Purky and the Rocket

So at my job, there are mostly casual/self employed staff and that seems to attract creative folks. Kim Von Coels 'www.KimKrumble.blogspot.com' is a photographer and all sorts of other things as well. She has ventured into the world of music and her track Rocket Love is pretty special.

I mused in her general direction that I could make some Rocket knuckle dusters and erm.....it actually happened!

First, some preliminary sketches. Kim has pretty massive hands compared to my dinky digets so I took a rough measurement and started playing about.

I was mostly inspired by Wallace's rocket from 'A Grand Day Out'

I am using super sculpey here because I had plenty on hand and it blends well. As per usual funds are an issue and I was not one hundred percent sure it was going to work anyway. So heres a base plate...

I started filling it in with clay sausages to build the dimensionality of the piece.

I then used my extruder to make snakes of equal diameter to edge all the pieces. I wanted that retro feel. I also added some detailing and rivets with a ball stylus.

Next up, what is a rocket without flames? I liked the idea of Kim having a duster for each knuckle and this seemed like the obvious choice :) So again here is a baseplate.

Feeling inspired by Christi Friesen techniques I built the texture of the flames up using snakes of clay. I wanted almost a pop art feel to this bit.

It also made the piece very strong from the sheer volume of clay.

Both pieces before baking :)




Another thing to mention is I place both of these on another sheet of clay and then cut round them to just make that tiny bit thicker and stronger. Super Sculpey is not known for being uber tough.

Undercoating with slightly watered down acryllic paint.

I wanted that organic burning feel to these flames so I used lots of hot colours and allowed them to bleed and blend into each other. The next stage after this involved a darker wash to show the recesses and then highlighting with metallic gold and bronze paints.

The rocket herself :) Really simple hot cherry red paint job with black detailing and eventually some silver highlighting.

What good is a rocket you cannot wear? Well fear not. I made a pad of sculpey and embedded an ajustable ring blank. This was baked and then glued on with e600 so there is a large surface area for the adhesive to attach to. Hoping for some durability here...

Both Knuckle dusters from the back. I painted the backs black just to make it nice and neat.

Both of my fabulous flaming knuckle dusters from the front :)

The music video they appeared in is not available yet because it is still being edited but will obviously post a link up here once it is online.


I had a lot of fun with these and I am pleased with the project...which does not happen that often.


Thankyou again loyal readers and blurkers, be keeping it Purky xx

Saturday Morning Studio Time!

Hola folks!

You cannot be a glass cannon of artistic ego without actually doing something artistic or creative, otherwise you would simply be a....Glass? Anyway, I bullied myself into the studio this morning despite staying up until 2am watching Comic Relief.


I photographed some bits I have been toying with such as these ginormous buttons.....

Which I am pretty unhappy with to be honest. I messed up the kato liquid glazing and managed to burn the pretty white one with my heat gun. I also mis-spaced the holes on the green one and didn't crackle the gold one enough! In future I will also space the holes on the red style one in a more 'designed' pattern. I was sort of going for a 'shotgun blast' look but not too impressed.

However, lets have a mini tutorial type thing to gloss over some of my flaws :)

Take some scrap clay.....

Abuse it with your Pasta machine until you have a lovely muddy colour and gather a selection of textured implements.....

I personally roll the clay into a sheet of setting number 1 thickness and then fold it over to make a nice thick pad. I also mix it into mud colour so I can see what textures are showing through without the complication of pretty marbled colours...

Dent, I mean texture the clay to produce an interesting sheet. These plate are being made specifically for cufflinks so the majority of the patterns are relatively masculine. Straight lines, rivets etc.

Oh look! Its those pesky buttons again. The bottom plate was made using a large screw and the top one is a cast metal button I found on the floor.

I got into the idea of carving out a sort of flowing leafy wave type pattern but the fimo soft kept 'bobbling' and so I dug out some.....dun de de de dun da daaaa!!!!

Manky old sculpey! which takes texture much more effectively and I should have thought of first.

And so here are out plates. The wonky metal plate, the found button plate, the screw plate, the leafy wave plate and the random plate.

These fellas are baking in my clay oven and I will post what happens with them another time :)

I am off to visit my Mother in hospital later and with any luck may get back in the garden this week.

Much Purky loving and stuff

H