Polymer Clay Lizard Earrings

I bought a set of two little stamps recently, each has the same lizard but pointing in opposite directions.  I made my first pair of earrings with them and am sending this pair to the shop in Leeds which is taking some earrings and brooches in November.
I love them so much that if I could wear earrings I'd keep them!

I've decided to make more of this design.  I plan to do them in different colourways, with different beads, different wires etc, they are just too cute not to repeat!
They will cost £14 and will be put on sale in all my shops.  If you would like a pair let me know and we can discuss the colours you'd like.

Polymer Clay - Finished Work

Here are the two brooches and a ring, out of the oven and finished off.

This is my first attempt at a ring.  I've just bought some filigree metal ring blanks from treasuresinmeasures so I'll be making some more soon.

 These two brooches are probably going to a shop in Leeds in time for Christmas, they've asked me to send 6 brooches and 6 sets of earrings and I need to get them made before the end of September when I go to the USA.  
The buttons, 3 sets,  are available in my supplies shop AverilpamEtc on Folksy.

Polymer Clay - Into the Oven!

Here's a quick pic of my latest oven batch.  Three sets of matching buttons, 2 brooches and the top for a ring.  I found a tutorial for making a simple ring base using rubber cord, and as I've never made one before decided to have a try. I don't know if I'll ever make them to sell, but Polyform (they make Premo polymer clay) have monthly 'make it your own' contests and August's is big rings.  You can enter as often as you like so I may do some more.  Textures and metallic/mica finishes are my fascination at the moment so I'm indulging myself and I've ordered a couple of new texture sheets. 

The heart brooch needs some work, I put too much silver on it so the texture lost some definition but I can sand some of it off and bring out the black/purple base colours.  Sorry the photo isn't brilliant but I only took one quick photo before they went into the oven. Once the jewellery is finished I'll post some better photos.

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:

Keyrings, a New Line for Averilpam

I'm trying a new line in my Folksy shop, I've listed one so far and have 2 more to go in soon. The first is made with a gorgeous agate slab. It's dyed purple, which shows up round the edges.  In the centre you can see lovely golden brown markings, the photo unfortunately doesn't do it justice. The other two use slices from polymer clay canes with metal charms.

 

Birthday Giveaway

I announced a while back that I would be doing a new year giveaway.  I decided to start it today, as it's my birthday!
Most of the responses I got from my initial post about what to give away (here) preferred the first heart so that is the one I'm giving away.

The heart is made from dark red polymer clay, partly overlaid with pink and silver polymer clay. I've made this by laying metal leaf onto pink clay and rolling it to crack the metal surface.
It's strung on a rubber cord necklace approx 17inches long with a 1.5inch extender chain.  
I will announce the winner on Valentine's day - seems appropriate - 14th Feb, in two weeks.
All you need to do is comment here on this blog post.  Make sure I can contact you if you win.  The latest time to enter will be 8am on the 14th. (UK time)
I'll choose the winner using a random number generator.

A Monthly Make - January, part two

I've got the canes and beads made, and have just baked them.  It will take me a day or two to get them tumbled - sanded and buffed, so I won't get anything made with them until sometime next week.
So I've decided to use the beads as my January make.  I won't use the jewellery as February's make, I'll do something else from scratch.  I have photos of some of the canes and the beads before they were baked and I will blog again when I make them up into jewellery.  Unfortunately I forgot to photograph all the canes before I made them up into more complex canes.  I made a series of simple jellyroll canes using various combinations of the colour palette, then combined them into several bigger canes.

I've used up most of the canes making these and have saved the leftovers for possible future use.  I managed not to produce a great deal of scrap clay - I must be getting better at this!

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.

