Surfingcat's journey with polymer clay - Cara Jane

Don't forget to come see my new blog

2011-09-08T22:04:00.005+01:00

it seems that people are still coming to visit me here but there is nothing new here. All this content, including the comments has been moved over to

www.carajane.co.uk

and there have been lots more posts including showing you some special jewellery I made for my sisters wedding and my latest curing tests.

come follow me over there, it'll make my day to see you there
Thanks
Cara

new blog post at www.carajane.co.uk

2011-06-13T23:57:00.000+01:00

If you haven't already been over to my new blog www.carajane.co.uk address please do. I have a new post over there.

I seem to have a couple of new followers here which is lovely but all the contents of this blog are over there too so please follow my new blog instead of here or you will miss out on all my latest ramblings!

Cara

New blog address

2011-06-05T01:30:00.000+01:00

This blog is moving. I will no longer update this blog, although I will leave it here for the time being.

Please follow me over to my new blog address -www.carajane.co.uk

Please, please, please sign up to follow me there- I will feel lonely without you all!

I have moved all the content, including comments over from this blog, it will be the same blog just in a different place, and with a new header.

Thank you for all your enthusiasm and support!

Cara

Baking experiments part 2 - with videos!

2011-06-02T23:59:00.000+01:00

So in part 1 I discovered that for optimum strength you should turn your oven off at the end of the baking cycle and leave your polymer clay pieces to cool down slowly in the cooling oven. This was just an initial test to see if the set up was going to work before I made lots of samples with more complicated curing, and something I had always been curious about. I was happy that the test worked and set about making more samples (got a blister from the extruder - am thinking it might be time to look at those walnut hollow ones....).

For these tests I chose to cool all my samples at room temperature, although I knew they would be stronger if I let them cool slowly. It was easier to control the curing, meaning I didn't have to reheat the oven for each curing and also the testing would be quicker if the specimens weren't as strong There will be a third round of tests where I search for the real optimum curing based on what I have learnt so far. As before samples are all made from very well conditioned scrap Kato polymer clay. They are extruded cylinders and are approximately 10 cm long and 6mm in diameter. You may note, looking at the results below, that I only repeated each test twice this time. I made three samples each time but as the results were reasonably close and there were a lot to test I decided that two was enough! I haven't got round to polishing the samples yet, to see how shine is affected by cure time/temp - that's a job for another day!

Cure time tests
I tried curing samples for different amounts of time. The temperature for all the samples was 150°C and they were removed from the oven at the end of their cure time to cool at room temperature. The samples cured for 40 min had some longitudinal cracks on them when they were removed from the oven, however there was no sign of the cracks when they had cooled.

Cure time results
10 min -breaking point weight - 501g, 481g
20 min - 2035g*, 1986g*
40 min - 1900g*, 1935g*
*weight of water when specimen bent out of jig.

The weights given for the 20 and 40 min cure samples are not particularly relevant as these samples didn't break, they curved so much they slipped through the test rig. You can see this happening and the test set up in the video below.

Video showing the test set up and how the strong samples bent and slipped out of test jig.

Just managed to photograph this specimen as it started slipping through - see how bent it is!

Having looked at the samples I conclude that for 6mm thick pieces 20 minutes curing is sufficient for strength and perhaps 40 min is too much due to the presence of the cracks on the warm sample, although this wasn't proved to make them weaker.

Oven temperature tests
All samples had 10 min in the oven at a set temperature that was verified with an oven thermometer, they were then removed and cooled at room temperature.

Oven temp results

140°C (~280F)- breaking point weight -440g, 380g

150°C (~300F) - breaking point weight -501g, 481g

160°C (~320F)- breaking point weight -1076g, 900g

170°C (~338F)- breaking point weight -1567g, 1498g

As you can see that change from 150°C to 160°C and again to 170°C makes a significant increase in strength!

Here's a video of a 140°C sample so you can see how little it flexed before breaking, compared to the 150°C for 20 min sample in the video above.

Video showing a test where the 140°C for 10 min cure specimen breaks without much bend

In a recent post on the Kato facebook page (31st March if you want to look back and find it, can't find a way to make a direct link to that post) Tony Aquino, the technical director at Van Aken, who manufacture Kato polyclay, discussed curing temperatures (great timing thank you Tony!). He said that higher temperature of curing would mean stronger clay, my tests show this too.

Conclusion of my experiments so far

Increasing the cure temperature increased the strength of the sample significantly but the samples still all broke. Increasing the cure time meant that the samples were much stronger and held about 2kg, or 2 litres of water before they bent so much they slipped through the test jig. That may be to do with the increased time allowing the temperature in centre of the specimen to reach the correct temperature or some other factor, I'm not sure.

I would like to do some more tests looking at cure time against thickness of specimen so that I would know the ideal time for all thickness of clay. Next time I am bored I guess!

I will cure my next specimens at 160oC (320F) for 20 min, and leave them to cool in the oven as it cools down. This would seem to be the best way to cure 6mm thick Kato Polyclay for optimum strength. I will test this and let you know the results.

This blog will soon be finding a new home, I do hope you'll move with me - I'll keep you posted

Have fun with your polymer clay
Cara

Special pen

2011-05-26T12:13:00.000+01:00

It's my husband Richy's 40th birthday today. Hopefully he is having fun at work while I bake his cake and prepare a special meal for dinner!

He got lots of presents from me and the children but here's one I wanted to share with you.

Rhodium plated pen with polymer clay decoration

The pen looking all fancy in it's presentation box

You may remember I made a pen for my mum recently, from a fairly average pen kit and I was really chuffed at how great it looked compared to covering a biro. Well this was a fancy pen kit, rhodium plated no less. It cost more than I would normally dream of spending on a pen but it was for my wonderful husbands 40th birthday. It looks great it has a real air of quality about it and the parts went together much more easily! I particularly like that the barrel is in one part so only 1 part to cover and there's no band in the middle so you could shape the barrel if you wanted (although straight is easy!). With the 2 barrel pens if you don't get the thickness just right it can look a bit odd. I ordered a few more of the cheaper pen kits when I ordered this but I think I shall spend a little more and get a better quality kit to work with in future, they do plain chrome ones the same as this which are much more reasonably priced.

Right back to my baking.....

Beaux Bangles with Carol Blackburn

2011-05-23T23:41:00.000+01:00

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with the lovely Carol Blackburn yesterday. The workshop was organised by Clectic Events (Rebecca Thickbroom) so I knew it would be well organised, and indeed it was! It was great to spend time with so many lovely people. To catch up with some people I now consider old friends and to meet some new friends too! And even better I get to see a lot of them again this Sunday at the London Polymer Clay Group Meeting .

I haven't got long to write this post as I am preparing for my husbands 40th birthday on Thursday (i.e. making all the stuff I meant to make for him weeks ago but...) so I shall show you what I made (quickly snapped photos too - sorry).

I made 2 bangles in the workshop, although I had to finish bits of both of them at home today.

The first bangle I made I used Fimo, as the workshop was being sponsored by them and we had been given some blocks. I used to work with Fimo soft until they reformulated it and it became too soft for my liking, then I swapped to Kato and have never looked back. I have sanded it but it doesn't feel as nice as the Kato and I found it too sticky and squishy when I was working with it. It does smell better though! I really like one part of the bangle - this bit here

it's a neat looking pattern and I like the spread of colours. And I really don't like this bit

it looks kind of smeared and messy and the colours don't work. The structure of it is good and sturdy and I like the technique Carol showed us.

The stripy one is a lot more chunky than the first one and has a core of sculpey ultralight (thanks Toni for providing it!) so it isn't much heavier. It was the first time I have worked with sculpey ultra light, and possibly the last, it's like marshmallow! The rest of the bangle is made with Kato clay. It needed more sanding at the middle stage really but I rushed it as I wanted to get it covered in the class so the outer profile is a little lumpy and bumpy and not the best shape. It's quite a striking piece of jewellery though and you don't see the lumps and bumps.

I've done some more baking experiments (which I will report when I have a moment) so I hope with my new knowledge from Carol's workshop and my experiments I can make strong skinny bangles too. Can't wait to try out some more big bangles but it will have to wait, birthdays and then school holidays - hmm perhaps my children would like to make some too! My 6 year old son loves to make jewellery for his girlfriends, will have to find a child size bangle form!

The Ripple Effect is another Carol Blackburn/Celctic Events workshop happening in London on the 21st August. I can't make that one unfortunately but I've seen the sample pieces and they look great!

Baking experiments part 1

2011-05-15T21:20:00.000+01:00

In order to find out how best to make strong bracelets I have a series of experiments planned. The first thing I wanted to find out was if polymer clay is stronger if it's quenched, that is plunged into ice cold water straight from the oven. I've heard people say this makes it stronger, polish better and it will keep transparents more transparent. Well I'm using grey coloured scrap Kato clay so can't comment on the transparency but my findings were that it doesn't make clay stronger or polish better.

