New sharpie pens

Sharpie Electro Pop:

• Techno blue
• Nano blue
• Optic orange
• Electric pink
• Ultra violet

Additional Pen Types:

• Black
• Metallic silver
• Red
• Neon blue
• Neon green

Du-kit mailbox arrival

The clay I ordered from Warehouse Stationery arrived today, and because it was the Easter holiday sale, I got it delivered for free. I wasn't at home at the time to grab it, but my sister picked it up and brought it to me. The Du-Kit blocks are flatter than the previous blocks, but also much wider in surface area. Postage occurred a day after the order was placed, and the estimated delivery time took 5 days, so it arrived in no time, and around the time I predicted, as my neighbourhood postal service delivers on Mondays and Wednesdays.

   
 

Putting materials to use

This morning I began clay sculpting for the first time! It's a very slow process, but I managed to mould the basic shapes of four different Toca Boca elements - sodium, potassium, magnesium and strontium. From there I began to create more basic shapes. I added in basic components, such as their eyes, noses, and even the leaves on their heads. The remaining facial features will most likely draw on by crayon or felt. My first task is to complete modelling the majority of the grey shaded elements, then perhaps move onto to completing the multi-coloured elements on the periodic table. Being a first-time clay sculpturer I also picked up some basic long-term skills, for example, incorporating the use of water to moisten dried clay when exposed to air for particular periods of time, or creating intricate indents for the placement of eye or mouth parts. They all look very simplistic at the moment.

 

Ordering clay online

It's the long Easter weekend and while shopping online, I came across a sale on Warehouse Stationery. The store had a selection of Jovi, Premo! and another clay brand which I had seen elsewhere called Du-Kit. Du-Kit is locally produced, in New Zealand, and relatively affordable. I purchased three clay shades, dark brown, pink, and light green. I received my order confirmation via email and will receive my products between 1-3 business days.

Rectangular toolbox

Late this afternoon I re-visited Spotlight and bought home a "Crafters Choice Large Toolbox Clear". I found it to be of decent quality. Being a plastic and rectangular box, there's not much which can go faulty. Whilst I was out buying a toolbox, I had another look at the clay selection. This time I decided to buy home another "Jovi Air Dry" rectangular block, except in grey colour. I can't open the packaging however until I start modelling the clay in real time.

   

Discovering all elements

Tonight I completed my Toca Boca periodic table and unlocked all 118 elements! I completed my hand-drawn diagram too, which can be referred to under the "Element Progress" tab! Below are various screen-caps taken from the application, a broken periodic table. The app enables you to experiment with many tools, either to heat up, cool down, generate wind, electrocute or apply chemicals to the elements. I found the most fascinating elements to have wonderful graphics displaying their radioactivity. This was applicable to elements on the seventh and ninth row.

      

      

Now that I have completed my periodic table to the full extent, I have the option to reset my game data and discover all the elements all over again! Confetti falls from the top of the screen when you complete the game. Throughout the process of completing my game, I have recorded my element data down in a hand-drawn table in my drawing book. Here the creatures look a little shabby, but they have been outlined to the best of my ability. Tonight after waiting a substantial amount of time, I have successfully completed my table with no empty spaces.

Colour differentiation

The primary task of today was to sort through the colours of the creatures on the periodic table and separate them into multiple "shade" groups. This was only applicable for the grey, green and blue colours. Green and blue had an assortment of 'dark', 'light' and 'teal', whilst grey had shades of various integrated hues. All 118 elements were identified and assigned a solid block colour, for which a few were allocated via the use of the "dropper" tool.

   

Finding the materials

After a long time of planning, I purchased the first few materials needed for the Toca Boca project - 1x Jovi Air Dry, and 3x Sculpey III. I really like the feel of the new clay, although I did, by accident, gather a mix of air-dry and oven-bake clay types. The clay modelling tools bought appear to be helpful too, with curved and pointy ends.