The Butterfly Project—Only a million more needed!

In an effort to remember the 1.5 million children that were killed in the Holocaust, the Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies. The Butterfly Project is special to me because my father is a survivor of the Holocaust and is part of Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Project http://college.usc.edu/vhi/.

Nicholas Stargardt wrote--"Children were neither just the mute and traumatized witnesses to this war, nor merely its innocent victims; the war invaded their imaginations and the war raged inside them." The war still rages inside many survivors and their children.

I made these butterflies using Kato Polyclay and they are now part of the Butterfly Project. “Joseph’s Butterfly” (the one of many colours.. get it?) was made using a Kraft Lady Art Mould, colored with Jacquard alcohol inks mixed into liquid polymer medium, topped with a gentle layer of AMACO’s Rub ‘n Buff and sealed with Lisa Pavelka’s Magic-Glos. We hope to make many more over the next few months. The blue one is my favorite with its subtle ikat style colouring and a hamsa made of Swarovski crystals.

Please take a few minutes, read up on the project at www.hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/index.html I encourage everyone to read the poem “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Pavel Friedman, and help the museum reach their goal.

mz

Finishing touches..

I was on a big clean up rampage on the weekend - more news about why coming up, suffice to say it involves someone by the name of Lynne Ann, polymer clay and breathtakingly beautiful canes. But, my lips are sealed. Back to the topic - which is the half finished pieces of clay I've had kicking around in the bead bin marked - “not done yet”. They're cool looking leftovers from a faux diachroic bottle that were just too good to throw away. They are made using Jones Tones foils, paints and PearlEx powders from Jaquard. I covered the bottle itself with a 2 part epoxy and, while I liked how the leftovers looked, I wasn't about to go to the trouble of brewing up a mix of epoxy just for them.

So, instead, I gave them a nice thick coat of Lisa Pavelka’s new (and wonderful), Magic-Gloss which leaves them beautifully glossy and finished. Since these were leftover pieces and their edges weren't great, I swiped a fresh blade from Helen’s desk, did some magic with my eXacto knife and then covered the raw clay edges with adhesive foil tape which is normally used to prep stained glass pieces.

I like how it all came together. I'm tossing up whether I'll finish it with Liver of Sulphate but, for now, they qualify for the finished bin.