I wanted to know how strong polymer clay was when it was being bent so my clever engineer husband set up a test for me. I used to do similar work with composite materials for a living as a research materials scientist but I had big expensive machines and gauges to record what was happening (I've got a photo somewhere I will try and dig it out). My husband has also done similar work (we met at work) but is better at finding alternative ways to do things than I am, he's a real problem solver!

Here is one of my extruded rod samples, of extremely well conditioned Kato scrap clay. They are 10cm long and about 6mm in diameter. I chose to extrude them so I could be sure they were as similar as possible.

The sample is 'bridged' over a gap. A loop of ribbon is passed over it and attached to an empty milk carton. Water is poured into the carton until the samples breaks and then we weighed how much water the sample had 'held'. My husband tried to poor the water into the bottle at a steady rate, he isn't holding the bottle just has his hand under it to catch it when the sample breaks so the water doesn't spill. We weighed the water in the bottle at the point that each sample broke.

One of the test pieces not long before it broke! As you can see it has bent quite a bit.

All the test pieces were baked at 150°C (verified with oven thermometer) for 10 min. At this point
three samples were taken out of the oven and left on the side to cool, I am calling these samples 'room temperature'. Three were plunged into ice water, I am calling these samples 'quenched' and three were left to cool in the oven which was turned off and cooling down slowing, these are called 'slow cool' samples.

The results
'Quenched' samples breaking point weight - 485g, 673g, 772g
'Room temperature' breaking point weight -501g, 481g, 759g
'Slow cool' samples breaking point weight- 1069g, 1274g, 1522g

As you can see although there is a fair bit of variation in the results without a doubt the 'slow cool' samples were significantly stronger in flexure (being bent). Watching the test they obviously bent a lot more than the other 2 types of samples before snapping. I'll try and video one of the next ones so you can see a test in action.

I then polished one part of each type of sample using my micromesh cloths and counting the strokes, doing the same for each. The verdict on that is that there is no discernible difference in shine between them.

This test was with Kato clay, I am curious if it's true for other polymer clays but being as I don't use other brands I probably won't take the time to find out I'm afraid.

I am going to do two more tests one to see how the baking temperature effects the strength in flexure (bending) and shine and one to see how the baking time effects the strength in flexure and shine. I am pretty sure that the longer baking time will make them more shiny when polished as that is one of the reasons I currently bake for longer, it will be interesting to find out in a more controlled way though.

The results may be a while coming so in the meantime I would advise that if you want your clay strong, leave it to cool down in the oven after turning it off when you have finished baking!

Blogger down - lost post - bangle problems

2011-05-13T19:06:00.000+01:00

I guess many of you bloggers know that blogger has been down for a while (since last night for me in the UK). It made me realise that I have no other record of the information in my blog as I wanted to check back on my - things I want to make post to remind me and couldn't access it. Can you back up blogs? Must investigate.

Also I wrote a long wordy post on bangle problems - blogger has probably chosen not to publish it cause it was too long and boring! I will try and summarise it this time round.

I have trouble making solid polymer clay bangles, the often seem to break easily. At first they seemed to break at the join so I now add a bit of polypaste and make sure I smooth the seams carefully. That solved the popping at the seams but now means they break elsewhere instead! See evidence below

These were made from very well conditioned Kato scrap clay extruded through the largest makins D shape die (about 8mm wide and about 5mm at it's thickest). Joined carefully with some polypaste, baked on an empty coke can at 150 oC (300F) for 40 mins. They broke when I was carefully sliding them from the coke can, the first break was not at the join. Glad they broke then rather than after I had taken the time to cover them I suppose!

This bangle is made from a sausage of well conditioned Kato clay joined carefully with some polypaste in the join, covered with a decorated sheet of cane slices, baked on an empty coke can at 150oC for 1 hour. It looked fine and felt strong so I wore it for a morning. All good until I decided to sand it. Almost the minute I started gently sanding with my soft micromesh cloth draped over my fingers it broke. It is quite skinny, about 8mm in diameter, like some others I have been wearing which are fine - here's a post about them.

So where am I going wrong with them? My husband has a feeling that baking them for a long time they are strong but brittle and I should under cure them rather than cure them for longer so they are more ductile, less brittle. I was about to start some baking trials for different times when I came across a post from Tony Aquino on the Kato Polyclay Facebook page stating that the higher the cure temperature the stronger the clay will be. I will try and test some different temperatures too. What I need for bangles is something with a little flex I guess. I've had a few suggestions from clever people at the PCC Forum to try out. I will report back with anything I find out, but please leave a comment or mail me if you have any ideas I could try to make bangles that don't break!

thanks

Cara

Bangle problems

2011-05-12T19:10:00.000+01:00

I struggle with bangles. I love them and want to make them but don't trust them not to break. I have bought several tutorials on making bangles in the hope they would give me confidence to make bangles I could trust but still the only ones I have faith in are the 2 part 'Bam bam' bangles that I learnt from Tina Holdens tutorial (which I'd highly recommend). My favourite bangle I wear all the time is made like this and seems very sturdy.

I have tried several other methods of making bangles and find that they break very easily, sometimes when removing from the bangle form (I use a coke can, a glass or a large round cookie cutter), sometimes whilst sanding and some seem ok but due to the number that have broken I always wonder.

The blue and white set I made for myself and have been wearing seem to be OK. I made those by rolling a long sausage of clay and joining the ends with polypaste. In the past it was often the joins which popped open so I thought the addition of polypaste would help to strengthen that weak area. I was also concerned that perhaps the clay wasn't conditioned enough so the clay for these were very well conditioned to make sure this wasn't an issue. I also baked them extra long to try and make them as strong as possible.

With the success of these bangles I made another one the same way. A long thin sausage of well conditioned clay, covered with cane slices, joined with some polypaste and the clay well smoothed over, some cane slices on top of join. I baked it extra long. I loved it and put it on straight away. I wore it all morning and it seemed fine. I then went to sand it and within about 5 seconds it broke. Devastating! I was being careful, I wasn't being rough.

This wouldn't be so bad but I have an oustanding, or perhaps I should say over due, order for a smaller bangle like one I had made at Polymer Play Days last year. We were given prebaked bangles to cover which had been formed from extruded D shapes. I tried this last night. I made sure my clay was thoroughly conditioned. I extruded using the largest D shape in the standard makins extruder die set, put them round an empty coke can, joined the ends with polypaste, baked extra long (50 mins) ..... and they broke when I tried to take them off the can. Arghh!!

The first break in both cases was not at the seem so I am sure the polypaste at the join helps.

Maybe they just need to be more chunky. I am off on Carol Blackburn's Beaux Bangle course next weekend (so exciting, can't wait! I get to see my 2 lovely school friends for a couple of nights first too!) so I am sure I will be able to make beautiful big bangles after that but I want to be able to make little ones that don't break too. I shall see what I can find out -I shall do some experimenting and I have asked for advice on the Polymer Clay Central forum too. If you've got some advice I'd love to hear it!

Thanks
Cara

Purple Flowers,pendants, micromesh and pens

2011-05-09T13:06:00.000+01:00

My mum got more birthday presents made by me. I wasn't quite sure how my disc necklace would work out so I went back to something I knew would work just in case - a flowery cabochon. Again in purples. It turned out very well, I'm very pleased with it. She ended up with both.

I recently bought some new micromesh sheets in the 8000 and 12000 grits. Previously I had the basic hobby kit which went up to 6000. The difference in the shine is marked. Polishing up to 12000 grit micromesh means that you can buff to a glass like shine by hand on a tea towel! Add a little mechanical buffing on the dremel and they are glorious! With this one I made the cabochon (hand formed) then I baked and polished it then added the frame and rebaked. I polished again through the last 3 grades briefly and then buffed. It certainly doesn't look like polymer clay any more!

I also made my first proper pen, with a pen kit rather than covering a cheap biro. Again for my mum, she was a little spoilt I think, but she deserves it!

In theory it's refillable but I had some trouble fitting the parts together so I am not sure how easily it will come apart to put refill in. Again it's polished with the new finer micromesh cloths and it's a thing of purple beauty! I wish I had made my polymer clay bits a tiny bit thinner so it doesn't bulge out from the central band. Next time I will - or I'll just cover the band with a different clay pattern too! I've ordered some more pen kits so watch this space for more. I have ordered some different types to try out. There are so many different ones out there it's hard to know which ones to buy.

I've made some other jewellery bits with the same 2 purple flower canes. As always I didn't make the canes big enough, if I didn't like them I would have lots of it of course! Sometimes canes just really turn out great. With these I love how the colours work together but because I wasn't sure if using all purples would be too much I only made very small canes. Luckily I am getting good at cutting thin so I have made them go a long way.

Purple discs

2011-05-08T23:12:00.000+01:00

I was playing about with ideas for a present for my mum's birthday. She wears a lot of purple so the colour choice was easy at least! I wanted to incorporate many different shades so it would go with lots of different purple things. I made a bullseye cane using quite a few different layers in differing thickness's for added interest. I cut some slices and used my favourite texture tool, a texture sponge sheet I bought from the lovely Natalia García de Leániz at Polymer Play Days in Nottingham (UK) last year. There is an email address to order some on the Clay Yo! website and I see Prairie craft are stocking them.

