Polymer Cane Challenge

So many things have changed or been put on hold due to the pandemic. One of those "things" was the biannual Clay Connection Conference sponsored by the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild. So instead, we held a very modified gathering via Zoom. It was well-attended and people enjoyed both the activities and being connected with other polymerists. In fact, it was so much fun that a couple of different "challenges" emerged from the Zoom conference. One was a polymer cane challenge, where participants were challenged to try a new polymer cane and then share their results. The other was called the 820 challenge (for August, 2020) in which people had to choose a personal challenge involving polymer and produce something toward their project each week for the month of August. I joined the 820 challenge, and will share my project and results in another posting. I also joined the first cane challenge, and am bringing you those results today. The photos on this page show various aspects of the cane. We started with two 3-part skinner blends to create triangular canes. These canes could then be sliced, reshaped, and formed into more complex canes.

I also played around with slices, making beads in different shapes and sizes. Finally, I used some of the scrap to make a patterned polymer sheet. Part of this sheet has been cut out and I used it in one of my pieces for the 820 challenge. You'll see that in another post soon!

Marquetry Sets

I really do like the way marquetry looks in polymer, and I like creating it even more! Here are some pendant and earring sets I made for the Westerly Gallery.  I like the more delicate look of these pieces.
Sometimes, as in the blue/purple set to the left, I use a Skinner blend for the background, and cut shapes from canes or sheets with complimentary colors.

This set has a feathered background, so the inlay pieces are less patterned than in the set above.

The background on the green and brown set is a striped Ikat.

Sweet and Simple

I taught a workshop recently on making striped Skinner blend translucent stacks.  As part of the demonstration, I made a stack and then fashioned a simple bead from thin slices of the stack laid over pearl polymer.  When I got home, I played with the bead a bit, reforming it, and wondered what I might be able to do with it. Looking at my worktable, I spied a baggie of pearls, and knew what I would do. This sweet and simple little necklace is the result.  The pearls are semi-imbedded into the polymer before baking. Then, I varnished the bead as well as the pearls around it, to ensure they are firmly sealed.

Skinner Blend Lei

As you may  have noticed, I really like the ruffled lei necklaces I've been making for the past few months.  It occurred to me that it would be fun to make a set of ruffled lei beads that incorporated the concept of a Skinner blend.  With spring colors just starting, and summer coming, I decided to try a blend that would move from the bright corals and yellows of spring into the more cool greens of summer.  The core of the ruffles is made with translucent clay, embossing powders, and a gentle tinge of color, while the edges are solid clay colors following the Skinner blend I chose. The ruffles on this necklace are separated by honey gold Swarovski pearls.  Their glow just seems to reflect the glow from the translucent clay.  I made this necklace longer than usual since I think it will be a perfect piece to wear with a variety of clothing styles.

It's Spring Necklace Time!

I've been working on some new necklace pieces for the Westerly Arts Regional Show.  This is an annual, juried show with different judges each year. There is no particular "look" or criteria to try to meet. Entrants just try to present pieces which showcase their style.  This year, I've come up with a couple of pieces, and we'll see if any get accepted.

This first necklace is a bit of a departure from my usual floral style. Starting with a cane I made from a Skinner blend of purple, fuschia, tangerine and cream, I've made some pointed, layered "petals" which are suspended on a wire with gold hematite beads between the petals. Even with some editing, the photo did not come out as lightly as I had hoped and the deep purple looks almost black, at least on my screen.   I've started using magnetic clasps because I think they make everything so much easier.  Above is a close-up of that necklace.

 

Necklace number 2 is a little more along my usual lines.  The flowers are free-hand shaped with ruffled edges using my spider mum cane for the slices. There is a crystal in the center of each flower.  The "chain" is made of 2 sizes of matte purple glass pearls and silver spacers.  The purple color matches the PJM rhododendrons blooming in our yard.  Love Spring!

