explore arts

Saint Lucia Sunsets Calendar 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 00:17:00 +0000

Sooooo....nearly there!!! I have designed the calendar - it's a desk calendar - 5"x9" so it can fit easily on your work desk - there are 12 lovely sunset photos with elegant section for dates ... AND a bonus cover photo - and here's where I need your help - which one of these do you like most?

Here's a peek at a calendar page too - I am thinking about also selling it as a digital file you can have printed at your local Xerox place....or through somewhere like Zazzle - will update here very soon!!!

Please drop me a comment if you think you'd be interested in buying this - THANK YOU!

St. Lucia's Traditional Pottery - an Endangered Craft

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:47:00 +0000

St. Lucia’s traditional pottery can be seen any day in the Castries Market on sale for locals and tourists alike…but the truth is that it is a highly endangered craft.

In the days when many more homes did not have the convenience of a gas stove, the ‘coalpot’ was in use on many a kitchen’s back step – perhaps even two or three were used to cook up the food for the day. But progress makes its changes and today, the demand for these items has dwindled.

But it’s not just the lack of customers for these products that ails this tradition – the craft of making traditional pottery is itself about one of the most hard physical labour intensive things you could choose to do…and to boot, these beautifully simple utility crafts are made in even simpler unassuming huts and sheds on the potters’ lands. These characteristics of the craft have the unfortunate result that not one single child of the existing potters is interested in continuing in the craft.

This is a tradition in danger of imminent loss. I am involved in a couple of projects within which we will attempt to change this – but I can’t say I have a huge amount of confidence as I feel that this will require quite a lot beyond the scope of these projects. We hope to reduce the hard labour, promote the value of the tradition, make ways in which the items can more easily be transported off island by tourists and bridge tradition and contemporary tastes and ways, to encourage the younger generation into keeping the tradition alive, if even with some modern adaptations. Now I know that has it’s pros and cons…but in my mind, there is always space for ‘live’ traditions and by their nature, they must fit into the lives of those who carry them on – otherwise they are historical traditions – each has it’s place.

Ok, I know a fair amount about this craft, but I don’t pretend to be an expert; my friend of many years Patricia Fay, currently Assoc. Professor of Art at Florida Gulf Coast University though, has spent the last 15 years coming down to St. Lucia again and again, studying and working with our traditional potters; she has travelled the Caribbean and been to Africa to compare the pottery traditions.

So, I’ll give you a brief introduction into the world of our traditional pottery here and at the bottom of the article you can follow links to more information from Tricia.

St. Lucia’s traditional pottery is made from clays dug on the land of the potters; this land lies in the shadow of Gros Piton, on the slopes of the hills and valleys of Choiseul – Morne Sion, Matin, Fiette, La Pointe. This is a craft of women…I believe there is 1 solitary man who makes pots, but really, it is a women’s craft. The whole family may help in digging the clay – suitable spots are located and a pick-axe used to break through the top soil to the clay underneath.

Irena Alphonse digging clay at Cathy Osman's Land

This is then carried to where it will be slaked with water and then mixed by pounding with a pestle on a flat rock. At this stage, some potters will mix different clays together to create the clay they find works best for them. As each potter works from their own patches, the clays used can be quite different in colour, strength, smoothness, with some resulting in better products than others.

One of the FGCU students gives pounding the clay a good try

The clay itself is a young clay with a high level of montmorillonite in it; this has the effect of making it very plastic and strong in the wet and greenware stages but it is not normally associated with a ‘good’ clay body as it tends to cause deformation if not fired carefully (correct me if I am wrong on this, I am working from memory here!) The beauty of this clay and the products made from it is that they are highly resistant to thermal shock; this is in part also due to the coarsness of the clay body – equivalent of a highly grogged clay. The coalpot is used with coals lit directly in its bowl and in the full tradition, the cooking pot – the canawi , chaudier/ chodye (pronounced shod’yay) or leshwit (pronounced lee-schweet) would be placed directly on top of those coals without the risk of cracking. The food cooked in this way is unlike any cooked in a steel or aluminium pot…the taste is just not the same!

