Easter

I like to make necklaces to celebrate holidays and other special events. I just finished this one in the nick of time for Easter. It's my own faux ivory rabbit heart focal bead, surrounded by smaller faux ivory and spring/Easter colored polymer beads. The beads hanging at the bottom are glass flower beads, I've had them in my bead stash for quite awhile now and it was nice to find the right place for them in the necklace arrangement.

Happy Easter everyone!

Pearl Ex Pigment Test Blobs

Before baking.
Dime sized test blobs using Fimo translucent and Pearl Ex pigment powders.

After baking.

I love my Pearl Ex pigments, but this is the first time I have taken the time to make test colors for reference. I mixed the powder with Fimo translucent. They really do come out special but you can see with these before and after baking photos, when mixing colors with translucent you need to bake to see the end results.

I put my test pieces on an index card, and wrote the Pearl Ex colors beside each piece. After baking, I painted the backside of each piece with white paint, so I could write the color names on the back. (I have not found a pen that will write on polymer. Have you? I've tried Sharpies, they rub off.)

Under The Wire Faux

"Under The Wire" Pendant

I made this faux ivory, turquoise, and jade polymer pendant specifically for the Polymer Clay Guild of Etsy April challenge. The theme for April is "Faux". Faux is one of my favorite things to do in polymer, I have had this idea in mind but the PCAGOE challenge prompted me to get it done, just under the wire for the entry deadline. I normally make beads but this pendant came out very nice and it is a great opportunity to combine different looks and colors into one piece.

Ivory Hearts

I made these faux ivory hearts the other day, these are pretty much focal beads, being 1 1/2" tall and about 1 1/4" wide. I haven't made anything with them yet, like a necklace or other finished item, but I wanted to post them.

Saint Patrick's Day Faux Jade

I made these faux jade beads several months ago, intending to make a bracelet. I planned to use Stretch Magic jewelry cord and finish the bracelet without a clasp. I couldn't figure out how to finish it off so I put the beads away. I still can't figure it out (I may need to use a clasp) but I was looking for something green to post today, St. Patrick's Day, and these faux jade tile beads were just the ticket.

The running horse is my own design, it was the first time I have made tile shaped beads and I like the look. This horse design could appear as faux ivory, too. You never know what I might make next. But maybe I should finish this bracelet first.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Faux Turquoise

Here are some faux turquoise beads I made recently. They will be a component of a bigger project soon, but for now, here's the beads I made with a simple technique. I just chop up turquoise clay (adjust the color to suit your turquoise taste, as it comes in many shades) in a small food processor. Press the small chunks together enough so they hold into a bead shape but still have the crevices. I added some brown chunks and olive green chunks for variety on a few of the beads. Bake, then rub black and or brown acrylic paint into the crevices. Wipe off excess paint. Buff and polish.

Found Polymer Texture Tools

I spent some time in Florida recently, I beach combed and collected some coral and shell pieces with texture stamping tools in mind. I have collected these in past trips to Florida, but this time I really looked for deeply impressed pieces that would make a nice texture in polymer clay. I much prefer finding texture tools in nature over man made ones.

Just A Little Carving Experiment

A few posts ago, I blogged about my primitive mudcloth beads. I recently got some micro carving tools from polymerclayexpress.com and made this experimental bead. I just carved into the surface before I baked it then rubbed acrylic paint into the carved part after baking. It was easier than carving through the black layer to reach the white underneath as I did in the mudcloth beads. I can imagine these type of chocolate colored carved beads being combined with brighter colored beads to create an eclectic necklace or bracelet.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Mokume Gane All Season Beads

Mokume Gane Beads. From top: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter

Here are some basic mokume gane beads I made last year. I was rifling through my bead stash and when I found these beads I made, I realized how they looked like the four seasons. I don't remember if it was a conscience thought or not!

I will be taking a mokume gane polymer workshop in April 09 taught by Julie Picarello. I am looking forward to it!

Blackbird Winter

Blackbird Beads- 1 1/2", 2 1/4", and 2".

