The Great Cover Up

Every January finds me wanting to clean up and reorganize closets and drawers. Well earlier this month, while doing just that, I found a sack full of old beads....I'm talking A LOT of beads! Ugly beads I made years ago when I first started learning and experimenting with polymer clay. (Admit it, every beginner has them.) Well, I questioned what I would ever do with them all. I certainly didn't like them any more (and I'm pretty sure no one else would) and I couldn't just throw them away! Then I remembered......some famous artists, like Picasso and Van Gogh, painted over, or covered up, some of their original paintings. Whether they felt their first attempts were failures or they just didn't have the money to buy more canvas, they persevered and kept painting. So with that thought in mind, I took out a couple dozen beads from that sack, feeling pretty certain I could do better this time around.

This was a pretty messy job and a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I wanted to change the shape of the beads and was hoping to be able to cut them clean in halve but that didn't happen. Polymer clay is tougher than I thought! I don't know if it was me, the knife, or the brand of clay. Some cut fairly easy while others chipped and crumbled. But none of them gave me two perfect halves.

Once I had several halves I experimented with covering them in different ways. Some I covered with slices of a skinner blend bullseye cane and I added texture using rough sandpaper. For some, I covered them with a thin layer of solid blue clay and then imprinted lines around them. And for others I used some dry, chopped up clay much the same way I used to make some ring dishes last year. (You can find those instructions here).

They remind me of something you might find washed up on shore somewhere!

After they were cured (and a little white paint added to the blues) I was pretty happy with the results so I decided to make a few more, using some more of my "ugly" beads in various other shapes. 

So much better, don't you think? I really love the organic look. I'm so glad I decided to keep on trying! I'll be listing these soon in my Etsy shop. I don't have time to make them into jewelry. I have more beads to cover up!

February Highlights

As promised yesterday, I'm going to play catch up on things that I have created this year. And so that brings us to February.

February, I think, is my least favorite month of the year so thank goodness it's also the shortest! It's usually one of the coldest too. I'm pretty sure when February rolls around, many others feel the same way I do. They're tired of the cold and just want Spring to hurry up already!

February found me making a few new items. All of which were fun, bright colors, in the hopes of curing the winter doldrums.

I started with keychains! Flowers, butterflies, fish....yeah that felt like spring.

Then I moved on to earrings. They may be small but they are bright!

I even tried my hand at thumbtacks. What a cute way to pin up notes, reminders, recipes, or whatever!

A new item I started making this year is dread beads! I really like making these single, large holed beads. Wear them in your hair or string them on some thick cording, the choice is yours!

Anticipating warmer weather, I made these hair ties. I wear my hair back all the time and thought these would be a fun way to dress up that ponytail!

 

And finally, I made these fun refrigerator magnets!

That's about it. Although it's no longer winter these fun, cheery items for you, your home and office will always brighten your day. Some are still available in my Etsy shop. I invite you to stop by and take a closer look!

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!

"Decorating Tips"

Good grief......how DOES the time go by so fast? Has it really been a month since my last update here? Maybe I should just aim for a monthly post...hmmmm, I might be able to do that. :)

Well, today I thought I would share how I make a pendant. I have had an obsession with these lately. I just love how they turn out and there is something about creating them that I find very relaxing. There are endless combinations of colors and patterns. And it's the making of all these patterns that I wanted to share with you today. So I'll get started.....

First, chose your colors. I usually pick 5 - 7 colors. Today I choose these 6. Light gray, a sort of an orange-y tan, black, dark brown, light brown and light tan. Very earthy.

I rolled out the colors with my pasta machine and cut out various sized circles. I then fit all the circles inside each other and lightly pressed them together. The smallest circle here is 3/16" and the largest is 1-3/4".

Now, these are some of the tools I use for making the patterns. A sewing needle, a small nail, the head of a straight pin, a small screwdriver (the kind used to repair eyeglasses) and a pen cap. Nothing professional there, just some things I found around the house.

Now.... these are what I just discovered. Cake decorating tips! I have a whole set that's been sitting in the back of a kitchen drawer for years. I can't believe I hadn't thought of them sooner.

I decided to test them out and see what kind of mark they would leave. These are the 7 I decided to keep on my work table. Their cake decorating days are over!

This is what the pendant looks like after decorating it.

After it has cured in the oven and cooled off I apply white acrylic paint. Wipe the paint off the surface with a damp rag so that it remains only in the textured marks. And this is what you get.

Now, I start with the back. Just because it's the back doesn't mean it should be left plain! I rolled out some of the dark brown clay and pressed it onto the back of the pendant, making sure there were no air bubbles trapped.  Then I got busy decorating it with my circle cutters and cake tips. It went back into the oven for curing. After it cooled, I painted it, just like I did on the front.

Now my pendant is reversible! All that's left to do now is drill a hole and attach it to a necklace. These a few other ones I've made. See what I mean? The possibilities are endless! Not only are they great for necklaces but earrings and ring dishes as well.

Necklace with 2-3/8" pendant

Earrings with 1-3/8" pendants

4" Ring Dish