New Tutorial - Ammolite, Batik Veneers and more

Am happy to announce that my latest tutorial is finally finished. I know some of you have been waiting on this one for some time. Thanks for being so patient!

This one is packed…24 pages and almost 100 photos. I couldn’t decide on an appropriate ‘short’ title since this tutorial is so packed with techniques, tips and more.
If you're not familiar with Ammolite, it is one of the most wonderful gems, full of flash and fire and just about any color you can think of. It is the fossilized shell of the extinct sea creature Ammonite.
I've divided this tutorial into different sections. You will learn to make:
1. Crackle and Batik Pattern Veneers (a part of
the Batik & Shimmer technique)
2. "New Crackle" technique (one method)
3. Faux Ammolite
4. Uniform color or metallic edging for veneers
5. Faux Bone and Raku Pendants
6. Texturing front and back of pendants
7. 3 styles of polymer clay Bails
8. Bezels for embedding tiny stones or chips of
clay
9. Variations of veneers and pendants
10. Tips and much more.
The Tutorial can be found in my Etsy and Zibbet shops.

Busy Bee

And how to keep up with it all. I’m buzzing like a bee, both mentally and physically…back and forth from item to item, things to photograph, chores to be done like laundry, things to be written up and tagged, my turn cooking dinner, appointments, and some days I have that sense I didn’t get much done even though I really have when I look back. It’s been almost 2 weeks since I posted and meant to much sooner. It’s become too easy to use Facebook, but am realizing THAT part is becoming almost too overwhelming. For a while I got added to a whole bunch of different Groups and there are so many for polymer clay now. I mean how much can you handle and keep track of!? I decided to stick with a couple, but needed to go ‘no notification’ just for a while. I’m almost afraid to be left out of the loop!…but just don’t have the time and energy to social network as I’d like to. I know it’s good PR, but something has got to give. I also belong to a Beader’s Cafe since I also do beadwork. And the swaps I’ve participated in. I really enjoyed those and they really help renew that creativity. Just mailed my last item. I hosted a Polymer Clay Swap on the Facebook Group with the same name. Window Ornaments is or was the Theme. I can’t show you yet as my partner Kimberly hasn’t received hers yet, but soon!! August 15th is the deadline and we’ll be doing a blog hop then.
Anyway…this past week I spent a lot of time making these!!

…not enough! I need another batch this coming week, lol. If you feel like making these, I have a series of tutorials . And here are other things I’ve been making to turn into earrings and pendants…Maybe you’re familiar with my Batik and Shimmer (also found on ArtFire). I have two tutorials for this technique. A lot of people I meet ask me how I make them and when I describe it, it seems way over their head, especially for someone never having worked with polymer clay before. But…the occasional person will say “ohhh, is that like Fimo?” YES!! and that makes me feel excited in a good way. People don’t call it Philo or Filo anymore!! you know…that pastry stuff, lol. Used to get that a lot. Not anymore. Yay!

I’ve also made a few other pebbles for jewelry. Maybe I should just sell the beads…


There are many other things non-polymer clay but more resin in nature…


I could show you more things I made, but that would mean taking more photos. Next time! Tomorrow is a reward day. A visit with an old friend I haven’t seen in a few years and then a couple of hours at the Lake!! yay…see you soon.

52 pairs of Earrings a Year

I’m a little behind and had legitimate reasons which I won’t get into, but I’m glad to say I am once more caught up with this challenge. 52 pairs of Earrings a Year… I’m happy to present…
#17 with the Theme “Tangerine Tango” for which I created simple enough triangular pendants with my Batik & Shimmer technique

For week #18 which is an open theme, I created resin monarch butterflies

Week #19 had another theme which was ANYTHING FAUX…so here they are, some of my faux ROMAN COINS.

Week #20 or May 13-19 is the open theme for which I created some traditional beaded earrings with goldstone coins and glass bead fringes.

and I have another new thing…isn’t it interesting?? (I have another that looks exactly the same)

what is it you may ask?
My new hearing aides!!!! YAY!!! Those of you (you know who you are) who helped to make this purchase possible, I thank you. So much technology packed into a box that measures a mere 1 inch. These are now my favourite pairs of earrings! I have 4 programs for these, general, speech in noise, outdoors and music. My favourite setting is speech in noise which doesn’t amplify all the sounds distant and near as it does for the general setting, but only amplifies sound in the immediate area. The receiver has a telecoil which automatically tunes the aides to my analog phone when I place the receiver near my ear. I avoided the phone for far too long. No more excuses! Next time I’m in the city, I’ll have the programs tweaked a bit more, but they are pretty darn good!

Pearls and a new Resin obsession

Pearls and Polymer Clay: The last couple of days I’ve been assembling some of the many “Batik & Shimmer” and “Low Relief” pendants I’ve been creating and amassing into a rather large collection. I’m rather happy with these 3 and 5 pendant necklaces with pearl clusters and chains. The chains are a little longer than how I can fit on the bust and sit more in line with the beading.

Resin and Cabochons:
Besides my continual work with polymer clay, my usual application of surface resin has turned into a bit of a resin obsession. Right now I’m in the mood to create sparkly dichroic-like cabochons. These are actually my first pieces with a new type of resin I wanted to try. They will get better I’m sure, but am really very happy with these.

I am so impressed with this stuff. For one it doesn’t have any noticeable odour when mixing or curing. Second, it is easy to measure with a 2 to 1 ratio (rather than UV method, or the standard 1 to 1 ratios with the smelly types). If you are odour sensitive like I am, you will really appreciate this. Third, and I think this may be helpful with polymer clay creations…the resin stays bendy for a period of time before curing to its full hardness. This allows one to manipulate the resin piece into a curved shape! I haven’t tried baking a cured piece with my clay yet…will report if it’s ok or not…Fourth, the site has plenty of tips, projects, inspiration, even video tutorials and helpful supplies such as doming ‘drip trays’.