The past few weeks there have been a flock of red winged blackbirds hanging around, singing their off-key song in a nearby spruce tree. The unusual thing about this is that you don't often see blackbirds in January and February here in Colorado at 7,900 feet. There are also robins around, which is almost as unusual.

I associate the blackbirds and robins with summer, so it lifted my spirits on cold winter days to see these birds, and I was able to help them out by sprinkling seeds on the ground below my birdfeeder.

The birds also spurred me into action to make a blackbird cane, something I have been wanting to do for quite awhile. So I got the cane made, reduced it, and applied it to the three different backgrounds. The bead on the left is more summery, but the middle and right hand beads represent blackbirds against winter colors and winter sky.

Heart Beads inspired by Donna Kato

I got Donna Kato's new book, The Art Of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques and have spent some time making heart beads inspired by her instruction. I decided on a tropical color scheme, which is a bit out of the norm for me but nevertheless I stuck with it and made several canes using these colors before applying them to the heart beads.

Every cane I made for these heart beads were in Donna's book. The canes I made were bullseye, ikat, component flower cane, klimt, and tile.

Donna's canes are simple, the key is to decide on a color scheme and create several different canes using your chosen colors so they all go together when you apply the thin slices to your project. The exception is the translucent and white bullseye cane. Translucent and white can compliment any color scheme.

The time spent making Donna's canes will springboard me into new directions and ideas. I also want to do more heart beads, it's a universal shape with a meaning that knows no language barriers.

Polymer and Tornados Combined

So here is a necklace with my last two blog entries combined. I made a batch of Winter Solstice beads on December 21st, and then made some tornado beads. I originally strung them together on a cord but didn't like it, so I hung them from a chain with one Winter Solstice bead as a focal. I'm not sure what my next project will be, but I'm almost certain that I'm through with cool winter colors. I can feel the days getting longer already. The bunny charm at the end of the focal bead hints at spring.

Tornado Bead Tutorial

On the first day of 2009 I thought I'd post a tutorial on making a tornado bead. This is a non-polymer posting but I needed these to go with some polymer beads I made recently.

I have been unable to find a tornado bead tutorial online so I figured this one out myself. Hopefully if you are looking for the same thing I was, this will serve as a starting point to making your own tornado beads.

For a one inch bead, you will need:

18" of 20-gauge wire
16" of 22 gauge wire
Various sized seed beads- 11, 8, 6.
A couple of 4mm beads
A mandrel



Beginning in the middle of the 20 gauge wire, wrap wire around a mandrel (I used a small wooden skewer) in both directions until the wrap is one inch long and there is 5"-6" of excess wire on each end. The wraps don't have to be perfectly lined up against each other.



Take the right end of the excess wire and working right to left, wrap it loosely around the base in a somewhat random and disorganized fashion. This isn't about perfection, it's about a tornado!



Take the left end of the excess wire and wrap it around the base from left to right, again in a loose fashion and make the bead slightly fatter in the middle.



Now you are ready to add beads with the 22 gauge wire.



Take 16" of the 22 gauge wire and start a wrap at one end, tucking the end under so it doesn't stick out. Add a few size 11 seed beads in the first revolution.



Start wrapping and adding larger beads to the 22 gauge wire in the gaps between the 20 gauge wire. They will stick out a little at first but become integrated when you continue with the 22 gauge wire.


Continue to wrap and add beads into the gaps, alternating sizes and colors. Take an occasional wire wrap without any beads.



When you reach the other end of the tornado bead, you should have the 22 gauge wire used up. Tuck the end into the bead to conceal the wire end.

Here is the finished bead!

Winter Solstice Beads

First Batch

I just made these beads to celebrate Winter Solstice. Or more accurately, to celebrate the shortest day of the year because tomorrow the days get longer. Hooray! I don't normally revel in winter or winter colors, so I thought I would challenge myself to use a limited palette of blues, white, and lavender.

