Works in Progress

I bought a lovely new book recently - Patterns in Polymer by Julie Picarello.  I had pre ordered it from Amazon some time ago and was delighted when it arrived last weekend.  It was really inspiring and helped to kick start my ailing creativity.
She shows some really interesting techniques as well as really good tips on mixing colours.
I made up four colours, a deep red, lighter pink, pale blue and buttery cream.  They look good together and had enough contrast for Makume Gane which is a technique which works best with plenty of contrast. 

The large piece is made using the mokume gane I made,  I wasn't very happy with most of the slices and ended up using it to make the beads which I think will make a necklace.  The left over stack of colours I sliced with a wavy blade which gives a nice zig zag pattern.  I used leftovers to make what Julie calls a lizard tail which I flattened out and used for the bottom piece in the photo.  I haven't decided yet what to do with these.
I made some earrings with the zig zag patterned clay:

Needle Felting - Mermaid Hospital, finale!

She's finished!  This is the final installment in the saga of the little mermaid.  

My next task was to embroider her face. I've kept it simple because I'm not too hot on embroidery!
Then I gave her some hair.  This is raw mohair fleece which is naturally curly.

I've given her two layers of mohair locks and needlefelted some lovely blue/green wool with white silk on top to make a little cap for her.

 I've finished embroidering her tail.  I've used two rows of simple chain stitch in green shades with a straight stitched row in brown in between them.

I've given her a lovely necklace made from freshwater pearls which seem appropriate for a mermaid.
She also has a belt made from tiny pearly seed beads, and I've sewn more of those beads onto her tail and around her cap.

So here she is in all her glory!  I'm delighted with her and she will be going home to my friend very soon.

A Monthly Make 2011 - January, part one.

If you look down the right side of this blog you will see a badge that says A Monthly Make 2011. It's being organised by The Felt Fairy.
I only found out about this a week or so ago and it's nearly the end of January, so I need to get a move on!
I made a start today, and mixed some colours of polymer clay.  I plan to make a set of different canes with the colours, and use them to make some jewellery.  I make jewellery anyway so it feels like a bit of a cheat to use it for my monthly make, but I haven't had time to think of anything different.  I will try to make something that isn't jewellery some months though! 
If you scroll down you will see my post about colour.  I still haven't found a way to print out my colour swatches from the Kuler website but I based my colours on one of them, taken from a photo of a coneflower/echinacea.

Over the weekend I'll post a photo of the beads I make, I don't know if I'll have the jewellery made before the end of the month but I'll try.

Some new beads

Here as promised on Facebook,  are some photos of my latest project.  I'm really pleased with it.  I've made a necklace and earring set for the winter exhibition at Arteria's Gallery 23 in Lancaster.  I'm working hard to make a decent amount of jewellery to leave with them before I go away at the end of September.  The exhibition runs from 26th October until 8th January.  I'll be back early November and hopefully I'll have made some more jewellery while I'm away in case they want any more.

I've rolled out a sheet of black clay and covered it with slices from assorted canes.  I've used a variation on a technique I found on a great website, How to make beads from polymer clay .
I used her technique for some pillow beads I made, and some beads Amanda from Chicita Gimme That Thing has used for some of her lovely wire wrapped rings.

I'm sorry the photo of the necklace isn't too good.  I was lazy and just took one photo since I'm not listing them on Folksy.  I will have to take a better photo of it, the light tent I ordered has just arrived so I'll try that out later. 

Polymer Clay Disaster!

Over the weekend I made a lovely set of beads, I was really pleased with them.  I left them to harden up a bit overnight before I made holes and baked them.
So what did I do? I baked them without even making small guide holes for the drill (a small hand drill).  I've done that before and managed to make the holes afterwards, but it is always easier if I at least do guide holes.  When there are no guide holes you have to be careful to drill in from both sides or when the drill comes out the other side it can break off a chunk of clay.
I started with the largest bead and thought I was doing fine till the drill came out the other side and...  yes broke off a chunk of clay.  I was so cross.  It was only a small piece and I thought if I use a spacer at each side it won't show.   The middle size round beads drilled fine.  Then I started on the small beads and after the first three broke up completely when I started drilling I gave up!  I don't quite know why this happened but I have to just put it down to experience.

The photo isn't very good - the background of the beads is pale green.  I'm hoping I can make some more but the pale green was mixed from white and a bit of left over leaf green so I don't expect I'll be able to match it exactly.  Of course I should be really organised and record proportions and keep samples of mixed colours but I've never been that organised...
Oh well, onward and upward... well onward anyway!

Kaleidoscope and Flower Canes

 Here, as promised are some more experiments with kaleidoscope canes. I've also made more flower canes, and made some beads I'm rather pleased with - and some I'm not so pleased with!

I thought I'd start with one I think came out rather well.  A few tiny air holes but I should be able to deal with them when I use the cane though I'm not sure yet what I'll use it for - it's quite small and I don't want to reduce it much or all the detail will go.

Ok, you can laugh - I did.  I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong here but kaleidoscope it ain't!!  That one went into the scrap clay bag.  Scrap clay is useful,  I've made a lot of lentil swirl beads from bits of scrap, and it makes a good base for the pillow beads I've made using various cane slices.

These haven't been varnished or polished yet and I'm not sure of the quality.  I've sanded them lots but they just aren't very smooth so I've yet to decide what to do with them.
The first beads I made with this method were better but I messed up drilling holes and some of them cracked - so I'm keeping this necklace:

The previous beads were a larger version of these and the small beads I made to go with them are fine so they can be used with something else.

 Flower canes, here is one before reduction, with its various components,

and here it is reduced to several different sizes, I'm pleased with this one.

This one seemed really promising, but went a bit  wonkely when I reduced it!

I think It is worth keeping though. I may reduce some of it even more and use it in a kaleidoscope cane.
I'm really enjoying myself trying out all these new skills and techniques.  I'm finding inspiration in books and tutorials and hope over time to produce better and better work.  I hope soon I'll get some jewellery into my Folksy shop.  So far most of the jewellery I have produced has gone into the Arteria exhibition but when that closes what hasn't sold can go into the Folksy shop. 

New Ideas

At the moment I'm experimenting with some new techniques in jewellery making - notably polymer clay.  It's great fun and easier than it looks to achieve beautiful effects.  It's also easy to make a muddy mess!  I'm sure I'll find a use for all the scrap clay.
This was my first effort

 These beads were made with a jellyroll cane.  It's very simple, made by layering 2 colours of thinly rolled clay, and rolling it up, then cutting it up.  I made some of it into a triangle shape, and used up the leftover bits by making a few bicone beads (at the front of the photo)
As you can see, I had some trouble varnishing them - I did it eventually by making another cardboard stand with narrower spaces so the pins stayed put. 
I realise now,  from Maxine Veronica,  that I need to get cocktail sticks or toothpicks, and use some of that scrap clay for a stand to hold up the sticks.
I've also since discovered some rather clever wax polish that buffs them nicely and is a good alternative to varnish.
I've posted this batch of beads off to my 9yr old granddaughter who also likes to make jewellery.
My next attempt wound up looking nothing like the picture in the book but ended up looking really nice so I've made those up into a necklace.  I'll post a picture of it later, and will keep you up to date with my efforts.