I domed them slightly and pierced a hole through the edge of the domed bit rather than through the middle or at the circular edge so they would hang down showing the circle shape (couldn't quite find the words but hopefully you can see from the photo). I was going to suspend a crystal in the dome at the bottom of the head pin used to attach it but it didn't look quite right. I found some interesting small purple beads instead. The shapes of the polymer were too organic for the structure of the crystal and perhaps the colour of crystal not quite right. Trying to get the beads to hang right on the chain proved to be a bit of an issue but I got there in the end.

Here I am trying it on

I also made a stretchy bracelet of the textured discs and the small purple beads. Mum doesn't wear bracelets so this one will go into my sale stock (unless I decide to keep it, it does go with that top I was wearing.... would have to make myself a necklace to go with it of course!)

This was inspired by Natalia's textured bracelets that I saw at Polymer Play Days too. I always find it strange how things you've seen can lurk around in your head for ages and then pop out with a twist when you least expect it. I knew it was Natalia's bracelets that had prompted this design as I was making it and I thought this was more similar to her bracelets until I looked them up. They have the same texture and the beads are both discs and they are both on elastic but they aren't really that similar. I guess we take inspiration from all the things we've ever seen and have stored up over the years. A great excuse for some trips to beautiful places or to go look at beautiful things! Or just a quick flick through Flickr as you eat your lunch (as I like to on a weekday when I am home alone!)

Cindy Leitz's Teardrop Blend Shift Video free to view this week

2011-05-02T23:10:00.000+01:00

For those of you who haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere Cindy Leitz is offering free access to her recent Teardrop blend shift video it's for a limited time, she said a week in her first post. So go check it out now while you can!

Sorry I haven't had much to say recently, April seems to have been a month long holiday this year! I've had an excellent time out and about and hardly touched my polymer clay. That's all set to change in May as I am looking forward to attending 2 events. Carol's Bangle class that I mentioned in the last post and the London Polymer Clay Groups 4th birthday meeting. I look forward to reporting back.

There aren't many photos of me from my recent holidays cause it's normally me behind the camera but here's when I met the Mad Hatter (cause the children were frightened of him for some reason so were hiding under the table) at a character breakfast at Disney World

Carol Blackburn's Beaux Bangles Workshop

2011-04-06T23:49:00.000+01:00

I have a very exciting time coming up. First of all we are off on a family holiday to Disney World in Florida (very exciting!!!) Then it's the Royal Wedding which I'm not really that excited about apart from the fact we get a lovely 4 day weekend and are off camping with friends. So I am afraid there will be little clay news for a while.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, in May, in the same weekend I am catching up with my 2 best friends from school and attending Carol Blackburn's Beaux-Bangles workshop! The workshop has been arranged by the lovely Rebecca who was one of the organisers of Polymer, Pamper, Play so I am sure it will be superbly organised and I know Carol is a wonderful teacher.

hope you are all having fun too!

Cara

Tulips

2011-03-31T21:05:00.000+01:00

This one was a birthday present for my sister in law, to go with the tiny tulip tile earrings she had bought from me already.

And then I made a very simple tiny choker which was snapped up at my sale last Friday. Think I will have to make some more!

I've also had enquiries about making another set of cake forks, which I realise I haven't shown you, and worse I realise I didn't photograph! The first tulip set I made were for some dear friends who live in Holland as a wedding present and took hours so I am not quite sure about the price, I will have to make another one to work out the time it takes so I can cost them.

Monkey cake

2011-03-27T23:55:00.000+01:00

My little girl was 5 today! Can't believe she's so old, I don't know where the last 5 years have gone!

She wanted a monkey hunting party so we had great fun at her party making binoculars from toilet rolls, hunting for monkeys (pictures of them only but that didn't seem to disappoint the children too much), finding sticks for a fire and toasting marshmallows.

Off course she had to have a monkey cake and as I was short of time at the end of the week (had 2 jewellery sales) decided to make a polymer clay monkey to go on top of a fairly plain cake (any excuse to play with clay!)

Here's the cake at the party

We sang Happy Birthday again to Daisy at home with what was left of the cake!

I was really pleased with how my monkey turned out, until I baked him. He's solid Kato clay and as I turned the oven on I realised I would of been better giving him a tin foil core or something similar as the clay was very thick! Needless to say he cracked. I was distraught until I stepped back and realised it didn't really show. I still think the cracking is often to do with lack of support but also wonder if it's to do with how on a thicker bit of clay the outside is cured whilst the inside is uncured still. Does the clay expand as it heats up or cures? Is the raw clay underneath cured clay too unstable to support it? Some more experimenting required I think as I would really like to be able to be confident things won't crack!

Anyway hats of to those of you who sculpt with polymer clay - how on earth do you do it without squashing and disfiguring other bits all the time I don't know!

Feeling square

2011-03-24T15:51:00.000Z

whilst at Polymer Pamper Play I made a square pendant and in one of those happy accident ways it came out of the oven slightly curved (it was baked on fibrefill). To start with I thought I might rebake it on a tile to flatten it then I realised that the curve was actually lovely. It gives it another dimension and means it sits nicely on the chest rather than sticking to you as a totally flat one might. Here it is

Slightly curved square pendant with the frayed demin pattern Carol Blackburn taught us.

I decided I wanted to replicate the curve but wanted to be able to control it rather than leave it to chance so I made myself a domed square curing block.

It seems to work, here are a couple of slightly curved square pendants

The black and white flower inspired by Toni's top again!

This one is in the colours from the Color Palette a Week group on flickr for week 10

The Color Palette a Week group week 10 palette is these lovely colours

I made my items in the right week but didn't have time to sand and finish them. Here's the other piece I made

My almost entirely polymer braclet

2011-03-22T16:50:00.000Z

I used the spare toggle set to make another new bracelet for me! There are some glass spacer beads, some tiger tail wire to hold it together and 2 crimp beads to fasten the tiger tail but the rest is polymer!

The discs are curved, partly to match the curve of the pendant with the same design and partly so that it fits the wrist better. I chose a cookie cutter that fitted over my hand and baked the discs on it. I then lay a sheet of clay on the back, cutting out 2 channels for the tiger tail wire and another sheet of black which I textured over that to enclose the channels.

It is very comfortable to wear, it's light and fits nicely, not too tight, not too loose. I think I shall be making some more like this!!

Polymer toggles

2011-03-21T14:35:00.000Z

I have been thinking about making some polymer toggles for a long time now. I like toggle clasps I find them less fiddly than the lobster type clasps, especially for a bracelet when you only have one hand to do it up with!

I first thought about making them thinking about asymetric necklaces and using a decorative toggle as feature at the front of it, still haven't tried that yet but I will sometime!

I was asked by a friend who can't wear any metal to restring an 1930s necklace of her mothers so decided it would be the ideal time to try making a polymer toggle as it wouldn't cause her any problems.

The first set I made I made the bar too short and it fell out of the hole! So I made smaller ring and a longer bar and then had 2 pairs that work effectively (i.e. stay done up!). I made them so the tiger tail I was threading the necklace with would thread through them. I reinforced both the bar with a length of wire and the ring with a jump ring, on reflection I don't think the ring will need reinforcing.

polymer toggle clasps

As you can see I textured them to save sanding ;) The necklace I was restringing is lovely and I have a half made polymer reproduction of it. Here is the restrung necklace - my only work in the addition of the seed beads to lengthen it and adding the polymer toggle. Not quite sure what the rest of the necklace is, to be honest it feels a lot like polymer clay but it's 80 years old and I am sure it wasn't invented then!

An old 1930's necklace, restrung and with a new polymer toggle.

Latest jewellery - and it's all for me!

2011-03-18T20:06:00.000Z

I haven't had any new jewellery for myself for a while now, I was busy making sale stock and completing orders. So far this year things have been quieter so finally made myself some new things. Here's some of them

3 blue and white skinny bangles. I am road testing these to see how they strong they are. Baked them extra long to try and make sure they were strong!

Blue and white oval cabochon pendant, I do love this simple blue and white flower cane. This is the second batch of the cane I've made and I can see I will be making more.

The blue and white colours are also the colour palette for this week in the Flickr Colour Palette a Week group - do come and join in with whatever medium you craft in.

Hollow beads made using the technique I learnt on Christine Dumont's Hollow Bead Workshop. She is just about to start an online workshop for these beads so follow the link and check it out.

Hollow beads strung as a necklace

I've more to show you tomorrow. Hope you all have a great weekend
Cara

Photo set up further improvement - stage 2

2011-03-16T12:31:00.000Z

A while ago I posted about trying to take better photographs of my jewellery (read my stage 1 photo set up post here). Well finally I got my hands on a suitable cardboard box and have made a light tent

The light on the left of the picture has a 100W equivalent (it's energy saving so actually only 25w) daylight bulb in it, it's my normal work bench light. The light on the right is one of my show set up lamps and I thought I could put another 100w daylight bulb in it but alas it has a tiny screw fitting so it doesn't fit. I will need to find another lamp but the show lamp will do for now.