I made my first batch (above) of Winter Solstice beads using some simple cane techniques, trying to come up with different bead looks using the same colors. I was reaching for my silver leaf to use in mokume gane, when I realized I didn't have any silver leaf, just gold and copper. So instead of doing mokume gane, I grabbed my Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments and mixed some blues and lavenders into translucent clay, and then swirled the pigmented translucent with white, and the resulting second batch of beads (below) remind me much more of winter than the first ones I did. I like these so much that I am going to make more using different colors.


Now the next thought process will be to make a necklace out of some of these to wear this season, so I can tell Old Man Winter that he ain't got me down, I'm using him as inspiration.

Faux Amber and Turquoise Beads

I haven't posted any new polymer activity in awhile, 'tis the season I guess. Busy busy with Christmas stuff, and unfortunately none of the busyness had anything to do with polymer. So here is a necklace I made awhile back. I made all the beads out of polymer (except for a recycled glass and some silver beads and spacers).

I love the mix and match, asymmetrical type of necklace. One book that has inspired me recently is Beadazzled- Where Beads & Inspiration Meet by Penelope Diamanti. I bought the book in a bead store a couple months ago and have really been inspired by the combination of natural material beads such as coral, turquoise, amber, ivory, and more made into necklaces. This book is eye candy, not a how-to book. The inspiration for me is to recreate some of these natural materials in polymer and be inspired by the eclectic designs. If you like eclectic and asymmetry, this is a very inspirational book.

Mudcloth Beads--Sort Of

Longest tube bead: 2 1/2", biggest donut bead: 1 3/4"

I've been wanting to do some donut as well as large tube shaped polymer beads, and here are some black and white ones I just made. I was inspired by the mudcloth technique in Judy Belcher's book, Polymer Clay Creative Traditions. She has two interesting techniques for mudcloth in her book, but I improvised a little from her technique.

I carved the designs using a linoleum cutter v-gouge. I'd like to find a better quality carving tool as I want to do more precise designs than the tool let me do. But in trying to recreate the primitive African tradition of mudcloth, it looks pretty close.

One hint for success: if you want to carve through to an underneath color, make sure your top sheet of clay is reeeally thin. As thin as you can make it.

My Blogging Polymer Friends

I am currently compiling a list of polymer artists who blog...you can find it in the right hand column of this blog. It is a fairly new feature of Blogger, and I really like it as it connects like-minded people together. I have made a list of painting blogs I watch on my art blog, carengoodrich.blogspot.com. but I am finding it more difficult to compile a list of blogging polymer artists.

So I wanted you to know that there are some fine polymer artists who are not on my list. It is unfortunate but true. Some polymer artists have blogs but rarely update them. I also don't bookmark/add artists who use half or more of their blog to post non-art stuff.

I hope more polymer artists will have dedicated polymer blogs soon. It's free on Blogger.com, so why not keep in touch with other polymer artists in a painless way? You don't have to update every day, (I don't), but since we polymer people are scattered all over the place, why not start building links with each other through blogs?

Faux Coral Beads

I made some faux coral beads using the instructions in Tory Hughes' book, The Chameleon Clay. I made them a little more misshapen than Tory's examples. I like the natural look of the odd shapes. This is my first batch, I'm sure when I make them again I will tweak the recipe and shapes even more.

If you want to make your own coral, turquoise, jade, ivory, or other natural beads, consider making your own out of polymer clay. Think how much money you'll save by buying a bit of polymer instead of buying the real thing!

As Good As It Gets

I just read a blog entry by polymer artist Kathleen Dustin about the shallowness of Fashion Week in New York City, and her being uncomfortable about her polymer purses and jewelry being sold to that market.

I commented on her blog that her polymer work inspires me:

"So many of us have been lifted to greater heights by seeing your work. At the end of the movie As Good As It Gets, Jack Nicholson said to Helen Hunt: 'You make me want to be a better man.' Well, Kathleen, the inspiration of seeing your polymer creations makes me want to be a better artist."

So my point is to let the shallow folks be shallow, there's not much you can do for them. Those depth-less souls will carry her purses or wear her jewelry just because they saw it on Madison Avenue. But although Kathleen readily teaches her techniques to those wanting to learn, she (and the rest of us) may never know the full range of influence she has had on polymer artists to think big and do their very best work.