Daffodils and Posies

I have to post something spring-like today.  After weeks of pleasant temperatures, some days even in the 70s - which, for Connecticut in March is pretty good - we have suddenly had snow.  Six inches of the stuff.  A little is okay in December or January, but is absolutely NOT allowed in April.  So, I'm feeling as if I'm in a bit of a time warp and I want to bring spring back as quickly as possible.  I figured posting some little flower pieces might help.

So here they are.  I tried my hand at little daffodils for the first time, and am now wondering why I haven't made these before.  They are a pretty basic design, but cute and cheerful, just like the daffodils that are trying to pop back up through the snow in my yard.



  
I also decided to make a couple of very simple Skinner blend pendants.  I decorated them with little flower clusters to add a spring feel.

From One, Many!

One of the things that people often ask me is how I manage to paint all the colors and designs on the clay. They can't believe that for most of my pieces, the various colors and patterns are made from the way in which I manipulate the clay.  Since an "in person" demonstration is not available at the Westerly gallery except on special events, I have made a series of storyboards demonstrating each step of various polymer techniques and processes.  This month, I also made a small display showing a Skinner blend bull's eye cane and a variety of pieces which were all derived from that cane. The pictures in this blog post show the pieces I set up in the display. The cane slice in the middle came from the original cane.  I made a striped cane from this base similar to the cane shown on  my blog post a couple of weeks ago on March 19.  The shapes here were just experiments and "playing around."  You never know when something that is a clay "doodle" might become the base of a new idea.


These mobius earrings were made from slices of that striped cane.  I love the mobius shape, and this particular cane works in that design perfectly.



The drop earrings, and the necklace with the copper chain below, came from another little cane I made by twisting the striped cane around a couple of times.



The next pendant with the gold-filled bail shows a slice from the striped cane as well as a section from what I think of as a plaid or checkered sheet.  This is not actually a cane but is rather made from a log rolled of scrap pieces from your cane work.  This log is twisted several times, then passed through the pasta machine at a thin setting. The result is a striped sheet.  Slices from the striped sheet are cut and laid on a base sheet.  Off-setting the stripes each time you cut and place creates the plaid or checkered sheet. Different ways of laying the sheets down would create different looks.    The last photo on this page shows a pendant and earrings made entirely from sheets made in this plaid sheet method.  It's amazing where a little experimenting can lead.

April Show Necklaces

Although it is still March, I'm focusing on April.  I'm to be the featured artist in the front window at the Westerly Artist's Gallery, and that, of course, means I've been busy creating new pieces.  Over the next few days, I'll be sharing many of them here.

This first necklace has a quiet elegance.  The beads are a custom-mixed periwinkle with flowers, vines and leaves in hand-done 3-D. Connecting the beads are freshwater pearls, glass O beads, and a lovely deep blue/purple Swarovski crystal.  The round Sterling silver clasp is magnetic, so this piece will be easy to wear.

The next 2 necklaces are what I think of as "lei" necklaces, since they remind me of Hawaiian leis.  The blue one is made of wavy rounds in shades of blue and clear translucent.  The beads are a combination malachite and lapis cut round and separated by silver glass O beads and it is finished with another magnetic clasp.

The green necklace was inspired by a necklace made by Les Fantasisies de Pinklily.  Although I've made other "lei" necklaces before, I had not thought of making the bead pieces in a different shape besides round or oval.  Square (!) is cool and different and changes both the look and the movement of the piece.  I made a square Skinner blend translucent cane and wrapped it in white for contrast.  If you look closely, you can see the green color change gradually from a yello-green to a more blue-green.  The rest of the necklace is made of freshwater pearls and mint-colored glass O beads.