Here's a couple of shots of that pendant I made to match a new top a while back (I did promise a close up picture so here it is - rather over due - sorry!)

This shot was taken with me holding it up by the cord, you can see a yellow spot which is the from the 'wrong' lamp.

Lightbulb box with white felt draped over it supporting the pendant

Here's that top again as I am sure you don't remember it!

I am pretty chuffed with the photos I've taken, so I move onto the final stage in perfecting the photos - getting that second lamp and finding some staging items, or at least supports for jewellery.

I've got so many more things I want to show you, new jewellery, new ideas, new textures but I can't sit here at the computer all day so I will post some more tomorrow.

Polymer Pamper and Play was Perfect!

2011-03-16T10:53:00.000Z

Wow what a weekend Polymer Pamper Play was! It was so well organised, Rebecca and Debbie had thought of everything! It was a great group of friendly and talented ladies and it was great to get to know you all a bit better. The best thing was staying all together in the same place, sharing meals together, having time to talk and being able to play with our clay before breakfast, in the middle of the night.... Wonderful! There are some pictures from the event on the Polymer Pamper Play website here.

Here's some of what I made in the workshops

Carol Blackburn's Ikat beads workshop.

My favourite two pieces, I think you will be seeing more like these!

Christine Dumont's Butterfly Bead Workshop

Another inspiration came from my dear friend Toni's top -I shalln't embarrass her with a photo of her but here's her top

Here's the pendant I made at the event

I wasn't happy with how the cane worked out - once I had started on a small element I realised quite the scale of it and dramatically simplified it. I made a construction error and due to the warmth in the room wasn't able to pull the pieces apart (you often can with Kato) so had to reduced the irregular shaped petals fully constructed which lead to a lot of distortion. I like the overall effect of it and can't wait to make some more black and white flower canes!

If you live in the UK you really should come to the 2012 Polymer Pamper Play, it really was blissful on all levels as advertised! Thank you so much Rebecca and Debbie for organising it, can't wait til next year!

and the giveaway winner is.......

2011-03-14T17:37:00.000Z

Thanks to a random number generator, the winner is comment 13....

Looking at the list I see it's Fiona! Congratulations Fiona. I know you have been reading my blog for at least a year so I am sure it's going to a good home.

I wish I had the time and money to send you all one, sorry I can't but thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on my blog, it's much appreciated. I'm sure I will do another giveaway sometime this year.

Got lots of exciting things to share with you so stay tuned...

Natalia's fold it class on Craft-Edu

2011-03-09T21:46:00.000Z

I know some of you have admired my work based on Natalia Garcia de Leaniz's class at Polymer play Days in Nottingham 2010 (see below for a reminder). The focal in my Giveaway (still a few days left to enter!) is off course also made with this technique.

Well the good news is now you can take the class too on Craft-Edu - Natalia's fold it class on Craft-Edu

Further good news is that there will be a Polymer Play Days 2011 in the UK - see the blog for more details.

And even better is that tomorrow I shall be packing to go to Polymer Pamper Play! I can't wait to see some old friends, meet some people I know from online but not real life and meet some totally new ones and spend all that time with nothing to think about but polymer clay! We have a workshop in the mornings on Sat and Sun. I am really looking forward to Christine Dumont's butterfly beads workshop as this will compliment the Pods and cocoons workshop I was lucky enough to take with her earlier in the year.

So my next post will be an exciting one as I will be announcing the winner of the give away and sharing what I got up to on my polymer clay weekend. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Cara

Cutting polymer clay

2011-03-08T15:50:00.000Z

I was reading a discussion on the Polymer Clay Central Message Board about which clay blades were rigid and shared my home made clay knife so I thought I ought to share it with those of you who don't read the forum (you should there's so much useful information there from such wonderful, friendly, talented people).

I do have an assortment of clay blades but more often than not use my own trusty blade. It's a snap off knife blade which I have made a polymer clay handle for. I have used several of these over the years (have only just stopped using the first one I made 20 years ago!) and find them very useful. The are sharp, rigid, cheap and easy to get hold of. The point makes it more versatile than a standard clay blade. I now make the handle with a flat bottom so they stand up on the table. I use the wider blades ( about 18mm across) as they are more rigid.

Although the blade is meant to snap off it won't unless you try to bend or curve the blade. For cutting and downward pressure there is no risk of snapping. As I say I've been using one for 20 years and never had any problem.

What do you use to cut your clay?

Square inspiration

2011-03-03T15:02:00.000Z

I am busy completing a few orders at the moment but am feeling the urge to try a new shape.Here's some inspirational 'square' polymer clay jewellery by other polymer clay artists I have found on Flickr. The pictures are all links so you can click on them to see more photos from these brilliant artists. Enjoy!

.

Blue Dog Beads

Silvia Ortiz de la Torre

Purple Cactus Studios

zarzamel / melanie gautronneau

Wired Orchid

Don't forget my giveaway http://surfingcatclay.blogspot.com/2011/02/giveaway.html

CPAW8 work in progress

2011-02-25T01:06:00.000Z

It's the children's school holiday week so not much clay time for me. I did manage to sneak in a quick hour this evening in order to keep up with the Color Palette a Week Flickr group . I had lots of ideas but not enough time to fulfil them so I opted for some quick things. Here's what I've made, the sanding and finishing will have to wait til next week. I will try and remember to show you the finished items.

This weeks colour palette - back in my comfort zone ;)

Striped jellyroll cane covered oval cabochon pendant, domed disc pendant (getting good mileage out of my light bulbs at the moment ;) and 2 small cane slice beads which will become earrings.

There's no black in this mokume gane and the dark purple isn't really showing in these bits. Not sure if I will leave them as they are or do something more to them.

The mokume gane shavings on a sheet of black, domed disc pendant. This is probably my favourite at the moment.

GIVEAWAY!!

2011-02-23T22:06:00.000Z

It's time for a giveaway! There are now 100 lovely followers for this blog - amazing!
Thank you all for reading my ramblings.

To enter the give away simply leave a comment below, making sure I have means to contact you should you be a winner (easiest way is of course to be a follower).

The winner will be drawn on Monday 14th March by random number generator.

They will win this lovely necklace!

Should there be more than 100 comments I will add another prize. Everyone is welcome to join in, friends, family (yes even you mum!), followers, people new to my blog.....

Good luck!

Cara

PS If the number drawn out is for someone with no contact details I will draw another

Colour Palette Challenge - week 7 - coffee

2011-02-19T11:51:00.000Z

Being as I am working on my mokume gane technique at the moment I used this weeks colours from the Color Palette a Week Flickr group to play about with it some more. You may I have seen the sheets I made, here's some of the jewellery I have made. Got some beads too but I haven't polished or strung them yet.

Textured domed disc with a centre from the stamped mokume gane sheet

Domed disc pendant made with the shavings from the stamped mokume gane, it has such a different feel to it

Pendent made up of 2 oval pieces, one plain colour the other mokume gane.

I am half way through a series of blue, turquoise and green mokume gane pendants. Can't wait to show you but I will have to as it is the kids school holidays and we are busy, busy, busy! Hope you all have a good week.

Remeber these extruded stripey beads?

2011-02-19T00:55:00.000Z

A while ago I posted a tutorial for making these beads

It never really occurred to me that people actually used it until recently when someone commented on another post to say thank you for the tutorial. If you have tried it out - how did it work for you? Did you get the crumbles? I haven't tried it with new formulation Kato yet, I might need to do some leaching to get it to work.

If you have photos of beads you made can I see them? I've only made them in brown and green for some unexplainable reason. Would love to see other peoples versions - everyone always adds their own twist to things. Leave me a comment with a link - or mail them to me (there's an email me link in my profile).

I find this blog fun, and it helps me focus and think about things a bit more than I might otherwise (sometimes anyway ;). I love it when people leave comments so please do if you have the time. I am often guilty of reading things and not taking the time to comment when I have something to say but I know how much I appreciate it when people do.

Only 2 more followers to go before I launch a giveaway of some jewellery. I shall have to go and decide what the prize/prizes are going to be! Thanks for reading

Cara x

Mokume gane - again....

2011-02-18T00:53:00.000Z

Bracelet 672
Originally uploaded by Angela.B

For a long time I have been admiring other peoples mokume gane but never quite managed to get results I was equally stunned with myself.

Here's one of the pieces I love by Angela.

I was determined that I too was going to master this technique. I had already read several tutorials and played about with it a bit but still wasn't quite getting it how I wanted it. I reread some tutorials and played about last night until I cracked it! Having a decent deep texture definitely makes it easier so I am glad I bought the Lisa Pavelka texture stamps.

Here was my first attempt, well you can see the pattern but I had 3 colours (you might recognise them as being this weeks colour palette from the Color Palette a Week Group on flickr) and I was only seeing 2 and it just didn't have the magic.

