Miscellaneous · Polymer clay

Mosaic Notebook Cover

Anita

This little blue book cover is my next project in PCA 2017, inspired by Anke Humpert’s course on making mosaic notebook covers. I made one for my sister’s spiral paper pad.

Mosaic Notebook Cover - PCA 2017
Mosaic Notebook Cover

Designing the cover took longer than actually making it, I think! Or maybe I didn’t notice time pass by while playing with the clay because it was so much fun. 🙂

I’m pretty happy with my Skinner blends now. It’s all thanks to my pasta machine that the amount of manual labor involved is reduced a hundredfold when compared to using a roller. Also, like I mentioned in an earlier post, I now prefer drilling holes post-bake, since it gives a neater finish. That’s exactly what I did for the nice little row of holes for the spiral.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however. I did have to fix stuff.

The other side of the cover ended up with some cracks, because I traced over some not-very-visible borders with a knife lightly (or so I thought) but at a few places, the blade did make it through to the other side. I didn’t notice it before baking since I placed my working surface directly in the oven. Later, when I did notice it, I just mixed solid clay with liquid Sculpey and smeared it over the cracks, and rebaked it, and that fixed the problem.

While antiquing, I wasn’t quick enough to wipe away the paint, and quite a bit remained on the raised surfaces too, making it look more green/brownish than blue/violet-ish. I found that wiping with rubbing alcohol (or equivalent) removes the unwanted paint well. So now my mosaic pieces are shades of blue again. (Yay!)

I’d love to keep making these covers — there are just so many possibilities here! I’ll need more variety of deeper stamps, though, if I’m to use antiquing. Right now, I have just too few stamps that I can use.

Published by Anita

A software engineer at heart and by profession, I take my creative skills seriously.

21 thoughts on “Mosaic Notebook Cover”

  7. I really like this! The blue shades are very nice and I really like the shapes you cut out, both the bands down the middle, and the circular/rounded shapes. For some reason it’s bringing a kind of Northumberland/celtic vibe to mind.

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    1. Thank you! Now that you mention it, that’s probably the reason for the fairy tale illustration vibe I felt while working on the shapes! 😉

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  8. I love your mosaic notebook cover. I love the color combination that you used for it too. I’m glad that you are applying the inspiration from the Polymer Clay Adventure to your own work. I was a student in the PCA last year and this year I am teaching in the PCA and I hope that you’ll take a look at my Totem inspired tutorial and I hope that you’ll find useful and inspiring ideas that you will be able to apply to your work with polymer clay! I wish you a wonderful day and lots of inspiration! Mihaela

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    1. It’s lovely to see you here on my blog, Mihaela! I love how your totem necklace looks in the course pictures, and am so looking forward to making it. With my slow Internet connection provider and limited bandwidth, I can carefully watch videos from only a course or two every month. 😅 Slowly but surely, I intend to watch all the courses and make them my own. ☺ Lots of techniques and inspiration out there, and I’ve never, ever made a totem, so yours is going to be super-exciting!

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      1. Thank you, Anita, for your wonderful reply. I also think that it’s a good idea to take your time and keep the pleasure of learning and being inspired for the whole year. Thank you so much for having taken a look at my totem project and also for your appreciation! I can’t wait to see how you’ll interpret the totem inspiration when the time is right for you! I also think that the PCA is a wonderful and inspiring adventure and I ‘m sure you’ll have a very inspired year and that this will show in your work with polymer clay. Happy claying! My best thoughts!

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