2017 Polymer Clay Challenge : February

2017 polymerclay challenge is an initiative by Katie Oskin of Kater's Acres who runs it for few years now in facebook as a group. Enthusiatics join the challenge makes a commitment to indulge with poly clay weekly basis. The participants can select their own perspective for creating . No more rules ! 

For the month February I made earrings and bracelets on weekly basis. By the end of month we moved to another place.

Week 5/52

I tried an Afghan+ Indian style in a pair of earrings using premo accents rose gold glitter and alcohol ink. A crescent shape cut down from a textured sheet of clay and pigmented with alcohol ink in red color. Wiped off excess ink. Cured in a convection oven for 45 minutes and when cooled down fixed earring attachments.

isn't it lovely?

Week 6\52

This bracelet is actually three tube beads strung on a stretch cord. These vibrant colors are from Souffle line of products from Polyform company. To make these vibrant bracelet I made a stack of striped cane and a veneer of Bargello too from the same cane. One bead is bargello and others are striped.

Week 7 / 52

Again similar kind of bracelet with matching earrings from Sculpey Souffle colors and the simplest petal cane. It reminded me a caterpillar. I am in love with triangular bracelets by now.

Week 8/52

I was almost busy with shifting home . Still i found time to make one pair of earrings from left over canes of previous week. Just made a simplest pyramid shaped dangles with some adorns . That's a cool design.

So that was all for the month February. I know I am too late with my blog entries. Try to catch up gradually. But so far i am uptodate with ther challenge in facebook group though some time times I fall short.

See you guys soon ..

2017 polymer clay Challenge - Month January

2017 polymerclay challenge is an initiative by Katie Oskin of Kater's Acres who runs it for few years now in facebook as a group. Enthusiatics join the challenge makes a commitment to indulge with poly clay weekly basis. The participants can select their own perspective for creating . No more rules ! 

Even if we fall back to do in a week particularly of some inabilities, no matter we can catch up in next week.

Not late to join : 2017 Polymerclay Challenge Group

In the first week of January I was not came out from Christmas mood, So I made a Poinsetta necklace and sutton slice ( left over  from peacock bracelet in the previous week) simplest , light and domed pair of studs to match . The string of necklace made with few layers of seed bead strands in dual color.

Week 1/52 Poinsetta pendant n matching stud earrings

Techniques : Skinner Blends, Basic cane, Sutton slice

To Purchase : Xmas jewelry

Week 2/52  Conical Textured and antiqued Jumkas:

Conical Jumkas made from Teresa Salgado's  Bollywood-earrings tutorial in Sculpey.com. She used silkscreening while I made textured cones. Then it antiqued with 3 colors of acrylic paints. Work in progress image see below:

Techniques : Textures , Antiquing 

- After Finishing -

This really fun and quick !!! Thank you Teresa .

Place your Order at : Bollywood / Indian earrings

Week 3/52 Lotus Brooch:

For week 3 I sculpted a little Lotus flower and leaf and made it into a brooch. They are in a very delicate color combo. I used premo translucent and Little wasabi with white clay for leaf n flower.

Techniques : Sculpting , Antiquing

See this in Facebook : Lotus brooch

Week 4/52  - Bangle

Work in progress image

Okay, this is last week and Valentines day almost around there. So I chose romantic color! Also 

I wanna try something different. So decided to make a bangle borrowed some ideas from Shannon's Tube Beads tutorial under her youtube channel. Silk screened a pink sheet of clay with grape color acrylic . This veneer makes the bangle design. Silk screen (Mandala)I got from Createalong.com By Illysa & Kira as a gift from their facebook group. Added few dangles at clasp for more interest in appearance.

Technique : Silk screening

Link : Pink bangle

Isn't it Romantic ?

Phew... done for the month January!!!!!

I gradually update all of my weekly projects with you without fail. Thank you .... :-) Keep on supporting us...

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Polymer clay Cover ups !!!

                               

                                       Yeah... I covered a spoon in clay.

Fist cover the handle in a sheet of clay. The character then. For this you need a picture in a size fit to spoon, cut it in shape,2 parts  face and ear . Use it as a template to cut clay, add cheeks, eyes, mouth withlittle amount of clay. Join head and face.

Bake @275 farenhiet or 130 celsius if you use premo for about an hour.

Tada !!!!!

 Techniques :

1) Skinner blend
2) Little applique
3) and Sculpting

It was really fun for me, Hope my little son would be happy too. 

See you soon... 

Faux Pearls

                                           Hi everybody,

Last week I received a goody gift from the Great Create Christy Friesen . She calls it Quick Bits Shine n shadow set. It is 3 tone pigments viz; Flash , Reflection n Shade. I was quiet unaware of how to use them on clay, I couldn't find any tutorials, Even Chisty is done a tutorial yet.. !


Well, I decided to do some experiments. I had a small bit of Kato pearl, it is enough for experiment with, don't wanna spoil my raw materials unless it turned as expected.

Quick bits

STEPS

1) CONDITION CLAY VERY WELL UNTIL PLIABLE.

2) ROLL OUT AT A THICKEST SETTING ON PASTA MACHINE.

3) CUT WITH COOKIE CUTTERS , SO ALL WILL BE SAME SIZE. YOU CAN EITHER USE      SAME CUTTER FOR EACH BEADS OR DIFFERENT SIZE CUTTERS FOR GRADUATED    SIZES.

4) FORM AND SHAPE BEADS.

5) APPLY QUICK BITS -REFLECTION ON RAW PEARL CLAY.

