Inro Out!

From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inro An inrō was a case for holding small objects. Because traditional Japanese garb lacked pockets, objects were often carried by hanging them from the obi, or sash.

I just finished making my inro. I took Penni Jo's inro class at the Orlando Fandango last month. I used the basic directions and sized up for credit card. Again, a thank you to Penni Jo for coming up with idea of a credit card sized inro and sharing her ideas and pictures online. While she was teaching the inro class, she did a demo for drawing portraits on clay. Amazing is all I can say. After the Fandango, she wrote a tutorial and provided lots personal email and Skype help to get me started doing portraits. You can see her art here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pennijo/sets/

I used as inspiration a photo of my Mother when she was eight. It is a tiny, blurry, sepia picture. I enlarged it so I could see it better then started drawing it on a piece of baked clay. I used a 10 to 1 Super Sculpey, white Premo mix. The same that I used for the elfkins. It seemed like a nice sepia toned base to work on.

I wanted the cameo to be the centerpiece of the inro. I attached it to the top half of the inro only so that when the inro is opened, the portrait remains intact. I created the bottom half of the surrounding frame so that it will remain stationary when it is opened. I used lots of cornstarch in the baking to keep the cameo from sticking to the bottom frame.

Here it is closed. I used a ribbon for the neck cord. I bought chain for it but I did not like the look. it was too delicate and too modern looking.

This morning when I was at Michaels I went through their clearance ribbon and found lovely sepia toned narrow ribbon. It worked well. I did attach a section of chain to one end of the ribbon and a clasp to the other end so the wearing length is adjustable. (Click on the picture for the big view.)

Here is the open inro. It is just the right size to hold a credit card, a driver's license, a bit of cash and a key. You can see in this photo how the portrait slides out of the frame.

And of course the back could not be plain....

My next project (besides claying).... I think I will try dyeing cotton yarn. I used my Michaels coupon this morning to buy a tie dye kit. I've googled the process, and I think I'm ready to tackle it. I'll knit it into a summer sweater.