New Brass Bracelet Base

Okay.  I realize we've got some time here in New England before spring comes 'round, but I am already longing to see flowers popping out of the ground.  I love the color, freshness, and promise of spring...When I found a new brass bracelet base, one that adjusts a bit and goes on easily, I had to give it a try.  What better way to adorn your wrist than with polymer flowers and leaves?!  I placed the leaves on both sides of the flattened center on the base.  This made the inside look nice, and, more importantly, made the attachment between the polymer and the brass very secure.  The flowers I made separately, and then added on top of the leaves.  This is a very lightweight piece, and it seems to sit well and not slide around.  I'll have to give one a try "out in public" to see how they do.  I like checking out new designs before trying to gift or sell them.

Black-Line Transfers

There are probably hundreds of techniques in polymer I haven't tried yet, and I'm sure more are being explored and developed every day on the worktables of polymer artists. I realized the other day that one technique I haven't used is black-line transfers.  Actually, I've done very little with transfers at all, and decided to give black-line a try.

I made a few bracelets... actually, I'm on a roll, and can't seem to leave this particular project alone.

For materials I'm using brass channeled cuff and bangle forms. The base clay is translucent and I've mixed in sheets of metal leaf.  In some cases, I also added just a bit of sold clay to color things slightly.  You don't need much color at all to affect translucent.  I plan to try using alcohol inks, too, since they'll create a brighter color without affecting the translucency as much as opaque clay does.  The black-line designs are from copyright free publications designed to be used in projects.

After the pieces are baked, I've added a light coating of PYM  II.  Since these pieces will be on the wrist and will probably get a good amount of handling, I wanted to protect both the design and the metal leaf in the base.

Pictured here are some of the first cuffs I made.  I'll try to get back here with some other examples soon.

I'm back - here are some bangles made with the same technique.  Less design, but still quite pretty.  The bolder design on the aqua seems to show up well in this narrower format.

A Few More Feathers....

Looks like I didn't have my fill of feathers the other day....Here are a few more experiments.

 I love the 3-D effect of the leaves on the brass cuff.  This is only the second time I've tried doing something dimensional on the brass channel forms, and I really like the effect. Think I'll have to do more.

These earrings have twists and little flurrals of feathers.  While I couldn't find the word "flurrals" in the dictionary,  it just seems to fit the little fluffs that can form on feathers, so flurrals it is.

The last pair is something different, and much larger than earrings I usually make.  Stretching out of our comfort zones can be good.

Two New 3-D Earring Styles!!

As you probably can tell, I really like 3-D pieces, and enjoy creating them.  It's such fun to feel the clay move and form into new shapes beneath my fingers.  Over the past week or so, I've been working on a couple of new earring designs, and I'm really pleased with the way they've turned out.

The first design I call "curved moon pillows."  These round little shapes have a small opening and indentation where the ends meet, and it creates the perfect spot for dangling decorations.  Of course, I also made some matching brass cuffs.

It was fun to play with a variety of color combinations, too.

The second design is a series of curved drops.    Actually, the curve seems to be equally "comfortable" at both the bottom or the top of the shape.  These earrings are made from a new petal cane I decided to try.

 I'm working on some larger single drops, and some which use beading.  I'll share more later.

Hope you enjoy these new pieces.

New Cuffs

Thought I'd post photos of a couple of brass cuff bracelets I just finished.  They are totally different in design from each other, and are unique in that I tried something new with each one.  The pink cuff has a 3D floral arrangement on the top section.



The green, yellow, and turquoise cuff has a Swarovski crystal in the new leaf shape imbedded  at the top.

I really like the way these both turned out.  I fully expect to experiment more with these ideas in the future.