Toy of the Week #3 and 52 Earrings a Year #16

I’ve just received some of the Baroque Gilders’ Pastes. After trying the Viva Decor Inka Gold which are water based, I wanted to compare them. Gilders paste requires turpentine or paint thinner as a means to soften, however you can use your finger, a cloth or a bristle brush to paint with. Hands, fingers and work surface are easily cleaned up with baby wipes.
When I tried to open one of the jars, I found I initially needed the aid of a tool. I use a small screwdriver to pry the lid off for the first time. After this, if you’re careful not to snap the lid down all the way, then it won’t be so difficult to open thereafter. Just like the Viva Decor, some of the paints are soft and smooth and other cakes look a bit cracked and dry. That is the nature of the beast, but they are easily reconstituted with a bit of thinner.

This is the first time I have used these here, for this demonstration. I rolled some copper clay mixed with a bit of ecru and textured with my Steampunk Cogs and Gears stencil. I also textured a dark silver sheet so the pendants created will have texture on both sides and will be reversible.

I choose some round cutters for my pendants. I think I won’t need to demonstrate here how to use them as this isn’t really a tutorial, just a quick demo. If you are one who has purchased one of my tutorials, I tend to show all the steps for a more visual tutorial, but I won’t do this here. The next thing I’m preparing is a design from a mold. I chose my Flower cabochon mold. I wet these molds with a little bit of water as a release agent. Condition and roll a bit of clay, push into mold, texture the back if you like. The nice thing using a texture is that it also lifts the molded piece out of the mold instead of having to pry it from the mold and risk deforming it. You can use sandpaper, fabric, sand paper…

While one can measure more accurate amounts for a cabochon, in this case I use an oval cutter. I rather like the Makins Cutters as they are very reasonably priced and readily available through Michaels, online polymer clay suppliers or kitchen or baking supply shops. The oval cutter creates a clean edge.

Then I bake my pieces. For the green beads I used the Hawaiian Hibiscus stencil, the Patina and Iris Blue Gilders paste on a medium shade of green clay as a base. Then I added just a hint of Inca Gold. I didn’t use a cloth to apply, just my finger. For the piece in the second photo I used a stamp and applied the same paints with my finger.

For the copper base clay cabochon I first used a bristle brush and applied Patina, and then rubbed off the Patina on the surface, so it was just left in the crevices. I highlighted the high points with a bit of copper gilders paste. For the second cabochon I only used black with a brush and wiped off the paint from the raised parts. Apparently these are very durable without any fixative, but to be on the safe side you could use a spray on varnish or brush on varnish such as Sculpey Glaze or Preserve your Memories II Spray, something like that.

Here are some other things I made and the finished earrings and cabochons…The Earrings are my #16 on the 52 pairs of Earrings a Year challenge. I need to hurry up with my tangerine tango #17 and am a week behind…

Not bad for my first try. Not sure if I like the shoe polish odor, lol

Dusty Beads and Micro Storage

We store all of our beads in open trays, bead shop style. This makes them more accessible and it’s easier to see them which makes it convenient when mixing and matching. Today I spent some time cleaning them as they looked dusty and matte. How did I do that without removing the beads from each compartment? I created a filter and nozzle for the vacuum cleaner with a thick cardboard tube, tulle mesh and duct tape. Doesn’t look very attractive but it really does the job.
I just used a little bit of tape and attached this to the flexible wand of the vacuum cleaner. The mesh prevents the beads from being sucked in. They stick to the tulle and I just remove them by the handful to put back in the tray. Most of the dust will also be too thick to go through the tulle, but I pick it off and drop on the floor to be vacuum cleaned when I’m done.
I have 36 trays and it took some time, but now these beads are shiny again and ready to be turned into some creations. We have Gemstones, glass and metal. I need to sell some of the glass beads as I don’t use them much anymore.

Here are some of our Gemstones on the wall as well as in the trays and on the dining room table is the latest purchase of turquoise, ocean jasper, abalone, pearls and a few others.

 We store a lot of surplus beads in Merrill shoe boxes which are nice and sturdy. The tote bins hold packaging supplies, cords, and show displays. The drawers hold findings and seed beads. And were is my polymer clay? Out here in my Micro Studio were I have more of these drawers full of stuff. A couple of my work tables. I need a new chair. Notice the oven outside the window?

Bead Soup Swap

This is my first participation in a Bead Soup Swap that Lori Anderson put together. There is no blog hop or reveal for this swap, just a simple trade. I was partnered with another Canadian, Alicia Marinache of “All the Pretty Things” from Burlington, Ontario. You can visit her link to see what I sent her which were some of my handmade focals and beads, yes, made from polymer clay.
For the swap we were told to include a unique clasp, that is anything other than a lobster clasp. After a quick discussion of our likes or dislikes we then put together a mix of beads, either random or coordinated and challenge our partners to create something with them. We don’t have to use all the beads in the mix, but are encouraged to use as many as we can and we may also add our own beads and components to the soup.
This is what Alicia sent me…a ceramic heart, czech glass, quartz crystal, freshwater pearls, coral and an agate focal and a handmade clasp. There are also some red, white and blue lampwork beads. I'm always challenged when it comes to using glass beads, so will have to think those out.

I especially like the teardrop agate. This is what I came up with so far. I had a hard time matching the blue of the agate, but it had some turquoise shades along the white stripe, so I used that which matches really nicely with some of my fossil agate that I have in stock. I wire wrapped the ceramic heart and used the coral in clusters, along with some of my branch coral and a metal pendant for a dangle.

