Polymer Clay Challenge Week 19

I have been mostly MIA for the past few weeks. Hubby is newly retired (Yay!) and we are having splendid negotiations about the "home front" LOL.

For Week 19 of Katie Oskin's polymer clay challenge, I did a super-easy project. Faux-turquoise:

Like the pic? Our hostas are just breaking ground and it is a beautiful sunny day (they are few and far between), so I thought I would take a rare outdoor piccy. 

A good friend had requested I repair her bracelet, which featured turquoise fakies. Several of them had fallen out and she had even lost one. I put off this project, thinking it would involve lots of custom colour mixing and experimenting, all for a couple of grams of clay for one small "stone". 

When I finally pulled out all my PC packages, I was delighted to see that my STOCK PREMO WAS AN ALMOST 100% MATCH. It is an old package (at least 4 years!). I don't know if the formula has been changed since then (probably; Polyform/Sculpey is famous for tinkering). All I know is: this is exactly the colour I needed. It was one of the quickest jewelry repairs I have ever done :)

Moral of this story: Do keep on hand as many different colours, brands (ages?) of your PC as you can. I don't use Premo very much since discovering Kato. BUT sometimes it is just what I want for a very special project.

Naturally, in my haste to return my friend's bracelet, I didn't even take a photo of the finished repair. Will have to borrow her wrist one of these days :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! See you next time :)

Polymer Clay Challenge Week 17

For Week 15 of Katie Oskin's polymer clay challenge, I decided to make use of the cane I made in Week 12. Not sure if I am done with this bracelet or if I might add a bit to it yet :)

Hope to see everyone this time next week :)

CC7A Reveal for April: Pastel Spring

Yes, the Creative Continuum of Seven Artists are indeed back! Our fearless leader, Alicia Marinache of All the Pretty Things, starts things off with the whimsical colours of "Pastel Spring":

I freely admit these colours were a true challenge (yeah, the best kind). As I admitted in my last post, I cheated by creating custom polymer clay colours. I had so very little in the way of beads in this palette. Even with newly formulated clay in hand, I remained unconvinced I would come up with something worthy. Here is my necklace:

Paired with shell pearls in baby blue and olive, smoky crystals and pewter

OK, I changed my mind. I like this after all ;) I think I was just unused to all that pastel LOL.

Now jump over to these lovely blogs and check what goodies these designers have in store for you.

Alicia Marinache 
(Fearless Leader + this month's hostess)

Christine Altmiller

Cynthia Machata

Emma Todd

Sally Russick

Therese Frank

You are welcome to return on May 26, when Therese Frank will inspire us with the colours of late spring in Alabama... "Tutti-Fruity". Oooh, fruit... I am feeling hungry people!

Polymer Clay Challenge Week 16

For Week 15 of Katie Oskin's polymer clay challenge, I have adapted a cane design from this Cindy Lietz tutorial, which was originally for an "Easter Lily" in these colours:

Y'all know I LOVE Cindy's videos :) I chose to use another colour palette and came up with this (OK, loud and proud colours LOL):

Seriously, I am hoping once reduced a bit more I will be able to use these. I have a monthly jewelry colour challenge on Sunday which necessitates these colours and I had very little on hand, especially in the blue and pink. Custom polymer colours to the rescue!

I noticed this cane reduced unevenly, in particular the leaf area stayed relatively large in relation to the other elements (the proportions started out very close to Cindy's example in the first picture). This problem usually indicates an imbalance in consistency and/or temperatures of the different sections of clay. In this case the green was an older mix and may have been harder. Or the packing colour (blue) may have been warmer when reduced. It's one of those events difficult to predict in cane-making. But given the bright colours and playful design, I think this will still be a fun cane to use for "spring" beads :)

Hope to see everyone on Sunday!

Polymer Clay Challenge Week 15

For Week 15 of Katie Oskin's polymer clay challenge, I am using an old/new technique. It's one of those methods that pops up regularly it seems. I saw it when I first started going online a few years ago (around 2011, I think), on the blog of Violette Laporte,  one of the Quebec-based founders of the Canadian Polymer Clay group, Clayamies. Vio hasn't been active on this blog for some time, but it is still a source of great design ideas and entertaining bilingual commentary. More recently, Vio has been busy on Pinterest, being, as she puts it, "the curator of my own virtual museum".

Here is my first experiment:

I first cleaned the metal with rubbing alcohol, lightly painted the wing areas with Lisa Pavelka Polybonder glue, backed the wings with a medium-thin layer of translucent/pearl Kato, then trimmed off the extra clay. I chose a rainbow set of Alcohol inks and painted the "cells". I then removed all but a very thin layer of the clay from the back of the pendant, hoping the clay would become semi-transparent once baked.

Some messy steps and the finished product: not as
transparent as I had hoped. Next time I'll use just
translucent clay for a more "stained glass" look.

I am always on the lookout for this kind of component, one with lots of small, open areas for polymer insertions. I had ordered these butterfly shapes a couple of weeks ago, hoping to have them for our Butterfly Blog Hop this past weekend. Unfortunately they just arrived yesterday. For another interesting way to use them, please check Kathy's post (I think hers are the same basic component or very similar).

See everyone real soon!