Polymer Clay Daily

Tips and Tricks

Indigo polymer

Larose on PCDaily

These test squares from France’s Isabelle Larose/Atelierlilaroz were the results of her playing with Pavla Cepelikova’s batik tutorial. Yummy! The indigo colors had me drooling. These are my favorites from her samples here. It won’t surprise you that Anne is also interested in watercolors.

Can I squeeze experimenting with batik into my play at the conference next week? This is where Pinterest comes in handy. By skimming through my favorite board (Be Still My Heart), I’ll remind myself of the patterns, colors and emotions that ring my chimes. That will keep me on track and help me integrate these batik finishes into the work I love. Don’t worry, you’re coming along and we’ll play together. Lots of photos and tidbits.

Spring crop of tutorials

Cepelikova on PCDaily

Spring is the season for growing and there’s a promising crop of polymer tutorials popping up. Here are three that could broaden your options and save you lots of trial and error time.

Otrzan on PCDaily

Finishes are all the rage – ceramic, enamel, raku, crackle, batik. No new equipment is required, just pull out the inks, powders and tools that you probably already have on hand. These surface treatments could give your designs added oomph.

The tutorials’ authors are not the first to try these processes but each teacher has each come up with new twists and clever tricks that may make the information helpful for you. All are delivered electronically and some have videos. While they each offer projects that you can follow, applying these finishes to your own signature work is what will make the information valuable.

Test samples from one student caught my eye and have me itching to play in the studio. Come back tomorrow to see. If you’ve found other interesting tutorials, let me know. The ones that I like to feature on PCD are those that offer new and/or easier ways to work with polymer.

Start with a tute

Petkova on PCDaily

Will a little tutorial help jumpstart your week?

Maria Petkova has been refining what she calls her Painted with Mokume Gane technique. The painted look of this Violets on My Window Sill pendant shows the appealing backfilling technique that simulates hand drawing on polymer. She shows an entire gallery of examples on her website.

Petkova on PCDaily

Here’s her latest free step-by-step tutorial that shows the process quite clearly. Her earlier tutorial was intruiging but harder to follow.

In these In the Jungle earrings Maria takes the technique to a higher level of refinement. She pushed herself to create them as she was completing her How To Become A Better Artist course with Christine Dumont on Voila.

Polymer clean up beads

Payne on PCDaily

These scrap beads from Virginia’s Rebekah Payne (TreeWingsStudio) may give you new ideas for what to do with cane ends and leftover blends. Rebekah shows you how she chops and then rolls the leftovers in paint.

The free tutorial is part of a post she wrote on ArtJewelryElements. She gathers the painted bits into any pleasing bead shape. Then she facets the shapes, slicing off the top layer of paint to expose mosaic-like beads. See more examples in her Etsy shop.

Payne on PCDaily

Her method offers a more satifying use of wonky, useless pieces that would otherwise end up mixed into unexciting bead cores.

Clean up your studio and have mosaic beads to show for your effort!

Mokume gane knitting

Belkomor on PCDaily

Russia’s Maria Belkomor finishes our week of textures with her faux knitted polymer in soft colors. She sands the tops of her knitted circles (made from extruded strings) to unearth more colors, a sort of knitted mokume technique. The beads look like scraps salvaged from a faded favorite sweater.

Maria shares how she added bails to the backs of the beads and strung them on a suede cord with a button closure. The rustic closure adds to the easy, laid-back comfort of the piece. Have an easy weekend!

Polymer language

Katie Way on PCDaily

Alaska’s Katie Way made this 12″x12″ polymer and reclaimed wood piece for the silent auction at her son’s Spanish immersion school.

Katie’s been in high gear with circles and reclaimed wood lately and if you’re a circle lover, you’ll need some time to flip through Flickr to see how she works. Katie’s messy work table looks downright tidy to most of us. That woman knows how to use cutters to full advantage as texture tools! Here she is on Facebook.

Her torn edges, judiciously placed color and big energetic doodles highlighted with a wash of dark paint speak a language all their own.

Integrating findings

Washington’s Dede Leupold hammers leftover bits of silver into soft shapes that harmonize with her canes for an elegant effect and easy assembly. Baked into the clay the silver also provides a sturdy finding.

Leupold on PCDaily

Dede gravitates to canework and she has come up with a folding mirror to carry in your toolbox so that you can accurately predict how a pattern repeats. It’s a handy device to have when you’re building a cane that’s full of confusing color and geometry. Enjoy Dede’s spring colors on Facebook and in an Etsy shop for jewelry and one for buttons.

Unforgettable polymer

Ivankova on PCDaily

Is it too early in the season for these forget-me-nots from Slovakia’s Natalja Ivanková? The clumps of colorful blooms seem to be woven together but it’s actually a more clever and simple construction.

Natalja has covered the edges of flat white polymer disk beads with tiny petaled flowers. The flat sides of the disks are stacked and strung to achieve the effect of a rope of flowers. Look carefully at her page and you’ll get the gist. The challenge will be to give the concept your own unforgettable style.

More spring possibilities

From Kopila Basnet, Samunnat program director –  Since a very long time we have been working in Samunnat and thinking of a building but before it was always a dream.  But when a local man said he was interested to give us land for our building, even then we thought it was impossible because it was too long for us to collect money for the building.  But what we have learned now is that even when we thought it was impossible, EVERYTHING is possible because we are connected to you all. 

Now we understand that Samunnat is not just in Birtamod but it is all over the world. It is in every people’s hearts. I’d love to thank everybody who has given us so much directly and indirectly to make Samunnat’s power grow and double.  We will always feel you in our building. Contribute to the fund here.