Rereading some of the tutorials I decided my layers weren't thin enough. I made a stack that was 12 layers within a sheet that was made on the thickest setting of the pasta machine - pretty thin layers! Again I used the 3 colours from the coffee colour palette. Finally I am happy!

Successful mokume gane sheet!

I used the shavings on sheet of scrap clay and love this too!

I have made some things with the sheets but need to get them sanded, strung and photographed before I share them with you. Teaching a workshop tonight so I am off to prepare for that. I hope to share my finished jewellery soon. Kids are home from school next week and we are mainly away with friends and family so it'll be quiet here, and I'll have to try and cope without my clay.....

Texture in shapes

2011-02-17T11:15:00.000Z

Whilst making up some pendants I thought I would be clever and try and do 2 jobs at once. Well it didn't work out how I thought but I quite like what happened.

I wanted to make a circular pendant with a textured back, I decided to cut out the circle whilst the clay sheet was over some rough sandpaper thinking it would get textured as I cut. As usual once I saw what happened it was obvious that's what would happen but you don't always think about these things late at night.

I picked up the sheet and discovered that of course it didn't texture the whole back as pressure was only applied to the area that the cutter was pressing on. But I think this could be quite a neat thing to do - texture in shapes. I'll play around with it.

PS I am going to have a giveaway when I get to 100 followers - only 7 more to go

This weeks colour palette creations

2011-02-13T00:27:00.000Z

In my last post I told you about the Color Palette a Week Group on Flickr. Well here is this weeks colour palette - it's bright and I didn't think I liked it but you have to try these things.

I mixed up the colours with some pearl clay included to make them a little softer and because I was in a shimmery type of mood. I also used the opportunity to try out some of the things on my 'want to try' list.

Here's what I made

Thin stripes, yes all 3 colours are in there but it's hard to see the pink especially. I wasn't sure how to string the donut type pendant other than the obvious way which I am not overly keen on. Tried it on black buna cord, black suede, grey suede and pink rattail before I decided perhaps red looked best as it saved introducing another colour.

This is a very experimental piece. I finally tried using metal leaf for crackles and I think you will be seeing more of that! The top part is a Sutton slice which worked beautifully thanks to the tips in Lisa Pavelka's -The Complete Book of Polymer Clay, I used another of her texture stamps to do it, the back is textured with the same stamp btw. I then tried out using a layer of liquid polymer clay as a varnish/protective layer over the gold crackles. I baked the piece as normal and the liquid clay was still a little milky so as recommended by Donna Kato I got the heat gun on it and wow - before my eyes it transforms to become clear and shiny. I'm not sure you will see a piece quite like this again but I will be using all those techniques some more. I didn't like this at all when I first made it, it was a playing about piece but now it's growing on me and I almost like it.

A hollow oval donut in mokume gane. These colours don't really suit mokume gane as there isn't enough contrast but it is a technique I am keen to improve. I thought after I had stacked them a second time - should of put another colour in to lift it but it was too late by then. I rescued the rest of the clay I had stacked to make the striped pendant above. I see so many stunning examples by other people and am never really that happy with mine. The Lisa Pavelka texture stamps are better to work with than most of the other stamps I have as they are deep so you get a good impression. I look forward to wowing you with something stunning one day.

Whilst shaving the mokume gane I created a pile of shavings which looked rather appealing, they became this funny little pendant, another one I'm not totally sure about but it's different!

So nothing I am totally in love with, they aren't my colours but they did make me push some boundaries and try some new things so it was a worth while exercise. If nothing else the scrap clay from the 3 colours together makes a lovely red!

Colour Palette Challenge

2011-02-11T09:15:00.000Z

I thought about taking part in a Thing a Day challenge this year but decided I would only get behind and frustrated when life got in the way. The last couple of weeks I've had plenty of creative time but January I didn't really touch my clay at all :(

I did however happen across a Flickr group (I watch Flickr instead of TV these days, much more inspiring) called Color Palette a Week . Every week Chris who started the group posts a palette of colours and the idea is that people create something using that palette then share it with the group. I tend to stick with similar colours and I have been thinking for a while that perhaps I should 'design' my pieces of jewellery using a palette of colours rather than just picking up what I feel like so this seemed like a good challenge. I was slow to get started but finally posted my first item to the group (2 weeks late but... I started it in the right week).

My creation

The colour palette for week 4 - based on the Mystery Machine (the van from Scooby Do)

I made a Skinner blend from all four colours in the palette but the pendant would of been giant to fit them all in so I lost most of the turquoises, should of thought about what I was doing before I started but I just mixed up the colours and decide to blend them. As it is it's 7cm across!

I made it using the instructions by Mari O'Dell for an Art nouveau pendant in the book 'The Art of Jewellery - Polymer Clay by Katherine Duncan Aimone.

I used black acrylic paint mixed with liquid clay for the black pattern and it blistered in the oven which is why the black pattern looks a little odd. Pattern is a Lisa Pavelka texture stamp.

I am working on this weeks palette, I have made several things just need to get them sanded and strung. I seem to be a bit manic at the moment with the blog but I have had some clear creative time so am making the most of it. I was claying in the middle of the night last night as I am having trouble with a tooth and couldn't sleep. I'll share some pictures later.

Chokers oven friendly!

2011-02-10T16:46:00.000Z

Whilst I was ordering some more chokers I saw bracelets the same, nylon coated wire with a screw closure. I am often asked to make matching bracelets for my floating wire necklaces which is a problem as I don't think floating wire bracelets work so I normally add more beads as shown below. I realise as I write this I haven't actually tried a floating bead wire bracelet - hmm perhaps I should. Any other suggestions welcome.

Wire floating bead necklace

Bracelet to match necklace (had to get creative to make the pattern repeat neatly to the size required) on elastic

I wondered if the choker bracelets might be the answer. When they arrived I realised they had a different screw fitting, a textured one rather than the plain smooth barrel and I didn't like the look. My first thought of course was - I'll cover it with clay. But would the nylon coating on the wire be OK? I tested it and the answer is yes! I wanted to try it out so made a quick bracelet - not very happy with it as a bracelet but it's something to work from.

Nylon coated wire bracelet with screw closure (the one on the right on it's own is the covered screw barrel)

I had to make the hole in the beads reasonably large to fit over the screw fixing. They are larger than the covered screw barrel, I was in a rush and not thinking about it too much. It would probably be easiest to make the barrel covering a feature rather than trying to blend it in to the beads. I am not sure how you would secure them? Might try baking some right onto the wire next. You would need to secure at least one at the end or every time you took it off they would go flying everywhere! So something else on my list of things to try....

What will I make next?

2011-02-10T14:02:00.000Z

I have so many ideas of things I want to make with polymer clay my head has't got room for much else! I am in such a creative place at the moment that jewellery designs just pop into my head all the time (especially in bed trying to sleep it would seem). I am not complaining about this but I do wish I had more time available to play with my clay so I could make them all before the ideas fade (I've tried writing/drawing them but it seems to kill the idea rather than preserve it for some reason). I am enjoying my curved disc shape at the moment and want to make one that mimics a summer sky and I want to make a necklace with several discs.

There are also a loads of techniques I want to try - there are just so many possibilities with polymer clay! Some at the top of my list are;

Watercolour technique
Making my own texture plates
Using liquid polymer clay as a varnish (heat gun after bake)
Mokume gane, sutton slice and mica shift - have tried these but still not perfected
Making polymer necklace closures
Using mica powders
Crackles

I also really want to play with resin coatings but that means investing in a UV light, maybe once I have had a few more successful sales!

I also have some experiments to do. I am keen to do some baking trials as I commented at the London Polymer Clay Group that you couldn't bring fimo to a glass like shine like you could Kato and then on the way home remembered Carol Blackburn's fabulously shiny fimo bowl from the previous meeting- which had just been sanded and did have a glass like shine. I have a feeling that perhaps I don't bake my fimo things long enough, thus they don't polish so well - only one way to find out....

I am going to spend some time in the next couple of months playing with these ideas, actually using some of the books and tutorials I have instead of just looking at them. I am also going to try and imitate the style of some of my favourite pieces of jewellery by other polymer clay artists to get a feel for their technique and to further develop my skill.

I look forward to sharing the results with you!

My workspace and my new friend

2011-02-07T13:34:00.000Z

When I first started my polymer clay journey I was working on the kitchen table. It was a pain having to get everything out and pack away again, often a few short hours later when my daughter was at preschool. Before the children were born I had a craft room, but it had become a playroom. Mention of the desire to move house so I could have a craft room again got my husband worried and we found a solution. We put my old craft bench back in the playroom with a set of shelves above and a chest of drawers below to store all my stuff. The kids don't mind because often they play clay with me!

Me and my children making polymer clay jewellery together

It is normally a chaos of half finished things and things I am not sure where to put, I am not the neatest person and I always seem to have something I just have to do which is more important than tidying up.Today I finally tidied up so I thought I had better take a picture quick before it gets messed up again! I still have a lot of organising to do of my jewellery making findings and beads etc but at least they are all in one place and tidied up. I will try and do some organising next week.