Another traditional form is the Cawaf – the water jug – again, because the clay remains porous, the water partially evaporates when in the Cawaf – cooling as it does.

Other uses of coalpot and leshwit are to ‘parch’ (pronounced pach) coffee – the clay holds the heat of the fire so well, the coffee beans roasted this way, once again, have a special flavour to them.

The making of a coalpot and all the other forms is done by a method very similar to one that I first learnt from African potter Magdelene Odundo who visited us at Crewe & Alsager College when I studied there; large soft coils are rapidly shaped by blending them ‘as you go’ into each other. Sides and shape are adjusted with hands during the coiling stage and adjusted with ribs afterwards. Edges smoothed off with a damp cloth.

Irene Alphonse making a coil to start a Canawi


Irene shaping the start of a bowl shape for a canawi


Irene and Cathy working

Cathy finishing the base section of a coalpot

Irene shaping the inside of a canawi with a calabash rib

Cathy working on the base of the coalpot

Cathy adds a handle to the nearly finished coalpot base

Irene adds a handle to the nearly finished canawi

both the coalpot and canawi are nearly done

Irene Smooths the rim of the canawi

Cathy smooths the rim of the coalpot

Pots are left to dry very slowly – 2-3 weeks. They are then scraped with river stones to give them a final smoothing. In the original tradition, the pots are carefully and knowledgeably stacked in the open at the firing spot – wood, coconut, etc is placed strategically in, around and over the pile and it is lit to the windward and burnt through. This requires a certain combination of weather conditions and so, often the firing has to wait. Part of Tricia’s work has been to build brick kilns for the potters – largely broadening the weather that firings can take place in and increasing the heat and evenness of the firing too. The local business Clay Products Ltd, owned by Geoffrey Devaux, has been instrumental in these projects, donating bricks for all the kilns built so far.

Finishing the building of a fully traditional firing - Irene & Cathy (Photo courtesy of FGCU)

The end of the firing (Photo courtesy FGCU)

The newest kiln built by the FGCU team under Patrica Fay's guidance (Phtoto courtesy of FGCU)

So, where does that leave us? This tradition is special – at the time of writing, latest figures show a drop in the number of active potters; where a few years ago, you could count up to 50, the largest traditional pottery by far in the Eastern Caribbean, today there are a scant 30 or less. And no daughters...or sons, looking to follow in this tradition. This tradition will be lost if we can’t find ways to regenerate it. All help is welcomed.

A finished Coapot and Canawi

For further reading:

Coalpot and Canawi: Traditional Creole Pottery in the Contemporary Commonwealth Caribbean

FGCU's recent trip to St. Lucia

As always, your comments, thoughts, suggestions, memories and all are what completes these posts - please do share them and share the post with others too!

Finola

St. Lucia’s Traditional Crafts - Pottery

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:53:00 +0000

For those who don’t know me, St. Lucia is my home – an island in the Caribbean 14° N, a little country 14 miles wide and 27 miles long. Our history is one of colonialism – indigenous Amerindians – Caribs and Arawaks – having largely been wiped out by the invading Europeans; in our case we ended up being 7 times French and 7 times English. Today the population is largely of black African descent – great-great-great….granddaughters and grandsons of the slaves brought to these shores. This is mixed with a much smaller number of Indian (as in from India) descent and a handful of local and expat whites, Chinese, Syrian, Lebanese etc.

St. Lucia is there on the right...that tiny dot...

The area best known for indigenous or traditional crafts is the Quarter of Choiseul – the island’s limestone district marked by long narrow hills separated by steep plunging gullies. It is unique in the island: The famous twin peaks, Petit and Gros Piton constantly guard Choiseul’s northern borders and several secluded yellow sand beaches decorate the western shores. It is, for me, a beautiful place. I had the pleasure of working there 3 days a week during my time as the Crafts Development Officer for the government in the early ‘90s, and to this day, I love to be in Choiseul.

