The Woodland Floor

Now that the weather is growing warmer, we've been spending more time outdoors, and taking walks in the woods with our dogs. Our girls love the sights and smells, and always come home happy. While the ferns and undergrowth are just beginning to pop, the fungi on the trees is also growing more visible. Here are a couple of pieces I made, inspired by some of the "little things".

More Faded Tapestry

I've been playing around some more with the faded tapestry technique. I figured I'd share some of the color-ways I used since I'd only shown one example before. So here are some earrings and a couple of pendants. I particularly like the dark earrings - the design really looks faded in person, and somehow the colors are more intense. The last photo has nothing to do with the faded tapestry technique. They're just some muted matte-finished, striped earrings in spring-to-summer colors that I think are kind of fun.

New Adjustable Bracelets

Bracelets are fun to make - and wear. The biggest problem with making them for sale is sizing. Wrists are so variable, and it's hard to have every item in every size. Usually, I just use brass bangle and cuff forms. I was really pleased to find some new adjustable bracelet bands. These are available in metal in various finishes, and in many colors of cording. Because of the sliding stop-bead, they can be enlarged to go over almost anyone's hand, tnen the stop-bead slides up so the bracelet sits securely around the wrist. As you can see in the photos, I made several different styles of bracelets including flowers and translucent layers, in both flat and bead formats. I'll be interested in seeing the response to these new pieces. The bracelets above left all have cording bands. The bracelets below have metal bands.

This last photo shows some translucent dimensional beads. Two are on adjustable cording bands, and the blue piece is on a metal band decorated with turquoise crystals.

23K Gold in Mokume Gane

Ah, the luster of real gold! There are several different metal leaf products available for use with polymer and other art mediums. I enjoy using them, and usually use the composite products. But once in a while, I splurge and get the "real thing." The pendant to the left and earrings below were made using 23K gold leaf in a mokume gane stack. You can tell immediately when real gold leaf is being used compared to the composite versions. The composite versions crackle and split when rolled and pressed in polymer. Actual gold leaf stays intact. It almost looks like the gold melted and flowed while the piece was curing. I love the look. The pendant and a pair of earrings shown here were both made from the same mokume gane stack. Compare this look to the red pendant I posted on March 27th, and you can see the difference. Do you see why I really like the 23K gold?

Small Petal Bowls

I've just spent a few hours at the Westerly Gallery, setting up my part of the April Show. I'm one of two featured artists this month, and I've been working on new items almost daily for the past few weeks. I did take a few photos of some of the items before I took them over, so I'll be showing some of them here for a few posts. Here are some little petal bowls I made. The idea comes from Ludmilla Bakulina, who also has some excellent products for use with polymer.

These little bowls are perfect for holding small items, or just to look at. The outer petals need a support when baking so the clay doesn't droop when it gets hot. Here is a close-up view of one of the bowls. They're sweet and fun to make.

Micro Stencils

You have most likely heard of Lucy Struncova. Lucy and her father, Jiri Strunc, founded Lucy Clay Tools in 2013 in the Czech Republic. Since then, the company has become well-know for a variety of polymer clay oriented tools, machines, materials for design, and even the excellent magazine, Polymer Week. You can find out a lot about Lucy and the company via google searches. Today, I'd just like to share a couple of pieces I made using what the company calls "micro-stencils."

These are small, thin patterns made of heat-resistant cardboard which an be used as a traditional stencil. In addition, they can be painted or decorated, and - what intrigues me the most - actually incorporated into your own polymer products. So here are some pieces I made using these stencils. They baked in the oven with my clay, and did not become soft or brittle or distorted in any way. They hold paint, glitter and other embellishments well, or can just be left in their original black. I used glitter for the gold, metallic acrylic paint for the silver, and mica powders for the purple. It's a fun way to add texture and interest to your pieces. I love the see-through effect, too!

