Liquid clay tests
You might find Cynthia Blanton’s methodical approach to testing liquid clays helpful. (I like it when someone else does the research.)
Weltman’s Extruded Marbles
Ronna Weltman has been playing with her polymer clay extruder in a much more freestyle way. “I put in little blobs of this and that color (not randomly picked, but for harmony) and delight in the serendipity of my multi-hued bead caps,” she says.
“Yesterday I played around with randomly placing the strings on translucent and/or translucent mixed with ultra-light, running it through the pasta maker, and then covering an ultralight core with the result.” I love her looser approach. Check it out.
Follow-up note: I have not tested the PolymerClayExpress large extruder because I needed small batches. Word is that it’s quite wonderful. Oh, the perils of talking about tools! We all have our favorites.
Extruder fun
In my search for the perfect polymer clay extruder, I finally hit upon a dream machine.
I’ve written a short article about it (read it here) for Stacey Apeitos’ arts and crafts e-zine. Her Astarte’s Megazine is an Australian online magazine that you can subscribe to. There’s plenty of lovely info free on the site as well.
My hunt for a good small extruder (see an earlier project) became such an odyssey that I felt I could break my rule not to discuss tools on this blog. The BullensWullens adapter (contact pat@bullenswullens.com) was developed by an Ohio couple which makes my discovery doubly special.
Young’s Lumina Leaf Tutorial
I bought some Lumina air-dry polymer clay months ago when I first saw Camille Young’s work. Camille’s leaf tutorial and the ginko leaves outside my back door are prompting me to finally open the packages and give it a whirl.
How nice of her to share her techniques with us. Camille makes it look easy…experts always fool us that way. Her colors are lovely and the compositions pleasing. Go have a look.
Sila’s Tutorial
If waiting for the stroke of midnight makes you fidgety, keep yourself busy studying this clever polymer clay mokume gane trick from a new tutorial on Ponsawan Sila’s site. She says it’s a combination of techniques she’s learned from several people. Here’s the link to her Flickr pictures.
I’m combing through this year’s posts, trying to detect some patterns, trends, insights to share with you this week. The year flew by, didn’t it?
Wishing you peace and prosperity in 2008.
Doroshow Makes Multiples
It’s been fun to watch Dayle Doroshow work on several polymer clay projects this week. Here are five mask pendants that she made and embellished with rivets and metal parts.
Whatever creative spark she’s following, she makes in multiples, not just one. Five is her number but it could be any number. Creating five versions of each idea allows her to refine the technique, explore the possibilities of production and decide if the idea is worthy of further exploration.
Dayle will be teaching more about the care and feeding of the creative spark at Synergy.
Cookie Cutter Canes
It’s turning cold. Nearly time for snowflakes. As a kid I loved folding and cutting paper to reveal an endless variety of snowflake patterns.
Sandy from Canada is having a grand time doing the same thing in polymer clay with a simple cane pattern she’s developed. She calls it "cookie cutter caning." I found this post on her site in August.
After a class with Marla Frankenburg in September, Sandy started creating her flakes in translucent clay. This almost makes winter look like fun.
Kato, Regan, MacLeod Do Bangles
Donna Kato’s been in her studio bangling away and you can sneak a peek at the results on her site. (It loads a little slowly because she shares so much.)
A number of us have revisited bangles after admiring the flawless work of Sharon MacLeod. Sharon’s bangles and memory wire bracelets are remarkable for their design, color and workmanship.
Of course, if you’re in bangle mode, you must see Margaret Regan’s version. She came up with her curved tube design at Shrinemont many moons ago and the design still works wonderfully.
Heat Gun Inlays, Hot New Blogs
Those of you hankering for more details about how to fire polymer clay with a heat gun
Encourage Fellow Bloggers
Look at Lindly Haunani’s new blog here. And Sarah Shriver’s taken baby steps on her blog with a bit about her history and a picture of her backyard studio. I see Judy Belcher’s even put a toe in the blog water.
If you’ll send them some comments, it’ll reassure these techno-shy polymer artists that we’re watching and anxious to hear more.
Kathleen Dustin’s uploaded more samples of her new work (like these pod earrings) to her website as well. Thanks to Loretta Lam for spotting that one.
First Effort
Even though this is a first effort and not my finest work, I had to show you my first YouTube video. My children have been bugging me to get moving on YouTube and I’ve spent hours teaching myself how to edit and record. Whew!
This jigsaw puzzle face cane is a simple and fun technique I learned in a class with Australia’s Michele Fanner. I used the Picasso black and white image for simplicity sake. It works on more colorful and complex designs as well. (I wish I’d spent as much time on the cane as I did on the editing.)
The looped blade tool was an idea from a Mike Buesseler class. I have several that my husband created for me. I’m off to a conference next week and plan to use my newfound skills to capture more snippets for your viewing pleasure.