Another Bead Tutorial

Last week I wrote about making beads from some of my old, hard clay.  I mentioned the same technique could probably be done using old canes.  I hadn't tried it but figured it could be done the same way. So.......I decided to give it a try. It just so happens that I have been holding onto some ugly, brittle canes. Just when you think something is unusable....think again!

I started off the same as before, chopping up my cane with my clay blade until I had a pile of small pieces.

Since this clay was really, really dry I drizzled some liquid clay over it and mixed it all up. This is the point where things took a turn.

I was planning on painting my pieces, like previous, but I just wasn't sure it would work with this now sticky pile of clay. So.....I picked up a small amount and smooshed it together. I rolled it into a fat log and started twisting. This made the colors spiral. I flattened it out and ran it through the pasta machine. This gave me a nicely lined sheet of clay. Next, I folded the sheet in half and ran it through the pasta machine again. This started blending the lines into each other. I kept repeating this procedure until I liked the look of it.

Then....what do I do next? Hmmmm..... I remembered I had made some beads once before by wrapping a veneer around a core of scrap clay so I decided to do that! I rolled a ball of clay to use as the center of the bead, cut a strip of the lined sheet just slightly wider and wrapped it around, cutting it where the ends met up. 

Now, here's what you end up with.

Just gently pinch the ends together and slowly work the clay closed.

Then roll the bead in your hands to finish joining it all together.

The next thing I did was to add some texturing to the beads. Why? Because I absolutely hate sanding. I love the look and feel of a perfectly sanded and polished piece of polymer clay but I dread the work it takes! I especially hate sanding and polishing small round beads! Do you know how many times they get dropped???? So, I took the lazy way and added some texture to these beads by rolling them in salt and this is what I got. The only thing left to do was to pierce a hole through it. One down, several more to go.

Here's what I ended up with. Twenty rustic looking beads, all with their own unique colors. I think they look like old, distressed beads that have just been dug up at an archaeological site. (I always wanted to be an archaeologist when I was little.) Or maybe tiny planets, complete with craters! (I never wanted to be an astronaut.)

So there you have it. Yet another way to use up old dry clay!

Bead Do Over

I have been experimenting, learning and playing around with polymer clay, off and on, for close to 19 years.  And in all of that time I have made my share of mistakes. If you have ever tried a new craft I am sure you know what I mean. Sometimes I look back on what I made years ago and think "Oh, my! What was I thinking?"

I have held onto quite a few of these mistakes, not wanting to throw them out but not really knowing what I'm ever going to do with them. Take these beads for example.

They were supposed to look like white marble. But that is not what I got! So, what should I do with them?

Well, since I've been working with polymer for so long I have also made lots of canes, many of which I still have pieces of.  Like these that I made about 3 years ago.

So, I decided to cover my ugly beads with some slices from my leftover canes. Killing two birds with one stone, getting rid of my ugly beads and my leftover canes! It's a win, win!

So that's what I did and here are the results!

What an improvement! I really like their fun new shape! Perhaps I'll make a few more of these and list them in my shop. And I have plenty of other beads that could use a makeover. Oh, the possibilities.......

What's in Store for 2013

We are less than a week into the new year. Have you broken any resolutions yet? Me? I don't make resolutions. But I have made plans, goals if you will, for me and my Etsy shop. Ready to hear about them?

First up......Macrame!  I love macrame!  I remember when I was a kid in the 70's my Mom made a couple of macrame plant hangers and a handbag. But I never learned the knots back then. It was when my daughter was a preteen wanting to learn how to make friendship bracelets that I taught myself some of the knots.  In order to teach her I had to learn it myself!  I've been knotting off and on ever since. There is still a market for macrame hemp jewelry and I have decided to start making a wider variety for the shop. I ordered 12 different colors of hemp and have made a number of bracelets. My goal is to learn a few more knots and try to offer something a little different than just the basic jewelry. And one of these days I'm going to make my own hammock chair too!

12 spools of hemp!

One of the bracelets I made. It's knotted on memory wire!

Next I'm thinking about offering my polymer clay canes for sale.  I love making canes but then I have trouble using them.  I get bored with them quickly and then I'm ready to make a new one. I ordered this set of discs to use with my clay gun a couple of months ago. I love the repeating patterns and the geometric shapes used in quilt blocks.  This should be fun and I have been itching to get started.

          And I finally did!

The first of many!

And just this week I rediscovered Shrinky Dinks! Remember those? Another throw back to my 70's childhood. And once again I have my daughter to thank for this! I was cleaning out some stuff that she left behind when she moved out and found this book. It still had some of the plastic sheets too!

Shrinky Dinks Book!

I sharpened my colored pencils and started drawing. I've made some mistakes, learning what works and what doesn't. I'm not sure where I'm headed with this but I have some ideas in my head. So only time will tell.

The 2 on the left are too dark. The other 3 aren't bad but could be improved.

So what do all of these things say about who I am? I have no idea! I hope to find a way to incorporate everything I enjoy into one cohesive shop. That's one goal that may take me a little longer to reach. But so far this year I've had a blast revisiting some things I haven't done in a while and stretching my imagination.  I am looking forward to what this year has in store for me!