The easiest way to prevent these “issues” from happening  is to air dry the pieces at a temperature that isn’t too hot. But, if you’re pressed for time like I’ve recently been,  here’s a good way to get the same result, or better if you can believe that. :)

First, know that you’ll need to set aside three days for the process. One to dry the surface of the front of the piece, one to dry the surface of the back, and another to bake the piece all the way through.

Second, get yourself some wax paper. Use this to sculpt your pieces on instead of sculpting them directly on a cookie sheet. When you tear the wax paper off the roll,  Cut the piece you tore off roughly to the size of the piece you’ll be sculpting. This will make your piece easier to handle and generate less waste.

Next, air dry the surface of the front of your piece, wax paper underneath, on the cookie sheet you’ll be using to bake with. I dry my pieces for the rest of the afternoon and overnight. But, the timing might be different depending on what the climate is like where you live.

On the second day, flip the piece over and do the same drying process for the back. Only this time, make sure you peel the wax paper off. :)

On day three, bake the piece on a cookie sheet  in the oven at a pretty low temperature – 275 F for about one hour should get it nice and done. You’ll notice as the piece is baking that it won’t move or change in the least except for the done-ness of the piece. Once it cools, you have a piece with no blemishes or defects that lays nice and flat. This makes the dough perfect for gluing to other surfaces if you’re working in mixed media.

Above are pictures of the first custom box I had the opportunity to make. It was created for someone who is now a dear friend of the heart to me – intuitive life coach and spiritual teacher, Max Ryan. I was taking this kick ass class he offers called “Creating Heaven On Earth“. We were in the chatroom on his website chatting one morning when he asked me, “What do you do?”

“Ummm??? I make boxes with pictures inside?”

“Oh. Could you make me one?”

“Could I make you one? Ummm?????????? Sure!”

OH MY GOD! After I said yes to Max, I was SO FREAKING OUT! What if I messed up?!  What if  the creation that came outta me didn’t match the vision  I saw in my head?! What if Max caught one of my seemingly infamous repaints?! And what if the damn cat hair that seems to always find it’s way into my paint brushes no matter how clean I keep them, found it’s way onto HIS BOX?! THIS IS MAX RYAN WE’RE TALKING ABOUT! MY SIX WEEK LIFE COACH AND ANGEL TEACHER’S BOX! OH MY GOD!!! What was I to do?!

Since breathing first sounded good, that’s what I did. Then I thought, “What more should I do, could I do?” Calming down and taking a moment to think felt like the next best thing, so I shut up and gave myself some time.

Just then I remembered what Max had said about making the box beautiful. Then I saw and felt the presence of the arch angel Jophiel, the angel we were studying that week. “Go ahead and have the confidence to do anything. You won’t mess up. I will guide you” She said. “Max will love the box your going to make for him.”

So I thought, “That’s it! I’ll just follow the guidance of arch angel Jophiel, and if Max doesn’t like the box, I can just tell him to take it up with her.” I never said that to him (cause I didn’t have to) but just knowing that I could feel free to have the confidence to do anything made me feel so much better! :)

PS; This box I made for Max is a recycled cigar box. PSS: For those of you who do not know about the arch angel Jophiel, she is responsible for helping those here on earth see and appreciate all things beautiful. You know you’ve got her when you seen the color light pink.

1). Start with relatively fresh ingredients. When I say this, I mean don’t use flour or salt that’s more than a year old. This way, you have less chance for cracks and breaks in the final piece. It’s also good to store the flour and salt you’ll use in an airtight container. This will help it keep its original integrity longer.

2). If you’re baking pieces, don’t bake them at too high of a temp for too long. They’ll burn obviously, but they’ll also crack. Unless you want or don’t mind cracks in the piece, then it’s alright.

Baking Tip:

Thickness is a factor. The thicker the piece, the longer it will take to bake. Also, the less apt it is to hang the way you want it if you’re making an ornament or something else that’s hangable. 1/4 inch is a good thickness to start with.

Foil or some other metal inside the dough will help it bake faster. It will also help to give a piece strength and shape and help it feel a little lighter in the end.

