Crushed Velvet Technique

I've been playing with a polymer clay technique called Crushed Velvet.  It is a mica shift technique where you run the metallic clay through the pasta machine a bunch of times to line up all the mica particles, then you put the sheet of clay through the fettuccini cutter which slices it into little tiny strips.  Then you mush up the strips into a cane. You take a slice of the cane and turn it into a veneer and then make what you want.  You get a 3D effect even though you used only one color of clay.  I made some earrings and a couple of cabochons.  Fun and pretty.

More Pollock inspired earrings

I had another fun day in the studio - incense burning, big band music blaring and paint splattering.

My homage to Jackson Pollock

I've always liked Jackson Pollock's paintings, so I decided to emulate him in some of my own work. These post earrings are polymer clay with acrylic paint splashed on them.

Mokume gane pendants and earrings

I'm preparing for some shows this fall and these pendants and earrings are some of my new works. They are in the Julie Picarello style of mokume gane technique.  For those who don't know, you make a stack of different colors of polymer clay and poke holes in it.  Then you take shavings from the stack and use them to make your objects.  It's a fun technique because you never know quite what you will get.

Pretty scraps

I had a lot of multicolored scrap material left after making my rainbow earrings, so I mushed it up and put it through the pasta machine and ended up with some lovely striped sheets.  This pair of earrings was made from the scrap.

Rainbow Earrings

I'll be a vendor at the Toronto Jazz Festival later this month which coincides with World Pride Week, so to honor the occasion, I made a rainbow cane and produced these earrings.

I hope people like them and the other versions I plan to make, because I made one big mother of a cane!

Fun Earrings for Spring and Summer

I've been making some colorful earrings for Spring and Summer.  Some of them are color blends (Skinner blends) and others are single color.

Half way through

I'm half way through with the Year of Jewelry project.  Here are my entries for weeks 24-26.  The first earrings are made of polymer clay scrap canes and look sort of like little quilts.  They are folded into a wavy shape to look like fabric.

The earrings below are made from large copper "beads" placed on niobium ear wires which are colored to look like copper.

 These are copper wire pieces I purchased and put on the niobium ear wires.

Week 18, Year of Jewelry

Well, I got a bit behind on the Year of Jewelry project while working on my shows, so here is Week 18.  These are polymer clay earrings with crackled paint on the surface.  I cut them with a "cookie cutter" I made myself.

Weeks 9, 10 and 11, Year of Jewelry

I'm a bit behind in my posting.  Here are my entries for the 9th, 10th and 11th weeks of The Year of Jewelry Project.

This is made with three lampwork beads from my sister, Melissa Blanton of Laurel Mountain Glass and the two copper elements at the bottom are my first attempt at wire weaving.

 

These earrings represent my very first attempt at soldering sterling silver.

 

Another necklace with my sister's beads and handmade copper elements including the clasp.

 

The Year of Jewelry Project, Weeks 2 & 3

I made this polymer clay pendant and the earrings to go with it using a Retro Pixelated Cane (from Bettina Welker's tutorial).  The pendant was made by die forming using one of Dan Cormier's dies.  I needed the earrings to be long in order to show the transition from light to dark, so I used a custom cutter I made.

Primitives Collection

Here are the latest pieces in my Primitives collection, faux stone and copper, inspired by cave drawings and petroglyphs.  The drawings are hand carved after the clay has been baked and then antiqued.

Week 12 Earrings

Here are my earrings for Week 12 of the 52 Pairs of Earrings Challenge.  They are made with brass fishing swivels from Cabela's.  Who knew they carried jewelry supplies?!  All three parts of the swivels move independently so you get a lot of motion when wearing them.  The beads are coral chips and some kind of black beads I got while in Hawaii.

Week 9 Earrings

Here are my week 9 earrings for the 52 weeks of earrings challenge.

52 Pairs of Earrings Challenge

I'm participating in a challenge to make a pair of earrings each week for the whole year.  At week 8, so far, so good.  Here are my first 8 entries:

Primitive Jewelry

I've been working on some jewelry using a "primitive" theme.  This is the first tile bracelet I've ever made.  All of the carving was done by hand after the tiles were baked, and then I used some Studio by Sculpey Antiquing Medium in Chocolate Brown.  Not sure what it is called now.  The small beads, which I purchased in Hawaii, are made from coconuts.  And of course, I had to make some matching earrings.  I know the nasty fashionistas in New York decree that "matchy-matchy" is bad, but %$#$^& to them!

Thing a Day- Feb 5, 2011

I've been having a problem uploading this photo - Firefox keeps crashing - so I hope I get this posted before midnight.

Here is a pair of crackle earrings.  I need to find a better background and a better way to display dangle earrings because they wiggle around too much on the chain.

Thing a Day- Feb 4, 2011

I tend to make post earrings, but since so many people seem to prefer dangles, I will be making more of them.  Here is a pair of mica shift earrings with gold-plated ear wires and jump rings.

This thing a day thing is a lot of pressure!  I want to do something different each day rather than multiples of the same thing.

Thing a Day- Feb 1, 2011

I've joined the Thing a Day project over at Polymer Clay Central, and this is my first day's work.  It's a pair of post earrings made with the crushed velvet, mica shift technique.  These are a kind of bronze color.  I mixed up the clay awhile ago and can't remember exactly what it is.  Sigh. 

I hate it when posts pop off the handmade earrings I buy, so I insist on embedding mine in clay so they will not come off.

More Biker Chic - Woven Faux Leather

I fell in love with these woven leather shoes and decided I needed some tough, biker-style earrings to go with them.  The earrings are all clay including the studs.  They are about one and a half inches in diameter.  I need to find a big, rusty chain to hang them from next time I photograph them.

The inspiration, and yes, I do wear them.

It took a long time to lay out the woven strips just right so that I could cut out a circle and not have any gaps in the outside edge.