Blogger, wearable art maker, polymer clay artist
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Featured on The Daily Polymer Arts Blog - Thank You!
Thanks to The Daily Polymer Arts Blog for featuring my leaf pendant colored with Pan Pastels, Prismacolor colored pencils and embossing powder. Using these materials is a great way to add color and texture to polymer clay. I'll be doing an upcoming tutorial on using these techniques that I hope you enjoy. Stay tuned for more! Thanks again Polymer Arts for the feature in the blog. Here's the link to the original article. and to a previous post with other examples of using colored pencils on polymer clay.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
SWD Polymer Clay Tutorial - Get Your Swirl On!! - St. Patrick's Day Pendant
St.
Patrick’s Day is March 17, just a few weeks away. Learn to make a polymer clay swirl pendant or
charm with shamrocks to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. We’ll use the colors of the Irish flag –
white, orange and green to make a swirl bead and then embellish it with three
shamrocks. I hope you enjoy this polymer
clay tutorial. It’s the third in my “Get
Your Swirl On” series. See the tools and materials list after the video link.
Thanks for joining
me in my studio. If you enjoyed this
tutorial, give me a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel and leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. Thanks again for watching.
Tools
Acrylic
block and roller
Extruder
with 19 hole disk – optional, you can roll thin snakes of clay by hand
Cutter –
3/16” hear shape – optional you can cut the hearts by hand with a craft knife
Hand drill
or Dremel with size of drill bit to accommodate jump ring or bail
Materials
Clay – 1”
ball of white, small amounts of orange and green
Jump ring
for bail or other bail
Necklace
finding
GET YOUR SWIRL ON SERIES
See my YouTube playlist for the series
Monday, February 23, 2015
SWD Polymer Clay Tutorial - Scrap Heart
I have an unreasonable amount of scrap clay that's just been sitting around waiting to be used. Here's a quick and simple project to take that scrap clay and turn it into a heart. Use the heart as a pendant or in a mixed media project. If you enjoyed this video tutorial, give me a thumbs up, comment or subscribe to my channel. Thanks for joining me in my studio.Friday, February 20, 2015
Build A Line Challenge from B'Sue Boutiques, Maria Clark of Sweet Willow Designs, Part Two
Welcome to
Part 2 of the B’Sue Build a Line Challenge.
My emerging line combines brass stampings and filigree from B’Sue Boutiques and my own polymer
clay faux soutache. Faux soutache is a
traditional fiber arts technique that uses colorful braided cords to make
intricate and fluid jewelry designs. I’ve
interpreted the soutache in polymer clay which offers endless options for color
and design.
I started by selecting a range of brass options that caught my eye and that I thought would
pair nicely with the polymer clay. I had leaves, flowers large and small,
filigree and ornate brass plates.
Initially I was overwhelmed as I envisioned using three of the large flowers in a statement necklace.
Luckily
there are three other artists participating in the challenge that live in the
Denver area, Lynda O'Mara, Alexandra Sefton and Lori Prull Meyer. Lynda got us all together to talk about what we were creating. We each shared our
progress and sought advice from the others.
This proved to be really helpful to me as the main advice from the
others was to simplify my vision. The
relief was immediate. I don’t have to
create wild, large pieces – simple may be better for my style. Finding myself renewed and inspired by
meeting these artists, I was ready to go.
I’m starting at basic bracelets. I used the brass ornate framed piece as my base, curving it into a bracelet shape. Using silver Gilder’s paste I changed the color of one of the brass pieces to match a button I planned to use as a focal.
I sculpted directly on the bracelet blanks, cured them and used E6000 to glue the polymer clay to the brass. The polymer clay does not adhere to the metal so lifting it off is a breeze. The colors are a turquoise, gold and purple.
In the second piece I created I experimented with a two tone look by leaving the brass its original color and a silver button. So far I’m liking the initial designs and am starting to generate more ideas for the next pieces.
For 2015 I planned to join several challenges and push myself to try new techniques and explore my creativity. I’m not sure production work is for me though I’m glad to learn from the talented artists pushing themselves to create a jewelry line. It’s fun to see where this takes me.
Please take
a look at the other fantastic artists participating in the challenge by
visiting their blogs below.
