint mine on and I like how that part came out.  I was stoked to do the leaves.


This is the 'clay' and the mold I got.  It's not really clay, but more like a very soft plastic foam that air dries as soon as it's removed from the package.  I do like the medium and I have tons leftover, so I've got it in the ziplock bag it came in, stored in a small & sealed tupperware container.  It took a few tries to figure out how much of the stuff to use in the molds.  My first leaves were awful, but this clay goes a long way so you only need a little bit to fill the molds.  They popped out with some prying after they air dried for a couple of hours. 

And that's when I realized that my project wasn't going to look anything like the leaves in the photo.  This mold should have been inverted.  The photo clearly shows leaves with the stem channels recessed into the clay.  The green paint pooled beautifully in those lines.  Scroll up and look at the picture again.  My leaves, however, were going to have raised stems.  I thought about pressing the clay onto the back of the mold, but I'd end up with concave leaves. 

Painting the dried leaves went OK I guess.  I like how the paint looks in the picture vs. what I did.  I thinned it with water as instructed, but mine didn't quite blend as well.  Maybe I should have done a second darker coat but I didn't.  Then I had to paint the raised stems and veins and that was hard. It took a steady hand and a teensy brush to apply the green and I glopped it in a few places when the brush inevitably slipped down the side.  I think I was even holding my breath to keep my hand has steady as possible.


And the close up of mine.

Am I happy with it?  Um....not so much.  I haven't decided what I want to do with it.  The leaves have more of a dried-foam, spongy consistency than what one would think of when hearing 'clay leaves'.  I have a feeling this might end up in the pile to go to the thrift shop.  I will play around with the plastic medium some more before it dries out and see what else I can do with it!

7 comments:

  1. You continue to amaze me with your patience...I think yours looks lovely. I could NEVER have painted those stems...
    Tina @ Life is Good

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Tina. It's funny but I'm the world's most impatient person but sit me down in front of a craft and all of a sudden I'm all Zen like. lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely frame, Jojo!It looks really sweet and beautiful :) don't care for what is on the box's picture - your own creation is awesome! I always like that you try different crafts and projects! Have a wonderful weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How odd that the kit had the reverse image of the leaves. Maybe you should contact the club or the company and see if they could send you the proper mold? Yes, I know - sometimes it just is not worth the hassle.

    You did an awesome job on those leaf veins, I know my old hands are no longer steady enough to paint that intricately. Those leaf veins would have ended up looking like my blogger stats graph.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yep you have more patience than I.... did you try putting the "clay" on the other side of the mold? Try rolling it out flat and pressing it on to get the veins recessed. Then pull it off and lay it flat somewhere to dry.... Maybe that will work.

    I recently watched a video of someone using the Martha Stewart push molds - the "clay" looks very similar! If it wasn't so expensive, I might try it. Well done painting those veins; my hand wouldn't have been so steady!

    ReplyDelete
  6. oh no, what a disappointment. I do think the leaves look pretty good though

    ReplyDelete
  7. Looks a darn sight better than anything I could manage!

    ReplyDelete