Layered and interchangeable !

Hi Everyone
I had a lovely weekend, can't quite remember anything particularly significant going on ? ........ but amazingly long (for a weekend) with a focus on family time. I did all the usual daily chores etc but I think the difference was I consciously slowed down and stayed around the house !
This week, I'm looking forward to our next polymer clay workshop on Tuesday. We are working with beads, canes, faux wood and working with large earring hooks (all requested by the group). Here are a few images of the sort of thing we will create.



The extra beads are made from mini leftover bits. I'm encouraging everyone to produce these little beads rather than wasting tiny bits of leftover clay. In another session we will make all the 'leftover beads' into something spectacular !

The next photo uses similar techniques in some brighter colours.


The idea behind the designs is to try out some new techniques but also to create a layered bead look which can be interchanged and make several designs in one. I will put some images together showing the interchangeable options later and share tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Making more canes.

Hi Everyone
I mentioned (earlier this week) aiming to polish my saved Shoe Bead every day. I sad to say Ive failed to go beyond the second polish - I'm going to make up for my lost polishing by going for 5 extra polishes today. Ive been wearing them every day.



Work wise, some of my new samples came to life yesterday but they need 'finishing' so will get to grips with that job today. I made more canes too. Ive put together a little collage showing the development of a triangle cane. I'm still using leftover clay and the colours are a bit dull so will make one more cane with some brighter touches of colour running through.





My samples are mainly simple shaped beads which I'm going to use to show how the beads can be covered with slices of cane. I'm looking forward to seeing how the class use the canes to decorate.

Thanks for reading.

Men's Jewellery

Hi Everyone
I spent most of yesterday creating little canes with my extruder set. I love this sort of thing. I especially like creating attractive stuff from waste ! Not sure what this says about me ? For example, I trimmed a few ends from a cane construction and wondered ? - almost without thinking I had made some small beads from the scrap. My plan is to pull the beads together in some way (friendship bracelets for men is on my mind) and the new beads have already started me thinking about new colour combinations.



I did complete my tasks for the day ie extruded canes in three colours and some faux wood in three types of wood. I really enjoyed making these canes.
I need to keep going with sample jewellery production later today - specifically for some new kits. Ive also got so many little projects almost finished - I'm hoping to get to those too.
Important news - the slide knot seemed to be the winner for most people (yesterday's big question ! ) - Ive found another bead for this knot, so will try and tackle that too. This will be a design for a collection of friendship bracelets for men. I don't tend to focus on men's jewellery much but I have a commission and I'm beginning to develop some ideas which I think will work.

Thanks for reading.

Stretchy or slide knot ?

Hi Everyone
Last week I shared an image of some great bracelets made by one of my recent polymer clay classes. Here they are again :



My demo sample didn't make it to the oven in the session but I cured it a few days ago. My colours were leftover clay but I quite like the combination.



I used 15 beads and threaded the beads onto a green stretchy cord. The hint of green between the beads is quite interesting. I had 8 beads left after making my stretch bracelet, not enough for another stretch design. However, I threaded them onto a faux leather string and made a sliding knot. I'm pleased with the look here it is.




I also polished The Shoe earrings again. I love these things - just because I saved them ! I'm going to polish them every day for a week. I'm interested to see how much of a shine I can get.


Thanks for reading.

Extruded Patterns

Hi Everyone
Well ........... there is a little order back into my world ! More work needed but at least I can get to my stuff.

I managed a little work too ! The top of my work list was making a range of extruded canes. I chose a few colour combinations and I have two medium sized canes ready for use.
The orange cane was produced with a round extruder.


The pink used a square extruder. I'm not sure there is much difference with individual elements but the pink has a better overall shape (for me) as a cane.


I also had a little left and covered a small bead. This is the bit left at the end of a single cane.










Next - I'm going to produce some larger blank beads and cover with 'fine slivers' of cane. I also need to get some faux wood sorted for the same thing.

I also polished some of my left over clay earrings. Go back to 3/10/14 for the story behind these earrings. They polished up well. I think I will polish a little more and get a higher shine on each of them.




The blue circle earrings have not been polished yet but I did add some green clay in the centre.

Thanks for reading.