Learning Spirit

Recently I got a Genius G-Pen M609 graphics tablet. After having wanted one for years, I was soooo excited! I was convinced, that this is the only thing that was stopping me from creating graphic masterpieces. Oh, how I was disappointed

First, I tried the tablet on a Windows 7 laptop and after installing the free software that comes with the tablet (Free Writer and Office Notes), I couldn’t run them and kept getting driver related error messages. But since I had GIMP installed, I tried that. The drawing was very skitty and often, after moving the pen away from the keyboard, the tablet woudln’t recognise it again when i tried to start drawing, at which point, I’d have to press one of the shortcut keys to make it responsive again and carry on from there. And also when it was responsive, it wasn’t consistent and the lines ended up broken on the screen. I put this down to my inexperience with the tablet and ventured on.

Next, I tried it on a Vista laptop. This time there were no problems with the software or the drivers and everything seemed to be in order. I straight away from the included software and it was OK. Writing was nice (even if it was still broken) and annotating was fairly simple too. So far so good. Then I opened up Flash and unfortunately it was all downhill from there. I don’t know if it really is my lack of experience with the tablet of it is something with the tablet but drawing was a nightmare. I found some tablet drawing tutorials online and even following them was impossible. Every time I put the pen down on the tablet, it would only respond to half of my strokes and even the ones that appeared on the screen, were awful and too sketchy. I scoured the Inernet looking for reasons but haven’t found any. Generally the tablet seems to have good reviews and I am starting to think that mine is faulty.

Even if this is the case, there are a few other things that I find disappointing about the tablet. The pen is absolutley HUGE. It’s very difficult to control it sometimes and it doesn’t feel natural in the least bit. The MacroKey Manager software that comes with the tablet is pretty bad. It doesn’t seem to let you assign macros to all the keys and also there isn’t much help in figuring out the codes for the shortcuts (cut, copy, paste, etc..). Also, there is no space allowed for labeling the macro keys which means having to remember all 26 of them by heart for each program that you decide to use them in Another feature that I would have loved to have had is a plastic film which can be lifted and used to hold drawings in place for tracing. This seems to be a part of most other tablets and am disappointed that Genius decided to leave it out on this one. I’ll have to resort to masking tape for now, I guess. And finally, the turn wheels at the top do not have the same functionality in all programs which is very frustrating. I realise this could be more of an issue with the software but it is not helpful in the least bit when you have to memorise the different movements for different programs.

Having said all of this, it is my first tablet and I really don’t know how much of it will work itself out over time. I’m just very disappointed at the moment. I persevere though and will give you and update if things improve..

I have been looking everywhere for a nice vegan mushroom soup recipe that isn’t creamy. (I love the creamy one but I love biting into mushroom chunks too!) And finally I found this recipe for Porcini Mushroom Soup. It looks really delicious but I only had oyster mushrooms to hand so I adapted it slightly to work with any type of mushroom and it was really yummy

Ingredients

• 2 cups of coarsely chopped mushrooms
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp freshly chopped basil
• 1 cup of chopped potatoes
• 3 large cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 cups of vegetable broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 fresh tomato, seeded chopped

Serves 4

Method

Saute the onion in a little bit of the heated oil until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the oil, the basil and the potato and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.  Add the garlic, mushrooms and vegetable broth. Stir well and bring to a simmer. Cover and leave to cook until potato chunks are soft, a further 10-15 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. I found that I didn’t need to add salt as the broth was quite salty, but it depends on the broth that you use.

Serve and top with a little bit of the chopped tomato (especially if you use a salty broth, as this will balance the taste).

(Pictures to come soon!)

So far it has been a rollercoaster adventure!! There have been many many good and many many bad times but I think now things are settling down and I’m starting to enjoy Budapest. The biggest relief is that I now have somewhere to live. Having said that, I would recommend the hostel that I stayed in (Grund Hostel, 6 Tömõ Utca, Budapest) to anyone. It was clean and friendly and well situated and just everything you’d want from a hostel. Free breakfast (even on those days that I had to get to work at 7am!) and free tea and coffee all day long with WIFI in all the rooms too. And the best part was how helpful and friendly all the staff were. I really enjoyed my 3 weeks there

Finding work wasn’t too hard once I got here and I’ve been working as an English teacher for 3 months now. I’ve also settled into a small flat near Keleti Station and it’s been great so far. Lots of 24 hour shops nearby and 10 min walk to Arena Plaza (Budapest’s biggest – or maybe second biggest – shopping centre). Lots of people warned me about the area but I’ve got no complaints so far!

