Butterflies Around Your Neck

I love the summer flowers, and the butterflies they attract. The colors and their grace as they flit from flower to flower is lovely. I've often thought they should have been called flutter-bys, but I wasn't consulted when they were first named. :) Here are a couple of polymer butterfly pendants. I put eyepins in the wing tips to attach the chain so the pieces lie flat and don't twist as they might with a single bail. A fun way to carry a butterfly with you all day long.

January Theme

Hello! It's hard to believe we're already into 2024. I'm look forward to another year of creativity and learning.

At the Westerly Artists' Gallery, we've started a new year of monthly shows, many with a theme. This month's theme is "Inner Worlds/Outer Worlds. Artists are encouraged to try to create something that fits the theme, if appropriate. I had a couple of ideas, so created three pendants demonstrating my interpretation of the theme. The first and last pendants show an outer world with an opening to an inner world. The middle piece shows a little creature from the inner world peeking out at the outer world. It was interesting and fun to make these. What would you do to "fit the theme?"

Sparkle & Shine Long Pendants

Every once in a while, I find a special charm or other item that "begs" to be added to a piece of jewelry. I found these lovely little partial star-burst charm drops with a CZ in the center on Etsy, and couldn't resist. So here are 2 thin and longish pendants using this golden embellishment. The aqua blue pendant has a thick coating of iridescent glitter under a resin coating. The red, white and gold pendant is from a mokume gane sheet with composite gold leaf, again sealed with resin. :) The blue one, especially, makes me think of a beautiful early spring sunrise on a crystal clear day.

Crackle! A New Product

As you may be aware, there are many approaches to creating a cracked or crackled surface in polymer.  My most recent posts featured composite metal leaf that had been slightly crackled and dyed with alcohol inks. I've tried other methods of crackling, but a lot of them have made very thick layers of crackle that don't cut well or fall off if not well-sealed. For the most part, I was not happy with the results, and set the concept of crackling on the back burner.

Recently, I heard about a product from DecoArt called Perfect Crackle and decided to give it a try. The product comes in two parts, that have a consistency similar to some polymer liquid clays.  You apply a coating of the first liquid over the sheet you have conditioned, and let it dry.  Once it is dry, you apply a coating of the second liquid on top of the first liquid, and let it dry.

Ah, let it dry.  That part requires patience.  To get really dry takes at least 12 hours and overnight is even better.  It needs to be completely dry in order for the crackle effect to appear.  Once it was dry, I applied alcohol inks to color it.  The 2 different solutions in this set make different designs.  It is also possible to enhance the crackle effect by running the sheet of polymer through the pasta machine.  I experimented a little, but will have to go back and try more variations.  Once the alcohol inks were dry, I cut out my shapes.  I found that using a regular shape cutter, even those with sharp metal edges, was the trickiest part. The crackle was hard to cut in places, and lifted off the surface.  I found my best bet was to use shape templates and cut the treated polymer with an Exacto knife.  Perhaps you'll notice that a few of these shapes come from some new templates I picked up.  It's always fun to experiment with new shapes!

After baking, I sanded edges and backs, and finished the surfaces with Magic Gloss. The color of the alcohol inks really deepened and popped when I added the gloss.  Huge difference.

Here are some of the first sets I made.  I also am working in a color combo of yellow, orange and a touch of green and will share those once they're done.

Playing with Pebeo Paints

You may have heard about the new Pebeo paints.  They're unique in that they retract, distend and intertwine to create unique and interesting designs.  I decided I needed to give them a try. These paints are very compatible with polymer, so I didn't need to prepare the clay in any special way.  There are 2 types that interact, Fantasy Prisme and Fantasy Moon.  The Prisme paint makes interesting bubbles and swirls while the Moon paint makes a more linear design.  I made a couple of different sets, one with narrow borders and white bases wrapped in black.  The other set had thicker borders that matched the background of the base.  The set at the left shows a mixture of both the Prisme and Moon paints. The pendant in the silver frame is all Prisme.  The pendant in copper is all Moon, and the pendant in the gold frame is a combination of the two.    As you can see, the results are really different, and very interesting.

The pendants in the photo below were all done with Prisme paints.  I swirled the paints in the two larger pieces in the back and left the paint to just "do its thing" on the pieces in the front.  It's fun to watch the paints shift and move.  A certain amount of control is possible on terms of placing colors in various spots, but the movement of the paint still seems to be to some degree independent of what you do.

Translucent Stripes

I really love to work with translucent clay.  There is a warmth about it that changes the tone of what you are making, and it often seems to glow from inside. Recently, I taught a workshop in which we used translucent to make Skinner blended stacks with white stripes. Taking thin slices from the stack and criss-crossing them over one another is a lovely way to make a base for a bead.  A raspberry, coral and light gold stack made this sweet teardrop shape.  I encircled it with glass pearls and included brass heishi in the chain.

The pendant on the left is an example of using a striped translucent stack as a base for 3-D flowers.  The flowers were made of slices from a translucent cane.  The whole piece has a subtle glow that pairs well with pearls.

More Stripes

I've been working with striped stacks lately and thought I'd share a couple of pieces here.  I started using the stripes in earrings. The photo shows 3 different designs.  The long bead earrings and the rolled and curved earrings on the right are from the same striped stack. Rolling pieces from the striped cane changes the relationship of the stripes.  The pair in the lower left corner are from a different striped stack.


The pendants to the left are also made from the same striped stack.  I think it's interesting that simply cutting and rearranging the striped pieces changes the way light bounces off the stripes so they almost do not look like the same base.

I'll be experimenting a bit more, and will be back to share other ideas.

