Horizons 2013 – Vancouver Polymer Clay Guild Retreat

There is still time to register for the Retreat which the Vancouver Polymer Clay Guild will be hosting next month, held at the Park Inn in beautiful Downtown Vancouver, Friday Feb 15 –17.

They have a great line up of workshops and demos. I’m sad that I can’t attend this one and know I’m going to miss a great time shared by all. Will miss seeing some good friends and familiar faces there as well.

Chameleon – a Polymer Clay Exhibition

CHAMELEON will be opening on Sunday February 10th and is running until March 3rd, 2013 at the Seymour Art Gallery in North Vancouver.

The show celebrates polymer clay as a means of playful artistic expression, and reflects the diversity which is possible within the medium.

Meet many of the artists and watch demonstrations of polymer clay techniques at the reception: Sunday, February 10, 2013, 2- 4 pm

Gera Scott Chandler, Rachel Gourley, Carolyn Joy Good, Tina Holden (yep, that’s me!), Joan Tayler, Wanda Shum, and a selection of work by members of the Vancouver and Vancouver Island Polymer Clay Guilds.

I’m very excited about this show!

Glow in the dark and Faux Fun

It’s a new year and hoping you survived the holidays (or weather) without a hitch. Winter isn’t over tho. Apparently we had another Tsunami Warning a few nights ago which was changed to an Advisory…but we slept through it this time and didn’t even hear about it until next morning.

I sat down at my desk to try a Glow in the Dark shot with a borrowed camera. It’s just a simple Fuji, but has a manual setting and my older Sony only has Auto focus which isn’t possible to use in the dark. These dagger beads made from Glow-in-the-dark Premo will be for some earrings and necklace…might be interesting for a night out on the town. I mixed another colour into the clay as it was a bit too green in daylight.

The shot in the dark isn’t as crisp, but then it’s virtually impossible to focus a camera in the dark, even with ‘manual’ and a tripod…or I don’t understand how to use the camera correctly which is entirely possible since I don’t have the instructions.

This shot conveys the glitter quite well.

Ok…perhaps this is boring stuff for you, but I’ve also been working on some Faux things like Turquoise and Nephrite Jade. The slab is faux and for the Jade, the ovals are real. I hand carved the tubes. Hadn't done that for a while. One of my directions this year will be to create more focal beads and incorporating them with bead embroidery. Actually I don’t have a real plan yet.

What’s on your clay table?

Jewelry Class in a Box Review

Mid October a surprise arrived in the mail, a bead kit from PRIMA Beads. I was asked to give my opinion of this product and finally here it is, “Jewelry Class in a Box!” Pearl Collection.

Although I don’t usually assemble jewelry from kits, perhaps that is why I was a bit hesitant (I design my own jewelry), there are times when I either lack motivation, can’t decide ‘what’ to create, what colors to choose or just don’t feel creative, so a kit is a welcome change of pace. And those bauble earrings for the holiday were calling, lol. If you are new to jewelry or have been wanting to create something fashionable, or live in a remote area or can’t visit the nearest bead shop for a class or the class is too pricey, then a kit like this is perfect to learn at your own leisure. PRIMA Beads offers a variety of classes in a box. Their chain class looks alluring…
“Jewelry Class in a Box!” includes everything a beginner would need to create several follow along projects, even good quality multi functional round-nose pliers with cutters. Taking things out of the box there is even a plush reusable bead mat which provides the ideal work surface as it prevents round beads from rolling off your table. Of course it didn’t save my fumble fingers from promptly dropping a crimp bead on the carpet, nowhere to be found, but fortunate for me, for the extras included so save me from having to look with a magnifying glass on my hands and knees, lol. Saved my back too.

  There are beginners kits out there, but I haven’t come across many that are geared toward adults. There is nothing childish about this kit, and a student learns a variety of things, including stringing, crimping, and wirework. The 6 projects consist of 2 Necklaces, 2 Bracelets and 2 Earring Sets. The instructions are concise and even in 3 major languages: English, Spanish and French.

There are Pros and Cons to everything. Like I said, I was pleased that there were extra pins and beads. A few of the beads were stuck together or needed cleaning with a pin to unplug the holes for stringing, especially when using the elastic. I ended up with a few beads left over and breathed a sigh of relief. The tigertail while tightly coiled (3 inches or so of the ends are wrapped around the coil and needed to be snipped off), the rest of the coil straightens with the weight of the beads. The photographic and pictoral instructions along with text are easy to follow and understand.

The biggest downside is perhaps that this kit lacks consideration for those with nickel allergies. So many are severely affected by this metal, not being able to wear certain fashion earrings because of major skin reactions and yes, the earring hooks, jump rings and pins contain nickel (you can test with a magnet…magnetic = nickel) and you may want to use alternative nickel free supplies. The clasps, chain and charms are non-magnetic and are nickel-free. One needs to remember this is a ‘class’, to learn various techniques, so the quality is not High-High grade. Just like any beginner class, one wouldn’t use sterling silver when first learning to crochet wire, copper would be a better alternative. Still, the overall supplies make for some pretty jewelry.

After using this kit, one could use the pattern again, perhaps with some lovely quality beads and supplies from PRIMA Bead. Their catalog is beautifully laid out. Over 3,500 products and even includes PROJECTS! a bead size and wire size chart, approximate bead counts in both metric and inch and other helpful charts. Their website also has techniques and tips. The supplies they carry are quite unique and they have things I haven’t seen elsewhere. PRIMA is located in Florida and they offer volume discounts as well as FREE shipping in the USA.

