Tutorials - Simple Cane

The Jellyroll / Spiral Cane

This cane easy and is a foundational part of making many other complex canes. It requires you to make sheets of clay. This cane will start out circular ,we can turn it into a square cane but again for projects . The Jellyroll is most outstanding when you use either light and dark or opposite color combinations in color wheel. 

After conditioning each color, you'll need to turn each one into a sheet. The Clay Conditioning Machine creates even sheets of clay in a breeze. An acrylic roller may also be used. Flatten the lighter lump of clay into a slab. Keep flattening the slab until it's easily rolled over with a clay roller or heavy glass jar. Roll over the clay in one direction then lift it from the work surface.  Repeat rolling and lifting and turning until the clay is a sheet about 1/6" thick. Clean your hands and work surface and repeat this process with the darker color.

Layer the light color over the dark color. Press them together by rolling over the top. Trim one edge straight. Gently roll the light color up inside the dark color. Work slowly so that you form a firm roll without trapping air bubbles inside.

Squeeze the jellyroll in your hand working from the middle of the cane to the ends to choke out air bubbles. Roll the cane gently on the work surface to smooth.Reduce the cane until it is 1" across. Set the cane aside for a while to firm it.

Thank you...

Science of PRICING

Hmm.... Pricing your beauties are most crucial..

Should be reasonable n static for a particular period of time...

Add all the expenses plus percentage of profit is the price in rough.

Low pricing may leads to underestimation, on the other hand if your prices are high people may hesitate little to buy it from your collections. Especially similar products are available in market at competative prices if any.

Simply says:

"Neither too high, Nor too low"

 - let it be your principle definitely be it for a person who begins the own business.
You may think to buy your at cheap cost whatever available so that you can charge less. The wrong you are!!!

Never compromise in quality. Make your client a life long client by giving quality as well as unique pieces. They will not left you. Unless they definitely prefer you for next purchases. Another ill effect, they will not suggest you for their friends or relatives. Beware of mouth publicity in such cases.

Elements to be considered for pricing

1) Availability and price of similar product in the economy  :- what if the product you dealt with available in plenty you should be oligopolistic. Search for other (many) sellers and compare their prices. Conclude yourself n fix your selling price. Keep in mind, many sellers selling their makes at preferably high quality n charges less than you customers will flow towards them. You should make it at par more or less similar pricing with similar product quality. Its true for products of scarcity will get a high value depending on the factors "demand and availability"
ie, when demand increases availability falls down which will rise the price level.

2) Cost of raw materials :- You will have to gather lot of raw materials to get your works done. Consider what and how much materials used for a particular piece. Price of raw material also reflected by product scarcity or availability. Calculate the amount.

3) Labor cost | making charges : its a reflection of YOU in the jewelry. Labor cost means how much you should charge for making a necklace, ear ring, or bracelet . If you are assisted by anybody you have to pay wages per piece  or per hour. If you make it yourself things would be little flexible. Its important that you are pricing your time not only. You fix a price for the conception of design, artistic talents, sometimes your sleepless nights, your concentration, perfection n finally your precious time.m Do not under estimate yourself. without you its just different materials.

4) Rent : Expense on rent for your physically exisisting shop or store or for listing in etsy or any fees charged for selling with e-commerce giants (Amazon, Ebay etc) as a vendor.


5)Miscellaneous expenditure:- Electricity, wear and tear of your tools,travel expense,print/ paper unexpected costs like damage/ evaporation/ burning clay while baking etc etc. Some of these will be hidden that you may not notice. Fix an amount or percentage for each of these. Its not fair to charge these hidden charges to a single person.You can fix for rate of electricity individually. But incidents like burn/ evaporation/ depreciation not like wise doing so will result in highly fluctuation of final price.
Suppose you travel to a place to get all your stuff, then proportionately add that amount too.
Just  Foresee things



6) Profit :- Its better to think previously what should be the profit, fix a certain  percentage of all costincurred as profit. Don't think that the making charge is your profit. It will contribute to your income unless you are not an employer instead self employed . It is your ultimate income.

