I had the pleasure of taking a full day workshop with Lisa Pavelka. Lisa has been working with polymer for about twenty years, and has developed her own product line for polymer and metal clay artists. Her ideas and tutorials are creative and varied, and she always has some great tips and tricks to share, which I have found helpful.
This particular workshop focused on learning to make a moveable hinge to join two pieces of polymer. In typical Lisa fashion, the polymer pieces also had a twist - they were "puffed" and hollow! In addition, she demonstrated a cane and a surface design, and most of us incorporated one or both in our sample pieces.
I was really interested in her concept for hinging the hollow pieces together. She also had stationary joint ideas. My pieces were too small for the hinges she provided, so I used twisted metal hoops to join two of my pieces. I plan on making a hinged pendant or two in the near future, since I really like the concept of motion in jewelry. I'll be sure to share my piece once I get it made. In the meantime, here is a photo of some of the hollow pieces I made during the workshop. The two pieces on the right were made using the cane and the surface design that Lisa taught us. The pieces on the left were made with the "plaid" surface design that I have been making recently. You can see the twisted metal hoops I used to join the pieces on the right. I still need to add a small jump ring or other finding to the top hoop so I can add a necklace chain or ribbon. As you can see, the shapes Lisa had us make were also interesting and different. A great project and one that I expect to explore further.
I was playing around with an Ikat cane I'd made, and started making hollowed circles. I used a sheet of the Ikat cane, laid it across the edges of a circle shape cutter, and gently smoothed the clay so it stretched down into the cutter. Then I pressed the cutter onto a flat sheet of clay, making sure there was a firm connection between the domed section and the flat backing. The pieces baked well, retaining the domed shape. I used a ribbon of clay and some Genesis Thick Medium to bond the various dome shapes together, and created this necklace. I like the look and feel of the domes, and plan to be making more shapes and pieces in the near future.
