Latest necklace for sale

I just put this Madonna and Child pendant necklace into my Artfire store.  I'm not a religious person but I love the warmth of this image.  It looks like a vintage oil painting or an antique icon.  It is an image transfer onto polymer clay and the frame is real copper electroformed in place.   I feel like a mad scientist whenever I do the electroforming.

Hollow Lentil Bead with Window

At our guild meeting on Sunday,  my friend Wendy Orlowski of CaBezel fame, taught us how to make hollow lentil beads with windows and image transfers inside. We used her new "all in one" CaBezel, naturally, and I also used her gingko texture sheet.  The CaBezel makes a nice raised lip around the window opening.  I was in kind of a rush to get it done during the meeting, so this first try is a little wonky, but I really like the technique and think it has lots of possibilities.

More shawl pins

I've been distracted by machine knitting the last couple of weeks and haven't been keeping up on posting new polymer things.  I added these shawl pins to my line a couple of weeks ago.  Hope you like them.

CaBezels and Image Transfers

I've been busy making brooches using CaBezel molds and image transfers.  Because they have a convertible pin back, they can also be worn as pendants.  Once I got the hang of using the molds, I was able to make these quite quickly.  First I made and baked the bezels, a dark green to go with the floral theme, and then I did the transfer on a light beige clay to go with the background of the images.  Making the cabochons was easy and I had no problem with distortion while fitting the cab into the bezel. 

CaBezels are available exclusively from Shades of Clay and the images are from Sabine Sydney.  I used Magic Transfer Paper for the transfers.

Is this better?

I took the photo of my pendant into Photoshop and flipped the dancer so she is facing the other direction.  I think is better.  It seems to have a better rhythm.

Ancient Dancer

I have been away from clay for quite awhile, first because I was ill with some nasty flu-like virus that wouldn't go away and then because I had to rush off to Florida to find an assisted living home for my father.  That took most of May, but now I'm back home and eager to spend time in the studio.

An image for a pendant popped into my head one day and I managed to create it in clay.  Now I can't decide if I like it.   It is an image transfer on an inner layer covered by faux sandstone.  The window is supposed to look like it was chiseled out of the stone.   Please tell me what you think.

Thing a Day- Feb 3, 2011

Well, I finished the pendant but I don't like it very much.  I filled the curved piece with scrap clay and baked it, then put another sheet of scrap clay on it and cut a channel for the cord.  I baked that and then put a textured sheet on the back and baked again.  Then I put a strip of clay around the edge, smoothed it into place, and baked it.  I can sand the flat edge of the pendant but not where it touches the image.  Too much risk of marring it.

I really like having the image curved rather than flat, but I'll have to find another way to display it.  
To my eye, it needs a border, so I don't want to just make a lentil bead.  Next time maybe I'll put another domed shape on a flat piece that is a bit larger than the image, and texture it so it won't need sanding.

Thing a Day- Feb 2, 2011

This is a work in process.  I put an image transfer on white clay and baked it on a light bulb.  The next step is to decide how to make it into a pendant.

Image Transfer in Electroformed Bezel

I wanted to try a couple of things here.  First I made a bezel using the CaBezel mold, baked it and then electroformed it with a light coating of copper.  That came out looking terrific.  I put a Jax Brown patina on it to give it a slightly antique look.  Next I wanted to see if I could make a cabochon with an image transfer.   I put the image transfer on raw clay, then placed the CaBezel mold for the cabochon over it.  Placement was easy because you can see through the mold.  The image came out great - no distortion and it didn't stick to the mold (unlike the first one when I forgot to use water as a release.  LOL.  Guess I was in a hurry to see if it would work).  The cab is quite small, only 7/8 by 1 and 1/4 inches, but I got a lot of nice detail in the image.  Next I put the cab into the bezel and gently smoothed the top edges down to cover the cut sides of the clay and make it completely fill the bezel.  That little bit of extra space and the process of smoothing down the top is what gives it a real cabochon look.  I purposely didn't make the cab super thick because I knew I would be stretching the image in order to smooth the edges.  After that I baked it, sprayed it with PYMII to protect the transfer and keep the copper from darkening further and VOILA!  (That's for my Francophone Clayamie friends.)

For anyone interested in the CaBezels, they are available exclusively at Shades of Clay.