6) MAKE ACCENT BEADS WITH DESIRED COLOR. I TOOK GOLD  PREMO APPLIED WITH QUICKBITS -FLASH.

7) PREHEAT OVEN AT 300 DEGREE FARRENHEIT, KATO NEEDS TO CURE AT THAT HIGH TEMPERATURE , WHILE PREMO CAN HOLD UP TO THAT.

8) SINCE MY BEADS ARE SMALL I CURED FOR 30 MINUTES. LET IT COOL INSIDE OVEN.

9) NO SANDING BUFFING REQUIRED.

10) APPLY POLISH ( MINWAX WATER BASED POLY URETHANE HERE.) AND LET IT DRY.

11) FINISH AS PER YOUR CHOICE.

                                                                          Watch :)

To buy quick bits : Click here

                                           Happy day !

Backing Ear wires or Stud posts - Clean and securely.

Yesterday I made three earrings which are just different from my usual style, slight bigger and of course trendy. I have used Lisa Pavelka texture stamps , cookie utters, Premo clays and mica pigments. They are adorable. 

You see alcohol inks in picture but it is not used for these ear rings. This was my recent purchase from Joann Fabric and Crafts (I got really cool offers ie, free shipping plus 50% off ) , and cutters from Amazon. 

Come to point, here's is a hack for glueing metal to clay, is that strong enough? Obviously we can not relay on it. Being poly clay is highly durable what if findings attached to it fallen off over some time.. Bad thing eh? 

So I do cover the er wires or stud posts on cured earring with a thin layer of clay . Cured clay does'nt stick well to raw clay for this we can either use Translucent liquid sculpey or Bake and Bond. Apply little adhering agent over baked part ,place metal and cover it in thin sheet of clay. Texture n sign if necessary.

Tada... W done!. Look these picture.

Backside - Covered and signed.

And Ear rings... :-) @My FB page to buy.

MICA SHIFT

Textured n domed

Texture n mica powder

Hope you loved them. Thanks for visiting.

Stay tuned for Batik ear rings using Alcohol inks !!!! See you.

Backing Ear wires or Stud posts - Clean and securely.

Yesterday I made three earrings which are just different from my usual style, slight bigger and of course trendy. I have used Lisa Pavelka texture stamps , cookie utters, Premo clays and mica pigments. They are adorable. 

You see alcohol inks in picture but it is not used for these ear rings. This was my recent purchase from Joann Fabric and Crafts (I got really cool offers ie, free shipping plus 50% off ) , and cutters from Amazon. 

Come to point, here's is a hack for glueing metal to clay, is that strong enough? Obviously we can not relay on it. Being poly clay is highly durable what if findings attached to it fallen off over some time.. Bad thing eh? 

So I do cover the er wires or stud posts on cured earring with a thin layer of clay . Cured clay does'nt stick well to raw clay for this we can either use Translucent liquid sculpey or Bake and Bond. Apply little adhering agent over baked part ,place metal and cover it in thin sheet of clay. Texture n sign if necessary.

Tada... W done!. Look these picture.

Backside - Covered and signed.

And Ear rings... :-)

MICA SHIFT

Textured n domed

Texture n mica powder

Hope you loved them. Thanks for visiting.

Stay tuned for Batik ear rings using Alcohol inks !!!! See you.

Jumkas Tutorial II (Applique Technique with simple canes )

Can you spot "vibgyor" on Beige background?

          I have posted earlier how to shape jumka domes with quilling mold. The quilling molds are made out of plastic which you can not bake along. So the clay should take out of mold before curing.
Link HERE.
So today let's make a different jumka with Rainbow colors in.

Image 1

 I selected Beige as base color. I love Premo brands especially for Jumka making. Condition clay very well with brayer or Pasta machine (image 1).

 

 Take two equal volume of clay for ear ring pair. Make  2 domes out of it. Edges should be evenly cut if required. Thickness of the wall also need to be even for neat looking jumka. Similarly the perfection of final crafting too depending on evenness.

Here I gonna share how to do applique work!!!

Image 2

Canes already made few weeks back- one with yellow n cadmium red (orangish), other one with dark violet n red. Dark violet made mixing  premo purple aand premo white. You can add more white for violet, but then it won't pop out of beige.

I have used simple bulls eye canes you can opt skinner blend bulls eye canes too. Because we have small surface to do these applique work , Pinch one side of log to make a drop shape for petals;thin the log as you wish. Cut some thin slices of the canes we are using (Image 2). Arrange them in a pattern ( like flowers here) on the raw domes . Repeat with other canes do some different flowers, make leaves , stems , vines it's all upto you. I am sending some lights on basic idea only.

Make some small balls of blue color in identical size to attach beneath the domes, we are glueing it either with Bake & Bond Or Transulacent Liquid Sculpey. Apply any of the above with the help of tooth prick on edges of dome as shown (Images 3 & 4).

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

           

  After adhering with TLS it will look like this <= picture (image 5) . I made 2 other round beads in different color (for indigo), will use them while finishing the ear rings.

Image 6

Preheat oven between 250 -275 degree Farenheit is fine. Our beads are hollow and thin. Make sure
the temperature with an oven thermometer (mine is a Walmart $5 one) . But at beginning I will like to maintain 275F for some 10 minutes,then reduces to 250 F because my oven is known for its fluctuating temperature. Send our ear rings to oven .Keep thermometer near to beads (Image 6) to know what temperature is inside. If it is spiking reduce accordingly.

My timer is on for 45 minutes !!Let it cool slowly inside the oven.  And I'm done.

Another demo

Finish it with eye pins and ear wires of your choice.. Tada...
Thank you..