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.

Simple ~ with Shine

Here's a photo of a necklace I made recently with a holiday party in mind.  The glow of the pearls and the sparkle in the crystal rondelles picks up the glow and shine from the silver and translucent disks of the focal piece.  The colors of the clay and the pearls are much closer in person.  Light, and fun, it lies nicely on the neck. I find it especially fun to roll the disks out super-thin and then gently press the edges to see what shape the disks take. No two are the same, that's for sure!

Copper Lei with Swirls

I had to share this latest lei style necklace and earring set with you because I really like the way the colors worked out.  I'm showing you the close-up first, so you can see the outer copper clay color, and the translucent in-between the circle swirls of copper.  The translucent has been lightly tinted with a clear embossing powder and I added some copper glitter to the mix, too.  In person, there is a special sparkle and glow from the beads that is repeated in the glass O beads and goldstone flat spacers placed in between the ruffled beads.  It's really pretty, and perfect for that special outfit, or just for fun.  I'm also including a photo of the full necklace. The design just didn't come through as clearly as in the close-up.

Upping the Sparkle on Leis

I really like making these "lei" necklaces, and I'm enjoying playing with different shapes and decorative features.  Today I have a new teal and aqua lei made with small rectangular shapes.  I used an iridescent micro-glitter mixed with translucent for the center of the rectangles, and solid color clay for the "frame."  To bake, I bent the shapes across a small wooden dowel.  They came off easily after baking, and there was no shine nor other marks left by the dowel.

The black and white lei features ruffled circles.  I used a black glitter embossing powder in translucent for the center of the canes.  It really added sparkle and these beads look especially pretty in the sun.

New Year's Glitz

It's 2014!  May yours be an especially wonderful year.







As January 1st approached, it seemed an appropriate time for making new jewelry to celebrate the change of years.  So here are some pieces with a bit of glitz, shine, and sparkle,  perfect for welcoming in the New Year.

Taking a Side-Step

A few days ago, I was giving a polymer workshop on making dichroic glass looks with polymer.  I use a combination of techniques I've run across which combine composite metal leaf, translucent clay, alcohol inks, texture sheets, glitter, and Magic Gloss.  I particularly like the way texture and designs look when impressed into this layered mix.  It is also possible to just let the colors and shine "do the talking."  This first photo shows two pieces with designs impressed from past postings, and a new fall-toned piece that just seems to glow from inside.

One of the workshop participants had purchased some iridescent flakes and wanted to know if they would work with this technique.  Having played with flakes just a little in the past, I knew they would not accomplish the dichroic look we wanted.  His question, however, made me wonder what would happen if I combined flakes with the dichroic bases we had made.

So, when I got home, I did a little experimentation and thought I'd share it here.  This first picture is of one of the clay bases I'd made in blues, purples and reds.

The next photo on the right shows two pieces.  The pink piece with the blue tip was made by sprinkling pink iridescent flakes on the base from the cut out and adding some liquid polymer.  The green piece was made from mint colored flakes on a deep green and olive base.  Some of the base color shows through the flakes a little, but the glitter doesn't show except around the edges, and on close inspection, the metal leaf is not apparent at all.

The final snapshot below is a piece made with blue tinted iridescent flakes over a base from the same sheet (above) that I used for the pink piece. This piece has much more color variation than the other two.  Since the base was similar to that in the pink piece, I'm assuming the blue flakes are the main reason for the color variations.  I like this piece the best.

A Rafter of "Dichroic" Polymer Pendants

I learned recently that a group of turkeys is called a rafter.  Since it's close to Thanksgiving, and I have a big group of pendants to share with you, I decided to call them a "rafter" of pendants.  ;)

About a week ago, I shared here a bit about the processes I've been trying with metal leaf, alcohol inks,  and polymer.  In the last few days, I've been trying more experiments. The first thing I tried was to add a very thin layer of translucent clay mixed with pearl glitter, and then to impress the layer with a texture design.  Alcohol inks were added last. Above are two of my first pendants pieces.  You can see the a bit of the gold metal leaf through the translucent layer. The translucent-glitter layer adds a special sparkle that has an effect somewhat like dichroic glass.  It doesn't show well on the screen, though it really sparkles in person.

I made some striped sheets from the larger sheet, and then created a variety of pendant shapes.  These pieces and the ones above were all made using Pinata Alcohol Inks.  I find these colors to be very bright and colorful and almost intense.

I decided to see what Adirondack Alcohol inks might do in using the same techniques.  Here is my favorite piece from the Adirondack set:

The next set is also from the Adirondack sheet. The colors look more colorful on my computer screen than they do in person.  I was surprised to notice that, when compared to the Pinata ink pieces, the Adirondack colors are more subtle and darker.  The Pinata colors look like spring and summer colors, while the Adirondack colors come across more as autumn and winter.

I made several other pieces in Adirondack colors that were focused on a "fall theme."   The last photo shows some pieces from this last set. I tried inclusions in a couple of the pieces - pearls and a black rectangular crystal.

Oooo - That Liquid Polymer!

You may have figured out by now that I like to experiment. I've really been enjoying the liquid polymer and then had a thought - what would happen if I mixed in some powders? How would it change the look? Sooo...I mixed in some glittery embossing powders from Judikins and I love the results! Here are examples of my first efforts.

Oh - you'll also notice I had to try gold, too, so got my hands on some gold-filled bezel wire for the edgings. The gold is quite elegant. Here's a close-up. Hope you can see the glitz and some of the depth these pieces have.

Of course, since I like to experiment, and I love the mica shift technique, I decided to combine the two. Here's my first piece.
Since the liquid polymer piece is different on both sides, I had to make the main piece reversible, too. What do you think?