Copper Pendants

Being the kind of person who is not content to keep doing the same old thing, I like to challenge myself when it comes to making crafts. I love to experiment with new materials and techniques whenever possible, and I had always wanted to try metalwork…there is something irresistible about the shiny allure of metal. These etched and oxidized copper pendants are my first efforts in metalcraft. Each is a hand-cut copper plate (1 ½” x 2”) etched in acid. The portions of the plate that are not etched are coated in resist and the etched portions have the resist removed before the acid bath. The pendants are hung on 18 inch spiral-braided hemp cords with pounded copper s-clasps. So far, I’ve made four pendants: 1) A Horned Lizard (AKA Horny Toad) 2) Running Ponies 3) A Frog and 4) The Venture Brothers, Hank and Dean. The Venture Brothers pendant has two sides, with Hank and Deans faces on the front and their partially formed “Clone Slugs” on the back.

Jellyfish Panel Bracelet

Here’s another jellyfish-themed craft to go along with the same motif of last week’s entry. This is actually one of the favorite things I’ve made and I put a lot of detail work into the design. This is a panel bracelet with metallic blue acrylic paint antiquing and image transfers of jellyfish in circular windows. I had the idea to do coral pieces to join the panels together and I think that’s the detail that really brings it all together. I did get a little carried away with them, though, and the bracelet ended up too big for my tiny wrist! But I loved working on this project a lot

Handrolled Jellyfish Bead Necklace

This is a necklace of handmade black polymer clay beads with jellyfish designs. Jellyfish are beautiful and naturally lend themselves to designs in this medium. The black matte-look beads with the pink jellyfish made for a very striking design. In my day-job, I’m actually a scientist, so I can appreciate using something a little more unusual than the typical floral patterns and swirls in my designs. And invertebrates are a perfect source of infinitely strange and beautiful designs.

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.

Dethklok Glasses

I made this set of Dethklok glasses for my friend’s birthday. I had not done any glass etching in years, so for being out of practice for so long, I was really happy with the way these turned out . If you’re not familiar with Dethklok, they are the animated death metal band from the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse on Cartoon Network. We are big fans of this show. I etched five glasses with the five band members: Skwisgaar Skwigelf (Taller than a Tree), Toki Wartooth (Not a Bumblebee), William Murderface (Murderface, Murderface), Pickles the Drummer (Doodily-Doo, Ding-Dong-Doodily, Doodily-Doo), Nathan Explosion! And for the sixth glass, I decided to make the band’s manager, Charles Foster Ofdensen…it was a detail I knew my friend would really appreciate. He said this was one of his favorite birthday presents ever, and that made me happy.




























Toki

























Skwisgaar

























Pickles

























Ofdensen
























Nathan























Murderface