3). Seal after every step in the process. Since salt dough is porous, it’s good at soaking up water, even after it’s been baked. This includes any water that might reside in acrylic paint.  You don’t have to use a product like Krylon to get a good lasting seal  and a nice final finish. I use either straight or diluted Mod Podge, but I’ve read that simple school glue works just as well. It’s also kid friendly, not nearly as hazardous to use, nor does it smell nearly as bad. When you apply the Mod Podge or glue, You want to do so in the following way:

• Apply a thick coat of straight Mod Podge or glue before painting. Not only will it seal the piece and help keep water from getting in, but it will also help give it durability and allow the paint to go on more smoothly.
• Apply a  coat of diluted Mod Podge or glue after painting. It acts as a barrier between the paint and any craft varnish you might want to use to finish the piece. It also helps any colors you’ve painted with pop right out. I’ve found that if you varnish without sealing the paint, the piece and all that beautiful color you’ve used become grayed out. PS: Applying craft varnish can be optional. Unless you want a different kind of finish, a couple coats of diluted Mod Podge works just fine as a final seal for a piece.

4). Allow paint to dry for much more time than the allotted 20 minutes. Most acrylic craft paint is dry to the touch after 20 minutes. But, it actually takes a few days to become completely dry. So, it’s a good idea to let each coat of paint dry a few days before applying the next coat. The same is true for any varnish you might use as well. This will help the paint “stick better” and last longer on the final piece.

5) If you have the time and patience, it’s a good idea to allow a few weeks to a month for your salt dough pieces to cure. This will help it be more durable and scratch resistant, and help it last longer in the end.

1. It’s inexpensive. And, if you’re really hurting for money, since flour and salt are primarily used as baking ingredients, they count as food under the SNAP program, and they can be purchased with those funds. :)
2. A little goes a long way. If you’re into making mostly small creations like I am, you can make a lot of them with one small bag of flour and about two or three containers of salt.
3. It’s a forgiving medium. If the dough gets messed up as you’re making it, any mistakes can be easily fixed by adding more or less flour, salt or water.
4. It’s easily pliable and easy to work with. Very easy to cut with a butter knife and mold into lots of two and 3D shapes with little elbow grease required. Great for someone with weaker muscles or perhaps arthritis. I’ve found that this isn’t so much the case with other sculpting mediums such as polymer clay. You need to use a blade to cut that, and molding and sculpting it can take A LOT of work
5. No softening or conditioning required. Just dump the ingredients into a bowl, mix, kneed and the dough is ready to go.
6. Can be either baked in the oven or air dried. This is great if you’re into conserving energy. Although, I have found that if you’re using wire or metal in the dough, it’s best to bake it or dry it in heat. This will allow the dough to get sticky, and the wire or metal to get baked in and give it more staying power. This is important if you have eye hooks or anything that will serve as a hanger or holder once the piece is finished.
7. Puts two things that we really shouldn’t be eating to another really good and creative use. We’ve heard for years that we shouldn’t be eating enriched white flour or run-of-the-mill table salt, but they’re still in plentiful supply on grocery store shelves anyway. Why not put them to use by sculpting a gift for a friend or making something pretty or cool for your own home that, if done right, can last for years and years and years.
8. It’s sturdy and very strong (especially when you bake it). I’ve found that it holds wire and other things made of metal very well. This isn’t so much the case with other sculpting mediums such as polymer clay. However, I’ve found that the older the ingredients used in salt dough, the less sturdiness and staying power a piece has. And there more potential for cracks and breakage as well.
9. Helps soften hands. When you kneed salt dough with your bare hands, the salt inside helps exfoliate your skin and soften your hands.
10. Easy clean up. If things get messy as you’re making dough pieces, no worries. Just wash everything up with soap and warm water. I’ve found that clean up such as this can’t be done with other sculpting mediums such as polymer clay, especially after adding softener (unless you’re wearing gloves).

And, not quite sure on this one, but my hope is that salt dough would be relatively environmentally friendly given that it’s made mostly of ingredients that come from the earth.

