It was a rather jaw dropping contribution to the Shoebox that we received from Atsuko Schlesinger of Coeur d’Alene, Id. In fact, Atsuko sent in a number of contributions, and all of them were made of decorated shapes of paper clay. We had assumed that Atsuko had rubber stamped all of the images. There were many and all were very clever. How wrong we were! Atsuko had drawn all of the images free hand, and they were quite wonderful. The technique, however, could be used by anyone even without artistic talent, because rubber stamps and coloring pens could be used.
Atsuko first draws her designs and then has them color copied. Some she enlarges or shrinks as well. She then cuts the design to include all of it that she wants...sometimes cutting right up to the outline and other times leaving a border. After rolling out some paper clay to a very thin thickness, she places the cut-out image face up on the clay. If the clay has dried out, she rubs the surface with a finger dipped in water so the image will actually sink into the clay and become one with it. To ensure this, she rolls it with a rolling pin or plastic roller. The clay is then cut using a craft knife (up to the outline she has designated) and placed in a 260 F degree oven for an hour. When completed, the piece is coated with a protective coating and then either made into a pin, or a refrigerator magnet, or placed on a card. Very clever and certainly attractive.
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