Gros Piton seen from Catty Osman's Home, Morne Sion, Choiseul, St. Lucia

So I am happy to be about to embark on some projects that will keep me, once again, in Choiseul 3-4 days of every week for a good number of weeks: These projects are concerned with stemming the decline of traditional crafts as an occupation…we’re seeking ways to make it attractive for the younger generation to take up these traditions as their livelihood and to make it a livelihood that is worth taking up – financially and socially. It’s not an easy ask.

You see, here is a history of hard work, patient manual labour, close connection of supplier and buyer…and unfortunately in recent times this last has been largely lost; the buyer and supplier are not making those connections and so the financial benefits dwindle while the hard work and patient manual labour remain, and this is not an attractive proposition to the future generations.

So we plan to be bridge-builders; introducing elements that relate to modern-day life and blending them with elements that keep the essence of the traditions to create a mix that feeds the modern needs of a new generation of crafters – designer-makers, by catching the eye of the buyer – even speaking to their hearts we hope. And at the same time, finding ways to reduce the tedium and sheer hard work of the manual labour part - make the act of creation much more fun to be part of...

This is part of a bigger plan that’s being seeded as we speak…a plan to breathe life into every corner of Choiseul, bring visitors – local and international to these limestone hills and jaw-dropping gullies. I’ll post more as we go, but for now, I’d like to share some pictures of Irena Alphone of Matin, Choiseul as she demonstrated, in Catty Osman’s pottery hut, making her “Cocoa Farmer” to the visiting Florida Gulf Coast University students a couple of weeks ago.

Enjoy

Finola

The roughly finished Cocoa Farmer - this took about 30 minutes for Irene to make; now it will dry, be cleaned up and refined, and in about 2 weeks, be ready for the open-pit bonfire firing

Got Inspiration Block - Try This!

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:37:00 +0000

I belong to a great Yahoo group – Metal Clay Gallery. Actually, I belong to several great Yahoo groups, but this post came out of a discussion on the MCG group about ‘Art Fear’. There were many interesting contributions, but this one jumped out at me, perhaps because at the moment I am going through a period of lack of inspiration and/or the ability to create what I feel are ‘good’ designs; it was, I think, so genuinely and joyously put that I just had to ask to use it for a post on how to overcome Inspiration Block.

So here it is – from Ann Davis

Note: All images are the sole property of Ann Davis, please do not download or use without obtaining her prior permission

You have a journal...right...every artist must have a journal. I have a dozen or so...some I write and sketch in and some I just draw in.

Ok, once you have your very own special journal get your special favorite pencil or colored ink pen in your hand...sometimes writing in green ink for the day just helps you think...another day it might be purple!! I have a whole pack of colored pens!

Beyond fear most artists need focus!! So I thought I would share the way I get it...maybe it will help somebody focus/think...THINKING is good!! I never do enough of it!!!

So to start.....

List

Make a list of 10 things you are fascinated with right now...it could be ancient alphabets, flowers, pebbles, birds. Art Deco, frogs. the sea....what ever, things you just love.

Leave some room between the listings, there is more to write.

The Special Magic

Now under the listings tell yourself why you are fascinated by each thing, what it's 'special magic' is for you.... I kind of think of it as a magical thought...a magical seed of an idea as it were...for instance, if you say you like birds...then what aspect are you drawn to...feathers, if so...local birds or tropical feathers??....little feet??...they way they swoop in flight?? WRITE IT DOWN and sketch if something pops up, don't ever deny that quick click of an idea.

If it's ancient alphabets...then make a list of the ones you like,

Latin, Greek, what ever...you are going to gather these things UP!!