New Year - New Work

Happy New Year!  I don't make new year resolutions,  I don't want to set myself up for disappointment and feel like I've let myself down.
This year I just want to enjoy life and keep working. The last two months of 2010 were something of a low point for me, I was ill a lot of the time and did almost no work.  I don't feel too bad about that, I've reached a point now that I accept 'down time' as something I must get through and not let it turn into a spiral of depression and misery.  So I've had a lazy couple of months and am now feeling much better. 
I had a mixed start to the new year,  I got started on some hearts for Valentine's day and some matching beads but then had a horrendous migraine so had to stop work yesterday. A reminder to take it slowly!
Here is a (not very good, sorry) photo of the latest work waiting to be baked.  I'm going to make some more and fill up the trays before I bake so it will probably be next week before any of these become finished items to list on Artfire and Folksy.  

I conditioned a thin sheet of clay and covered it with silver metal leaf (not real silver). Then I placed a sheet of cling film over it and rolled it through the pasta machine at a thinner setting.  This cracks the silver leaf and presses it into the clay.  This can then be cut and applied over clay heart and bead shapes.  I still have some of the silvered clay so will make some more hearts and beads.  When the craft shop opens I must buy some more metal leaf, in copper and maybe gold colours.  I really like the effect and it is similar to the technique for doing faux dichroic. 

jigsaw Puzzle Cutters

For some time now I have wanted to make polymer clay pendants and earrings in the shape of jigsaw puzzle pieces. I have tried in vain to find cutters and I knew I could not do them freehand.
By chance I read a question on an Artfire forum from someone looking for the Artfire studio that sold cookie cutters.  
I found Cookie Cutter Guy  -  a brilliant shop that makes custom cookie cutters.  I emailed Sandy who made me 2 cutters, a small one and a really small one!  They are perfect, I'm so pleased with them, and here are photos of my first attempts.  I couldn't wait to share the results. These aren't perfect and I want to define the texture with inks - but first I have to buy some inks.  Once I perfect the technique you will see them listed in my Artfire and Folksy shops. 

 

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!

I'm doing a Giveaway!

I have won several lovely prizes from blog giveaways, so I've decided it's time I did one myself.  There are no conditions, nothing you need to do other than comment on this post. You don't have to be a follower of this blog (unless you want to of course!).  Do feel free to tell your friends, followers, Facebook fans etc so they can come and join in. If you don't have a Blogger account make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.
The giveaway will run from now until midnight on Sunday 5th Sept.  I'll pick the winner on Monday morning, 6th Sept and announce it on this blog and on my Facebook page.
This is what you will win.  A necklace with matching earrings featuring beads made by myself from polymer clay.
The other beads are rose quartz, rhodonite and japanese glass miyuki cubes.  The necklace clasp and earwires are sterling silver and the beads are linked with silver plated copper wire.  I'm sorry the photo of the earrings isn't very good, but you can see the pattern on the beads better in the photos of the necklace.

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. 

Family Departure - and Claying Again

Well I've had a wonderful time with my family.  My daughter, son-in-law and 2 gorgeous grandchildren were here for too short a time.  My son-in-law was only here a few days but we packed them with outings! The children slept here,  parents at a local B&B.  We saw family and friends and did a little sightseeing too. A wonderful day out with family in Hebden Bridge included a lovely fire in the garden.

The children had a blast running round finding twigs and dead leaves to throw on the fire!
They left on Monday and the house feels very empty now.  
I'll be staying home for a while recovering my energy, and plan to get some more polymer clay beads done.  
I managed to do a little before the family arrived, so here's a little preview of some of my experiments.

A few canes used towards a kaleidoscope cane,

Not too bad for a first attempt I think!

I used this for some beads that didn't turn out too well.  Once reduced the colour difference wasn't very clear unfortunately.  I think I baked them too long and they went rather dark.

These were more successful.  I'm quite pleased with the flower cane I made.  I did a purple flower cane too, but didn't outline the petals so it wasn't so good.

I'm quite pleased with these, made up from various leftovers.  I plan to do a pair of earrings and a necklace of some sort to match.  Note the cat hairs in the photo - Monty, my neighbour's cat, insisted on 'helping' me.  (I use my neighbour's garden table to take photos).

I used some of the previous cane to make this brooch but I'm not too happy with it - too much glitter! I'm pleased with the leaf cane though.   I did make a brooch I like and that will go into my Folksy shop soon.

And here's Monty.  He gave up helping and decided to have a snooze.