Texture & Glitz

One of the features of polymer clay is how well it adapts to texture.  As I mentioned in an eariier post, I have a new silicon rubber mat with a cross-hatch pattern that looks a great deal like a woven fabric. and I've been enjoying working with it. Here are a few more pieces I've made using the new texture.   I pressed embossing powder into the textured clay before cutting, then baked the pieces.  The embossing powder bonded well with the clay, so I did not put a finish on the pendants and pins, primarily due to the openings on many of these pieces and the flower charm sticking through.  I am also making earrings with the texture and the embossing powder.  I plan on using Magic Gloss on them to give the powder extra shine.

Red, White & Green for the Holidays

The holiday season is upon us, and so is the flurry to get some holiday jewelry made.  Here are a couple of sets I've just completed using one of my favorite techniques, mokume gane.  

For the green set, I used layers of Jungle green, white, and some Yellow Gold Glitter.

In the red set, I layered various reds, including alizarin crimson, along with white and Premo!'s White Gold Glitter. 

 A final coating of Magic Gloss resin added depth and shine, and really made the glitter clays sparkle.

Dichroic Holiday Sets

I love the special shine and sparkle that comes from using metal leaf and alcohol inks on polymer. When the holidays start rolling around, these are the pieces that people seem drawn to, and they make great presents.  I worked up a sheet with reds, pinks, blues and purples, and have made several pieces from the base. I need to switch it up and bring in greens, yellows and oranges, so don't be surprised if you see some of those in the near future.  In the meantime, here are some of the sets from the first color combination.

The set on the left is in just two colors, and I like the calm feel.  The set on the right was made from strips of the colored sheet that were sliced and randomly placed against each other.

Cross-Hatch Marks and Holes

Here are a few pieces trying something a bit new to me.  I have always liked the fabric, tweed-like look in polymer, so was thrilled to find a deep texture piece that created a cross-hatched look.  I decided to make some jewelry, that included round openings and colors.  Here are a few of the pieces I made.

The pieces with red have silver embossing powder highlighting the cross-hatch marks.  I liked the way the edges of the holes gave extra depth to the red circles.  The large piece is a pin.







The blue piece is a pendant, and I used titanium white Pan Pastels to color the cross-hatch design. 


The earrings below have gold (left) and silver(right) embossing powder dusted on black "Twinkle" Premo! polymer.  They are quite sparkly in person, even without any special finish or resin. The crystal balls attached at the bottom of the silver pair make them look quite festive.

Great Little Lidded Box

I recently had the pleasure of attending a 2-day workshop with Carol Blackburn from the UK.   The class was sponsored by the New England Polymer Artists' Guild, and I'm delighted they brought Carol here.   She has a wealth of knowledge regarding polymer clay and has so many ideas and tips to share!  I hope she is in this area again because I'd love to take another class with her.
For this workshop, Carol taught us how to construct and decorate her small lidded boxes.  I love the shape of these, and her method for creating the structures worked beautifully.  Participants also had fun creating polymer stacks that we used to decorate the sides of our boxes.  Here are photos of the sides of my box.  I can still decorate the lid more if I want, I just haven't quite decided what I want to do.