Lady ( and other) Bugs

I made these little bugs for a demonstration on how to make stick pins, post earrings or magnets. They're pretty straight forward to make, relatively quick, and fun. They also use very little clay. Since the back is totally flat, adding the flat portion of a post earring or a stick pin is done by adding a thin circle of clay over the post and against the flat bottom of the bug. For magnets, a hole the size of the magnet is made before baking. After the piece is done, the magnet is glued in place. Magnets cannot be baked because high temperatures weaken a magnet's strength and magnetic field.

More 3-D Jewelry

Just wanted to share a few more pieces based on Jana Roberts Benzon's techniques. Instead of using a traditional polymer design cane, I made a design stack along the lines of those developed by Carol Blackburn. Since these were not canes that could be covered around the edges, the design shows everywhere, giving these pieces a different look. The rectangular shape of the stack also inspired me to decorate a brass cuff. Fun!!

"Painting" with Mica Powders

I haven't done this particular technique in a while, and thought I'd give it a try for some holiday pendants. Basically, after you impress a design in the conditioned clay, you use tiny paint brushes and "paint" various parts of the design with mica powders. Pan pastels will also work, and give a more muted look. After baking, I added Magic Gloss resin to help protect the powders from wear.

Angels

The Westerly Art Gallery is all festooned for the holidays. In addition to the little lit trees I posted the other day, I made a few decorations based on an angel theme. Here are two angel ornaments, about 3 inches tall (not counting the silver hangers) and one of my angel votives, about 6 inches tall. These items were new for me, and it took a while to figure out forms and shapes and how to put things together. It's fun to try new things!

Snowflake Hangings

Well, for those who have no snow on the ground, I decided to make some snowflake hangings. These can be placed on a wall, door, or in a window to catch the light. They all have very sparkly snowflake shapes, as well as crystals in open spaces or imbedded in the polymer snowflake itself. They were fun to make - though I did have to be careful about cleaning up the glitter afterwards. I made a couple more in other color combos, but these give you a good idea of the concept. They are hung on strong fishline that is knotted and glued.

Polymer Trees with Rainbow Tea Lights

A huge thank you to Fiona Abel-Smith for her generosity in sharing this wonderful polymer holiday project! If you haven't ever watched any of Fiona's polymer YouTube tutorials, you're missing out on some amazing ideas. If you have watched and/or followed her tutorials, you know exactly what I'm talking about! When I saw this tutorial, I had to give these sweet trees a try. I experimented with my own bases, so I ended up with 3 different heighths. I also took a photo of one of the trees showing the color from a rainbow tea light shining through. These are especially lovely in a dim or dark room, or just in a spot where the colored light can show up well.

3-D Jewelry a la Jana Roberts Benzon

Once again, I had the chance to spend a wonderful day learning from Jana Roberts Benzon. As I have said before, she is really amazing. This time, the class was on dimensional pieces formed from canes of varying complexity. We made a variety of canes from complex kaleidoscopes to stripes, bulls' eyes and all sorts of options in between. Jana guided us through the process of assembling slices from the various canes into pendants and earrings. There are just so many possibilities, and the work the participants have posted on our group site have been amazing. Above is my first pendant and below, a pair of earrings to harmonize.

New Pieces for Spectrum

Once again, it's holiday show time, and I've been putting together some jewelry for the show at Spectrum Gallery in Essex. Below are several pieces. I'm loading them in as small images. You can just click on any you'd like to see more closely. I've been having fun with mica powders and iridescent shift paints, so you'll see those looks in many of the pieces.

Bonnie Bishoff Workshop

I've just spent 2 days on Zoom with Bonnie Bishoff at a workshop she taught through the Kansas City Polymer Clay Guild (KCPCG). It was an excellent workshop. Bonnie is very creative and her demonstrations and explanations were clear and easy to follow. She spent the first day teaching us how she does marquetry - also known as inlay. She is a wizard with the Exacto knife and creates very intricate pieces. On the second day, she helped participants learn how to join their pieces into jewelry in which the individual sections moved freely against each other. This created necklaces what were fluid and comfortable. I enjoyed the class, and really appreciate that KCPCG arranges these excellent learning opportunities via Zoom. Below are some other pieces I made.

"Frog Workshop" with Pavla Čepelíková

This weekend was the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild (SCPCG) Weekend of Clay. One of the presenters was Pavla Čepelíkova. She has some excellent ideas for creating your own texture plates, and led us through the process of making some designs similar to patterns you might find on a frog. When she showed us photos of frogs from all over the world, it became obvious that the colors and patterns were much more varied and interesting than we had orginally expected. I made some texture plates and created a brooch and a pendant. Neither is completely finished, but I thought I'd share. The green piece will be a brooch. I experimented with layering patterns over one another, so it has a different look. The photos below show a multi-piece pendant. The first 2 photos show side 1 and side 2. The third image shows some of the pieces flipped. Each of the sections rotates, so the user can vary the look. I like the way the patterns and colors seem to complement each other, and I think this will be fun to wear.

