Little "Floating Flower" Earrings

Sometimes, when I'm finished working on a project, I'll pick up some of the left-over pieces, and start fiddling around with them.  I was playing with a "scrap" from a wedge cane, making a little drop shape, and it looked like a bud or flower center.  Since I'd just been making the wine glass "ID rings", I had some of my smaller shape cutters out, too.  Well, one thing led to another, and these little lotus flowers took shape.  They remind me of the water lilies that floated on the backwaters in the delta area near where I went to college.  They looked like this with wider petals open and the center still folded tight.  I may play again with more petal layers, but I like the simplicity of these for now.
I guess the saying is true, in polymer, there are no scraps!

Surface Sheets from Scrap Rolled Logs

A few days ago I described a process that makes striped sheets from clay scraps which are then cut into slices to make a checkered or plaid look.   It's a really fun thing to do with your bits and pieces, and I really like watching the patterns just sort of "emerge" as you place one cut strip next to another.

Here are four examples of pendant and earring sets I made using this technique.  The width of the slices I cut gave the pieces different looks.  The coral set to the left was made with wider slices while those in the turquoise set on the right were thinner.

They all have a Magic Gloss finish which adds depth to the design.


 

Straight from the Heart

I've just returned from Tennessee where I participated in a week-long polymer workshop at the Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts.  I'll write more about that later.  This posting is about hearts, thousands and thousands of polymer hearts....

At Arrowmont, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Ron Lehocky.   While Ron is an accomplished polymer artist, whose pieces have appeared in books and various collections,  it is his heart project I'd like to share with you today.  Dr. Lehocky volunteers on the Cerebral Palsy KIDS Center Board of Trustees.  In 2005, he created 100 heart pins to help with fund-raising efforts at the Center's annual fashion show.  This event turned out to be just the start.  Since then, Ron has made over 23,000 Heart Pins, and the project continues to grow.  Ron designs and creates each heart personally, in a wide variety of colors and designs.  One hundred percent of the money raised through this project goes to a fund which provides continuing education for the therapists at the Center, enabling them to continue to provide up-to-date therapies to the children. For more information, visit the website:  http://www.kidscenterky.org/HowToHelp/.

Often, Ron uses scrap from the canes and projects of other polymer artists.  I shared some of my clay pieces with Ron, and was delighted to see the creativity he applied to make some really unique hearts. The photos here show the cane I made and some of the hearts Ron created from that cane.  Not only does he use the cane "as is" - he reduces and manipulates the pieces to make a myriad of effects.  Amazing!