More items added to my Artfire Store

These unusually shaped stones are set in necklaces with handmade gold-filled wire bails on gold-filled chain.   They are available in my Artfire store.  See link on the right side of the blog.

Back to the Wrap

My very first jewelry pieces, years ago, were wire-wrapped stones, but silver wire became very expensive so I turned to other media.  Once I discovered polymer clay and the ability to make my own colors and shapes, I was hooked and focused almost exclusively on clay.  In the last year or so, however, I've been doing more with metals, wire and stones, and I've fallen in love with copper.  When I found some beautiful Jasper stones, I decided to wrap some of them.  As you can see from this example, I like simple wire shapes that expose most of the stone.

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.

Faux Knits in the Missoni style

My friend Carolyn Good, who is about the most creative and prolific clayer I know, and I have both been working with faux knits in the Missoni style.  We got the technique from Judy Belcher's excellent tutorial on CraftArtEdu.  I've been making pendants and bracelets, and they have been quite popular at the knitting shows I've done over the last year.

 

 However, when I saw Carolyn's adorable faux
knit sock pins, I was inspired to make a little sweater pin. 

 

 You can see Carolyn's work on Artfire, Etsy and on her blog.

Year of Jewelry, Week 17

I've been busy preparing for two shows on consecutive weekends, so I've been doing variations on prior designs.  These pendants are polymer clay, die formed, with handmade cords.

Week 15, Year of Jewelry

I love the retro pixelated cane (thanks Bettina Welker) and I love die forming (thanks Dan Cormier).  Here is my latest pendant using these techniques. 

Year of Jewelry, Week 6

I like the look of distressed metals, and this piece is really distressed.  I tortured a piece of copper with a torch until I got this amazing red and gold patina.  The black polymer clay backing piece has torn edges and is textured to look like lava rock.  The copper is riveted to the clay.

Year of Jewelry, Week 5

These weeks sure roll around fast!  Here is my entry for Week 5.  It is made from a piece of copper with a naturally occurring patina.  Then I laced around the edges with green leather and also made the cord from it.

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.

More metal fun

Playing with fire and copper is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you are going to get.  And you never know if it will stay when you try to preserve it.

The center of this convertible brooch/pendant is made from copper which was heat treated with my torch.  I got an amazing array of colors.  Then I sprayed it with PYMII, to prevent further oxidation, and the color stayed.  Sometimes a heat patina will go away when you seal it, no matter what you use.  Then I framed the copper with some black clay with a torn-out window.  The edges are torn too.  There is more black clay for the backing and the convertible pin back is held in place with a clay covering.

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.

More Distressed Metal - Mixed Media

For these three pieces, I folded and manipulated the metal and then applied either heat patina or an oxidizing solution.   Aside from the sheet of copper, the rest of each piece, including the "screws," is polymer clay with acrylic paints to give it some color.

Distressed Metal Pin/Pendant

I love metal, particularly copper, and mixed media pieces, so I've been experimenting combining copper with polymer clay.  I fold-formed the copper sheet and used my torch to put a heat patina on it.  I sealed that so it won't change, I hope, and then put the copper piece onto a polymer clay back that I had colored with acrylic paint.  I don't have any rivets, so I had to figure out a way to attach the two pieces.  Thus the overlay of clay and the fake clay screws.  I'm debating whether or not I need to seal the acrylic paint.

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.

Faux Metal Necklace

I'm working on a line of jewelry (jewellery for Canadians and others) featuring distressed faux metal and other ancient-looking materials like faux stone and ivory.  I was planning to call it "Relics" but an artist recently featured on Polymer Clay Daily is already using that name so I'm searching for another title.  Here is a prototype for a necklace - the top layer of "copper" is peeled back to reveal woven strips of faux silver and brass.  The copper chain is real but everything else including the screws is clay. 

Thing a Day- Feb 8, 2011

Finished at last.

Thing a Day- Feb 6, 2011

OK, I know I'm late posting this photo, but I had to watch the Super Bowl, even though we get cheated out of the good commercials here in Canada, and then Glee came on.......so here is Day 6.

I have been trying to decide what I want to do with this pendant.  I love the copper chain but it's 25 cents per inch, so I can't use a lot of it.  I also wanted to try some of the ribbon/tapes I got from Mokuba.  You can't see the top of the necklace because I haven't figured out how I want to end it.  Maybe that will be Day 7... or not.

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.