7)Packing and postage: Ok, you can either charge seperately or inclusively. Don't forget to notify your clients whether you give FREE SHIPPING or not. Ensure proper n intact packing for secure delivery. Check for tariff plans of different providers in both inland and international parceling. Select most ideal one for both you maker n your customer.Check what you spent for packing box, wraps, and as courier fee.Its the cost for you under this heading.

7) Be aware of Tax policies of the country if any applicable.

                                      Here's a very simple equation:

        Price = cost of all materials + labor +other expenditure+ profit

Be cautious in fixing a price for wholesale and retail. Set two different prices lower for wholesale n lil high for retailing. Lowering price would not affect in wholesale deal cos you earn a huge amount of money as a whole at a time by selling in bulk,while  in retail you have to wait for (sometimes)
 months to get sold. Think wise, perform nice

Happy pricing....... 

   




(This article influenced by my bachelor degree in commerce and from little experience )
 (Google images courtesy)

My Spring Collections

     So........ the spring began to bloom all over. Its very enchanting sight of trees, bushes full of pretty flowers n buds which is the way the nature adores itself.

I love flowers all the time so as to transfer them to my handmade jewelry collection. Don't  know why myself feels incomplete unless add a floral design to each of my piece.

My favorite set

This is the cane I made to make the beautiful beads of the above shown beautiful set. Yet another cane used for the flowers.

First ever Orchid of mine

            I doubt I prone to OCD....in crafting   

Making jewellery is an Obsession....but  Using few colors like blue, black, pink, red etc is truly a Compulsion

I love Turquoise, in the colors too...

Floral embroidery

Gold |Blue Foral danglers

Flora on clasp portion n Focal bead

This black and blue matinee size (23") necklace made for a young lady who doesn't like to wear necklace UNTIL SHE HAPPENED TO SEE POLYMER CLAY JEWELRY. She fall in love with them now. She prefers black color always with traces of blue. Only two condition she insisted on me- "small beads n another is black to be dominated." So I made 5 types of simple canes in Black & Blue.

And finally made a" little big " bicone bead in blue and intricated  a vine embroidery to get some uniqueness to the final piece. 

Also she doesn't like the clasp to be visible. So for this a button with similar embroidery made which attached to the necklace. The lobster clasp fastens just below the button hence the clasp gone hidden..

Lilies another addiction...

Happy days ahead my dear readers.. Enjoy.

There are many more in my Facebook page for sale.....

The link is here visit and hit your likes there :

https://www.facebook.com/Projjwaljewellery

Catch you soon....

How to make Faux Lava Beads

 

A grand necklace using LAVA beads N millifiori cane

Lava beads are beautiful black porous beads. It can simply be made with polymer clay. Follow my simple steps:

I method

Condition black color clay very well (me used fimo)

Take a cloth brush (This is our tool)

Roll some clay according to size of each beads you want into balls.

Then roll this ball onto the bristles of cloth brush.

Then pierce your beads with tooth prick or needle tool (Else you drill after baking)

Then you can even make random pokes on to beads with toothprick. It need not to be evenly spread for more  original look.

Bake as per directions. ( I did it for 30 minutes at 130 degree celsius).

II method

Roll your beads into coarse salt or sugar and then poke with tooth prick. After baking the cooled beads place to water to dissolve sugar or salt.
Friends, I didn't neither sand nor polish them.. Left as it is....

     I have a picture to show you which help to understand at a glance (I method).

Here its ready... tada... :)

Stay tuned

Faux effect

Create your faux stone out of polymer clay 

My faux turquoise ear posts made recently 

              https://www.facebook.com/Projjwaljewellery

I assume every one likes to have a jewelry with faux stones... simultaneously wishes as if it could be very light weight... 
Don't worry pretty madams... you can make faux stones... :) :D with your own hands out of  our wonderful clay... its cool idea.

Let's make it now :-)...

The book “Making Polymer Clay Beads" by Carol Blackburn shares an awesome idea to make faux stones out of polymer clay J as follows:

1) Chop well conditioned transulant clay into many tiny pieces

2) Mix some acrylic color n let it to dry for some time.

