Travel Projects - Colored Pencil/Polymer Clay

What can you do with a package of white clay, no pasta machine, no roller, no other tools but colored pencils and a bit of burnt umber and gold metallic paint?  I challenged myself to find out.  I do have an oven but only the most basic of materials.  I had been wanting to try colored pencils on polymer clay so while on travel I purchased a small set of Prismacolor pencils (small set, big price) and a package of white clay.  For tools I used pens/pencils and my crochet hooks (see other travel projects, great reuse of tools).  I sculpted a few pieces using the white clay, cured them and began to color with the pencils.  I did use the  burnt umber to darken the crevices before starting.  The colors went on well with no other surface treatment necessary.  I did use a light wash of gold paint to highlight the pieces.  When I get home, I'll use a fixative and spray lacquer to finish the pieces.  I love the depth of color achieved with the colored pencils and will use this technique over and over I'm sure.  BTW I'm using Picasa 3 to make the picture collages.

Pulling Out Stuff FromThe Past - Rock Purse

Because I have time on my hands, I was going through some older photos of past projects and came across these for a rock purse swap I participated in.  A rock purse is formed over well, you guessed it, a rock.  I created this one with a Southwestern theme and used a silver button, leather and silver hollow beads as accents.  I really like the way it turned out.  Custom turquoise, blue and coral colors came together as well.

More Travel Projects

Being on extended travel means being away from the beloved studio.  I miss it.  To keep some creativity going, I've been re-exploring crafts from long ago.  In the last post I showed picking up crochet from my childhood.  Here's another take on crochet - felted crochet.  I had never tried this but in my web surfing I came across felted crochet.  I've tried it and loved it!  So far I've made a couple of practice handbags (still need to work on this) and felted flowers.  I thought, why not?  How about a necklace.  Here's my first attempt. 


It's easy to do, use pure wool yarn, crochet a flower and rope vine, wash it in the washing machine with some detergent and hot water, shape, dry and embellish.  I was going for a red poppy and used black seed beads to create the center of the poppy.  I like the way it turned out and the felting was fun.  Will have to put this away until winter when it's chilly.  I think would look great with a sweater.