I especially like this set, with cute Key and Lock charms, but wouldn’t you agree the earring baubles are just perfect for the Holidays? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all you you!!

Angel Collar

Last night I finished my newest bead embroidered collar. It’s encrusted with a Polymer clay Angel focal, several clay cabochons, Swarovski Rivoli, Turquoise and Pearls. It was a process that took me several weeks. I’m happy to present:

‘Tis the Season…

…and I’m having a jolly time creating for this weekend’s Community Christmas Craft Fair. This weeks creative process includes some Ornaments and these fit right in with my usual ocean theme.

I especially like the Starfish…the background is sand and the photo doesn’t do it justice because it actually sparkles. Too bad I only had 3 balls left. Perhaps I should recycle some light bulbs…

I also made a few compact mirrors and business card holders…

And I might as well show you some of the Owl pins I’m working on. I’m using various techniques on these and will make a range of colors. I still need to inlay sparkly stones into their chests. Perhaps you have noticed…Owls are so popular this season.

Jewelry Display idea…

Not sure why those jewelry necklace displays are called busts when they are nothing but flat chested, lol. They are simple easel type of stands, but anyway, I wanted to show you what I did with a few of them. They used to be white…well, not so white as they looked scuffed up and had been well-used.

One of the galleries returned some to me when they closed shop, so I tried cleaning them for use elsewhere, but this made the white vinyl thin out and enhanced the damaged areas even more. I stopped short of tossing them to ponder what to do with them. I’m not a hoarder, but I require quite a few of these busts and since they are a small investment repair is the conservative way to go. Today while antiquing some Polymer clay Pins and Ornaments (I’ll show you tomorrow), I had an AHA! moment.

Gilders Paste!! I used Iris Blue for the busts. A couple of layers gives them a sort of jean blue effect. I think the leatherette of the small and larger bust must be a different type of vinyl…not sure, but the resulting color is just a little different. I now like these! Besides, I am bored with all the black and white which may look fine with gold or silver jewelry! About metallics, I might try a few in silver, gold or copper…they might make colourful polymer clay POP!

How to make buttons and shanks

While I’m not new at creating tutorials, creating video tutorials is something new for me. I just published 2 videos on how to create buttons or cabochons. The button tutorial is in 2 parts. Part 1 shows you how to use the flex mold, how to imbed a shank with a seamless back, color and finish your button. Part 2 continues by showing you how I  create and imbed a wire shank. I posted the videos below.

If you are interested in some molds, I’ve begun to list a bunch on both my Etsy and ArtFire.

Here are the Video Tutorials. Hope they work well for you…if they do, like or comment on YouTube…

Making buttons with Tina

and here is Part 2

Making buttons with Tina

Now I need to list more molds  among other things, as well as finish some bigger tutorials. They’ll be pdf file format, but in future I have some interesting things in mind…how about live shows?

Colourful faces

Ok…here in Canada we spell Colour with a ‘u’ added, but spell check is driving me a little bonkers. Am using Windows Live Writer and it wants me to add the ‘u’, but then when I need to edit something in Blogger it underlines it and insists it’s without the ‘u’, argh…
Anyway, with the suddenly dreary, gray, wet and colder October weather I need to add some colour to my online shops (most are in Etsy right now, but will add more to ArtFire) by adding more of my Art doll face cabochons. While they are moulded, the moulds have flaws which transfer to the faces, so I  redefine them by tooling each cabochon, plus I add details such as the spiral symbol, nostrils, eyelashes/eyebrows, change the lips and of course color them with my unique mixed media that exhibit a sort of ceramic property.

The exception are the recently addition of faux or imitative stone cabochons. Right now I just have the Rhyolite or Sandstone but will be adding other type.

I make them both masculine or feminine, glossy or matte. Of course, I prefer the faux stone in matte as opaque stone is rarely glossy and for the colours I prefer the glossy as it also makes the colour more permanent, although I put some matte ones in the wash and they came out looking the same. I just trust the gloss more, but for art dolls either should be fine. Wouldn’t a matching pair of dolls be fun?

I have some creepy Alien faces for Halloween as well…creeeeeepy!! not sure if I should list those…

Polymer Clay Logo or Initial Canes

In my earlier days with polymer clay I enjoyed creating canes and making beads, but quickly moved on to other things. Now it was time for another signature cane, something with my initials or a logo that I could attach to some of my creations. It’s been a while since doing this and I don’t mind that a lot of things left here without my ‘stamp’ on it, but for some one of a kind things, maybe a piece of cane added means a little more than just a rubberstamped signature pressed into the clay? What do you think? Maybe on some pieces it’s too obvious or out of place? I dunno! I guess I ‘want’ to add a little bit of a different signature. Instead of my old TH cane with the letters side by side, I sketched out a few designs. The one I like best would be a maple leaf added to my initials but for this batch just the letters because they are too skinny and will virtually disappear when the cane is reduced.

For this overview I used two Makins Extruders, one for white and one for black, a grid, tissue blade, pasta machine. I sketched out a design, conditioned and rolled some clay, used the grid to cut and fit pieces, then placed or stacked them onto my sketched design. Well, here is a quick pictorial.

That’s it. I will make a maple leaf cane, but will thicken the initials and leave off the black circled rim around them, something like that. Do you create a signature for your pieces? Do you prefer a caned design or using a stamp?