Get Out

When you have your 10 things done and fleshed out, you need to take your list and get out of the house/studio/bedroom...sometimes just being in the 'same' environment triggers the same old thoughts...go to a library and look up books on each subject you listed and try to find the kinds of things you listed as your magical seeds. Xerox those pages or check out the books.

Ammo Up

Now you have your seed ideas, you need some ammunition. Go to your favorite junk store/craft store/hobby store/nursery where you are going to look for anything that reminds you of those magical aspects...doesn't have to be the same exact thing...like if you listed feathers...you could buy feathers at a craft store but.... they may have some fabric with feathers printed on it that just fits the bill…or...some angel wings…could just be the shape of the feather...pick up little bits and pieces of stuff that catches your eye and stays on your theme.

Take it all home. Lay it out in front of you.

Plant the Seed

Now....Start a new page for each magical seed....so... if you bought feathers or seashells...put them on the page and draw around their shapes or sketch them if you draw well...if you sculpt with polymer, start copying...yes copying exactly what you have in your hand. Often the making of an object gives way to something else in your mind…your hands and the way it feels are part of the magical seed information going into your brain;))...keep writing on that page, the little bits and pieces of the exact aspect that you like about the thing...how it comes together or how it's shaped...the color…the texture...REALLY give it your attention...Now you will know these things inside and out and once you know your subject.....you really own it!

Play Mad Inventor

Next is the fun part...start mixing the pieces...put the feather in the shell or if you picked up a silly plastic frog…put him on the feather or, or put the frog on the shell with the feather sticking up....Start imagining these things as metal clay. (or whatever your medium is) Start LAUGHING!! You should get some really weird ideas...draw them out no matter how funny they seem...these are the seeds of your imagination playing with each other....it's a form of cross fertilization...very good stuff.

If you have really thrown yourself into this exercise you should start having all kinds of silly ideas, a frog covered in ancient alphabets...or a frog with wings...a shell with wings or imprints of the feather all over it. Go with one of your visions...make it a reality...put it into metal clay!!...even if the first thing you make is not perfect, guess what...you are working!!! Keep going!! More than likely you will discover that you need to perfect some other technique to get your 'vision' perfect...throw yourself into it, then when you have mastered it come back to you magical seeds and realize that dream!!

Well anyway, for what it's worth, in a nutshell, that's the way I jumpstart my work.

Now I tend to either take pix or make copies of stuff and glue them into my journal, plus I have acquired so much junk that I could open my own craft store;))hahaha we won't even go into the time I was fascinated by all the variations of raffia out there or my collection of sand from all over the world, or how that looks under a microscope;)

So last week I was mulling over the Masters Register pieces and trying to decide what to make next and I spent several hours going through my journals and ended up spell bound by a section on hand made iron gates...yes I have wonky entries!! and the kuemboo spoon project just popped into my head full blown. So I sketched it out, figured out how I could make it and just threw myself into it while the idea was still hot!!

So there you have it – if you’re like me and going through the doldrums in your artistic world right now, doesn’t that just hype you up? Thank you so much Ann for agreeing to share this on Explore Arts.

And you, the reader, do you keep journals?

What method(s) do you use to keep the creative juices flowing and to turn the ‘everyday’ into a great piece of art?

Do share your experiences here – and feel free to share this wonderful little coaching session on getting out of Inspiration Block too!

See you here next time! On your way out, do take a look at some of Ann’s wonderful work at anndavisstudio.com

Wishing you all lots of inspiration!

Finola

Tie Dye Circle Technique

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:58:00 +0000

Here's another video tutorial on Tye Dye from Tim Prescott - this one shows how to easily create colourful circles or dots in your fabric.

Enjoy - and do feel free to add your own tips too!

Solid Dyeing with Procion Dyes

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:34:00 +0000

A Video Tutoral by Timothy Prescott showing step by step, the process for dying fabric using procion dyes

Cold Porcelain - Proper Trials of Adapted Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:29:00 +0000

I went ahead and used my new cold porcelain recipe to make some pieces that I wanted to create moulds from – they were all about 1cm at their thickest point. The clay was fine to work with – smooth and pliable…BUT when I came back the following morning, there were cracks everywhere.