I’ve had friends and family visit me and I think everyone liked the city very much. Anyway, the main purpose for me posting is so I can put some pictures up. Hope you like the pictures I’ll write more later about individual places and visits.. Haven’t got too much time at the moment.

Although I’m getting to like Budapest, words can’t say how much I miss my hamster and my clay!

I’ve been working on my thesis these last few weeks so I haven’t had too much time to work on the clay and I have to say, I missed it a LOT!!! So I thought, I’d try something quick for a break.

I browsed for ideas on how to make miniature books and I came across this wonderful site: http://www.printmini.com. It is free and there is a plethora of beautiful printables for the miniature doll’s house. I would highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for a nice realistic touch to their doll’s house. My favourites were the books, so I downloaded some of the book printables from there and I made the books at the end of this post. The shelf was just knocked up to have something to put the books on for the photos.

I had some problems with the pages of the books though. First, I tried to cut individual sheets and put them together in the book, but since i only have craft scissors and no paper cutter, I didn’t end up with very neat edges. The same problem was true for the paper accordion style pages I want tried to put in. Then I thought to make the pages with polymer clay. First I tried a white block of clay but it was really hard to get the little lines on the sides to give a page look. Finally, I made the block with a slightly coloured clay (some left of green clay I had in my case), and then applying a thin stroke of white paint to the sides gave a nice lines page look I’m sorry my camera isn’t good enough to see it properly in the pictures.

Next time though, I’d make the covers with card. Although at first I thought it might be too thick, but the paper was too flimsy. Also, I’d use a different glue. I had PVA glue and super glue, the PVA made the paper soggy and the super glue left dark marks on the printed paper. Having said that, the PVA might be fine with card covers. I am also considering transfering the print out onto a thin polymer clay layer and then using that for the book cover.

I have been addicted to ChristelJensen’s tutorials on YouTube!! She is such an amazing artisan and her tutorials are brilliant. I can’t wait for the next tutorial to come out. All her work is so delicate and ornate.

The most important thing I learnt from this is the importance of letting your first layer of paint dry completely before applying your second. Otherwise, it will end up in a very gloopy mess and the nice finish won’t be there (see metal pots and spoons below). Also, when you are making the teacup with the method of inserting a tapestry needle and rolling on the side of the table, putting the needle in a little talcum powder first helps a lot in keeping the rolling smooth and get an even walled cup in the end.

Not all of them are from her tutorials but I would call this my Christel inspired phase of miniatures  This is what i’ve made so far:

… in all it’s wobbly glory!

Ok, so the set is far from perfect but it’s the first set I’ve done and I’m quite proud of it. I learned a LOT from it. Mainly, the following.

• Leaching clay helps a great deal when doing small details. I should have gone for Fimo Classic straight away but leaching makes Fimo Soft a lot easier to work with. I read that it makes the baked product weaker but I haven’t noticed a big difference.
• First I tried to use a dowel to try and shape the teacups. But once i got the talcum powder on the dowel and tried to shape it around the dowel, it kept sticking to my fingers on the outside and flaring up. Also, once the clay has talc on it, you can’t reshape it. So, I tried the method of rolling the clay into a small log and putting a pin in and gently rolling it on the surface to make a cavity. (Illustrated here.)I still have problesm with getting the top of the cup even all the way around but making the cavity is much easier now.
• When making the bowls, the easiest way to make them bowl up is to put a small round of extra clay at the bottom of the bowl and then press the dowel into the top. This make a nice flat bottom and it makes the sides of the bowl come up nicely too. (I’ll try and get pictures of this next time I do it.)
• When doing the handles for the teacups, I think it’s far better to bake the cups first and then add the handles with some liquid polymer clay. I didn’t do it this time but that was what made teacups get distorted the most.

I still don’t know how to get a nice flared edge for the sugar bowl. I will work on that.

(From “Fast polymer clay” bye Sue Heaser.)

The only deviation I made fromt he instructions in the book was to add small brown stalks to the parsnips and carrots. I’m not sure if this helped though. Next time though, I would use a slightly darker clay for the potatoes instead of the biege recommended in the book.

