Melanie Muir's Rock Cuff class - the results!

I recently stayed up half the night to watch a CraftCast Webinar with the Marvelous Melanie Muir - it's an online workshop and it was fabulous and the best thing is I have a download of the workshop so I can go back and watch it again when I can't quite remember. You can purchase a download yourself here - www.craftcast.com.


It has taken me a while as I seem to be too busy to fit much polymer clay time in at the moment :( Am trying to rectify that as soon as I can as I am  happier when playing with my clay!! But finally it is finished! Here's my first rock cuff

 

I made an extra 'Rock' so I also have a matching pendant - it's very shiny so hard to get a great photo. Will try again another time when I am less rushed!

When I took the workshop in March with Melanie Muir and she taught us how to make what she calls a 'Simple Cuff'; it was a brilliant class and I felt like we had been given so much really useful information I couldn't remember it all. I also was really admiring Melanie's bracelets she had for sale so when she mentioned she was doing the CraftCast class I knew it would be good and as I hoped I now have a video record of all that information so I can really digest it! You can see Melanie's beautiful collection of Rocks Cuffs on her website.  As you can tell I am a big fan, she's a lovely person, a talented and generous teacher and her work is to die for - amazingly beautiful and perfectly finished!

Manly polymer!

Today is my wonderful husbands birthday. Off course I wanted to make him a present but what do you give a man? I have already made him a keyring and a rather special polymer clay covered pen. He would rather something practical and useful than something decorative. So after a look round a DIY store looking for inspiration here's what I made him

Yes it's a screwdriver! The handle is decorated with a black and white geometric cane (which did get a little distorted conforming to the shape of the handle but I hadn't quite made the cane big enough so had to stretch it in places rather than fill the gap - that'll teach me to make a small cane!). I decided to give it a textured surface rather than polish it as it may be hard to grip a shiny handle. I textured the surface with 120 grit sandpaper, this gives a texture that feels nice to hold. Needless to say having learnt the hard way several times I now remembered to test cure the object I am thinking of covering to make sure it will not have a problem in the oven.

Not sure what I will make him next year - do share any ideas you have for mens gifts using polymer clay in the comments!

Happy Birthday Richy!

Mokume gane colour variations

 Turquoise on top            Red on top

An additonal black layer on top        White on top

All these mokume gane patterns have been made with the same colours of polymer clay; turquoise, white and red  just in a different order. It is quite amazing the difference you get just by varying the order of the colours.

On the one which had the white on top of the stack the turquoise which was the layer underneath has become muted so it looks more like a teal than the bright turquoise it really is. The red is still bright on this one though. The only one that has an extra colour is the bottom left one which has a layer of black put on the top before the pattern was impressed.   Putting the layer of black on the top made the colours seem even brighter where they do show through.

They ended up quite small pieces as I was just experimenting so I haven't made anything with them yet. The weather has been lovely and sunny here which is a nice change after the weeks and weeks of rain we had! Long may the sun shine!

Little dragon

So as I mentioned in my last blog post I treated myself to  some books one of which was Christi Friesen's Dragon book.I made my first dragon, which is a largish pendant,  with some left over bits of some of my other projects, thinking it might look interesting.

Well I didn't like the look of it but never fear - Christi Friesen comes to the rescue again with Swellegant!  
a metal coating. I will do some more playing about with it and let you know more about it another time.

The little guy got a coat of bronze. Much more elegant ;) He's made from Kato clay but he has Fimo Glow in the Dark eyes - I love to give creatures glow in the dark eyes - so they can watch you at night ;)

I'm really pleased with how he turned out. I love the style of Christi's  book it's step by step but also lots of alternative suggestions which enables you to develop a creature of your own easily.

More Christi Friesen Inspiration

Inspired by the wonderful stained glass technique I learnt from Christi Freisen I made some earrings for the earring a week challenge.

They were fiddly but I was pleased how they turned out and I think they were worth the effort!

I also made some heart earrings and a pendant to match, again Christi showed us a neat way to make a heart and she taught us how to make the flower and the leaves that embellish it so it was a good way to practise some of the many techniques I learnt.

Thanks to a suggestion from the lovely Chris Pellow I then made a pair of sunflower earrings, and a matching pendant. These earrings are my earrings for this week.

 I made these from Pardo clay, mixing a little colour to translucent clay. They are noticeably more translucent than the previous tulip earrings I made from Premo again using a little colour mixed with Premo Frost translucent. I am struggling to get a picture that shows this - if anyone has any suggestions please let me know! The pedant is not ideal unless you have a 'glowing chest' (as suggested by Christi ;) but I think the earrings should demonstrate their translucence as they dangle from the ear.

Disappointed I couldn't go to the second  Christi Friesen workshop London I cheered myself up by buying a couple of Christi's books so you can expect more work inspired by Christi!

Right just off to watch the Craft Cast workshop with Melanie Muir (yes it is the middle of the night here in the UK!). You can buy a download of this workshop in the morning if you missed it ;) So hopefully you will see a Rock Cuff bracelet before too long aswell!

Fantastic Christi Friesen workshop

I was very lucky to attend a polymer clay workshop with the fantastically fun Christi Friesen today. It was called 'In the Garden' and we whizzed through lots of different techniques and were overloaded with tips and techniques. And entertained at the same time! I don't know how she manages it! Thank you Christi for such wonderful day!

Look at all the things I made - yes in one day! Christi is a slave driver ;)

It was great to see some good friends and meet some new ones and so great to be taught new polymer skills by such a talented lady! The venue, which is the same as the one the London Polymer Clay Group use is such a good one with a brilliant cafe. Wish everyday could be a polymer day like that!

 Can't wait to try out some more of the things we learnt and to play with the Swellegant I bought. In the meantime go check out this useful information on Swellegant from Chris Pellow. Will of course let you know how I get on with it!

Polymer clay demonstration in Hobbycrafts

Hello lovely blog readers! I have had a really nice day demonstrating some polymer clay techniques in my local Hobbycraft store. It was a casual demonstration where people could come and watch and ask questions rather than a more formal 'talk' at a set time. I met some lovely new people who were very interested to see what I was doing, hopefully some of them will catch the polymer clay bug and can take great pleasure in creating with it, like I do!

Here's my work area and me talking to the lovely Dawn Wilkins who did a great job photographing my sisters wedding last year. It was nice surprise to meet her again and I hope to go see the paintings that she is exhibiting next week at the Severn Vale Art Trail. I also had a display of jewellery too, to my right so you can't see it in this picture.

Despite chatting I had a productive day and I made some intricate flower and kaleidoscope canes and off course a Stroppel cane from the scraps! I then used these to make some pendants and some of my little creatures.
 

If I had been more organised I would of told you about the fact I was going to do a demonstration in advance  so that you had a chance to come and say 'Hi' - well I will be back again on Thursday 14th June if you live close enough to visit!