Paper Clay Beads

I recently used Creative Paper Clay for the first time. I had been wanting to use paper clay for awhile, and with the right combination of events and occurrences, I found myself making some beads that were very satisfactory!

This bead is a flat tab shape, it was big enough that I had to let it dry overnight before putting the design on it. I used colored pencil, graphite pencil, gold leaf and carving. The paper surface carves beautifully and it also has enough tooth to take the colored pencil very well.

I like cave paintings and petroglyphs, this is an eternal circle of running cave bunnies!

Mokume Gane Critters

Here are some critter shapes I made from mokume gane slices. I was inspired by looking at old Native American and Eskimo art/artifacts books that I picked up at a used bookstore recently. Though the fish is obviously a fish, the other animals are not so identifiable.

Thinking of Spring and Sluggish Shapes

It only takes a few sunny days, a noticeable increase in daylight and some January thaw for me to start thinking about spring and spring colors. I took a break from polymer for a few months because (1) I was extremely busy painting, and (2) I needed to decide how I wanted to express myself in polymer.

Doing mokume gane stacks is fun and addicting but deciding what to do with them is another. I like to have a mental picture of what I want to do before I start. What shapes please me? Lately it has been this "slug" shape, a fat in the middle, unidentified thing that has a graceful curve on the ends.

Painting Meets Polymer

I did these awhile back and haven't posted them...but I love these because finally my paintings meet my polymer work. It's pure me, I did these with a very thin, watercolor-like application of acrylic paint, and used a coat of liquid polymer as a sealer. Unfortunately I can do a painting on paper or canvas faster than I can do one of these pendants, but I hope to put something like these into production at some point and be able to sell them.

Polymer Pendants

I'm making large batches of these flattish pendants for various venues. Glad they are catching on as they are fun to make and the variations are endless. Keeping the design simple--stringing it on buna cord with a lobster clasp on the end.

Sometimes I wonder where a particular pursuit is taking me. In this case, I wonder how these pendants will evolve, will they lead to something else? I've made hundreds of them in just a few months and I've seen my positive progress in refining the technique when I look back at the first ones I made.

A few years ago I read The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. It's a great book but I hadn't looked at it in awhile...I opened it up the other day to some words on page 110 that I highlighted years ago: "Be willing to start without seeing the whole path...you must be willing to lean into it and see how it unfolds."

Polymer Pendants

I'm working on a large wholesale order of polymer pendants. I like the simplicity of these pendants, I just string them on a rubber cord and they speak for themselves with their color and shape.

Translucent Layering Pendants

3" and 4" polymer pendants with horse image transfer

Here are two pendants I made using the translucent layering and image transfer techniques I learned from Kathleen Dustin. They are a ways from perfection, mainly the translucent is not as clear as I wanted it to be...maybe it's too thick...but anyway it's an exciting technique that has given me lots of ideas as I roll along on my polymer journey!