Playful Polymer Clay Lentil Beads

Playful Polymer Clay Day! well, in the late afternoon anyway. Made some lentil beads yesterday and appliquéd and painted them on a base of translucent, green and pearl. Also made another Cuff and some bottles that I need to photograph.I guess my title should have included...'toxic perfume awareness'.

The morning was filled with trying to diminish a quick growing migraine and dizziness when I encountered a visitor at our local Co op wearing, what seemed like, a bottle of perfume. I couldn't escape the smell as this woman left that scent in every isle. I tried to rush through the isles as mental fog quickly set in. People who love to wear perfumes still don't realize (or care!) that many people literally get sick from these chemically laden mixtures, not because of 'dislike of the smell' but because of a physical reaction to it. Imagine people being allergic to bee stings or certain foods like nuts! Well, some of us are allergic to perfumes (and laundry detergent, Swiffer, and god forbid "a breath of fresh air with Febreeze"...) Of course the wearer becomes more and more desensitized to it and feels they have to wear more to be able to smell it themselves! Ever see those signs in Doctors offices and Hospitals "No scent makes good sense!" It's true. Well, I won't be able work much over the next few days. My muscles now hurt like I have the flu. I knew I should have gone shopping right at store opening time because I've been through this before! Darn! Anyway, wanted to make people that read my blog aware that perfume/colognes can cause others to become very ill.
Am glad that polymer clay isn't making me feel like this, plus I'm wearing gloves for most of the work now.

Large Polymer Clay Cuffs and Boxes - Fall Colours

Large cuffs are in fashion and models are wearing stacks of them. This 2 1/4 inch wide polymer clay cuff has a crackled surface with strips of varying colours, ranging from magenta, burgundy and gold to a green turquoise. Abalone chips are arranged on the surface in polymer clay bezels. The inside of the cuff is doubled aluminum flashing with a pre-baked polymer clay base for added strength. My camera isn't wanting to cooperate on macro too well these days, or so I thought...it wasn't on macro because someone else in the family had used the camera without my knowing. This meant a lot of pictures needed retaking.




Also am working on some covered tins and boxes. This starfish box has the same crackle concept as the bracelet and is flocked on the inside. Messy stuff to use, but gives the box a more finished appearance I think.

Falling Polymer Clay Leaves 2008

Back in September 2007 I had created a Fallen Leaves Necklace and thought of keeping up the tradition by doing one every year. Last year's was also posted on Polymer Clay Daily which was a happy surprise. This years colours are slightly darker and the leaves are crackle veneered on one side and leaf veined golden on the other. The base palette was a black, gold and green blend. The strand is wire woven copper.

Rubber stamp for Polymer Clay

I got to play very little with polymer clay today because of other distractions, but managed to make a rubber stamp and test it. It felt a little intimidating at first because those bright yellow gel packets are a bit messy after doing the exposure....sorry no pics of that because even with gloves on things got a bit sticky and was touching as little around me as possible. Work was done at the sink. But after all was cleaned up and made the final exposure I ended up with an almost clear stamp or stamps because I made two 'hands' on one packet and then cut them out individually.

The nice thing about the kit is that you're provided with an acrylic mount that can be used for all the stamps you created because they stick to the acrylic without glue or tape. You can arrange the two stamps I made any which way, I could have mounted them with fingers pointing at each other, lol. If you make several small stamps you could mount them simultaneously to make a pattern in itself.When done stamping, the stamp can be cleaned, peeled off the acrylic and stored in a ziplock. They should be stored out of sunlight and not be used with solvent type inks. The stamps can be made with high or low relief, depending on exposure time...mine turned out nice and deep which one would want for polymer clay.


Here is the stamped image on ecru mix premo polymer clay with embossing powder inclusion. I find it troublesome that all of my pastamachines have the same 'ripple effect' when running clay through at the larger settings, so I use an acrylic handroller to smooth them. I don't know if anyone else has this dilemna with their machines? The ink is a pigment ink and has to be heated to set.

Finished polymer clay discs....maybe for some earrings....