My work space - tidy for once!!

If you look very carefully in the middle of the shelves is my new little friend (see him up close below). I have been admiring the cute creations of Quernus Crafts for some time, I couldn't take the cuteness any more and just had to buy myself one! I now have a little mouse to watch over me while I work, needless to say the children totally adore him too! Daisy likes to go and give him a kiss, so sweet (guess what she's going to get for her up coming birthday!)

My new little friend - made by Quernus Crafts

Please feel free to pass on any tips about organising and keep your work space neat!

Birthday heart

2011-02-06T15:52:00.000Z

We went out last night to celebrate one of my friends birthdays to an 80's club. I wanted to make her a funky piece of retro jewellery, which was why I started the whole rainbow thing but I couldn't show you this before in case she happened to read my blog.

So I have been meaning to try making hollow lentil beads but for some reason decided I was going to make a hollow heart. Probably not the most sensible idea as I have never tried the technique with the much more simple lentil shape but I like a challenge!

So I sculpted a heart shape from scrap clay to use as a mould.I then made some shells of scrap clay on the mould and joined them together incorporating a wire hanging loop - this is a hollow heart, curved on both sides

I made a sheet of patterned clay by cutting fairly thin slices from my funky rainbow striped jellyroll cane and laying them on a thin sheet of clay, you can just about see where I marked out roughly the size/shape I would need to cover the heart so I didn't waste to much cane.

I used another patterned sheet on the other side so it would be reversible. This photo was taken before I had smoothed the edge joins.

Here's the finished necklace!

I was going to put it on a long black cord but just tried it on a choker and thought it looked cool so left it. It is rather large! It's 7cm wide by 8cm long! Being hollow it's not too heavy and when I tried it out found it comfortable to wear. I made the mould the size I wanted the heart but then made the shell from a thick sheet of clay and then covered it so it ended up a lot bigger (mental note to self remember a mould needs to be smaller next time!).

Happy Birthday Aly!

Choker necklaces and new pendants

2011-02-04T23:24:00.000Z

Suddenly everywhere I look there are choker necklaces - and they look fab! I wanted to make some but wasn't sure where to get them in the UK (did have a look on the bead supply websites but didn't find them).

At the London Polymer Clay Group meeting on Sunday, Rebecca Thickbroom (who is one of the organisers of the Polymer, Pamper, Play event I am very much looking forward to!) showed some beautiful choker necklaces

Rebecca's beautiful choker pendants!

They were inspired by the amazing work of Helen Briel and made using one of her texture stamps

Even the back of Rebecca's pendants are beautiful!

Rebecca was able to tell me where she bought her wire chokers in the UK and I ordered some.

So I was playing with my rainbow stripe jellyroll cane and planning on making a cabochon pendant with it. I decided to make a round one and use a large cane slice in the middle. I carefully firmed the first slice right in the middle and then looked at it and couldn't see how I could tidily cover the rest without any big black gaps or over lapping the middle slice, which I didn't want to do. And as happens with all the best pieces it just made itself.

I loved the basic concept but was concerned with how I was going to sand it, I only wanted to sand the cane slice and I had smoothed it flush with the black. Also it was bulky - then I had a light bulb moment ;)

This is the first time I have used a light bulb to cure polymer clay in a dome shape, luckily I had put the last one that blew in my clay supplies for just such a moment (as you can see I was getting carried away with my rainbow jellyroll and signature canes)

So here is the end result of the lightweight pendant which drew inspiration from Rebecca's pendants above. I used a very similar textured back which is beautiful, professional looking and best of all doesn't need sanding - genius! Another opportunity to use my signature cane. I just love this, especially strung on the choker wire (so much easier than making up a cord like I normally do!).

I have a small sale in my local church hall (as part of a friends foot pampering night) next week and I shall be making some more along these lines to see if other people like them as much as me!

Phew! Think I am done for now. Thanks for sticking with it.
Cara x

(still not perfect but better photos at least)

Improved photographs - first stage

2011-02-04T22:23:00.000Z

I am really proud of my latest jewellery and was thinking I must sort out the photographs show I can show you properly. Then today I was emailed some photographs by a friend to use on my blog (post coming soon), they are great photos and I just couldn't put them up against my poorly lit ones so the 'sorting out a photography set up' jumped up the to do list!

See why I need to sort it out... Here's the rainbow owls photograph from yesterday, I took it on my work bench with my normal room lighting.

Original, just on my work bench, owl photo

Original photo cropped and colour adjusted in Picasa

I wanted to make a light box from a cardboard box (as demonstrated on Kate Tracton's Shibori Girl blog) but typically we don't seem to have any boxes kicking around today. Whilst researching how to set up jewellery photo shoots previous I seem to remember someone using a transparent plastic storage container so thought I would give that a go whilst I find a box.

I switched my usual light bulb to a full spectrum daylight bulb and tried lighting from the top.

Plastic box and daylight bulb lit from the top through the box

I thought it was quite good but my husband who is much more 'precise' than me pointed out that it was still dark at the bottom. So he adjusted the set up and...

Plastic box and daylight bulb light from the front photo - as shot!

Here's what the set up looked like

Better definitely but there is a bit of 'glare'. So my next step is to track down a suitable cardboard box to make a light box and another lamp (with daylight bulb of course) and try lighting from the side. So hopefully you will be enjoying some better photographs from now on.

Rainbow owl

2011-02-03T16:21:00.000Z

Here's the first thing I have finished (because I don't sand them) with my funky rainbow jellyroll. This little owl has glow in the dark (fimo) eyes and a lovely rainbow tummy and one slightly long wonky ear - it's character of course! I think I might try and photograph my work and checking it before baking, it's amazing what you spot in a photograph that you don't always see in real life. Didn't notice his ear until now.

and have a quick look at his bottom, I am using my signature cane and I like it. I think I will be remaking an improved one with clearer flower sometime soon.

I shall post some of my jewellery when I have sanded and strung it, hopefully in the next couple of days. I am going to move sorting out my photography set up nearer the top of my to do list so I can show you my work more clearly.

Thanks for stopping by

Cara

Rainbow stripe jellyroll cane

2011-02-03T08:56:00.001Z

Rainbow stripe jellyroll cane
Originally uploaded by Cara Jane Contemporary Jewellery

I'm off to an 1980's nightclub with the girls at the weekend so I have been feeling rather retro. Time to go all rainbow!

I have a few special projects in mind, I'll share them with you soon

Signature Cane

2011-01-31T22:19:00.000Z

The main demonstration at the London Polymer Clay Group was by on making signature canes Susan Rimmer, thanks Susan it was an interesting demonstration.

I have been thinking about signing my work and did play about with a stamp made from bent bits of coke can back in the autumn but I wasn't happy with the results, it wasn't obviously a signature and I mainly sanded it out the few times I tried it. Off course the first one I made was back to front because I forgot it was going to be a stamp image and didn't reverse the letters.

So here's the cane I made after Susan showed us how she made a 2011 date cane (wonder if she'll use it?)

Before reduction 4.5 cm across (See that green smear at top - must remember to clean my blade!)

The smallest is 5mm across (I see I didn't trim the second smallest back to the neat part and they could be more square!)

I thought I would like to incorporate the flower I use on my logo (shown below in case you haven't seen it already)

I was thinking about adding a flower on to the outside of the cane I already had when I was struck by inspiration - why not put it in the loop of the J? I had kept part of the original cane large (4.5cm across, I got carried away!) so I did some surgery. I didn't want to cut the letters because I was worried about not rejoining accurately so it was a little tricky. I had to make the flower smaller than I would of done as I couldn't get in to trim out the clay easily.

The flower is in pearl but I decided that would help it stand out a little. I quite liked it this size.

I had noticed that my J lost some of it's curve on the bottom loop on reduction with the previous cane so I thought I might try and encourage it to stay round with a little extra clay - 2 little sausages on the bottom as shown below.

Here it is reduced, my cunning little snakes didn't work, seems obvious now on hindsight what would happen but you've got to make these mistakes - it's learning you know! The little snakes compressed the black line of the J making it look broken. The flower is also quite tiny and the pearl when squished down looks darker.

I want to add a border but am not quite sure what. I wondered about using a zebra cane....

..but I think it's probably too fussy. Might work better thinner maybe? I will have to play about with it a bit. Am I going to use it? Well really I would like to remake another one with a bigger, white flower in the J as I construct it but I have lots of other things on my to do list that are more important. I am preparing for a small sale in just under 2 weeks time so perhaps I will put some on my new stock just to see how they look. I'll let you know.

Name badge

2011-01-30T22:57:00.000Z

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the London Polymer Clay Group meeting today (thanks to my parents for looking after the children as hubby was busy shock horror!). I decided to make myself a name badge yesterday evening so it was made in a bit of a rush (one day I will learn not to be so chaotic but until then last minute it is....). The photo too was taken in a rush and the lighting is terrible. It is on my list of things to do in Feb to try and sort out some better lighting for both taking photos of my work and for my sale table -hoping it can be the same lights I use for both.

