Earrings!

One weekend I decided to go on an earring making kick and experiment with a whole bunch of different earring styles and findings. All were made with polymer clay. The first pics are round bead earrings with abstract shapes in green, purple, and white clay. Then a pair of flower earrings in purple, black, and white clay. Then a couple of gray and white swirl square pendants. The next few pics show several different experimental designs I made, all using the motif of comets in blue and orange clay…I made round, tubular, flat square, and flat flower-shaped comet earrings. Finally, I made these snail-shaped earrings in several different colors, blue-and-black, red-and-black, gray-and-black, and purple-black-and-blue. These snail earrings are my favorites (invertebrates are awesome!).

Tye Dye Star Necklace

Tye Dye Star NecklaceI wanted to make a nice hand-made gift for my future mother-in-law, so I had the idea to make a hemp necklace with flat polymer clay beads along the lines as my Rose Necklace that I love so much. For her necklace, I decided to use yellow, green, black, and white polymer clay beads, a star-shaped centerpiece, and an easy-to-use magnetic clasp. Initially, I’d had the idea to make bead designs in the shape of trees…but the cane I made came out more abstract and tie-dye looking (this was one of my early forays into making my own canes of polymer clay). The unexpectedly pleasant color combination, together with the unusual-looking abstraction of the shapes actually made for a cool, unique necklace that seemed to go really well with the star-shape motif of the centerpiece. So you could call this whole design a happy accident, but my fiancé’s mother really liked it.

Rose Necklace and Earrings

Rose Necklace and EarringsNow this is one my absolute favorite things that I’ve made so far…a hemp necklace with handmade polymer clay rose beads. Each flat bead is in the shape of a red rose, with the centerpiece a cluster of a dozen red roses. I also made a matching pair of rose earrings to go with it. I wear this all the time, and like I said, I am very proud of it.

First Adventure in Polymer Clay

My First Adventure in Polymer Clay
Here are images from the first things I ever made with polymer clay. I discovered this stuff almost by accident…this winter, I wanted to make things with resin but found that it was too cold for it to set up properly and still have ventilation in my house…so instead I started looking into polymer clay. I have been in love ever since! Right away, I was really impressed by the medium and have now made many things using it. If you aren’t familiar, polymer clay is a blendable polymer compound of PVC chemicals suspended in plasticizer, not an actual clay. What I love about working with polymer clay is the versatility of the art…the clay comes in many colors which can be blended, like paint, into an even wider selection of colors. The clay can be used to create beautiful effects such as marbling and caneworking simply by putting different colors together in patterns…in this single medium, you can borrow techniques from everything from textile arts, sculpture, and glasswork and make beautiful things right in your home with a minimum of equipment. These two bracelets were the first things I ever made with this technique, and I was really happy with the results! Both are woven hemp bracelets with flat cylindrical polymer clay beads. The first one is done with red and tan clay. The second one I made for my sister using black and white clay.