Imitative Ceramics in Polymer Clay

Hubby says to me this morning:"Why would you want to make imitate ceramics with polymer clay when its so cheap?!" Wellll...I don't have a good answer for that except that I wanted to try a nice glaze on my face cabochons for beadwork and I don't have a kiln (which IS expensive). I used pinata inks mixed into liquid Kato Polyclay. I dabbed on a little mica powder onto the faces, then coloured 'glaze', then baked and gave the pieces a glossier finish with Fimo Varnish. The effect is a little dimensional and I'm pleased with the result. I only did a scan here and scans aren't showing dimensionality too well...I guess I should get out my camera.

Inspiring Polymer Clay Artists on the WWW

Blogs seem to be the link that binds artists together. Do a google for "polymer clay Artists" you get 1,130,000 results! For singular 'polymer clay artist' and you get 249,000 results and for "polymer clay blogs' there are a staggering 71,600! Not surprising, Polymer Clay Daily is #1 and is the most popular blog among us. I was, however, more than a little surprised to find myself on the 5th page between the 41st-50th result, quite interesting since I'm a newbie! Feels kinda good, I tell 'ya! :)
I was curious WHO is out there in the blog world and found some interesting Europeans. Just a few listed here that I thought are interesting and have a lot to offer:

Here is a neat tutorial for an Eye Cane by Kerstin (sorry Kerstin....you don't tell us your last name!). She kindly grants permission to link to her tutorial pages. Kerstin has some other interesting tutorials such as a snowflake cane and sanding lentil halves and gives instructions in both German and English!
Another wonderful artist is Naama Zamir who lives in Israel. Beautiful, beautiful cane work and also lots of tutorials on her pages which are both in Hebrew and English.

Need to keep an eye out ;-)....there are so many wonderful artists to visit....what a lovely thing to do on a rainy afternoon!

Then there is Parole de Pate who teaches us how to MICROWAVE polymer clay! UPDATE!! BTW...microwaving clay does NOT properly fuse polymer clay. An oven and thermometer is still the recommended method. Many, many wonderful tutorials and work on their blog though. Too bad my time ran out, I need to go cook dinner now!

More Triangle beads

Made some more mokume gane, translucent with red pinata, gold leaf, copperleaf. Made some triangular beads and carved them a bit after baking and giving them a bit of antiquing.

I love Pinata Inks

I simply love Pinata Alcohol Inks! They work so well with Polymer clay. Here are a couple of pieces I made by using Pearl Premo clay as the base. Drop random spots of the inks, using a brush to spread, leaving spots of the white pearl. I used small amounts of rubbing alcohol to give a sunflowering effect on the surface. Let it dry and run through 2 successively smaller settings of the Pasta machine, just as you would with a sheet of clay that is covered with gold/copper leafing. It will give a slight crackling effect and the mica of the pearl will add to the chatoyant effect. I use Fimo Varnish to protect after baking.
I've linked my a recent tutorial on here that I posted in the 'future' from this one...in case anyone wants to see....

I guess its Angels!

I've been looking at my angel cards and they have often held a clue for some inspiration. The card I drew is "Practice makes perfect". How true is that! The leaves and triangles matched, so I made some Angels.

A few more cabs....

A few more cabs, not taxis, but Polymer clay cabachons that is. Donuts too. It was a dreary day to take pics, very dark in the house and not much natural light to be found, but these have so much depth to them. I used a mokume gane with pinata inks and foils, probably my favorite technique.

Clink!...some more leaves for Fall

A couple of wine glasses I covered with some yummy green Polymer Clay. The one on the left has some mokume gane slices added, the background colour has inclusions. The other glass has inclusions and a few geometrics. Both glasses have Polymer Clay maple leafs ;)

Bookmarks with Pebbles

Since hosting a Polymer Clay PEBLS (Polymerclay Evolved Beach Like Stones) swap with 2 Groups simultaneously and seeing my friend Gera hard at work creating beachpebbles galore, I felt it was high tide, err, time to make more Pebls also. I've been making bookmarks such as these, but also use them on driftwood mobiles.

Another Leaf turned...officially FALL

Driving to the next town about 180 clips away is sure an inspiration to create something with leaves. So here is my newest Fall necklace. Copper, variegated and gold leaf in a jade translucent polymer clay that has pinata ink worked in it also. The necklace itself is crocheted and 4 strand braided with recycled glass, semiprecious smoky quartz and other beads. Had this at the market today and it received a lot of oo-ahs. I'm very pleased with this. Too bad my camera doesn't pick up the shifting colours and light which reminds me of ammolite.

Teenier Mermaids

Ok...theses are even smaller than the last. The one on the right is just over 1 1/2inches and the one on the left....well you can see by the Quarter, and her face looks a little too old for her size, lol. The bead holes run horizontally. Made a pilot hole initially and drilled larger after baking. Bill asked if I could make them smaller yet!!! Now there is a CHALLENGE! I'm not a doll maker either, so faces aren't my strength.