A Few More Pieces for Early Fall

Here are a few new pieces I've made for Spectrum as a sort of bridge between summer and fall. To the left is a mandala pendant and below are the matching earrings.

I really like this next piece. The silk screening over the textured background and pattern really adds depth.

I'm not sure if the piece above represents a river or something in space. You get to decide.

Fall Leaf Jewelry

It's getting close to that time of year. The leaves are all still green, but it's a deeper green than in early summer. The mornings are cooler, the air is dryer, and there's a feeling that autumn is just around the corner. This, of course, means it's time to make some jewelry using leaves before they fall, curl, and turn brittle.

I picked some of the smallest leaves off the trees in our yard to act as "stamps", and used mica powders to create the pendants shown here. Fun, doesn't take a lot of clay or equipment, and lets you enjoy the leaves long after they've left the trees.

Teapots & Polymer

A little while ago, the New England Polymer Artists' Guild (NEPAG) held a polymer "challenge". The idea was to decorate a teapot with polymer. The teapot could be made of any material, and we were given a month to produce our teapot. Some people used metal teapots, while others used ceramic. The condition of the surface affected how the design needed to be applied and secured. It was a fun project, and the results were amazing! I chose to use a small white glass teapot, and decorate it with flowers. The teapot to the left is the one I made for the challenge. I especially love the butterfly.

Once I made one, I couldn't seem to stop. The teapots below are the ones I have made since the challenge. Most have sold, though I am keeping the first one. It was such fun, and taught me a lot. Recently, I had to make the chocolate brown one - it seems perfect for fall.

A Walk in the Woods

I'm in the midst of a 3-day, intensive, online Zoom class with Jana Roberts Benzon. As you know from previous posts, Jana is one of my favorite teachers. Her imagination is incredible, and the techniques she has developed make polymer look like real-life objects. We have one more day, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what else she has in store for us. Here are some things I've made in the first 2 days. I need to work on these more, especially the pine cone, and my raspberry is a bit pale.

Some Summer Necklaces

Summer jewelry can go in many different directions. It can range from wild or colorful, to soothing and cool. These three necklaces show a little of each of these. The spin-wheels to the left in hot pinks and yellows make a perfect eye-catching necklace or a fun bracelet. The yellow necklace is enlivened with reds, whites and a touch of black. It sits perfectly around the neck just above a scoop neckline.

The aquamarine and pale yellow piece below brings a refreshing cool on a warm evening. This is one of my favorite colors.

Seashore Polymer Pictures

It's summer and people are heading to the seashore here in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Thinking of some of the lovely seashells along the coast, I decided to make some small framed pictures out of polymer. Here are my first pieces. The Nautilus shell to the left is lying on a polymer background I made to look like it was lying on the sand at the edge of the waves receding. The sand is textured and the speckled effect was done with embossing powders. The water is translucent clay light tinted with embossing powder and a touch of blue/gray clay. Though I like this piece a lot, I still need to work on the white edge of the water.... The piece below is also mounted on a polymer background, this one made from transluscent and colored clay with some gold leaf mixed in. All the shells are polymer, and the seastar was highlighted with gold acrylic paint. I will have to play around with other approaches to a seastar. This one is fun, but it's not as realistic as the other shells.

Larger Polymer Lidded Containers

While I've been caught up decorting all these lovely little ceramic vases, I haven't forgotten how much fun it is to create lidded vessels completely from polymer. Here are some containers I made that are much larger than any I've tried before. They are strong and will hold more items than my first pieces. I used Skinner blends, and decorated them with acrylic paints and silk screens. I played around with different "knobs" on the tops of the lids. I particularly like the dandelion vessel. Perfect container for storing wishes.

Bargello & Vase

Just one more...If you look back a few posts, you'll see some bargello among other techniques from the Cutwork workshop with Jana Roberts Benzon. As I was working on these small vases, thinking of more ideas about how to decorate them, my gaze landed on some bargello from that class, and it got me thinking....Here is the result! Who knew?

More Small Vases

As you can tell, I'm having lots of fun decorating small ceramic vases. I've a few more to share with you. I have been making flowers to go on these vessels, making sure the designs went all the way around the vases to help ensure the polymer remains as a whole piece and in place. Then I decided to try something that did not go all the way around. The all cream floral design on the vase to the left goes about 3/4th of the way around. I baked the polymer in place, then carefully pried the design off, and reattached it with 2-part epoxy. After drying, I tried to take the design off again, and there was no way it was budging. Below are the other vases I've been working on: