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.

Haunani Gane

Lindly Haunani is the queen of the rainbow.  Co-author of the marvelous Polymer Clay Color Inspirations book, she truly understands color and its impact on what we see and make.  In addition, she has a wonderful way of getting her grasp of color across to her students.  I have thoroughly enjoyed every class I've taken with Lindly, and the class on her version of mokume gane at CFCF 2014 was no exception.  Once again, her use of color and the way in which she manipulates the clay created a special twist on a classic technique.   If you're not familiar with mokume gane, please google the words.  There is a wealth of information on the Internet about this topic.

Before sharing my results from Lindly's class, I have to back up and tell you about a workshop I gave on mokume gane a few weeks ago.  Participants were introduced to several different methods of mokume gane in polymer, one of which was the "hills and valleys" technique.  I told the students that this particular approach to mokume gane was famous as the one Lindly Haunani uses.  I was right - and wrong.  The basic concept I presented is indeed similar to Lindly's technique.  But she has taken it to a completely different level, as you will see in the samples.  The yellow pieces on the left were the result of the process as I taught it.

The lime and cherry pieces on the right were made using Lindly's approach.  I think there is a world of difference in the end result.




This last shape has not been given a protective coating yet, so it appears more matte than the other examples.  You can really see the hills and valleys in this piece.

Needless to say, I think her version of this technique is superior to any I have seen before.  If you ever get a chance to take this workshop with Lindly, I can't encourage you enough.  It is soooo worthwhile to get these effects!