Love cats

Well the inevitable happened - the hearts and the cats collided on my workbench and here they are ....

The Love Cats

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Don't forget you can find the free tutorial to make your own little cats here http://www.carajane.co.uk/2012/01/my-sleeping-cat-tutorial.html

I am really happy to email you a PDF, couldn't find an easy way to share the PDF for download - must look into that (feel free to let me know if you know one!!!).

Thanks of those of you who have got in touch by email, comments here or on Facebook it's great to hear from you and I really, really  appreciate your feedback. Would love to see some more photos if you get a chance to make your own cats.

Lovingly Handmade Hearts

Along with the heart earrings I also made some brooches. These took a bit longer to finish as I discovered I didn't have any badge backs the right size, didn't think about that when I started making them! I forgot to take a picture of the back which is a shame as they are very neatly finished. I will try and show you another brooch back when I have made some more. They were lovingly hand polished to a glass like shine with wet and dry sand paper and then micromesh polishing cloths.

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They have gone off to Tenderfoot, a wonderful local gift shop that sells handmade treasures made in Bristol.

Are you thinking about Valentines day yet? Are you a fan of Valentines day? I like the sentiment of it and will always make a card for my husband and write a note to remind him how special he is to me but I am not big on the commercial side of it. We don't do flowers or gifts (unless it's a special little handmade something) or going out for over priced meals!

Pick a Pinterest tutorial.....

On Sunday night I decided I had worked hard for the last few days and instead of getting on with the things on my ever increasing to-do list I would do something just for me! I went to my Pinterest Polymer Clay tutorials board and picked something that wouldn't take too long. 

I picked this

from http://polymerandmetalclay.com.au/flowerpetaltute.html . 

This is a free tutorial and I really appreciate people sharing them for free.  I know how much effort it takes to take all those photos and try and find words to describe what you are doing - that make sense! I had a few moments of confusion with this one but I got there. I think the original colours used were more striking. Mine is a very pearlescent purple I mixed from Kato clay (more on pesky pearlescent Kato in a blog post soon!).

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I am not quite sure if I shall string it as a pendant with the oval beads either side, or have the oval beads as earrings, or do something completely different with it. What do you think? I know a few people have had problems commenting on my blog, if you do please let me know by email - carajaneuk(at)gmail.com or on facebook or Twitter

As you can see by my 'pin it' button I am getting sucked deeper into the world of pinterest, it's a great place to be - so inspiring!

Thanks for reading my blog, I hope you are having a great week and find some time to do something, just for you too!

Cara

Oohh shiney!

I called in to visit Penny Vingoe who runs www.clayaround.com just before Christmas and we had a play with some Lisa Pavelka Magic Glos resin. I really liked it so bought a bottle. It's a UV cure resin and luckily I had a suitable light at home already, we don't get enough sun in winter here in the UK!!

I tried it for the first time earlier in the week on a flat polymer pendant but it was pulling away from the edges a lot, which doesn't look good. Penny and I had been using it on a bracelet made up of metal bezels linked together so this wasn't a problem as the resin clings to the edge and doesn't pull away as it cures. So I tried a quick pendant with a polymer frame to see how it worked out. This was made with a few scraps rather quickly as I am busy at the moment. The frame needs to be neater and a little higher but it's definitely got possibilities. I made the back and outside edge textured which contrasts nicely with the smooth shiny resin - oh and means no sanding at all!! I think you might see more resin coatings! It also means I can play about with different surface techniques.

Pendant before resin, the black frame around the edge stands proud a little.

Here it is coated in resin!

 If you haven't come to say hello on facebook yet please do - http://www.facebook.com/CaraJaneContemporaryJewellery

Love is in the air....

Well people are starting to think about Valentines Day and I am seeing many other people creating hearts so I decided I would play with hearts too. I have a fair bit of work in progress but here are some finished earrings. They will be my earrings for my week 2 of the 52 pairs of earrings a year challenge I am taking part in on Flickr.  The middle ones are studs, I finally got round to ordering some earring posts!

I often see people put little collages of their jewellery and think how great they look so I gave it a go. I ended up using  desktop publishing software - if anyone has any photo collage software/tips I'd be grateful if you let me know.

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52 pairs of earrings a year challenge - week one for me

I was wondering what type of earrings I should make first - then it became obvious - little cats of course!
(You can find my free tutorial to make them yourself here  - I wouldn't recommend starting so small though, they are very fiddly small!)

They  are 2cm across, I had to make 3 cats as I realised after I made the second identical to the first they would look better mirroring each other.

If you like to make things why not join the challenge? They don't have to be made from polymer clay, just be earrings. It was set by Anke Humpert on flickr, to make 52 pairs of earrings a year. I am starting this week so I should play along for 52 weeks and finish this time next year. My intention is to make a pair and list them for sale in my online shop but I haven't got my shop up together yet, nearly there! I am not happy enough with these to sell them anyway. Week 2, next week the earrings will be listed for sale!!!!!

Check out the earrings made already this year in the group photo pool

What challenges have you set yourself for this year?

