How to wrap a wire loop

Making jewelry and pendants from your polymer clay will often require a little wire work, so here is a mini tutorial on how to make a secure wire loop.

Step 1:  Use the tip of round-nose pliers to grasp the wire right above the bead. Form a 90° bend in the wire.

 Step 2: Grasp the wire at the bend with your round-nose pliers and pull the tail wire over the top of the pliers' jaws.Here the top jaw of the pliers is in the loop.

 Step 3: Change the position of the pliers so the bottom jaw is in the loop.

Step 4: Swing and bend the tail wire around the loop.

Step 5 : Keep the tail wire horizontal as you coil it tightly down the neck wire.

Step 6: Crasp the loop with flat nose pliers and tuck the end wire in as much as possible.

Step 7: And trim with flush or side cutters.

 Done...except now I need another one for some earrings!

Not just polymer clay...

Facebook would ask "What's on your mind" and my answer is "not just polymer clay". I work in a few different media and more often than not will combine those with polymer clay, but this past week I decided to use some of my many strands of semiprecious stones. For the past year I've made these with recycled glass beads, but my colour stash on those has diminished greatly.
Here are a few things I've been working on...My Picasso Pendants...this one here measures more than 5 inches tall (Sold)
Knit Copper with Amethyst and Hematite...



and of course much more...I'll take more photos when it's lighter out. Our summer here has been unusually cool and dark.

Batik Amethyst Bracelet and Earrings

I promised to retake a photo of my complete Polymer Clay Batik necklace yesterday and completed the bracelet and some of the earrings. The earrings are round studs and clip style, but have still to finish the rectangular earrings. The various sets I'm creating are mix and match. Still to also finish up are the amethyst crochet bracelet, earrings and a simpler rectangle pendant on black cord. Basically the sets will suit tastes from casual to more elegant.

Ancient? Vintage? Modern?

Really had fun with rings today. Creating these big Polymer Clay rings made me think of old as well as modern. While something can't be called Ancient unless its hundreds of years old, and Vintage needs to be at least 30 years old, then these rings have at least an ancient and vintage flair about them.

I made some polymer clay resin cabochons, used some milifiori and some glass...

I have some of the commercial glue on re-sizable rings, but didn't like their look, so made re-sizable shanks with wire inserts. I know that in the photo it looks like just a ring being held in place with a clay strip, but the shanks actually have prongs that are embedded solidly within the clay. The rings are then baked and after cooling I apply further embellishment on the back, so the wire inserts aren't visible. One size fits all. 

What do you think?

Pebbles and almost every stone

I've made a few Pebls again. Should you wonder what Pebls are, they are Polymerclay evolved beach-like stones. I came up with the name for a swap I hosted in 2007 for Clayamies. You can have a look at the pebble bracelets here.

What have I been up to since last posting (besides family visiting, beading, claying...). I made a few Pebls for earrings and necklaces. Incorporated a few in my Picasso pendants, black wire frames that I hammer into shapes and then wire up with gemstones. These have become quite popular sellers for me at various galleries and shops. One customer couldn't resist and had to purchase two! When I created custom earrings for her and went to meet at a local gallery, she couldn't decide and took a few pairs as well. She insisted I get them into the bigger cities and she's going to show off hers. lol...I love customers that are enthusiastic about my creations.

Here are 3 styles of pebls, gray rocks with 'quartz' veins, red 'jasper' and "garnet schist'

Add a black "Basalt"...

Almost every Gem I could muster, Lemon quartz, topaz, amethyst, rainbow flourite, turquoise....I think I'll call this pendant...

"Almost every stone"

I finally started a video for the Pebls, but will continue with it this coming week.
I've had a few requests on how I create my banded rocks with the quartz inclusion. Videos aren't easy to shoot, especially when I'm my own artist, director and camera person. You may catch me with my finger on the 'remote', lol. I can see that editing is already a daunting task since I'm so 'picky'! I'll give it a shot, pardon the pun, but may also turn the tutorial into a photographic one, like I'm used to doing. The plus with video is that I can show some of the trickier aspects without producing a flip photo-style book. I'll be aiming for 5 or 6 styles of Pebls.

Steam punk Turtles, Urchins and Flowers

Spent this later part of the week with some Polymer Clay play. Created some Turtle pendants and Flowers. Some of the Turtles are Steam punk....or Borg, whichever term one prefers. Some of the turtles have glass backs. The urchin has a wire wrapped cage.


For the flowers I used Lisa Pavelka's technique, the foil tear away method. One of the pendants has a blue agate, the other dichroic glass. I glued those in and then used Magic Glos. Worked beautifully on a sunny day, but had to do a few coats.

Polymer clay kelp box

More wire curls and polymer clay.
This box was a bit of a challenge and took 2 days. It's made entirely from clay which means it's not only heavy, but used a lot of clay and required multiple firing. The entire box is 9" tall including the wire curls and legs, but the box without wire measures 5.5 long x 4.5"wide and 3 1/2 inches tall which may not sound like much, unless one takes the 1/4 inch thickness into account. The biggest challenge was the firing and impossible with the height even without the urchin and wire curls. Moved the rack to lowest position and surrounded the box with an aluminum foil tent after my last crisped item. My convection oven is teeny and really 'stunts' my creativity in wanting to create larger items. So, I baked the urchin and wire alone and super-glued it in the end. The finish of the inside bottom is much the same as the textured outside, with the internal sides painted with an acrylic 'moss-like' painting.
I'm beginning to like the wire curls....

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.