I had a lovely day out in London, 2 hours of peace on the train would be a treat enough but to go and talk polymer clay with nice people who understand, to see so many lovely pieces of work by the talented members of the group and to be shown some new techniques is fantastic. Unfortunately I can't make the next meeting as it is on my youngest daughters 5th birthday but I do have Polymer, Pamper, Play to look forward too in March! A whole weekend of polymer clay!!

I hope you all get time to be creative with friends too.

First Cara Jane workshop

2011-01-28T15:45:00.001Z

Some sample bead I made to give people some ideas

A lovely necklace made by a workshop participant!


Another lovely necklace made by a workshop participant!

You too could make your own unique necklace or bracelet in a polymer clay workshop. Contact me for more details - carajanecreations'at'gmail.com (replace the 'at' with @ to email - can't add it direct to the page or I will be overloaded with spam!)

New blog

2011-01-21T00:42:00.000Z

I have been having a dilemma recently about wanting to provide my customers with a point of contact on the web but not really wanting them all here on my blog that I share with my polymer clay friends around the world. I want to keep this blog for what it was intended - a place to share my experience with polymer clay and not just an advertising space or loads of dates and venues that aren't relevant to you my current readers cause you live too far away (wish you all lived closer and we could play with clay together!).

So for the moment I am going to try out having 2 blogs - this one and my Cara Jane Contemporary Jewellery blog. I have only just set it up, haven't finished tweaking and so haven't promoted it to any customers yet (unless they have found this blog!). If any of you need an extra thing to do and fancy taking a peak and offering any constructive feedback please do!

I apologise for being quiet here I have been going back to basics designing some workshops suitable for beginners as people have been asking for them. I think I am nearly there with organising workshops so hopefully I will find some time to try out some of the ideas I have been dreaming of and using my new books! I hope you are all having a creative year

Cara x

Beginners workshop

2011-01-14T22:32:00.000Z

I have just been trialling a beginners polymer clay workshop with some of my friends. I was aiming for them to make a bracelet like this from simple cane slices, threaded on elastic.

We have had great fun and they are all really pleased with their creations but we haven't quite managed to get to the bracelet stage so I either need to find a way to speed it up or make the class longer. I am doing them from home which seems to work out well as we have the space and it's comfortable and I can't forget to bring anything!!! Hopefully I can get some pictures of their bracelets when they have had a chance to string them.

One of the things I love most about polymer clay is that you can learn so much from working with others, even beginners who have never touched polymer clay before can show you a different way of doing things!

New Polymer clay books

2011-01-08T23:28:00.000Z

I've recently acquired some new polymer clay books and am looking forward to trying out some new things. I haven't read any of them properly yet but I have had a quick look through and am very excited! Here's the new ones.

I already have several books my favourites being

and there are loads more I want to read! Let me know what your favourites are.

My latest spliced flower set

2011-01-07T13:32:00.000Z

I made these beads ages ago but hasn't quite found time to string them. Finally now the kids are back at school I got a chance. They are sold already to a friend who came over looking for a present, I hastily grabbed a photo. I am pleased with the bright colours. I am looking forward to having time to play with clay and to sharing it with you. thanks for reading
Cara

Charming

2011-01-04T23:10:00.000Z

A friend of mine was admiring my charm bracelet but doesn't wear bracelets so asked me to make a necklace for her. The original idea was to just add a bit of chain to either end of a bracelet but I made the charm section quite a bit longer in the end so it didn't look 'mean'. There are 6 different types of pearl and crystal beads in turquoise and green to pick out the colours on the petals. I am pleased with how it turned out (although I think I may have found a possible improvement, yes it could be even better lol - I'll try it out and let you know)

The charm necklace

Here's a closer view

Charm bracelet in same colours

I must thank Zuleykha for the inspiration and tutorials on her blog for this style of bracelet, I am a great admirer of her charm bracelets.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T23:57:00.000Z

I would like to wish all my friends amd fellow polymer clay addicts a very Happy New Year!

May 2011 be filled with health, creativity and happiness.

We have had a lovely family Christmas and fun with friends for the New Years celebrations. I am looking forward to finally having some time to play with all the jewellery ideas that are roaming loose in my head in the coming weeks. I will off course share what I am up to with you.

Here's one of my custom orders that were keeping me busy before Christmas

Polymer Pamper and Play

2010-12-15T11:28:00.000Z

I have just booked my place on the UK's first polymer clay retreat - Polymer Pamper and Play. Here's the brochure if you are interested in coming too (click on the image to enlarge it)

The workshops will be taught by Carol Blackburn and Christine Dumont. you can find more information on Debbie Carlton's (who is organising it along with Rebecca Thickbroom) blog

for more information or to book a place please contact Rebecca on 07902 155 280 or info@polymerpamperplay.co.uk - let her know you saw it here.

Places are limited and being offered on a first come first served basis

Flickr

2010-12-09T00:51:00.000Z

(I am supposed to be busy - distracting myself with catching up with blogging)

About a year ago, I spent some time (OK probably several days or even weeks!) browsing photos of amazing polymer clay work on Flickr and decided to set off on my journey from being someone who was playing with clay to someone who could create amazing things.

I love flickr, I check everyday to see what new delights my contacts have created. I can see images from artists from all over the world. There are thousands of groups for anything and everything but there wasn't one for just polymer clay work from the UK - so I started one. If you live in the UK please join the group and add some photos so we can show our collective talent http://www.flickr.com/groups/1499111@N22/pool/

Here's some images already in the group (thanks ladies!)

Lindly Haunani bubble necklace by FloRaeMe

Leaf Pendant by Ghost Shift

One bead three colour ways

2010-12-08T17:11:00.000Z

I did a little experiment today to see how the colours looked with these 'Natalia' beads. The top row has green inside the second row has turquoise inside and the bottom row is the 2 beads alternatively stung so 1 green inside, 1 turquoise inside etc.

I thought there would be more visiual difference between the 3 different colourways. They are different but on first glance it's not apparent as it's the overall colours you see not their placement. Nice to know I don't have to think about it so hard in future ;)

Purple and green jewellery set

2010-12-08T10:34:00.000Z

Here's some green and purple jewellery I made using the technique I learnt from Natalia Garcia de Leaniz at Polymer Plays Days in Nottingham earlier this year.

Yes a hat pin! But can also been worn as a brooch or decorating a bag.

You may recognise these colours as being the project which produced the scrap clay for the lentil pendant I showed you recently.

Ring türkis - just had to share it

2010-12-06T23:18:00.001Z

Ring türkis
Originally uploaded by Edelchen

I love to browse through pictures of people polymer clay work on flickr, there are so many amazingly talented people out there.

I often spot something I want to look at again and add it to my favourites. When I saw this photo it jumped off the screen at me! I just had to share it with you. Not quite sure exactly what it is about it, turquoise is my favourite colour (as you can probably tell;) It's by Edelchen, Christine Michel.

More zebra

2010-12-06T19:28:00.000Z

You may have noticed that I am fairly keen on zebra print jewellery. Here's even more!

Purple scrap swirl

2010-12-05T20:29:00.000Z

Here's a pendant I made with some scraps from another project. I was rather taken with it, the little crystal dangles in just the right shade of purple (took the pendant to the shop to buy them!). It was sanded to a beautiful high gloss and felt wonderful. Needless to say about the 3rd person to see it bought it!

Pasta Machine Thickness comparison table

2010-11-29T12:37:00.000Z

The pasta machine thickness comparison table can now be found at my new blog address - http://www.carajane.co.uk/2010/11/pasta-machine-thickness-comparison.html

all the same content is there, including all the comments. It's where my new blog posts go so come on over and follow me there.
Thanks
Cara

Autumn flowers

2010-11-26T23:46:00.000Z

I had a custom order of a crochet hook in autumn colours. I decided to use my now firm favourite spliced flower cane. I started making this cane thanks to a video from Cindy Leitz

I decided to use the flower cane to make a few other bits...

Autumn colours cabochon pendant - super shiny!

Autumn owl (with glow in the dark eyes) - flew straight off my sale table!

Gingerbread men

2010-11-26T23:08:00.000Z

My friend Moe has been making some super cute Hawaiian gingerbread men and hula girls - like this...

I got inspired and made some more traditional gingerbread men Christmas earrings.

'From Polymer to Art' a review

2010-11-25T09:48:00.000Z

I have now received my copy of 'From Polymer to Art'. It is the first edition, a sneak preview before the sale launches in 2011. Each edition will have a colour theme, this first one being Red.

It feels and it looks nice. The paper is a good quality paper and the magazine has been set out beautifully, interspersed with the articles and tutorials are snippets of poems and pictures of things red. There is a page of photographs of different red flowers. In this preview edition the advertising pages are blank but I see there are plenty of spaces for advertising although not so much that it overwhelms the content as in some magazines.

There are 8 tutorials at a range of levels including these fab projects...

Red berries tutorial by Oksana Volkova

Oksana's work is new to me and I love these berries - so realistic - can't wait to try it!!

