So, here I am!  I’ve been blogging in the virtual scrapbooking/cardmaking world for a while, now.  However, I have recently found the art of polymer clay, and jewellery making, and am thoroughly enjoying it.  So, the next step, for me, is to *gulp* get some feedback about my work.  I think I’m doing okay, but I have no idea how it compares to other clay novices out there.  So, I welcome feedback.  This is going to be a long post, as I have quite a bit to show you.  It took me a while to find the time to take photos, and upload them.

My very first creation:

believe the instructions were on a Youtube video.  He’s cute, but I learned that you need to wash your hands when changing from a dark to a light colour of clay! 

Next, I made an owl pendant, but I guess I hadn’t quite figured out the hand washing thing, yet…

So, I was having so much fun, that I went to the library and brought home a bunch of books, and decided to try the Mokume Gane technique.  What fun!    Here’s a couple of examples of my faves:

I

Whew!  That was fun, but quite time-consuming.  I used silver leaf, and layers of black, translucent, and grey clay.  I used a fuschia base for a couple of the teardrop pendants.  To get them to shine, I sanded with several different grits of wet/dry sandpaper, buffed them, and then applied several coats of acrylic (Future floor polish).

Some simpler projects:

I used a Hero Arts owl stamp, and some silver seed beads for his eyes.

Here’s a necklace I made with the owl pendant, and some of the Mokume Gane beads.  Of course, I had to add some bling – some silver seed beads, acrylic crystals, and a silver-plated chain:

A closer look at the chain - it’s adjustable in length:

Then I moved on to caning, and made some beads, which I know I will probably laugh at once I get better at this art:

I’ve already used a couple of them on cards – they work well for that!  They make great flower centres.

I used some flower-shaped molds to make these – thought they would make a cute earring/necklace combination for a younger person…

I started playing with various additives with these next few projects.  Mainly, embossing powders, glitter, and ink:

The embossing powder I used for the dangling bead on the bottom of these earrings was not heat-proof, so it kind of popped up out of the clay, so I covered it with embossing powder, and heated it, and kind of a funky look, which isn’t really evident in the photo:

I made some purple, and some orange (which turned out kind of brassy-looking);

Okay, so now I had a bunch of beads and pendants.  What do I do with them?  I make jewellery, of course!  lol  So, if you’re gonna make jewellery, you need some findings, chain, tools, etc.  So, before I could do that, another trip to the library….read some more books…spend some more time in my studio playing with the stuff…and voila!  lol….here’s the fruits of my labour, so far:

This is a pendant that I haven’t made anything with yet….

And a heart-shaped pendant that I made with the same batch of pink marbled clay, that I strung a necklace with:

 

So, that’s all for today.  I told you it was going to be a long post!    Please leave me a comment.  I’d love some feedback.