This resin and system is the brainchild of Fran Valera of “Little Windows”. I have to admit that I’ve had immediate success with this system, better than any other type. 1 to 1 ratio resins while satisfying when they worked, sometimes they would stay tacky, disappointing when you made a big batch of pendants! or my Epoxy UV resin would suddenly only cure on the surface and then slide off the project (NOT Magic Glos, that UV resin is fine) The other downside with the Epoxy UV resin, you can only cure thin layers at a time and wouldn’t be able to mix dark inclusions into this as light can’t penetrate dark matter to allow curing underneath. With this Little Windows ™ resin you can mix in all kinds of dry things such as embossing powder, glitter, mica powders, metal pulver…
Fran teaches you how to make these beauties with this and other fun videos…
Btw…if you do decide to make a purchase and want to try this for yourself, there is a little referral on the site. You’d make me really happy if you said Tina Holden sent you.

52 pairs of Earrings #5 and #6 and Macro Photography

I promised to talk more about the Lens attachment I got for my P&S (Point and Shoot) Camera and will do so, but first want to show you my latest earrings for the 52 pairs of Earrings a Year Challenge on Flickr. These two will catch me up. Both are made with polymer clay and wire. The flowers and faux glass pieces are polymer clay.
 

close up of ‘glass’. The frosted look makes these look less transparent, but I’m still happy with the translucency. This photo, and the one above were taken with the ‘Little Big shot’ attachment lens.

These earrings were shot with just the regular macro setting on my Sony This was as close as possible and not quite clear or crisp enough. The attachment really makes the subject look clearer which is hard to do with only a 3.3 megapixel camera. My Sony is 12 years old.  I figure I should still be able to get a few more years out of it and fills my need.

Am also preparing to make more heart pendants. They aren’t just for Valentines. Also shot with the lens attachment. The heart was done with my Batik and Shimmer technique.

The Macro Little Big Shot is worth having and comes in different sizes to fit your camera or even Smartphone. Visit the Blog, lots of info on a page with easy to understand You Tube videos. I’m so happy I have this little gizmo.  I think you will be too. The small price of $19.99 even includes shipping and a great carry case with clip.

More beading embellishment…

Before finishing the previous polymer clay cabochon necklace, I had started this one and finally completed it. It’s a bit more labour intensive to create and figuring out how to assemble and attach the pieces together. I used Turquoise as the complimentary stone. The clasp cabochons were made from the same polymer clay sheet as the focal pendant. Right now I’m working on a matching bracelet and earrings…

Orange Love Affair

I’ve been so busy, but thought I should make time for a small update.
I’ve never been much of an orange fan, orange the colour that is…until it just struck me! It’s such a happy and sunny colour. Our summer has been extremely lacking in sunshine and we haven’t had a day over 19 degrees. All of August so far has been cast over and cool and this is perhaps why I’m suddenly drawn to orange, along with yellow and red (I miss those summer sunsets!)
Here are a few of my latest creations…all orange…orange u glad? (sorry, couldn’t help that one)



Ok…I snuck a green flower in there, but was too lazy to crop.

Springing into Polymer Clay Colour

Here are a few things I've been up to...Polymer Clay Flowers, Hearts, Beach Pebbles and my Batik and Shimmer Jewellery. I'm really enjoying some of the new Premo colours, particularly the Pearls, like Bright Green, Peacock and Violet, although Wasabi is an interesting colour as well.

Polymer Clay and repurposing for some old items

 Fall is here I have some Polymer Clay earrings to divide up to various shops and here is one pair. At first I wasn't too keen on the colours, but they kind of grew on me. I wish I had pierced ears. Can you imagine an earring lover not having pierced ears?

I still don't fancy clip ons as they hurt. And why don't I find the reassurance of others that piercing is painless. Does anyone remember when they had their ears pierced? I had mine done at age 2 when I didn't have a say and perhaps this caused my sensitivity to even 10 karat Gold. My right earlobe closed up as if it refused to have anything stuck through it. My left likes coated copper, but unless it becomes fashionable to wear one earring again.... I have a simple Hack coming up to solve this dilemma.

Hack seems to be a new word for the dictionary these days. The word usually conjures up having something wicked, having to do with the nasty reconfiguration of a computer program, but in this case as per Urban dictionary:

"a clever solution to a tricky problem or to hack is to mod or change something in an extraordinary way." Simply put...re-purposing.

What did I hack... my jacket! Sounds strange, doesn't it.
It started when I looked at laptop sleeves on the net, most averaging at least $30. The one I fancied was $45 for my 15 inch Acer, never mind the shipping cost, another $10 bucks. It had a nice handle, but I wanted a clip on strap. Frugal as I am this had me thinking. Hindsight is, I should have taken photos of the process.

So, the original purpose was a jacket I had bought for $3, but it ended up sitting in my closet for more than a year...unused and now it's a jacket for my laptop which gets used all the time. The jacket was always a bit stiff and not as comfortable as it looked. Plus I didn't like the cuffs. The outer fleece is bonded to another layer of fleece, essentially reversible. Red on the outside, navy on the inside. I took one of the jacket pockets, angled it to be horizontal and stitched it on the outside. I can fit my USB stick in it, my ear buds, a CD and my battery charger/adapter. The flap is soft and tucks neatly inside the case. The strap is from another item I wear on my belt. I can detach it and slip the laptop into my backpack. I'm quite happy with my hack.