Clay Art

Clay Art has been quite popular for a while and people love it for the simple
reason is: ease of using it and manipulating the clay. The variety of colors
make it more interesting and can be used with painting or just simply an art
piece for your home.

Not only it is easy to use but it is not pricey. You can simply get few basic
colors and get started. The tools could become more expensive, however, using
some household tools could be equally rewarding and workable.

Sculpy is one of the great clay to work with. You can also try other brands which
are available in the Art supply stores.

The way you would use it is to knead it well with your hand so that it gets the heat
from your hand and easy to use. Once kneaded, you can start forming shapes. Flatten
a portion and use the cookie cutter for shapes of leaves, flowers or stars etc.
You can then stick it in the oven for half and hour for about 200 degree Fahrenheit.
Let it cool down completely once out of the oven.

You can use it with your painting of water color, oil or acrylic or create and art work
just by itself. Just by simply using the wooden plate stick it with a good glue once
dry and it will really show well. You can use some acrylic colors on the top to enhance
the look.

The vinyl based fabric is available in any art store and you can create several
art pieces ranging from table runner, wall piece, table mat to center piece for
any table.

Refer to Creativity for your home – 3 blog for more details on how to exactly use
your folk art acrylic paint colors and flat brushes to create your art work.

Benefits of painting on these surfaces:

1. Ease of painting
2. It brightens your space and the room
3. Background colors are amazing
4. Simple designs just work fine
5. Materials can be glued on and no stitching is required
6. You do not have to pre-wash like other fabric
7. Ease of transport

Enjoy your new piece of table runner or the wall piece.

Painting on fabric is not as hard as you think. You can pick up the folk art fabric
paint from the art store and few brushes to get you started like flat and round brushes.
It is not as smooth as canvas or paper painting but with few strokes you can create
great usable work.

This weeks table runner is fabric and vinyl based. You can purchase pieces from the fabric
stores and they are ready to go. Table runner can be fun to work with and can complete in
time for your party.

No base coat is required. You can lay out the design with pencil and just start painting
with your paints. Even small design of butterfly, sea shells, floral would just work fine.
The found object like trimmings or lace from your house can enhance the ends if you can stick
them with an ordinary fabric glue.

Once you complete your painting, let it completely dry. You will really enjoy the project with
your kids if they are interested in an quick turn around project.

Glass painting:

Once again we turn to Acrylic painting and use folk art enamel paints from
art store to enhance our home decoration. One can also use the regular folk
art acrylics too. But, the enamel stays for longer period of time.

Finding a glass used for wine, water or juice will work just fine. I love to work
with ceramics and other glass ware from my dining area or get one if I am using
as a gift for friends. It is very welcome gift at any time. My friends love it.

The painting is relatively easy. If you are doing it for the first time you can
use a post card or picture to paint from. Practicing on a paper first would help
you build your confidence. Just draw few lines on paper and start painting with
your flat brush with double color loaded to it. Fruits and floral look very good
along with some vines.

Once completed, let it dry for half an hour and you can stick in the oven on the
cookie sheet for half an hour at 200 0F. Let it cool down and when washing use
cold water and mild soap. Your guest would love it for your party and you can come
up with special theme like sea shells or so.

Creating decorative art work on many surfaces like clay, ceramics, glass,
wood and metal could be so much fun than you can even imagine. Learning to
do so is another thing. Even taking some household objects like vase, china plate
from your kitchen or some nick knacks hanging around your home can
be your great asset of decorated art work.

Grab one of those objects and start creating work of art. Here’s how you begin:

1. Look at some of the art web sites or Google some
2. Here’s the one with many ideas: www.Alkasdesigns.com (it’s my decorative site)
3. Acrylic paints works the best
4. Use flat brushes and double load with two colors and load well
5. Start painting either floral, fruit or anything you like
6. You can let it dry and believe me it dries quickly
7. If it is glass surface, you can put it in oven at 200 F for 25 minutes

When you paint on object and put it against a great background, it looks distinctive.