Blog Lovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I was reading an article on Craft Blog UK (which if you have a craft blog is a brilliant resource and you should check it out!) about Bloglovin which is the new thing for following blogs apparently. Thought I'd give it a whirl. I am following The Craft Blog UK blog there and have listed my own, it's linked to my personal facebook page. I will feedback a little on what it's like after I have used it for a while.

I've been kept away from creating the last few days and I am getting twitchy so off to my clay bench to play!

Cat tutorial

I am so thrilled that you are enjoying my cat tutorial and delighted with the results I am seeing! I have had a few suggestions for further improvement which I shall implement but they are fairly minor changes. I wanted to share some of the results that people have been kind enough to photograph and share, I loved seeing them! Please do let me see a photo if you've had a go.

Beautiful little cat by Pippa - love the colours and the flower she has added petal by petal!Adorable!

 

 

Love this cat by Lupe Meter ! Really love the markings on this cat and the crystal in the centre of the flower looks great!

 And another cute little cat by Lupe Meter, I hadn't thought of using other things to decorate.

 

A collection of cute cats from Kim Mack. Great photo - love the arrangement and beautiful cane on the big ones bottom! That one on the branch looks rather smug ;)

A collection of cute cats from Fiona, love the range of colours she's used. She's not sure she can pick a favourite and neither can I! 

I have a cane tutorial almost ready to share with you too, so watch this space!

My Sleeping Cat Tutorial

Here is the promised cat tutorial, I hope you enjoy it! It is also available as a PDF document which I can send to you if you email me, I am really happy to do so - just couldn't find an easy way to have it as a download online. If you use it I would be really grateful for some pictures of your cats, and as always a comment, or like here or on my facebook page really makes my day. I would also appreciate any feedback you have to help me write even better tutorials in future. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Have fun making cute cats! Cara

** You are welcome to make cats for your own use, or to sell them. I would consider it polite if you post/sell them online that you link to this tutorial - or at least mention my name! You may share this tutorial with your friends or your group/guild but I ask that you don't teach them when you are being paid to teach without asking me first**

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Tutorials - photos or video?

So having had a busy weekend doing non polymer clay things I am now free to get back to my clay - hurray!
First on the agenda is that cat tutorial, only 2 more followers to go!
I am struggling a little to make some of my explanations clear (I might just send it out to some of my faithful followers for testing- don't worry Bonnie - you'd make that list!) and am wondering about perhaps trying to make a little video instead/as well. How do you like to learn new techniques? Would you rather a video or written instructions with photos?

If you happen to be in the Bristol, UK area I am having a January Jewellery sale this Wednesday afternoon and evening- email me to get details if you would like to come along. I have sent out an email invitation to all my mailing list people but quite a few were returned as I think I misread their writing so if you wanted to be on my mailing list but haven't heard from me do get in touch.

London Polymer Clay Group Demonstration

I will be giving a demonstration at the next London Polymer Clay Group meeting which is on Sunday 29th January on how I make this background less star flower cane and then form them into cupped flower beads. I must credit Zuleykha for showing me how to make the flower beads but the cane is my own, from a fabric pattern (to match a top, which I might even wear to the meeting if I remember) and I will demonstrate how I make a small flower cane with no background, without playdough!

Here are some of my creations using this technique, my own favourite bracelet that matches the top with these flowers as part of the print.

You may remember these blue and brown ones as being my sisters wedding jewellery if you have been following this blog since the summer.

I am also running a trial with some friends to see how long it takes to make these in a workshop so I can offer it as a workshop locally (Bristol UK) later in the year.

Only 7 more followers til I hit 100 and share that cat tutorial! Thank you!

Cat tutorial is in production!

You may remember these cute little fellows with flowery bottoms.

 

Well I also made plenty in random coloured stripes with odd little scraps of clay ...

and I did promise you a tutorial.

Well I have started working on the cat tutorial and the deal is I will share it with you all as a thank you for encouraging and supporting me when I get to over 100 blog followers - so if you don't already follow my blog please take a few minutes to do so by clicking on the 'join this site' button over on the left. If you are new to blogs and don't already follow any let me reassure you that it's nothing scary or sinister, or time consuming (unless you get addicted to reading blogs like me ....) - being a follower allows you to keep track of new posts on blogs you are interested in.  If you really don't want to be a follower fair enough but please be kind enough to keep my smiling by leaving a comment on my blog (any time you fancy - it's good to know your opinions on my ramblings!) or come 'like' my facebook page - you can find me there by following the link or by searching for CaraJaneContemporaryJewellery

If you already follow my blog a huge thank you to you! I really appreciate knowing that people are interested.

I hope you are enjoying the first few days of 2012. I am off to play with some of my new tools and books I got for Christmas and then sometime soon I will work on that web shop......

Hearts

Here's some images of some custom hearts I made before Christmas. They are hand size, so you can hold them in your hand. I made them from hearts shaped out of scrap clay, covered with cane slices.

and a couple of close ups of what I think are my favourites, although that changes every time I looked at them.

Happy New Year 2012

I wish all my blog readers a wonderful 2012 full of fun, friendship and creativity!

Cara
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