Sunday, December 22, 2019

Silk Screening

Recently, I held a class on silk screening polymer clay.  We used Lumiere acrylic paints and small silk screens on raw polymer.  Most of the students chose to make Skinner blends of two or three colors with their polymer before laying down the silk screen and applying the paint.  The results were simply lovely, and quite varied. Since I had the materials gathered, I made a few more sheets at home. Here are some of the pieces I made from the silk screening. I covered the pieces with Magic Gloss to help protect the paint.  Although the paint bakes into the polymer, and I have left silk screened pieces with a matte look, I do like the extra depth the Magic Gloss and other resins add to the polymer pieces.







Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Wearable Kaleidoscopes

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a workshop about making polymer Ikat stacks.  We used the stacks to cover these fun little wearable kaleidoscopes.  These are real kaleidoscopes, complete with a glass mirror prism inside.  A simple, adjustable golden chain makes it possible to wear around the neck.  I decided these might make fun gifts, so made a few for the Holiday Show in Westerly.  Here are some of the ones I made.


Monday, December 16, 2019

An Earring Medley

I've been doing a variety of earrings for the holiday shows, so thought I'd share some of them with you.   Earrings are fun in a way that is different from something larger such as a pendant or pin.  Here are some of the ones I've been creating.








Thursday, December 12, 2019

A Reversible Leaf & More Dichroic

Here are a few more pieces I've created for the Holiday Show in Westerly.   This seems to be the time of year for a bit of glitz and shine.   These pendants all have some sparkle on their own, and the addition of Magic Gloss resin as a finish really makes them glow.
These first photos are of a reversible leaf pendant I made.  One side has a lot of sparkle in the clay and is finished with Magic Gloss while the other side I just buffed and polished without a finish layer.

The two sides look quite different, which increases the wearability.  I really like the whole reversible concept.


The rest of these pendants use metal leaf and alcohol inks, finished with a Magic Gloss coating to protect the leaf.  This process really makes the colors vibrant.  I particularly like the pieces in reds and blues.  I used strips from a sheet I'd cut up for other pieces, and the collage effect brings attention to the various colors.