Late March Frosting

Yesterday the temperature reached 60 degrees. This morning, we woke to a sprinkling of snow. Ah, March! Nothing was on the driveway or lawn, but the leaves in our woods were all dusted with bits of white. The scene made me think of a set I made late last year when the first frosts were hitting all the fallen leaves. This seems like the perfect time to share a couple of photos.

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.

Adding Mesh to Polymer Jewelry

Hello! As I mentioned in my last post, Julie Picarello also showed us how to add mesh to our jewelry pieces.

In this first photo to the left, you'll see two pendant pieces and a pair of earrings. The pendants have mesh added. In the piece on the top right, I added 2 pieces of copper mesh, and then backed the whole piece with the solid raspberry color that was used in the mokume gane slice. The piece at the bottom has aluminium mesh, and the backing had the space cut out so that light shined all the way through. Julie also showed us how to use various products to color the mesh, but I preferred to leave mine plain.

This second photo shows a differently colored mokume gane stack slice, with a copper mesh insert. The long piece on the left of the photo is something Julie calls a "lizard tail". I haven't decided just what I plan to do with this sort of piece, but they're a lot of fun to make!

Workshop With Julie Picarello

Recently, I had the opportunity to take a workshop from Julie Picarello. Julie is an outstanding presenter, and one of the foremost polymer artists using the Mokume Gane technique. Mokume Gane is a traditional Japanese method for laminating various colors of metals together and manipulated them to create patterns that resemble wood patterns. Polymer clay lends itself perfectly to creating patterns from layers of oven-baked clay, manipulating them, and removing slices. Julie has developed a couple of new approaches to this technique, and I really enjoyed learning about the new processes. Since Julie is currently teaching these new techniques, I can't go into detail about how the effects are accomplished. However, I'll share images of some of the pieces I've made. I'm really enjoying using these new ideas. If you get a chance to take a workshop with Julie, I encourage you to do so.

This first photo shows several jewelry pieces all derived from the same prepared sheet. This pattern is from the technique Julie is calling "Faded Tapestry." The effect really does make the pieces look older, and the designs appear softer and more muted.

In this next image, I put 2 pieces from the same faded tapestry sheet. The piece on the left has a matte finish. The surface was lightly hand burnished, but there is no other additional material on the surface.The piece on the right was covered with Magic Gloss resin. As you can see, the matte piece looks much more muted, while the piece to the right shows more color density, depth, and lots of shine. In my next post, I'll share some pieces from one of Julie's other new techniques, adding mesh with mokume gane.

Painting on Polymer with Liquid Watercolor

I tried something new recently. I won't go into too much detail because this particular technique comes from a tutorial by Debbie Crothers. Her tutorials are well-done, and she has some unique approaches to both using and embellishing polymer. Every once in a while, I find a tutorial that piques my interest. This particular tutorial, which she calls "Silkwater" introduced me to both a new product and a new idea. I had never thought about watercolor paints on polymer. It just seemed they would be too runny and difficult to control. Debbie has found a way to manage that issue. The tutorial also introduced me to a product I had not heard of before: liquid watercolors. There are different brands with different features. I totally enjoyed "playing" and getting comfortable with their use.

Here's a photo of some pieces I made after experimenting a bit. It's been a lot of fun to try something totally new. I think you can really see the "watercolor" effect. I backed the pieces with black and used black liquid clay as an edging to set the surfaces off just a bit. I used a doming resin, Magic Gloss, to seal the surface. I'm looking forward to doing more!

Little Lidded Containers

One of the things I really enjoy making is small containers and bowls. Polymer is a great medium for these items. It's strong, waterproof, and pretty all rolled into one.

This little lidded cylindar has substantial walls, and is decorated inside and out with a silkscreen pattern. The wall is actually 2 layers of polymer with the seam off-set to add strength and stability. The ring attached to the underside of the lid fits snugly around the top of the base.

Here's another example. I used gold leaf paint around the rim of the base to add some color and shine.

This third photo shows how the containers look closed. They are about 4 inches tall, depending on the decoration on the lid. They have enough space inside to hold small item such as jewelry or paper clips, and they also look pretty just sitting on the windowsill.