Orinendo Shawl Pins

A few have asked me when I would be doing a Shawl Pin tutorial. What better way to get me to do it when the weatherman is correct in predicting nothing but rain for the week which means I am spending more time indoors again.

Perhaps you are wondering (or maybe not, lol) about the strange name I gave them.
“Orinendo”.  Maybe it’s their shape of the clasp or maybe the Geisha-like pins, but the techniques themselves are actually influenced by Asian Artisan methods, Origami and Mokume Gane. Many polymer clayers are familiar with Mokume-Gane which means ‘wood grained – metal’. Some prefer to call the technique Mokume Nendo when applied to polymer clay, as Nendo means clay. Ori-gami means ‘Folding-paper’. So how does this relate to the pins and tutorial? Well, the pins are made with using my color-gradient blend which I named ‘Origami Blend’ and with the extra steps added it resembles Mokume Nendo, so it seemed natural to combine the names.
Perhaps more of interest will be the revelation how to painlessly make your clay resemble Mokume Gane or Mokume Nendo without the normally required skill of using a thin tissue blade to reveal the various layers of colour. I'll show you how apply coppery patterns and coloured crackle details. The hexagon pin is the one I’m doing in the tutorial, but you can create any shape you like.

Your finished project will be an elegant compliment to any shawl or sweater, especially with the colder season heading upon us…
Look for this collage banner on my ArtFire.