The leeks and the sweetcorn aren’t from the book (and there is a picture of the basket but no instructions). I thought I’d try them out ans see how it goes. The main mistake I made witht he leeks was that I made the area for the gradient too big. So, I had to cut it to shorten the gradient and this made the transition to white far too strong. For the sweetcorn I tried to get the same effect that Angie Scar gets in her tutorial but my green is too bright. Also, I didn’t quite get the layering right, though I’m not sure what went wrong. I’ll have to try again on that one.

(From “Fast polymer clay” by Sue Heser.)

The book recommends using a brush to texture the oranges but you have to press quite hard and they lose their shape. I used a sponge (normal artist;s sponge is fine) and it was much easier to get the texture without mishaping. I also added small stem piece to the apples and pears by making a whole using a craft needle and insert a small piece of brown snake in the hole.

The blackberries, strawberries and peaches are also not from the book. They are just things I’d thought I’d try out. The blackberries are made with a core of scrap clay and tiny little black balls of clay stuck on to it. The strawberries are made with plain red clay and a blob of green for the leaf. They were textured with a pin. The peaches are made with yellow clay. I didn’t have a red pastel to shade it so I wet a little red clay and rubbed it on the yellow peach to add a slight red tint.

Finally I got round to my local library and picked up the following books:

• “Fast polymer clay” by Sue Heaser
• “How to make polymer clay beads” by Carol Blackburn
• “Creative techniques for polymer clay jewellery” by Nanetta Bananto

They are all good books but one of them desrves a special mention. Blackburn’s book is mind blowing! I can’t believe how many different types of mediums she imitates with the polymer clay. Anyone that has their doubts about the use of this clay should definitely take a look at this. I haven’t tried to make any of the beads yet as I’m hoping to work on it with my sister this weekend. I can’t wait!

The Bananto book is great too. The jewellery in it are less “beaded”. This is means that the techniques that the book use to create the jewellery can be applied to a variety of other applications. I’m also dying to try out a few of the projects in here but since I don’t have any translucent clay at the moment, I don’t think I would do any of them justice. I’ll have to go hunting for some tomorrow.

The Heaser book is my favourite at the moment though. The projects really are fast and you learn something new in most of them. They are interesting and well explained too. Best of all there is a chapter dedicated to miniatures. The only criticism I’d have is that some of the pictures skip important steps of the instructions. It’s not a nightmare to follow or anything. Having said that, I guess it’s not easy to photograph the entire process.

After reading up about my new obsession of doll’s houses, I found out about polymer clay. I was so amazed at the things that people had done with it, I decided to go out and get some to try a few things out. This post has pictures of the things I managed to do at first following tutorials here and there. I really can’t stress how amazing the stuff is. I love working with it!

The most valuable thing I learnt from trying these out was that you have to let the clay cool a little every now and again. Especially when working with very small parts. It’s very tempting to carry on until the thing is finished but from the heat of your hands the clay becomes hard to manage after a while. I also tried leeching the clay a little and it really helped a lot when I was working with the little fiddly bits. I think next time I won’t go for FIMO Soft, and try the Classic instead.

I also tried a variety of cutting mats. I had a few left over from previous crafts and I invested in one too. For me they were all hard to work on and everything kept sticking to them. Yesterday I went to the local tile ship and got a plain white glossed ceramic tile and it’s perfect. Nothing sticks and the surface is lovely to work the clay on. I’d recommend it to anyone. It also has the added bonus of being able to go in the oven with the clay so you don’t have to fiddle about with the things trying to move them onto a tray or anything.

I also realised that a lot of things that are just lying around the house can be used a tools for working with the clay. I bought very few tools so far and I think i am managing ok. The main things I’ve been using are toothpicks, caps from old medicine bottles, paper clips, straw end, chopsticks, knitting needles, empty wine bottle and sewing needles. Although I would like to invest in a pasta roller machine, simply because I can’t roll things out even with the empty wine bottle.

Fianlly, I learnt that your hands can never be too clean! (See yellow pot for evidence.) The clay is wonderful but it picks up every teeny tiny particle on your hands and after a while it makes a big difference. After reading online about this for a while, I now have a packet of baby wipes with me at all times and this helps a lot. Whatever method you use to clean your hands, I’d only recommend air-drying your hands.

So here are a few pictures of my first creations. More to come soon!