We have a polymer clay group at Bohemian Vibe
This is a Facebook group which is also a project board collaboration between me, Brenda Sue Lansdowne of B'sue Boutiques and Christi Friesen, polymer clay princess extraordinaire, of Christi Friesen
It's a pretty cool person who can have a website whose name is just THEIR name. But then, Christi Friesen is EVERYWHERE.
This month's challenge at Bohemian Vibe is to make flowers in polymer clay and then combine them with some stuff from B'sue Boutiques and some stuff from La Friesen's place (Christi, of course) and maybe some stuff you have stashed, some fiber, some chain, some 'found' or responsibly repurposed stuff.
The photo above is something I started working on beginning of the week. It's a pocket pendant. Not done yet, I have to add the neckline, but! THE POCKET IS NOW FILLED. Little glass pearls on wire, little poly clay flowers I MADE, even a tiny rose....which I have not done before! and a small repurposed tiny dress clip with a star on it.
It's Art Deco period, y'know.
Not all I did this week....last month we were doing faces, so I did a last one from a mold....here's my moon maiden:
So now I just have to decide on the appropriate bead caps and matching poly clay beads which I made from the scraps....and finish her up!
How did I make that crescent? Well, I'll tell ya....I LOVE old cooky cutters. You can alter them, reshape them and once in a bit you find one that is just so perfect. Well this was one of the just so perfect kind. I'd like to research how I might get some of my old cutters remade so I could share them.
I also did this pretty piece on the same crescent:
Hey. I'm gettin' really good at making those skinny poly clay snakes. Well, pretty good, anyway! So there's another one to finish.
And then I made some disc-dish type flowers from cutters and a green/pearl Skinner blend I made, and I mis-shaped them on purpose....and will wire them to this heart base:
Before I do that, though I may add a little more color to the dish flowers. That's what I'm calling them, dish flowers.
Or I might wire in these, which I also made today:
My first leaf headpins! The heart base has holes in it so you can wire stuff, this is something I used to do long ago.....goes my being an assemblage artist first and foremost, I think!
The pattern is made by rolling the clay over an old piece of lace I had leftover from my wedding dress. I had A LOT of lace left over from my wedding dress. That was 39 years ago. You should see it. Looks like I just bought it. Wow!
Here are the headpins:
They are made from clay that I cut out with cutters but then 'adjusted' by adding veins and molding a bit in my hand. Then like Katie Oskin showed us a while back, I stuck an EYEPIN into the ends, as the curved eye holds better. If you just put in a straight piece of wire it can just pull out. An eye won't.
For the longest time I have been looking at rose tuts and wanted to make a rose. So I made a shabby cabbage rose:
It's my first and a good start but can't say it delights me. They'll get better! I will make many more til they do!
These are small 'dish' flowers. Used a cutter, then put them over the smallest sized ball tool in the set that I carry at the site. I bent them and crimped them a bit, brushed them with a little Perfect Pearls before baking. You can see how they are three different sizes and will sort of nest. I put one set together with two bits and a little pearl on wire.
Here's another look at my big dish flowers.
Not done with these yet. I used a green/pearl/white Skinner blend, and burnt umber acrylic paint on top, but to my mind they need a little dark gold, either Swellegant Brass Metal Coating which you can use as an accent paint, or some Gilder's Paste.
All I can say is, polymer clay is pretty addictive. Why don't you come and join us at Bohemian Vibe We are a really focused group, it's a jewelry making group and there are some pretty set criteria, because we are there to LEARN as well as cheer one another on!
You can also come and join us at the B'sue Boutiques Creative Group All mixed media jewelry makers in any medium are invited, you can share your photos and your selling links to your handmade OR vintage pieces for sale. We have a lot of technique discussions as well as business discussions at the Creative Group, and I promote the work using goods from B'sue Boutiques on a special Pinterest board which will soon be connected to the front page of my website, as well:
B'sue Boutiques Gallery of Inspiration
I have an inspiration board of all sorts of poly clay work for Vibers....if you love clay, check it out....all sorts of work that will appeal to the ones in our group, from nature photos to vintage jewelry to clay tutorials and designs:
Bohemian Vibe, Things That Inspire Us
Love all of these pieces. Very creative, unique and inspiring. Thanks for sharing them!
Posted by: Ingrid Anderson | August 01, 2014 at 09:23 PM
I can't believe you just started with polymer clay wow you are a natural. It took me a good 6 months before anything I made turned out well. I got hooked watching old episodes of the Carol Duval show. It looked easier than it was I was making everything too big and couldn't figure out why my stuff looked so bad. But I kept going I got several of Cristy's books they are a great inspiration. I worked forever on a jungle themed vase entered it into a contest and did not even place. But my son saw it and fell in love with it. And I didn't give up and actually won first place in the next contest with a necklace I made. I am no where near as good as I would like to be yet but the key is to never give up. And roses I can make those easily with what I learned decorating cakes.
Posted by: Tess | August 23, 2014 at 01:20 AM