Fun With a Bull's Eye "Striped" Cane

As sometimes happens, I've gotten caught up in making one type of cane.  Then I play around with it for a while before making jewelry pieces. I've finally gotten a few things done and photographed, and thought I'd share them here.
The photo to the left shows an example of the cane.  As you can probably tell, I started with a Skinner Blend bull's eye cane, wrapped it in a thin sheet of white and then a thin sheet of black, and then compressed from side to side.  The compressing process elongated the cane. Once it reached about 12 inches, I cut the cane in half and then into fourths, and stacked the pieces side-by-side.  I reduced the piece again, and then cut it in half again, and joined the pieces as is depicted in the photo.  You could certainly continue to reduce, cut, and join the pieces, making the striped bull's eye sections narrower and narrower.  This 8-section cane seemed fine for my purposes.

I think it's pretty obvious that I just cut slices of the cane and ran them through the pasta machine to make the pendant and earring set shown on the right.  I like the look, as well as the fact that the cane can run horizontally or vertically and create a different effect.

The pendant and earring set below was made from the cane above, as well as from another Skinner blend bull's eye cane in similar colors.


The last photo shows a pair of earring made from the same cane but with some manipulations. Basically, I rolled and swirled pieces from the original cane into a log, flattened the log very thin in the pasta machine, and then cut slices and placed them off-set next to each other on a clay base.  Fun and interesting process - and I like the result.  I know I'll be making more along these lines.  The design that appears is somewhat of a surprise, since it develops as you slice and place.

New Necklaces

As you know, I make a lot of pendants, just not a lot of necklaces.  I think it's partly because pendants can be made up quickly and when I try a new technique, I'm eager to see what it looks like translated into jewelry.  Every once in a while, though, I make beads that want to be strung together into a necklace.  So today, I thought I'd share two pieces I just finished making.
The first piece was made from an Ikat Skinner Blend.  The pearls and gold seed beads seemed the perfect compliment.

The other necklace has a series of wavy discs cut from a translucent cane wrapped in solid cream polymer.  The translucent clay was colored using embossing powders, so there is a textured look to the pieces.  Small glass "O" beads separate the discs.

Master Class Camp 2015 - Colors the Haunani Way

Ah, I adore color.  It's one of my favorite things about using polymer.  And I especially love the way Lindly Haunani leads you to find your own color-way, exploring options along the way.   For me, there is something that just clicks in the way she presents color.  Step by interesting step, Lindly helped us evaluate tones, hues, and saturations, until each person in the 2-day workshop had developed a rainbow palette that was a personal "fit."

We started by choosing photos from magazines that appealed to us and making them into a collage.  Although the pile of pictures was the same for everyone, people naturally gravitated in different directions, and the collages were all distinct and unique. Here's a snapshot from mine.

Next, Lindly helped each of us determine the appropriate primaries for making our own personal rainbow Skinner blend. It was fun to see how different the various rainbows were - and everyone seemed pleased with their results.

We developed a few canes based on our blends, and then used those canes to create beads.  The pile of beads to the left are some of mine.










This next photo shows some of my beads laid on top of my collage. How's that for a match!!









Finally, we fashioned the beads into a fun bracelet.

One of the things I found especially wonderful and intriguing about this class is that the process can be used over and over again and, depending on the season or my mood, my color choices will shift and alter a bit. Yet, I know that given a collection of items based on multiple personal collages (mine), there would be a color way that would stand out as being just "me."  How lovely!

Asymmetry

There is something about asymmetrical pieces that has always appealed to me.  That must have been in the back of my mind since this necklace just seemed to evolve into its finished form.
I was playing around with shades of orange blends.  When I got this particular color blend, I thought of calla lilies, and decided to make a flower. Of course, it needed leaves.  I chose to make the piece simple with clean lines rather than using a lot of texture and veining.  It seemed the piece would make a nice focal in a necklace and, as I played with placements, the off-center spot seemed ideal.  When I found the natural coral chips, I knew I'd found the perfect compliment for the flower.

The photo on the right gives a good idea of how the whole necklace looks.  