Brenda Sue Lansdowne, B'sue Boutiques
Marcia Tuzzolino
Jann Tague
Judy King
Linzi Alford
Cynthia Wainscott
Carole Carlson
Lynn Stinten
Marica Zammit
Catherine Shattuck
Michaele Collie
Mary Craig
Lee Koopman
Erin Whitacre
Monica Casady
Leila West
Cindy Peterson
Leila Belcher
Gloria Allen
Pamela Anger
Tammy Adams
Lynda O'Mara
Elizabeth Hildreth
Dana Hickey
Janet Calardo
Maria Clark
Lori Beekman
Jennifer Kroeger
Amy Jorgensen
Robin Reed
Ingrid Anderson
Louise O'Shields
Susan Killam
Mary Katherine Deis
Nike Bottalico
Susan Bowerman
Kristy Le
Jan Peters
Mitzie Crider
Gina Hockett
Linda Anderson
Alexandra Sefton
Melida Boman
Teresa Shurter
Melissa Latimer
Renee Hong
Nadine Edris
Lori Meyer
Jennifer Merrill Williams
Denise Lussier Poirier
Renee Allen
Autumn Adams
Elizabeth Owens
Kat BarronMiller
Sandra Ballard
Coral Law
Friday, January 30, 2015
Experimenting with Color on Polymer Clay
I just recently purchased a couple of sets of Pan Pastels to color polymer clay. I love it. In this experiment, I created a leaf shaped pin with purple colored wire buds and applied several green and yellow Pan Pastel colors to raw clay with a soft paint brush and then cured it. The Pan Pastel is very durable as it did not easily scratch off. Once cured, I used purple Prismacolor colored pencils to add layers and depth of color. Finally, I added some gold embossing powder to the edges and a bit sprinkled on the main piece to add a metallic tone and add texture. I like the way it turned out.
This was my first time using the Pan Pastel and so far I'm very impressed with how it works on the polymer clay. I'll be doing more experiments to test its durability and coloring abilities.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Build A Line Challenge from B'sue Boutiques, Maria Clark of Sweet Willow Designs, Part One
Hi All, I'm Maria Clark of Sweet Willow Designs. Welcome to Part One of the B'Sue Build a Line Challenge hosted by B'Sue Boutiques. I was encouraged by new Facebook friends to join the Challenge when I posted some of my polymer clay jewelry. In part one of a three part series in this master class, I'll tell you a bit about myself and my jewelry making journey as well as share my process and progress as I, and my classmates, create a five piece line of jewelry.
Each of the 57 participants in the master class has identified a theme for their jewelry line which won't be revealed until the last blog hop in March. So, the suspense will build as we share our thoughts, design decisions and our final pieces. For my line I'll be combining polymer clay and the great filigree and stampings from B'Sue Boutiques. I'm not entirely sure how this will turn out!
My studio in Colorado is in the basement I share with my musician husband. We're at opposite ends but can see each other which makes pursuing our individual creative outlets a kind of together time. I can hear the lilting sounds of his music and he can sometimes detect the wafting scents of burning clay - just kidding, that rarely happens :)
Here are a few pics of my studio. You'll note how tidy and organized it appears as thankfully you can't see the mess on the floor and the hazard cones that mark off my space. I made my own photo box from a plastic box and some rip stock cloth which works well. Learning to use the camera is really where I need to spend more time to get great quality photos.
I can't wait to see what all the participants create for their jewelry lines. Below are the links for each participant. Be sure to stop by, leave a comment, ask questions and encourage the artists.Thanks for stopping by my blog. On to the next!
Brenda
Sue Lansdowne, B'sue Boutiques
Marcia
Tuzzolino
Jann
Tague
Judy
King
Linzi
Alford
Cynthia
Wainscott
Carole
Carlson
Lynn
Stinten
Marica
Zammit
Catherine
Shattuck
Michaele
Collie
Mary
Craig
Lee
Koopman
Erin
Whitacre
Monica
Casady
Leila
West
Cindy
Peterson
Leila
Belcher
Gloria
Allen
Pamela
Anger
Tammy
Adams
Lynda
O'Mara
Elizabeth
Hildreth
Dana
Hickey
Janet
Calardo
Maria
Clark
Lori
Beekman
Jennifer
Kroeger
Amy
Jorgensen
Robin
Reed
Ingrid
Anderson
Louise
O'Shields
Susan
Killam
Mary
Katherine Deis
Nike
Bottalico
Susan
Bowerman
Kristy
Le
Jan
Peters
Mitzie
Crider
Gina
Hockett
Linda
Anderson
Alexandra
Sefton
Melida
Boman
Teresa
Shurter
Melissa
Latimer
Renee
Hong
Nadine
Edris
Lori
Meyer
Jennifer
Merrill Williams
Denise
Lussier Poirier
Renee
Allen
Autumn
Adams
Elizabeth
Owens
Kat
BarronMiller
Sandra
Ballard
Coral
Law
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Dear Fergus
I don't post a lot of personal stories on my blog but our dear pet, Fergus, passed away after 19 years with our family. He was a great friend and companion to our three children and Steve and I. We'll miss him and are quite sad here in Denver.
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