My 'Charming' Starflower tutorial published!

The latest edition of the wonderful and colourful  'From Polymer to Art' magazine is out, it's the Black and White edition and I have a tutorial in it! I just received my copy, my kids were so excited to see me in the magazine - I was pretty excited too ;) You may remember that I also had an article in the Purple Edition too, about my curing experiments.

Here's a little sneak of what else is in the magazine, there are some fantastic projects I can't wait to try!

My tutorial is to make the flower beads I demonstrated at the London Polymer Clay Guild in January, I blogged about them here. Here is a charm bracelet I made with the 'Charming' starflower beads in black and white. I must credit Zuleykha for the inspiration to make charm bracelets, if you haven't seen her charm bracelets you should go check out her Etsy shop.

Pin It

 
I haven't had much clay time so far this month :( but I am really looking forward to heading off to  Polymer Pamper Play next Friday - 3 days of bliss! I will of course tell you all about it!

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!

Curling petal cane

Here is one of my latest canes (sorry photo isn't the best, was in a rush). I have made it into a special gift for a special friend (I'll show you that next time). It's from a tutorial I bought and reviewed ages ago. I never made any more at the time as I had plenty of new tutorials to try out so it was nice to come back to it. It is a great tutorial, love the result! Thanks Zuleykha!

Thank you Zuleykha

Thank you to Zuleykha for featuring my flower cane on her blog but I couldn't have done it without your tutorial!

My first curling petal cane

In case anyone wanted to know I used Premo Turquoise  for the cane and the darker colour is the same turquoise mixed with a little black (perhaps I am not so bad with colours after all ;)

I still think your curling petal cane is better.

 One of Zuleykha's curling petal canes

Polymer clay cane tutorials put to the test

I have found and used lots of free polymer clay cane tutorials on the internet, thank you to all those clever people out there who share their knowledge.

For a while I have come across tutorials that you have to buy and I have always wondered if it would be worth it. Well one day I decided I would splash out and give them a go. I have been delighted with the canes I have made and I hope I can now take what I have learned from these talented artists into some amazing creations of my own.

The main difference between these tutorials and the ones people share freely is the level of detail. They are complex canes and there are many pages of photographs to make sure you can follow them easily.

I have bought 3 now and love them all.

They are all in PDF format and arrive by email. Here are some of the canes I have made.

Hippy Flower Cane Tutorial from Sigaliot Designs 

The tutorial was from Sigaliot's Designs Etsy  and cost $12. It arrived in my mail box very quickly and I couldn't wait to try it out.  It was well worth the money and I hope she makes some more tutorials soon! This is my personal favourite tutorial.

I made this cane in Kato clay. The detail is beautiful. I kept the centre more simple than Sagit suggested as I only had limited clay colours available and no time to mix. She has really taken time over the tutorial and set it out beautifully.  It was very clear with plenty of photographs. It was easy to follow and produced good results. Sagit details the colours she used on the cane  (she uses Fimo) in the tutorial and gives a recipe for a custom orange she used. She also shows the cane made in a different colour scheme and details the colours she used for that too. Sagit thoughtfully details all the steps in her tutorial including the skinner blend and includes a template with measurements for a 3 colour blend. I am sure if you used her colours you could make a cane identical to the one in the pictures. She also shows some pillow beads made with this cane which was nice to see. No special tools are needed (assuming you have a pasta machine - it is possible without of course but...)

I love her work Sagit uses such bright and cheerful colours and seems to be a real perfectionist. I don't normally even think of  buying other peoples polymer clay things - normally I think oh I'll have a go at making something similar - but I am quite tempted to buy some of her beads, they look amazing and so well finished. I am not sure I will ever have the patience for all that hand sanding etc. Check out her blog

I've said it before but I just want to emphasise what a beautiful tutorial this is to look at. It doesn't effect the result but it is such a pleasure to read it becuase it looks so nice.

Flower with curling petals cane tutorial from Zuleykha

The tutorial was from Zuleykha's Etsy  and cost $10. It arrived in my mail box very quickly and I couldn't wait to try this one  out either (I am not the most patient of people).  It was well worth the money as it's quite a different effect for a flower cane and I look forward to seeing some more tutorials from her, in fact I hope she writes a tutorial for her flower bracelets. This is a great tutorial!

The tutorial is well set out and has plenty of photographs. It is easy to follow and produced good results as you can see. I made this cane in fimo soft clay. She doesn't give details of the colours she used for the cane illustrated but does show the cane produced in 4 different colour schemes which was good for some inspiration. She didn't give a template for her 3 colour blend but there was a clear photograph and my blend worked out well. Zuleykha assumes you know how to do a skinner blend which is probably a fair assumption. She doesn't use any special tools (again assuming you have a pasta machine).

You can see some more of Zuleykha's work at her blog here. Her work is beautiful and I hope to be able to make things like that one day too! Zuleykha has lots of lovely things for sale in her Etsy store. I do particularly love her flower bracelets like this one.

Update - Zuleykha has a tutorial for beads like this on her blog here. Not having done much beading I think I would need some helping putting them together into a bracelet as beautifully as she does.

 Ayelet beads tutorial

The tutorial was from Ayelet beads Etsy  and cost $7. There was a slight technical hitch at my end (mail box full - they are large files) recieving the email but Ayelet was very friendly and helpful.  It was the cheapest tutorial and it was $7 well spent.  When I first came across these Ayelet flowers on Flickr I thought they were amazing and wondered how on Earth she made them. I was delighted to find her tutorial and now I can make my own! It is an amazingly detailed bead and works well as a pendant on it's own so I am wearing this one already. The others are waiting to be turned into a necklace (I am not so keen on the putting it all together bit I realise). I love this tutorial and have had some great comments about this necklace.

This tutorial has plenty of clear photographs. It is detailled and enables you to produce your own amazing ayelet flower beads easily. This was my first attempt and I can't wait to try some different colours. Ayelet doesn't detail the colours she uses and only shows one colour scheme in her tutorial although you can see plenty of her flower beads on her Flickr . She shows a necklace made with her finished beads in her tutorial which is good inspiration. You don't need any specialist tools for this either with the exception of the pasta machine as always.

Ayelet also extremely kindly shares some free tutorials on Flickr that you can find here. She is a talented lady! 

 

I am glad I bought these tutorials they have helped me to make some beautiful canes and I have picked up some tips that have help me to develop as an artist. The price of the tutorials perhaps reflects how long it took these talented ladies to make them. The more expensive ones being set out and decorated better but they all have clear instructions that are easy to follow.

Inspiration from Zuleykha

I have recently been very inspired by the work of Zuleykha who has 2 blogs one in Russian http://zustitch.blogspot.com/2010/02/giveaway.html and one in English http://zuclay.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-birthday-giveaway.html. They both have lots of pictures on. I recently bought her curling petal cane tutorial and am looking forward to trying it. I will post some pictures when I have done it

Update 27/2/2010- here is the cane

Curling Petal Cane made from tutorial available here from Etsy