I did not dry them fast so that would not cause this. The thinner pieces – like the butterfly, had no cracks, but had fallen apart. I ‘glued’ it’s parts together with water.

So I cooked up a new batch of normal Cold Porcelain and mixed about 1/3 Normal with 2/3 New clay – made a second set of pieces…same problems.

Determined not to be thwarted, I then made a mix that was about 50/50 Normal/New…this made medium sized pieces and it had less cracks. The smaller butterfly was lovely – BUT I glued this one with glue and it still fell apart – Huh?!?

So my recommendation is, you can add a SMALL amount of Whiting / Calcium Carbonate to your cold porcelain and you will find the results are just a bit more of a buff colour and that’s all.

If you add it in any significant quantity, you may end up with cracks if you do larger items

Larger amounts of Whiting are fine for thin pieces or small items.

Hope this is useful – I’ll be trying other variations and will chronicle them here so do sign up for RSS or email updates!

Also, take a look over on Sun, Rain, Or... where I have many posts about the life of a creative – costing, getting organized, kicking butt…

LOVE to hear from you – drop a note in the comments below

Feel free to share these posts on any of your social networks too – that’s always appreciated!

New Experiments in Cold Porcelain – New Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:49:00 +0000

I decided to try an additive in my Cold Porcelain recipe for two reasons – I wanted something as a filler that was less expensive than cornstarch and that would reduce warping and / or shrinkage of thin pieces.

Having used Calcium Carbonate in the form of Whiting – easily gotten in our local gardening shops here or through pottery suppliers in some countries – in papermaking as an acid neutralizer and to reduce sheet warping and give a certain smoothness to our papier mache pulp mix, I figured it would be a good candidate.

So first of all, I took some old Cold Porcelain I had knocking around and added in some whiting by kneading it in. It worked fine, I didn’t add much and the results were pretty much the same as the normal mix.

Yesterday, I decided to take it a bit further, so I added a larger amount into the mix and cooked it with. Here’s the recipe I used:

Recipe

3 cups Cornstarch

1 cup of Whiting

1 cup water

1 ½ cups white glue

1 Tablespoon Baby oil

Method

This I cooked in a pan on the stovetop. It took about 10 minutes on the lowest setting, stirring constantly and making sure to scrape from all parts of the pan.

Worth noting, I did not use a non-stick pan: You do not need a non-stick pan after all - as long as you are prepared that the cold porcelain will stick to your pan and you soak it off afterwards. Granted Non-stick is much more convenient!

Testing & Observations

My observations are that the mix was very sticky as I stirred it, but it came together fine and formed a ball that was not sticky to my fingers. It kneaded up fine with the normal amount of cornstarch on my hands.

I made two test pieces :

A thin disc with pressed texture ( I just used the edge of one of my molded polymer keyrings to make random texture)
A little humming bird using the Dolphin Tutorial method adapted.

I put them to dry in the window where they got sun – same as I do with all my things when I’m being impatient.

The thin pieced warped plenty!
Note: flatness is MUCH easier to achieve if you dry slowly, turn often and if possible, restrain with some form of flat weighted object on top – it doesn’t have to be very heavy, in fact if it’s too heavy, your texture will be smooshed. Experiment with what works
The shrinkage was NOT less than my normal recipe – I didn’t measure, but it actually looks like more shrinkage to me
The strength is a little reduced – the piece broke fairly easily
The translucency was NOT reduced. This surprised me, as whiting is an opaque additive
The colour was much more buff than the normal recipe
I should’ve sifted the whiting – the lumps do not easily knead away and can be seen in the translucent parts as well as in the surface.