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Jimi Hendrix may have had a band of gypsies, but yesterday my friend’s Pedro and Virginia, along with myself and our sometimes trustworthy able-bodied assistants had a band of gimpsies. For the sake of superhero-ness, an urge to help bring some humor to the frustration that often accompanies life with a disability, and a good story, that’s what I’ll call us from now on.

Yesterday it was our plan to travel in our usual powerchair pack, take the world by storm and fight for truth, justice and the PWD way via a trip to the airport. Pedro and I along with our sometimes trustworthy able-bodied assistance were to fetch his lady Virginia and her luggage. She and her powerchair flew by luxury 20th century plane from over the river atop the mountains and across the pond to be with Pedro. They are to be wedded in the coming days.

The time had come. Pedro and I, and maybe our sometimes trustworthy able-bodied assistants, were ready to go and fetch his lady Virginia and her luggage. Unfortunately, before we made our way out the door, we found out our plans and our efforts to fight for truth, justice and the PWD way had been thwarted due to a last minute monkey wrench. Since incoming monkey wrenches are so much a part of our daily lives, we should have known, expected and anticipated we would encounter one in this situation. But for some reason, we chose to remain unusually optimistic and believe that things would continue to go according to our plans.

Pedro was the one to get the call of course. “Hello Monsieur, your lady Virginia, her powerchair and her luggage have been detained mid-destination due to the fact that the cargo hold of our early to mid 20th century Canadian plane is too small to fit her powerchair in.”

Oh no! What to do?! Thwarted plans! And one of our powerchair pack was missing! And she was stuck on an early to mid 20th century Canadian plane without her powerchair and without us! This was like kryptonite to Superman for all concerned! How were we to fight for truth, justice and the PWD way, and how were Pedro and his lady Virginia to wed?!

After hours it seemed, of waiting and calling and calling and waiting, and more of the same, Virginia, her powerchair and her luggage continued to fly here by early to mid 20th century Canadian plane, and Pedro and I made a powerchair pack of two, went to a nearby store, soaked our sorrows in lackluster deli food and bought  waffles. As Pedro was paying for them, he went to move the POS machine and inadvertently smashed a store clerk’s finger. She was trying to help him and… Youch! I’m sure he’s still as sorry about that today as he was last evening.

For today’s entry, I thought I’d showcase the subject of the most viewed video on my youtube channel thusfar – “”Milk Man”  Book Box – 2010″.  This box was a piece that I donated to the Gay & Gray event for 2010, an event held to help provide info about community resources and raise money to help provide programs and services to  seniors here in the Portland-Metro area who identify as LGBTQ.

The idea for this box came to me  as a friend and I were making our way out of a restaurant one night after having a very good dinner. She had sushi and I had teriyaki chicken. I paid for my meal, then she paid for hers. As she did I waited and looked around at the newspapers and other things that were in a shelf by the door. Then I saw it! This really super dynamic cover that would become the inside picture of this particular box.

I immediately grabbed the weekly paper that this picture was a part of. Then I looked at it and saw the words “Just Out” at the top. My first thought was, “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t take this because I’m not just out nor will I ever be. Therefore, this paper is not for me.” So I put it back. But I kept staring at the cover. I couldn’t help it! I couldn’t take my eyes off of it, as I knew it would be a great box. So I took the paper back up, folded it, and put it to my side. When I got home, it sat for months and months it seemed until I finally had the energy to make the box.

I made the box with the original newspaper instead of a copy to help keep the colors true and vibrant. As I did I thought, “Who in the world is gonna appreciate this? No one I really know or associate with probably even know who the “Milk Man” is. And the colors are so bright! Who’s gonna want those?”

At this point I asked myself if I should continue making the box. Like a detector hitting metal, my body said “YES!”.  I also wondered why I had this unusual preoccupation with Harvey Milk. On the surface, he was of no importance to me as I wasn’t “like him”. Even so, I couldn’t shake the feeling “of him”. I never saw the Sean Penn movie about Harvey Milk, but I read as much  as I felt guided to about him as I continued to make the box. In the meantime, a friend who worked for a non-profit that helps provide support services for LGBTQ seniors posted a note on Facebook – “Need auction items for event. Reply if interested.” When I saw this, I immediately thought of the box and wrote my friend and offered it for the auction. She gladly accepted it for the event that was held on May 22, 2010 – Harvey Milk’s birthday.

