Texture party

There are a lot of really nice texture plates available to use with polymer and metal clay. I know I have my favorites and so do my students. Using the same plates over and over again though gets boring.

When I went to Arrowmont in April, we were supposed to have a texture swap. For some reason, I thought we were supposed to make our textures. (Many brought ready made or natural textures to share.) Since I procrastinated (NO!) and didn't have mine made ahead of time, I quickly grabbed some objects and a big block of white polymer clay as I headed out the door. So, in the hotel room on the way down, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. My friend Laurie, graciously donated the bottom of her shoe which had a very interesting pattern on it. One of the objects I brought was a very heavy, very large chain (and I use to wear that around my neck?) I started pushing it into the flattened polymer clay in a repetitious pattern. That was fun! Next I grabbed a paper clip and started playing with it. Got two texture plates from that one. The last texture was made with a fine toothed comb. I could have gone on and on because it was so much fun. (Guess it doesn't take much to amuse me.)

Since the polymer had to be baked, I carefully stacked and packed my textures until I got to the condo and was able to bake them. Making the textures is one thing but being able to imagine what they are going to look like is another. (This can be solved by using polymer clay to test them out.)

Arrowmont was in Aril. I never got around to trying out my textures until this past August. Even then I've only tried out three of them but I really like the way they turned out.

The one texture and the enameling I did in some of the spaces remind me of something I did in Junior High. (How long ago was that?) The weird thing is that I still have it. (Can you say pack rat?)

Anyway, making your own textures is fun and the cure for texture boredom. How about a texture party?