The last photo is for the curious.  It shows the back of the focal piece.  You can see that I made single and double channels to hold the  beading string.  I used crimps to bind the main strand to a smaller piece that lined the coral chips up with the focal.

Necklace #1: Polymer & Seed Beads

I've been working on three necklaces for the annual Regional Art Show in Westerly. This show draws from a large area and is open to all artists, not just members of the Artist's Cooperative.  It is a juried show using a judge who is not familiar with any of the members.  This makes the jurying process exciting for everyone.

I decided to try some pieces that are different from anything I've done before.  As I get them completed, I'll get them photographed and post them.  Here is the first necklace I made. I made the focal section from a Skinner blend and embellished it with a freshwater pearl and swarovski crystals.  The necklace chain is a hand-beaded zig-zag chain, finished with a sterling silver clasp.  This second photo is a close up of the focal section. Asymmetrical fun!

"Fanned" Pendants

As I mentioned at the end of the last post,  I also planned to make a couple pendants with the fanned process.

When I sat down to work on the pendants, I realized there were a couple of things that needed special attention. One was a way to combine mirror images of the fanned shapes.  I ended up making a backing sheet that held all the pieces together and made each piece stronger.

 The other thing I needed to consider was how to attach the pendants to a chain of some sort.  I decided to insert eye screws as a place for chain attachment on the 2 red pieces.

On the turquoise piece, I inserted jump ring hoops into the back of the piece and, after baking, passed a black neck wire through the hoops.   Adding findings is, for some reason, my least favorite aspect of the process, so I was pleased that these pieces had relatively straight forward solutions.

Fanning Out

A couple of years ago, I was playing with some scraps of clay at a workshop, and developed a piece that was composed of cut outs using the same shape, just differing sizes.  I've been meaning to get back to this particular idea, and finally did.  Today's post shows you a few pairs of earrings I made using what I call "fanning out".
I started with sheets of clay, some in Skinner blends, then I textured them.  I cut out the shapes with an exacto knife.  As you can see in the photos of these earring sets, each different shape was cut out in 3 or more sizes and then the shapes were layered and "fanned" out.  Hence, the name "Fanning Out."

After making some of the earrings with my usual ear wires, I decided to make some with posts.  This required adding an extra piece at the top of the fanned design so the ear posts had a location for attachment.





The last pair on this page shows another version of post earrings in a fanning that displays the Skinner blend well.

P.S. Pendants coming soon....

Sparkle & Shine

The holiday season is upon us, and my clay thoughts have turned to things that sparkle and shine.  One of my favorite ways to incorporate sparkle into polymer is to use metal leaf.   I decided to make a Skinner Blend mokume gane stack using the "hills and valleys" technique.  This method uses translucent polymer rolled out as thin as possible and placed over metal leaf.  Scraps of metal leaf and translucent are pushed into the stack here and there.   This adds swirls and interest to the slices as they come off the stack.
Since I'd used a Skinner blend for the translucent clay, the slices fell into color groups.  This led me to use different colors for the bases. In the photos, you'll see purples, teal,  greens, and pinks.  The translucent allowed the background to show through, and the gold metal leaf sparkled in everything.

I also tried something new (for me) and imbedded gold ball headpins into some of the pieces.  I like the way the pins enhanced the gold leaf, and the bit of whimsy they add.

The purple pieces to the left are all covered with resin and the pendant is backed and outlined with a deep solid purple.

The two purple pendants below demonstrate the difference between a surface finished with PYM II and one with a resin surface.  The piece on the left has more sparkle than is evident in the photo.

Since I had some strips left, I decided to make a couple of my brass cuffs.  Because the cuffs curve so much, I wasn't able to use resin for surface protection. Instead, I applied several layers of Preserve Your Memories II.  This photo shows the shine from the PYM II more clearly than the photo of the two pendants above. The surface is pretty and enhances the colors and the gold, but does not have the glass-like appearance of the resin.