Colorful Moroccan Beads

I took one more workshop at CFCF 2017.  This class was also taught by Lisa Haney, and ranked up there as one of my favorites.  As you can tell from the photos, we made rounded lentil beads with a Moroccan theme.  The shapes of the cutters and the impressed designs really made these beads interesting and unique.  The application of oil paint after baking gave an antiqued look to the beads, and made the designs we had stamped into the clay really stand out. Some of the beads were made with white or beige clay, some with colored clays, and some were even made with Skinner blends.  Once again, Lisa came up with some clever tools for us to use.  She provided each participant with marbles of different sizes to use as forms for baking the clay.  She also gave us small wooden stands that were perfect for holding the marbles while they were baking.

Another idea Lisa shared with us was to use the shapes and impressed designs to make curved earrings.  Here are three sets I made, just waiting for finishing and findings.

As in the fish workshop, we were fortunate to have donations of many of our supplies. Polyform again donated all the Sculpey Premo! clay we needed. Tandy Leather gave each participant five Craftool Pro stamps, and Makins provided same shape cutters. We all really appreciated the donations and I'm already using some of these items for more creations.  That of course means you can expect to see more pieces based on this Moroccan design coming soon!

Floral Ikat

As you are probably aware, I really love Ikat canes and the variety of looks one can create.  I have been working on some floral themes, and decided to mix Ikat with flora.  This first pendant has an Ikat background with simple cane leaves and some hand formed little flowers.  Using the same Ikat canes for background, I made this simple pendant and earring set. 

Of course, then I had to make another Ikat stack out of my favorite colors, and decorate with different leaves and flowers.

Making Gilded Leaf Pins

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of taking a workshop from Diane Villano.  Diane is a member of the Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild, and has written several articles in various polymer magazines.  She was offering a workshop on imprinting leaves into polymer.  I've made leaf impression pieces in the past, but Diane had an approach that looked different from what I had done before, and I wanted to learn about her technique.

As usual, Diane was organized and had great directions.  The workshop was fun and the process easily produced results that made the participants pleased.  In the photo at the left, the piece with all the metallic colors in the middle is the piece I made in class.  The other two were pieces I made a couple of days later at home.

These have convertible pin/pendant backs so they can be worn as a pin or hung on a chain.  Diane had us work on black clay because she likes the effect the black clay provides.

I decided to see what the process looked like on colors, so made two pendants, one on a teal backing and one on copper.  The pieces on the right show the results. The look is a bit different from the black clay pieces.  It seems the black adds more contrast and intensity.  It probably all boils down to personal preference.

Either way, the effect is very pretty.  Of course, fall, after the leaves are off the trees, is not the best time to try this project.  I plan to re-visit the process in the spring with new leaves and more shapes.

Gold leaf, Mauve & Blue Mokume Gane

It's been a busy month - busy with everything except working with polymer.  I was finally able to put aside a block of time or two, and have some new things to share.  I wanted to do something that picked up the bits of gold we are starting to see in the trees here in New England.  I decided to use the hills and valleys mokume gane technique with translucent polymer mixed with two of the new colors for fall - Cashmere Rose and Biscay Bay.  I started with the rose shade, and imbedded the pieces with gold electroplated glass seed beads for a bit of contrast.  The first photos shows some of the pieces I made.

On to blue!  Here are 2 pendant and earring sets. I especially like the motion of the multiple pieces. Sometimes doing something fairly simple adds a lot of interest to a piece.


Finally, I made a few brass cuffs.  I tried a green but didn't get the shade I was looking for.  It looks like it will be better for spring than fall.  

Polymer Collages

What fun!  I've tried mosaics with polymer, but I haven't really tried to do much with collages.  I owe a big thanks to Lindly Haunani who presented her version of collages at CFCF 2015.  Of course, she used Skinner blend rainbows, and they made the collages especially attractive and interesting.   My first piece to the left is pretty much based on Lindly's designs.









Then I started branching off on my own a bit, using white as well as black to delineate between the colored shapes.  I also started trying different outlines for the overall shape of the pieces.  Note the gold tone rounded piece in the middle in this cluster of pendants and pins.




Here's a shape and design I really like.  One of the things that I love about polymer is the more you play, the more a technique or process evolves and becomes "your own." When you look at my first piece and then this one, I think you can see the evolution.

Next are some photos of earrings in various shapes, sizes and color-ways.

And, to add a finishing touch, I covered another little paper-mache' box using the collage technique. 

"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.

Extruded Decoration

When I finished making the square poker "chips" I still had a few pieces of conditioned colored clay left, as well as some stacked clay still in the extruder.  What to do with it?....

I textured the sheets, extruded some more clay, and curved my flexible blade.  Here are the results - some pendant/pins and some earring sets.  The pieces are fun and funky - and I had a good time making them take shape.

No scraps left!

Spring Blooms & Lacey Wave Edging

Spring has seemed to take a long time coming to Connecticut this year. Now that it's finally here, I find myself drawn to the new blooms, and, naturally, just had to make some floral pieces. I really enjoy the delicacy of the flowers and leaves on this small scale.  The first photos show some roses as well as my new morning glories - love the way the morning glories ruffle and curve!  I think the Ikat cane makes a nice background.

When the first pendants came out of the oven, I wondered what they would look like with some sort of background, perhaps a ruffle or lace, framing the pieces.  Some experimenting with folding and bending Skinner blends led to the lacey waves evident in the last three photos.

Wood and Opals - Oh, my!

I had to try one more thing with the polymer faux wood.  I wanted to see if I could "inlay" opals into polymer wood bases.  I experimented a bit, and here are the results.   I'm really pleased with the way these pendants turned out.




The small rocks in the photos are real.  I'm looking forward to making rocks and pebbles in polymer one day soon.....