Coming Soon....Polymer Clay bracelet sizer tutorial

I did a workshop with these at the recent Horizons Polymer Clay Retreat in Vancouver. It was a fast 'Bam Bam' workshop quite late in the day, so hopefully my students walked away with some interesting info! I think these will be Bam Bam's because they are quick to make too!


First I showed the PhotoEZ stencil process, how to develop and screen them on polymer clay. Then I explained how to make the bracelet size 'specific'. I heard some oooh's and aaah's when that was revealed with my little 'Bam Bam Gizmo', lol. Perhaps you too have struggled with sizing, that when your wrist measures 7" and you use large beads, that your bracelet actually has to be much larger than the 7", or it won't fit....or you made some and they ended up being to small. I invented a sizer that is multi functional unlike the cone shaped sizer on the market. I've been using it ever since, even for beadwork. I'll be writing instructions sometime this coming next week. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime....would you be interested in a tutorial with sizer/kit?...?

Polymer Clay Baking...Do you bake indoors or out?

It has been very interesting lately to watch a lot of people redo or remodel their polymer clay studios.
What I have noticed is that a lot of polymer clay artists have their ovens right in the studio where they work and am wondering if they have ever given it much thought.

Some clayers may enjoy that smell when baking those projects, and I can't believe those that say they think it smells 'good', ugh!....but if you smell it, my friend, you are ingesting it. Some clayers may say "oh shut up already, I know all about it!"

For years now I've been keeping my oven where it belongs....outside. My polymer chemist husband is the one that made me do it, lol. He said: "It may be alright to open a window while you are baking, but that's no different than smoking a cigarette indoors and trying to blow the smoke outside." Yeah, true (except I quit smoking, lol). By now we all have heard that second hand smoke is bad, right? So, just wondering...is inhaling polymer clay fumes on a daily, or even weekly basis, any better...? Did you know that 3rd hand smoke is just as toxic as 2nd hand smoke? Smoke that is on clothing, drapes, furniture.....dumda dum, you touch it, you ingest it. Yep, those polymer clay fumes are covering all your furniture and drapes etc. if you bake indoors....I didn't even think about that, did you? I guess we could say ALL our indoor stuff is now polymer clay 'dedicated'!

So... a question....do you bake indoors or outdoors and why or why not?

Bangles Explosion!

...and a few other Polymer Clay bracelets made with recycled PVC as the base and handmade glass tiles and a stretchy cuff with green blue mica shift.



Realized I hadn't posted in a few days, as I'm busy preparing a whole bunch of things, but my polymer clay just can't wait any longer! Horizons 2009, the Vancouver Polymer Clay Retreat is coming up fast and I'll be doing a workshop with these bangle bracelets. Was going to call them Bang Bangles, as they bang together when one wears two or there, lol, but sounds kind of silly doesn't it...I dunno....mmm.

Polymer Clay Bracelets and Heart Pendants

More Polymer Clay cuff bracelets, heart pendants and matching earrings. I almost didn't get them done because I use my oven outside the house. Promptly, after pulling them out of the oven did I drop them on the boardwalk and they fell in between the crevasses of the boards. After some coat hanger fishing, I got them all back, phew! Now they are assembled and here are some of them...how do you like the color?

Polymer clay stenciled bracelet

Working on more polymer clay hearts for Valentines Day, but also on some bracelet designs. This large cuff is so comfortable. I made a mokume gane design for one side and the other has a stenciled design. It is reversible and slightly oval as no wrist is round. I blended some pearlescent with green and turquoise polymer clay and once again used photoEZ as part of the design. What do you think? Would you wear something like this?
Also made some more hearts and put them in etsy (see my sidebar).

Workshops, lessons and PhotoEZ

Am working on putting together some kits for my upcoming workshop at Horizons 2009 next month. Besides providing materials such as beads, templates, artwork and a little surprise 'gizmo' that I created, am getting quite excited about teaching because I just got word from EZScreenPrint that they will help sponsor me with some much needed supplies!

Students will have to wait and see, but I am thankful to EZScreenPrint for their generosity! And if "you" want to benefit from their generosity, check out their website because they have some awesome sales happening right NOW!

For those that aren't familiar with the material, it is an ideal screen printing material. It can be used on many types of materials, such as ceramics, fabric, paper, and polymer clay. I know when most of us think about screen printing, we imagine these hard to use, messy and expensive tools, but not so with PhotoEZ. That is where the EZ part comes in....ease or easy!

Check out the videos that Christopher Avalos posted on YouTube. The first tutorial shows you how to create an image on your computer, the second one how to create the screen, and the third, how to print with the screen. I can tell you that it only takes me about 40 minutes from printing artwork to having a finished screen ready for my polymer clay.
Here is my own tutorial (free) on how to achieve templates for screens....made on your computer from 'dingbat fonts'.

I must explore this material for scrapbooking next.

One World One Heart Give Away...

I am getting involved in the one world one heart give away. If you are an active blogger and leave a comment on this post with your email address I will choose a winner on February 12th Pacific Coast time....that is I will draw on midnight February 11th....;)

Artists from all over the world are participating. If you click on the image above you can see the list of bloggers that are giving away a piece of art to participate.

~*ONLY ACTIVE BLOGGERS ARE WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE TO WIN MY OFFERINGS*~
You need to be a blogger yourself, in order to qualify.
Please just leave 1 comment to qualify on ~*THIS POST ONLY*~
(You can comment on other posts all you wish!)

If you also would like to participate just click the photo and find out all about it!

This is what I will be giving away...The Love Bug Heart Pendant.....

Anyone else fascinated with Mars?

I'm throwing in a post that has absolutely nothing to do with polymer clay, but not every day involves working on our favourite medium. I for one am fascinated with Mars, no matter how boring some of those pictures are.
Here are some interesting pictures! Those cameras from those little landers are still sending pictures back to Earth which in itself is amazing, considering no one counted on those rovers surviving this long.
Now...what would create those strange 'small craters...? And the long line, kind of looks like evidence of a riverbed...

The white patches on the top right corner...is that evidence of ice? Dry ice? And some kind of erosion below?

More of the dots, but these aren't craters, but raised and in kind of random pattern. What could produce such a thing?!

And now the weirdest thing of all. First we get the "Face of Mars". And now we find GIANT foot prints? This looks like a foot print doesn't it?!!

These pictures were taken from an altitude of....about a meter. well, ha ha ha....it was our local beach. lol. sorry, couldn't wait till April 1st.

Polymer Clay and name that heart!

If the heart is the symbol for love, I have a funny way of translating it. I love to find the humour in things, so I'm giving these polymer clay pendants some funny names. How about a pierced heart, chained to love, love knot, love bug and the dirty heart. Well, the dirty heart probably wasn't what you expected, lol. I had stamped and colored some clay, decided I wasn't happy with it, but when I mushed up the polymer clay mess...decided I like it after all. Now, I need a 'key to your heart'. Yes, I have to fill that empty spot beside the puffy heart.

Heart concept or hard concept

Whichever way one calls it, my friend Vanessa and I brainstormed about what kind of Polymer clay heart pendants I should create and had some funny ideas. Well, you saw my "Eye love you" hearts and am presently staring at my colors of polymer clay blocks right now, then at my sketches for ideas. Wordplay definitely is fun and hopefully those ideas will translate into something real tomorrow....gotta get going so I'll have some photos to show for, right?
Mmmm...I did make a few hearts today, but not pleased how they turned out...they looks so...well, dirty. I don't know if you wanna see my 'dirty hearts'...or do you?