Imitated Nature

For those that don’t know I love to recreate things found on the beach with polymer clay. That’s also where my choice of name ‘Beadcomber’ came from, beachcombing.
I know a couple of my pieces are missing from this photo, namely a sea star or starfish and a whole sea urchin, but I wanted to see how a group shot of my handmade bits would look like. Sea urchin piece, sea glass, driftwood, pebbles, shells and my most recent addition, sand dollar.
The Sea urchin, driftwood and shells are made in a similar way with the help of chalk, the sea glass is made from a liquid form of polymer clay and the sand dollar is caned or made with a method called milifiori which is based on a technique that was originally used in glassworking for making complex designs.

So what is a cane? It’s a log or cylinder of clay that has a design running through it, so each slice of the cane - the cross-section - contains the design. I made a cane that measured approximately 2 inches in diameter and the larger the design, the easier the cane is to handle. It can then be reduced in size by pressing, stretching and rolling it so the cane becomes longer and thinner and the design becomes smaller along with it. Then when cutting slices from the cane, the design will look the same front and back.

I have tutorials on all, except for this and the driftwood. They can be found Here. Just look for the Download Category with Tutorials. If you want some sand dollars or other things, I have them too!

Sea or Beach Glass from Polymer Clay

Many of you have asked me last year when I’d be writing this tutorial on faux sea glass. You waited patiently and things tend to take me forever from concept to doing and I’m happy to say that I should have this ready within the next day or two!! I’ll try and do it sooner, lol.  I thought I’d announce it now since I’m not just thinking about it, but actually doing it.

Update: it's on my Etsy and ArtFire now...


You may remember the earrings I had made with this technique and the post of some of my experiments back in February of last year and here as well. The teardrops on the earrings are faux glass as well. Polymer Clay Daily had posted about my experiments also, which is why I received quite a few emails afterward asking, but I can’t find the post there now. Anyway, this is a shard like I will show to do in various colors.



The tutorial will focus on making faux beach glass shards that one can use in jewelry such as my earrings. I’ll be posting here to update when it’s ready…stay tuned

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.

Faux Glass Et cetera

So many things are going on my polymer clay studio right now. It’s one of those times where I wish there were two or three of me. As you know I love to experiment and am always challenging myself. I’m analytical and a problem solver, and when a mystery pops up, I’m confronted with the compulsive need to find a solution. ‘Is it possible?’ I keep asking myself. This quirk maybe to a fault because lately, every alternate day when it’s my turn to cook for the family, the meals are quick to prepare Stir fry, casserole, pasta… meal planning is out the window as the mad scientist would rather spend all day dabbling with a little of this and a little of that. Thankfully my cooking still gets compliments and my daughter helps with dishes.
Ok…some new stuff…
Faux Glass…It’s still in the experimental stages, but this may be an upcoming tutorial. Wondering how much interest this would generate? Here are a few pieces. The very light blue set…one is glass the rest are faux. In case you are wondering, the one on the left is the real piece. I think I managed to get the colour realistic enough. Funny thing is when photographing light coloured or see-through items, my camera picks up the bluish tone rather than the white background. My white balance isn’t quite right and my older Sony only allows for Indoor, Outdoor or Auto, but the colour of the glass is this…

To show the difference in translucency, I used a Ring to lean them against. The first piece is real glass, the rest are faux.

I made a few of the tear drop beads in these colours

I felt I should get a few more pieces of jewelry done or at least some components, so made this from the Evergreen sheet I had left.


Then I got to work making a burnt orange crackle sheet. I made the Ring from above, some earrings and really like how the crackle reflects. Straight on there is no glimmer, but held at angles there is.

Some of these close up photos were taken with an attachment that I got for my camera. I have an older Sony style camera that has Macro ability, but not nearly enough close up capability as I would like. I’ll blog about this in my next blog, it’s something that can fit virtually any camera and is super easy on your wallet. Stay tuned…
Until then, drop me a comment…