Excited to add something to my claying....

Just received the JustRite Homestamping Kit. Can tell you how excited I am to try and make my own stamps and textures for use with Polymer Clay. It's a bit pricey at $149.95, but Stampingcottage has it on sale for $89.99, $10 less than the JustRite Home website.


I purchased extra packets as I plan on making a few designs and apparently you can make your own embossing dies with this also.
The kit contains all the necessary tools and all you need to provide is the creativity, hot water, detergent and a 60W light bulb.
Contents: imagepac artwork modifying DVD, Instruction and demonstration files, 2 x A6 imagepac sachets, 4 x A7 imagepac sachets, 4 x A8 imagepac sachets, 4 x A4 sheets imageblack inkjet film, Acrylic magnetic clamp, Electronic timer, Tray for hardening stamp, Brush, Knife, Bottle of stamp hardening salts, Pair of gloves, Ink pad, Acrylic mount, A6 piece of test artwork.
Here is a basic video how they are made. Part One and Part Two. The kit actually provides more tools *such as the tray, detack salt and brush) than the cardboard kit she is using here. But the idea is the same. JustRite has an excellent video also and you can view it here.

Polymer Clay Tranquility

These are tranquil times for me. I've been inspired to work in softer colours with Polymer Clay, instead of the dark, bold colours of black, silver and gold that I've been prone to stick to. I guess it helps to finally have gorgeous sunny weather! Most of July and August have been dreary and wet or foggy, so the blue sky reflecting on the ocean has helped me create some shades of blue and green reminiscent of the stone Amazonite.

Tutorial - Low Relief Stone Rubbings on Polymer Clay

The tutorial for making 'Low Relief Stone Rubbings on Polymer Clay' is now available on Etsy. A few people have emailed me asking how I achieve this look, so I worked on this over the last couple of days to be able to share it with you as soon as possible. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I have.

My tutorial is based on grave stone rubbings, but not morbid as such and a lot of fun. You'll discover various ways and it will open up a lot of possibilities with using this technique. For making my innovative clip art PhotoEz stencils visit my earlier posting.

*With list of materials and tools, detailed instructions and 18 photos, you will be creating your own "Low relief stone rubbings" after following the 14 step outline I have written for this pdf file. Here is a little teaser clip.

PhotoEZ Pendants and Pins

Polymer Clay Pendants, Pins and Earrings:


After developing your PhotoEz into patterns you like, you can use them the traditional way by using fine acrylic paint and using a squeegee to silkscreen the paint onto your clay sheet. I've discovered I can use PhotoEZ in a completely different manner. I'm sorry I was way too busy to write up the tutorial because I had way too much fun making these!

Front of pendantBack of pendant

Some Imitative Leather Coasters and more Storage

Gee, were you lucky to see my 'tidier' version of my studio yesterday. I put away my beading to get my clay back out for Fall. Fall has come early! lol Decided to make some imitative Leather and turn them into Coasters. Not sure yet, how these will stand up to use, but hubby is gladly going to 'test' them since he is the coaster expert in our house, lol. He's picky about Coasters because he dislikes any that stick to the glass and drinks tend to form a lot of moisture on the outside which either makes coasters stick to the glass when picked up or the glass slides around on top of the coaster. Well, the surface of them is 'etched' with texture, so hopefully this will prevent the clinging or the sliding. I'll let you know ;)
About storage. Here are a few more of my tins, including one I show open here. Its a nice big one (16 1/2" x 12" x 7") that holds my chalks, acrylic tubes and pinata inks. I've collected these Nurnberger Lebkuchen tins for the last 15 years. My dad used to send them, but shipping from Germany for one of these, I might as well buy 2 of them here. They are filled with the famous Nuremberger Gingerbread Cookies that were first created back in the 15th century. We now order one for Christmas from Coombs Country Market. Arthur Urie (general manager) will order a few this year. One of them has our name on it ;) They used to retail for about $150 plus tax and don't know what they will be this year, but you can email arthur@oldcountrymarket.com and ask. For me they have an artful but useful collection.