As a side note, I should tell you that this box almost didn’t go up for auction as I forgot to ask for permission to use the picture! Thank God I remembered by the time it was time to shoot the video I made about the box. And thank God the folks at “Just Out” were kind enough to let me use it.

I made this box in early 2009 then found out I couldn’t sell it because the picture I used for the inside came from a Stone Temple Pilots CD Cover. I didn’t want to be busted for copyright infringement so I had to gift this lovely creation. But to who? Robert, Dean, Eric or Scott weren’t around, so what was I to do? I put the box away and figured the universe would give me the answer whenever it was meant to be given.

Fast forward to late summer, early fall  2010.  A colleague of mine’s father passed away then. She was very distraught and I felt so compelled to do or give something much more heartfelt  to her besides the generic email that was sent on my behalf from the committee we volunteer our time for. But I didn’t know her from a hole in the ground really. I just knew I couldn’t shake this feeling of wanting to give her something heartfelt!

Again I let things go and figured, if I was meant to do something, the universe would tell me what and when.

I didn’t think anything about it again until one day when I was in the shower. I was washing my hair, had my eyes closed, and saw the image of this box and a note cupped in an older mans hands. They were kind of big hands, strong, and looked to be those of a farmer. They were outstretched toward me and came accompanied with the very audible words “give her these.”

What? Giver her these? Ok. I didn’t know what to say in the card so I just relayed the story about seeing the image and hearing the voice while in the shower. I gave them to my colleague as I’d been told to do and oh boy! Her face lit up like a Christmas tree and her heart felt instantly relieved. She told me a couple days later in passing that one of the last memories of her father (who was indeed a farmer) was of him carrying a big bushel of sunflowers up from his garden. I guess he used to grow them.

Today, it’s tip #1 – How to insert your WordPress blog postings into a Facebook fan page. This page would be a page you created that’s connected to your Facebook account but, as far as users are concerned, kept separate from it. For example, say Jay Doe has a personal profile page on Facebook, but he want’s to have a separate page for his incandescent light bulb repair business. Instead of going to gmail or some other free email service, creating an account, then using that account address to create another profile page for his business, Jay can just create a fan page for it.  For more on creating a page go here. Note that creating a page is free.

Now onto the tip. I won’t repost the whole thing, but I will give you the link to where I found it and say this, “Import an external blog”? Doy! I shoulda known that right? NOT!

As far as my reviews on this tip, the verdict is still out. Facebook says it checks your blog feed every couple of hours for new posts and then imports them to the page you’ve created on Facebook accordingly. But, so far from what I have seen, imports have been slow to no unless I stop them then start them again. Will post an update to my reviews if I notice any changes. And if anyone knows of a “better way” to get WordPress posts on a Facebook fan page, please feel free to share.

Here at The Parrott’s Nest, I’m big on giving and being of service to others.  So, to help get my blog rolling, I thought it would be a good idea to showcase pieces that I’ve made for and given to others.

The first piece I’d like to share with you is a box I made for Addy (it’s the image at the top of this post). She is the granddaughter of a friend of mine and was born in 2009 with a bum kidney. I’m happy to report that she recently had a kidney transplant. Thanks to the generous sacrifice of a loving and close friend, she is now doing GREAT!  Yay! That’s such good news! :)

I know when Addy was born, her family was very worried about whether or not she would make it. I really identified with this because I figured that must have been the way my family felt when I was born. I came three months early, and no one was sure if I’d make it either.

So, I made this box for addy as a form of prayer for her, and also to help bring comfort to her family during a time of grave uncertainty. I also made it so she could have a cool keepsake and a tool for looking back and remembering just how special she is. Cause — I dunno. There’s just something about remembering back  to childhood that helps remind us just how special we are in a hurry. Wouldn’t you agree? Take the poll below if you like. :)