Arizona’s Meg Newberg has unlocked the secrets of gemstones with her latest tutorial.
Make the cane and then shape each slice into whatever cut you prefer- brilliant, pear, marquise, emerald?
Meg sorted out the facets and organized them into a step-by-step for those of us who work with more malleable materials.
Don’t love to make canes? Meg also sells her diamonds in 2″ long canes ready for slicing.
All the trends point to a resurgence of terrazzo (the chips of colors you see embedded in commercial flooring and old linoleum).
South Carolina’s Kathy Koontz (flowertown_originals) shows her way of bringing the trend to polymer. She grinds and grates baked scraps then rolls the small grated pieces into a solid color of unbaked clay. Voila! Terrazzo polymer style.
She shows her process on Instagram. Who says polymer can’t be trendy?
California’s Syndee Holt bypassed using scrap polymer for her mosaic jewelry based on Kim Korringa’s video. See them on Instagram.
Syndee pulled out her pan pastels and created a colorful abstract for her top layer of polymer.
This may sound confusing but it’s all explained in Kim’s video of her simple and quick way to play with a bit of clay. It makes a good warm-up exercise in case you’re in a post-holiday rut.
Expect flowers this week. We’re in bloom and they’re popping up online too!
These earrings from Czech Republic’s Pavla Cepelikova (SaffronAddict) use her subtle stripe tricks from a recent tutorial. (Full disclosure, I bought the tutorial and am hooked.)
Thin slices of striped cane are backed by companion colors which are repeated in the center balls. Springy, trendy, blooming studs to start your week.
These colors from Prague’s Pavla Cepelikova (Saffron Addict) vibrate against each other in the most interesting way as the strips of clay wind around in her Confetti brooch.
She promises that a tutorial is in the works. I’ll let my eyes figure out why the colors in her Manhattan brooch below stop me in my tracks.
In the meantime, visit her on Flickr and Etsy.
Note that there were a couple mistakes in yesterday’s Angel post (like Ron’s address) that have been corrected.
You may have thought you’d done bowls, You remember all those little round ones we made? Then along comes the UK’s Angela Pike (BeadMeUpButtercup) with her first go at Helen Breil’s bowl tutorial.
Here’s Angela on Facebook and Instagram, The textures highlight the orange and blue glow of this retro bowl. Angela followed Helen’s instructions to the letter for her first try. Use your signature colors and your veneer patterns to put your own spin on them.
Helen is very methodical and her instructions are thorough. Looking for a no-fail fun project? This could be it.
Lindsey Hansen (Vivid Clay) lures us into the week with a tempting cane design that fools the eye with its 3D illusion. She covered a straight-sided jar with the slices and replaced the lid with a cork top.
Using black and white, she layers and stacks blends strips of blended clay into a square cane.
Lindsey shared her step-by-step how-to photos on the Hooked On Polymer page on Facebook. Several HOP members tried it with success and Ron Lehocky sent us the link.
If cane-building seems too much for your Monday brain, you can purchase Lindsey’s raw versions on Etsy.
This pendant by Patricia Roberts-Thompson is the result of her playing with Samantha Burroughs’ Oyster Watercolor tutorial. Its loose circles and watery colors make your eyes dive right in.
Patricia added distressing powders to her color combinations and enlarged the design adding a bail fabricated from the same batch.
Samantha admits that she developed her clever tutorial by studying Maggie Maggio’s Watercolor Torn Paper instructions from some years back.
No criticism here! I enjoy the resonances from years back and smile at the progression. Ideas get updated, rejuvenated and taken in new directions that keep our craft healthy and vibrant. It’s also great to see each artist credit her source. Thank you for playing nicely and showing such good manners.
Who doesn’t like to start the week with a free tutorial? You showed such interest in the mid-July PCD post that featured chunky heishi beads by Marina Rios that she responded with a 1-minute video on Instagram.
Watch carefully! She bakes the round tubes before she cuts the facets. She paints them and then splatters the surfaces with alcohol inks. A second batch she covers with several colors of stained glass paints.
She cuts the tubes into disks when they’re baked and off the rods. Thanks for the tricks, Marina!
If cutting cooled clay into disks becomes difficult, you can pop them back into the oven to warm again. They cut like butter when warm.