3)You can even add little sand (should be fine like sand on sea shores) or glitter or any such kind. Keep it wrapped altogether in foil / plastic sheet.

4)Shape it according to your wish. Bake as per manufacturer directions.

Last you will get astonished by the faux bead unless you forgotten to do Sanding

There are many techniques could be found on internet for creating false "natural stones" out of poly clay. 

Happy search for more... !!

Millefiori Cane Technique + Picture tutorials

What is a Polymer Clay millefiori Cane?

              A cane is the design or pattern you create with different colors of polymer clay in a long tube that can be sliced off and used on various projects.  It gives even and unique looks to you beads.

                 Cane working is a technique that was originally used in glass work for making complex designs. A cane is a log or cylinder of clay that has a design running through it, so each cross section slice of the cane holds the design. You can make a large design that's easy to handle, and then reduce the size of the cane by pressing or rolling it so the cane becomes longer and thinner and the design becomes tiny and delicate. Because of the ductility of the clay, the design stays intact no matter how small you make it.
     
Apply the thin cane slices to your  jewelry and see it, just listen to your heart what it says..??  <3

How do I make a cane?

To make a cane, you combine sheets and long snakes of clay in a pattern that will be revealed when you slice the cane. You can use any combination of colors and patterns.

Here's some picture tutorials of making cane found from various sites.. Try n enjoy..... :)

Reference links mentioned below.

1) Simplest Watermelon Cane for a Trinket Bowl

 2) Swirl / Jelly Roll Cane

3) Leaf Cane

                       

4) Petal Cane :

  5)  Turquoise Cane             

How do I make beads with cane / Use of canes?

Purpose of making canes is to imprint even and same design over all beads.

* For this we have to roll some clay in the shape and quantity as required for the jewelry we gonna        make. For this you can use any scrap clays too.

*Slice the cane thin as far as possible (cross section)

*Wrap these slices all around the scrap clay we already rolled.

*If it's not scrap n you do'nt want designs wrapped the bead full, apply slices here n there, It will give   another look

Turquoise  & Amber Cane Beads :

The Slice of the  itself make a bead. Check How did I use the turquoise cane slices for earrings .

Canes being beads

How helpful these posts are ?

Filigree Techniques

Filigree-  Its amazingly beautiful   

       

Venera Collections (store)

   
  Filigree  is a delicate kind of jewellery metalwork, usually of gold and silver, made with tiny beads or twisted threads, or both in combination, soldered together on to the surface of an object of the same metal and arranged in artistic motifs.

     The English word filigree is shortened from the earlier use of filigreen which derives from Latin "filum" meaning thread and "granum" grain, in the sense of small bead. The Latin words gave filigrana in Italian which itself became filigrane in 17th-century in French.

                                    The polymer artists apply this techniques well incorporated in their jewellery these days. The apliqué work or polymer embroidery too comes under the head. The artists use extruded threads of clay or very small balls to decorate in special pattern. Even you can make very small flowers, leaves wines and attach to a clay surface. At the end you will be enlighted with a very pretty piece like a nice painting..

Ombre filigree (applique work)

Here's the steps of embroidery work in pictures. Hope you can understand something from this and wait until my vedio tutorial get uploaded...

Cassia Fistula

     

 Today its 10 april 2015, we keralites gonna celebrate the festival Vishu on 14 april every year. When think about vishu the Cassia Fistula flowers comes first. Its the ritual that day we first see the Lord Krishna's idol along with fruits, veggies, must with Cassia flowers. So its inevitable part of celebration......

I thought of duplicating these flowers into my jewellery. First I made a leaf pattern on green color clay, drawn some veins with needle;made pendant bail with clay itself. Hence I do embroidery on this leaf.

Also I did an appliqued leaves on bail to look pretty. How does it look? 

Polymer clay Jewellery

From :http://artisanwhimsy.ning.com/

Found on   www.odnoklassniki.ru

See you :)