"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.