Conclusion

I am fairly happy with Whiting (Calcium Carbonate) as an additive – I might try reducing the amount a bit, and I will sift it in future. I like the texture for working and am happy with the buff colour too – more bone-like.

What about you? Have you a favourite Cold Porcelain recipe?

Have you added interesting things to your Cold Porcelain?

If you like this post – please do share it and you can subscribe for RSS or email updates so you don’t miss any new posts I make

Thanks for stopping by – see you again!

Please Subscribe Again

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:46:00 +0000

Well, of course I'd love new subscribers, but also, those of you who were with me early on, if you're wondering why you're not getting emails or RSS feeds it's because Zookoda, who I had my subscription service with in the early days, stopped the service and I've been unable (so far) to retrieve my subscriber base!

I'm posting less often now due to other calls on my time but I am working up to a post a fortnight on a regular basis - would love to have you with me!

So, please subscribe - again or for the first time -

Jazz Man

cold porcelain figurine

Finola Prescott

Simple At Home Photo Set Up

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:40:00 +0000

This works well for small products -

1) Find a large sheet of white paper or lightweight card (bristol board, cover stock) A matt - not shiny - surface is better and without any 'texture'. Smooth and even as possible.

2) Get some tape and find a place where the direct sun isn't shining - a south facing window, or a shaded but fully lit spot. If you put an item down and it casts a shadow, you're not in the right spot - look for a spot where no direct sunrays can get to your objects.

3) If the place you chose has a wall, that's great, you can tape your white paper/card onto the wall. If not, you'll need to find something to tape it onto - a book like an old encyclopedia if it's a small piece of paper, or the back of a chair or similar if it's larger.

4) Place the card so it curves gently onto the floor or table - don't let it crease.

5) Place your object as far forward on the white surface as you can - this makes it easier for the backdrop to fade in your photograph.

6) If you use a prop - like in this sample, make sure any extra bits of strings or such are tucked back and taped down - as long as you can't see the tape either! And KISS - Keep It Super Simple - don't overpower your product with noisy props that steal the show.

7) Now, set up your photograph - choose a setting without a flash - the flash is just like the sun, it will cast strong hard shadows that detract from your product. If you have a point-and-shoot, it should have a function to select 'no flash'. If you have an SLR, choose the appropriate ISO - maybe 100 or 200, choose an f-stop that is fairly open - this will blur the background more and just remember to use a setting that doesn't auto-flash.

8) Before snapping, make sure the whole of the object is contained within your white space - if it goes over an edge you'll have to move it closer to the back.

9) Snap.

10) Crop your photo to cut out any stuff you don't want like the wall behind - and a simple auto contrast should be all the tweaking you need so you don't have to have fancy software to fix it up at all.

Porcelain Vessel Pendant - Finola Prescott

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HOW TO MAKE COLD PORCELAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Cold Porcelain is available as a commercially made mix you can buy - but you can also make a similar clay yourself from three simple ingredients. This clay is fun to use, dries super hard and can make solid chunky pieces or wafer thin translucent pieces. You can colour it with paints or paint on it when dry - add glitters, sand, etc and it sticks easily onto wood or glass to decorate items. Varnish to make fully waterproof.

So, let's make cold porcelain -

Recipe

The recipe will be different depending mainly on the brand of glue you use – for this one I used Elmer’s Glue-All – a white pva glue.

Ingredients

2 cups Glue
½ cup water
3 cups cornstarch
2 tablespoons baby oil

Tools

Plastic microwavable bowl
Strong wooden spoon or flat stick
Cup and Tbs measures
Spatula or blunt knife

Method

Put all the ingredients in your plastic microwavable bowl, stir together until they are fairly well combined.

Note, you don’t need to sieve the cornstarch and you don’t need to mix until it’s really even – just break up any big lumps.

Pop it in the microwave -

NOTE – all microwave ovens are different – some cook super fast, some very slow.

Your cooking times will also depend also on the size of your bowl in relation to the amount of clay you are making – big bowl, little clay, it may take longer, big bowl, lots of clay may be slow at first then cook really fast once it gets hot.

So, err on the slow side at first – I do 1 min @ 10% or the lowest setting first – if it is barely warm I move to 1 min @ 30%.

Each time you finish a microwave session, take the bowl out and stir the clay – as it cooks the edges with harden first so it’s important to scrape them and stir them in.

You don’t need to make a smooth paste, just break up lumps and pull in the edges to into the mix.

When the mix starts to get significantly thicker, harder to scrape off and stir, shorten your microwave times to 45s

It should take about 4-5 minutes in all to get to the point where the mix sticks to the spoon/stick. As it gets thick enough to hold it’s own shape but will still stick to your finger when you touch it, shorten your times to 30s

When it's ready it will hold fairly well together when you mix it in the bowl and it will not stick to your fingers anymore when you press your fingers in.
BUT it's okay to take it out when it's still a little sticky and knead in more cornstarch: In general, it's better to UNDERcook a little than to overcook.

Now you are ready to take it out of the bowl and knead it.

Sprinkle a generous layer of cornstarch on your table and over your hands.

Turn out your lump of clay, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as best you can, then sprinkle some cornstarch in the bowl and scrape some more – the rest will come off more easily as the cornstarch dries it.

Don’t worry if some is left back – let it dry and then it will peel off very easily – this is my recommended clean up method.

If you choose to wash out your bowl, make sure you allow a lot of water to flow so the gluey mix does not clog your drains.

But, don’t clean up now – you need to pay attention to finishing your clay – so, cover your hands in lots of cornstarch and knead your dough.

Caution – your clay may be very hot – so check first before you plunge your hands in. But start kneading as soon as it reaches a temperature you can handle – if you leave it too long, a crust will start to form.

Dust your hands - no, smother them in cornstarch - and start to knead.

You’ll find it easily kneads into smooth consistency dough. Pull it apart to get the insides to the outside and make sure the whole dough get mixed in during kneading.

Look out for when it starts to have ‘cracks’ that don’t stick together – it’s ready at that point or when it forms a nice roundish lump of clay that doesn’t stick to you or the table.

Put it in a plastic bag and tie it.

NOTE: always keep clay you are not using in plastic sealed off from the air – this clay dries quickly and when it half dries, it is difficult to form good shapes from it, so keep it wrapped up.

Colouring The Clay

You can easily colour this clay using any water based paint - acrylic, poster, watercolour, food colouring will all work. Some oil paints will also work but they may cause it to dry very slowly or may not mix in and will exude oil so be careful and try it out on a small bit first.

NOTE: Opaque paints will make your clay more opaque, translucent paints will help keep it see-through if you want to make decorations that the light will shine through.

Whatever paint you choose, take a lump of clay, make a small well in the middle by pushing down on the clay with your fingers. Squeeze a little paint into the well and then wrap the edges of the clay over the well.

Don’t worry if paint sneaks out – as long as it doesn’t spurt out all over you, just keep pulling the clay and wrapping it over itself in any random way and the colour will mix in.

Just keep an eye out for the clay getting too wet from the paint – if so, pick up any cornstarch or drier bits of clay left on the table with the clay or if necessary, sprinkle more cornstarch onto the clay.

You’ll find it can get quite wet without becoming sticky if it is made well. And at the other end of the spectrum, don’t mix it until it starts to dry out either! You can add in more paint i.f you want a stronger colour

You can choose to mix until it’s a uniform colour or stop when it is still marbled with natural and your colour. You can marble two or three colours together also – just roll out two coils and twist them around each other, then fold and twist and roll, fold, twist and roll over and over until you get to a marble pattern you like.

When you’re done colouring, and marbling, pop the clay in a plastic bag and tie it off.

Let us know if you try this out - and if you have any questions - just pop it all in the comments box - love to hear from you.

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Tubecoiled Screwpine Video Demo

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:56:00 +0000

Our Artist and Demonstrator

Daphne Stephens of Choiseul, St. Lucia is a traditional crafter who makes tubecoiled “Screwpine” basketry. This is one of the traditional forms of basketry found in St. Lucia and Daphne is considered to be the island’s most accomplished practitioner of this craft – her baskets are tightly woven with fine detailing and last decades in full use without showing much wear and tear at all. In fact, Daphne is the only basket-maker on the island who does this technique to such a level of tightness, detail and quality. She has always expressed a keen interest in teaching but the youth unfortunately don’t see being a basket-maker as a future for them.

A Wish
Nonetheless, one of the things I would like to achieve someday, is to find a small group of interested persons – youth and others - and have Daphne be part of series of training workshops where she would teach and pass on her skills and participate also in learning ways to introduce contemporary designs, decorative techniques and adaptations to other décor and fashion uses to broaden the customer base. I’m hoping I’ll find an interested funding agency and we’ll manage to turn what may soon otherwise only be an historical tradition, into a new vibrant living tradition.

About the Craft
The screwpine, pandanus tectoris, locally known as “palama” is often grown as a wind-shield as its dense growth defies even hurricane force winds. The name screwpine comes from the way the central stem grows in a spiral or screw. The leaves naturally dry on the plant and turn a lovely soft brown but most weavers also pick green leaves, boil and bake them to achieve a cream colour as well. Other preparation includes removal of the central rib and the outer edges of the leaves which are lined with prickles: This is done with a needle or similar object, run along the leaf, which separates easily along its grain. Pricked fingers are not uncommon! Leaves are then split again into appropriate sizes for the weaving and theAlthough St. Lucian traditional crafters don’t dye these fibres, you can dye them with RIT dyes, which are strong enough to get past the waxy surface of the leaves. You can also apply acrylic paints or wood stains on a completed piece to achieve a variety of decorative effects.

The Video Clips
These clips show a few of the techniques she kindly demonstrated to my Art students during a tour we made around just some of St. Lucia’s arts and crafts interests. The clips don’t show a whole basket being made but we have a beginning clip, adding in new weaving strands and finishing off. Perhaps I will be able to film her making a small items from start to finish or at least showing a few more techniques to share here, but for now, I hope you enjoy these.

Starting Off

Adding in a New Strand

Finishing Off

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Dolphin Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Finola JC) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:43:00 +0000

Hand Sculpting with your Fingers and a Toothpick

By Finola Prescott

Skill Level: Beginner

Living in the Caribbean small islands means you often can't get quite what you want to work with, so I try to come up with ways to do things with alternate tools and materials. In this tutorial we'll make a clay dolphin (about 2"x1.5") using just our fingers and a toothpick.

This method works well for a any kind of clay – polymer, ceramic, air dry or cold porcelain; for this tutorial, we use cold porcelain which I like for various things; it's ability to dry very hard without needing any cooking, it takes colour easily mixed into the clay as well as painted on after and that it dries rock hard even when very thin. But it's not without some limitations; what I've found are first that it takes detail reluctantly – you often have to go back as it is drying and redefine details as it tends to bounce back from where you put it into a nice rounded pillow-like shape; that's all well and good if you want a pillow, if you want a knife edge, persist at persuading it and it will eventually agree to do what you want. Secondly, although I'm always fascinated at how hard this air-dries, it does need some kind of varnish applied if it is to be used as jewelry, keyrings or anything that will get damp and last that it doesn't marble colours like some other clays.

I think once you have tried this, you'll realize how much can be done with very little in the way of tools, and there's some inspiration for more finger and toothpick adventures at the end.

Here's the dolphin with some other finger and toothpick creations I've made.

The Mermaid, Fish in the Sea and the Little Fan Fish are polymer clay,

the Flower necklace and Vessel are cold porcelain

it may not be used or reproduced for any commercial purposes or altered without seeking and receiving prior permission from the author.

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