Which one to wear first??? I do like them both...
Tomorrow more about Polymer Clay…

Crackle Focals and 52 Earrings a Year #15

The polymer clay focals I made a few days ago, I assembled them into this necklace and earring set. I’m entering the earrings as my #15 which was an Easter Theme. While mine aren’t bunnies or eggs nor anything remotely religious, I feel the floral aspect and colours could be interpreted as Easter.

I’ve also made a few other pendants with my New Crackle. As you may have heard, this crackle does not leave any paint on your clay, but only the visible cracks. Here is a nice close-up…


I’ll be assembling these into a similar necklace and earring set as the one above.

Toy of the Week 2: Seamless Cutters and Viva Decor part 2

Sorry for the long title…not sure how I can shorten that, lol.
Hopefully no one is too mad at me for having posted my dislikes about the new (to me) cutters. I edited in my last post and added on the bottom of the post.
Part 2. I like the Viva Decor Inka Gold very much. I hydrated some of the drier paints, but also find that when I moisten my finger a little bit, it immediately puts paint on my finger when gliding it over the paint. They remind me a lot of creamy water colours or eyeshadows. This sheet below, I had mixed up a shade of green clay, ran it through the pasta machine, then ran it through again with a texture (one of Helen Breil’s beautiful patterns) and coloured it with my finger. Although you can layer the paints (and they layer beautifully), after each colour I dip my finger into some water and wipe it clean with a rag. Paint comes off really easily, although I now have some paint under my fingernails. I need to apply new nail polish anyway, ha. Anyway, the coverage of these paints is just fabulous.

I find that you can do as many layers as you want and with each layer, the application gets thicker and bolder. You can see this from left to right. I had just a hint of texture on this clay and on the left you can see it as sort of a painted wash in the crevices. This paint can actually be watered down as well and applied as a wash instead of a wax.

When dry, you can achieve a nice crackle with this also. Hey, you know how much I like to crackle, right? lol. I think this will crackle even better if I put on another coat after it is dry and then crackle…I’ll try this next…but this is with one coat and pretty good.

After I applied paint on this piece I stamped it (Tonja Lenderman Clear stamp)

Ok…enough play for now…I think I’ll create something with these sheets. So I decide to try the sanded seamless cutters. I use the teardrop shapes. I’ve already begun assembling some of them. I’ll be making a drop necklace and some earring with those.

And a close up of the edge for the teardrop. Much better, but I still had to smooth the clay a little bit with my finger. I rather like the shape now. I used a lime and teal Viva Decor Inka Gold on these. I normally work in much darker colours, but thought I should try a little ‘lighter’ for Spring. Plus green goes so nicely with the popular Orange for this season.

I’ve embellished this cabochon  and the flowers on the teardrop with a little Swarovski Crystal. I’ve enjoyed using crystals ever since I started claying way back in the late 80’s. You see those little balls of clay on my piece above? I roll a ball, insert a blunt knitting needle to make a hole. This becomes the bezel for my rhinestone. I insert the stone and use a cartridge-less pen to set the crystal into the bezel. The clay pushes a little bit over the edges of the stone, so I may not need glue. I must be certain that the clay is around all of the edge of the crystal though because otherwise I’ll need to use some glue. Don’t use cyanoacrylate (Zap-a-gap, Krazy Glue etc.) on crystal or glass as it will frost them. It is better to use an epoxy.

After I’ve assembled these…what shall I do next? I have quite a few more toys…Do you want to see?? lol

Toy of the week 2: Seamless cutters

Ever since I heard the word ‘seamless’ I’ve been wanting some of these cutters for my polymer clay use. My round metal ones were getting a bit bent out of shape from their constant use and I needed some teardrop shaped ones.
Btw…my reviews of these products are based on products I purchased, although I wouldn’t mind if companies were going to offer me some for testing, even if my reviews may not be 100% positive, they will be honest. I really wish I had had these cutters to try since although there are 9 cutters in a box, they are not exactly inexpensive. I thought ‘wow NINE cutters, that’s awesome!’ I sprung for the investment because I thought they would last me a long time. But wait there is more! They are safe in the oven up to 160Degrees Celsius or 320Fahrenheit. Great if you wanted to use them for bangles or perhaps for making boxes. They are nested like this…
and you can take out the smallest first, but if you want the largest cutter or anything in between you have to remove them all, because they are concave, that is curving inward rather than convex and curving outward as I think they should have been made! I’ll demonstrate…

I rolled some clay on a #1 (or 9 card thickness). I used the teardrop and a round. You can actually see the the cutters aren’t 100% smooth and will require a bit of sanding on your part. I’m getting more and more annoyed. So I just used my nails to scratch off the roughness and you can see that the edges on the clay just aren’t smooth at all…I rather have a seam on one tiny part of the clay that I can cut away with a blade rather than the whole circumference being rough. But that isn’t the only thing that bothers me…

The other thing is that because the cutters are concave, when you cut out an item, it actually shows. Sometimes I like to use butcher wrap over the clay before cutting to get a nice beveled edge, and even though these cutters create a beveled edge, the bevel is way too pronounced for my liking.

But what about using it to make boxes? Well, the cutters are nice and deep and although concave-ness could work in favor of a box…here is the stupid thing…there is a ridge at the halfway mark! Why? I have no idea…

…but I see two useful purposes for these cutters in regard to polymer clay…One is using them for shallow boxes and for the round cutters, use certain sizes as a bangle sizer/shaper while baking. And the other useful thing is for those with small children because I’m annoyed that I have to play the stacking game to get them back into the container…largest first…

Ok, those were just initial observations from a seamless newbie ;)

Edited to add...yes sanding has helped quite a bit. Observation is the nylon should be thinner for the smaller cutters. I also would prefer straight walls instead of concave. However, all in all the price is right...about $17 for 9...not bad.