Baroque Necklace Tutorial by Anja Overdijk

Anja is another artist I did not already know and I greatly enjoyed browsing through her flickr photos.

A Red shades Skinner blend necklace tutorial by Cecilia Botton - Mabcrea. I can't find a photo of this project but I like it, it is reasonably simple but very effective. I have been a fan of her work for sometime having discovered her beautiful creations on flickr

There is a tutorial on producing patterned clay sheets using alcohol inks and stencils from Jan Geisen, another new artist to me. It is an interesting project and she has included some different variations of finished jewellery pieces to get your creative juices well and truly flowing!

There are 2 tutorials from the fabulous Fabi . I have been following her blog for a while now (with the help of Google translate!) and if you haven't seen it already you should definitely check it out!

So the big question - is it worth it? It is expensive but it is a good quality magazine with good content. It only comes out 4 times a year so it's not a monthly expense. I will certainly be subscribing!

Thank you ladies for publishing a quality polymer clay dedicated magazine!

Owls

2010-11-21T01:09:00.000Z

I am enjoying showing off my jewellery at the Totterdown Arts Trail this weekend and have sold loads of my little tortoises. I came home last night and made some more and did the same tonight, hopefully I will have enough to see my through to tomorrow evening! A customer today asked me if I ever made owls, my reply was not yet but I will! So here is my first batch of owls, I'll see if they fly off the table tomorrow!

New Polymer Clay Magazine

2010-11-14T22:31:00.000Z

I have just found out about a new polymer clay magazine From Polymer to Art from a blog post by Fabi on http://fabicontusmanos.blogspot.com , I have ordered a copy and can't wait to see it. From her blog post and the magazine website where I ordered my copy it looks very exciting! They ship worldwide.

Emerald green custom order

2010-11-10T00:40:00.000Z

I had a custom order for a flower pendant in Emerald Green. I had some similar style pendants (the technique is from Ayelet Beads flower tutorial which I would highly recommend!) but I found it really hard to know if the customer would like them so I made a few variations. Hopefully she will get to see them this week (I have a sale on Saturday so I want to put the ones she doesn't choose on display then) so I will let you know which one she chooses. My favourite is the top one.

One of my custom orders

2010-11-06T22:03:00.000Z

At the 2 sales I have had I have taken quite a few orders. I am finding it quite tricky to be confident the customer will like what I've made so I have given them some options. This order was for a friend who lived locally so I made the beads and then took them to show her before I strung them.

She requested a spliced flower cane necklace on a cord with no metal clasps etc. in similar colours to this bracelet

There are about 12 different shades of browns and oranges and pinks and white and black in this bracelet so it was going to be tricky picking up on that in a spliced flower where I normally use 4 sometime 6 colours.

These are the beads I made. I realise I forgot to take a picture of the finished necklace so will have to pop over for a cup of tea soon to do so. In the end it was strung with 5 flowers and some pink beads between the flowers as she wanted it to look lighter in colour. I finished it off with sliding knots, it took me about 5 attempts to get it the right length for her. I am looking forward to seeing her wear it!

Flower charm bracelet

2010-11-04T23:02:00.000Z

I started this bracelet sometime ago but felt it needed something more, something to brighten it up. I had lots of great suggestions from arty friends and in the end I decided to add the yellow beads you can see to match the yellow of the flower centres. I would have put some little crystals inside the flowers but I had already wire wrapped them onto the bracelet by then and didn't fancy doing it all again!

I will show you my new matching pendant up close tomorrow and I've got some custom orders to show you too.
Till then...
Cara

Exhibition excitement!!!

2010-11-01T14:16:00.000Z

I was very exited today to find out that a piece of jewellery I submitted has been accepted for an exhibition in a couple of weeks. It's the Totterdown lights exhibition which will showcase the 'cutting edge of what the Totterdown Arts Trail has to offer'. There is a private screening on the opening night of the exhibition for the press and 'key decision makers from within the art field' to which I get an invitation plus one (trying to work out if I should take hubby or an arty friend - will probably depend on if I can get a baby sitter!).

I am then exhibiting as a part of the Arts Trail the following weekend. The arts trail is where different people within an area open up their homes to exhibit art. Often there are 2 or 3 different artists showing their work in one venue. There is a leaflet printed with a map showing all the different houses taking part and detailing who will be exhibiting.

This is the piece I will have in the exhibition

Another sale and my new pendant!

2010-10-31T21:45:00.000Z

I have been busy with another sale and 3 more on the way! Here is a picture of most of my sale set up, there's a bit more on the left which is missing but you get the general idea. It was at a party of my sisters (slighty strange) but good fun as I got to go to a party and talk about my passion most of the night!

Sale table

I bought myself a new top and couldn't resist making a pendant to match! I have just discovered making cabochons thanks to Donna Kato's -The Art of Polymer Clay Creative Surface Effects book. I'll take a close up photo to show you in the daylight tomorrow. didn't have time when I made it as I made it the morning of the sale - like you do! I think it was my antidote to the overwhelming amount of stuff I was trying to do - ignore it all and play with clay!

Me wearing the pendant I made to match my new top

Sale success!

2010-10-16T00:15:00.000+01:00

I had a great evening, thanks to Kate and Sarah for inviting me along with my jewellery! It was a lovely evening where people were having their feet pampered and milling around with wine and nibbles. I think I will have to add myself as a client next time! There were about 12 ladies there and many of them had ideas for different colour schemes or slightly different designs so I have some custom orders to get working on!

Here is a small selection of my sold items

Mokume Gane pendant

Petal earrings

scrap clay lentil bead

Didn't sell all these tonight but I did sell quite a few

I have another 3 sales in the next 5 weeks and some custom orders so I had better keep playing with my clay - such a hard life ;)

First real sale tomorrow! Here's my new tags

2010-10-15T00:03:00.000+01:00

I am doing a small sale tomorrow night so have been busy getting ready. It is as part of a small pamper night. I will probably be the only vendor and there will only be about 12 guests but it will be a good opportunity to see how people react to my jewellery and my pricing! I find the pricing difficult (well who doesn't!), I know how long it takes to make and don't want to undersell it but at the same time I want it to be affordable.

I have some great friends who have helped me whilst calling round for tea and we have made some cardboard busts and display cones (will tell you more about those later) and made some funky new 'mini business card' tags (my sisters brilliant idea!). I am putting the price on a little yellow dot sticker on the back - easy to remove in case it is a gift (easy for me to change too!). I had an idea about printing a flower and putting the price yellow dot in the middle but that's a job for when I too much time on my hands!

Front side of tag

Back of tag with contact details.

Here's a set with their matching tags and earring cards

Big business card to put hair slides on

I'll let you know how it goes!

Polishing and buffing

2010-10-10T22:29:00.000+01:00

I am trying to get ready for my first sale on Friday (my mum sold some bits for me at a charity coffee morning a few weeks back but I wasn't there and she did all the display etc). I don't have as much stock as I would like (where does the time go?) but I am working on it!

I have been polishing many of my beads in a rock tumbler recently. I half fill the tumbler with small smooth pebbles, bung in a handful or two of beads add some water and a drop of dish soap and leave them to it for about 24 hours. Thanks to Desiree for the information and friends on PCC forum for their advice. It's great, they buff up beautifully with little effort on my part! The tumbler won't smooth out scratches or bumps so some pieces I hand sand with coarse wet and dry first but it still saves me working through all the other grades of paper!

I am buffing with my home made muslin buffing wheel on the dremel and I can get a beautiful glass like shine on a well sanded piece. I was buffing round beads with a few strung on a wire which seems to work well. Tonight I decided to make a bracelet and then buff it (not sure why). Unfortunately I found out the hard way that it isn't a smart idea to buff beads on elastic! It all started off going well but just as I was getting round to the last few beads the elastic snagged on the wheel and ping - beads everywhere!!! The elastic got wrapped round and round the spindle - probably could of saved it if I had turned the dremel off quick. Won't do that again!! I also really must set up a bead guard as I lost several down the back of my bench the other day whilst buffing.

I have been working on some labels and display stuff, will try and take some pictures and share them soon

Measuring spoons

2010-10-06T23:28:00.000+01:00

I made these a while back as a house warming present for a friend. I am busy making some jewellery for a sale on the 15th so will try and share some more of my experimenting after that when I have time. The white flower cane has green packing which works well for covering objects. It's made from Fimo soft so doesn't polish up as shiny as the Kato.

New Pod necklace

2010-09-29T10:35:00.000+01:00

Here is the first Pod necklace I made after the workshop I did with Christine Dumont

Rest of the Pod beads I made at the workshop

2010-09-20T12:50:00.000+01:00

Here are the rest of the hollow 'Pod' beads I made at the workshop with Christine Dumont last Friday. They are now all sanded and buffed. i have one I haven't quite finished yet I need to tidy up the holes and then bake it. Looking forward to making some more later in the week.

This was the first bead we made in a plain colour so we could learn the basic technique

The Pod collection

Pods and Cocoons with Christine Dumont

2010-09-19T21:03:00.000+01:00

I was very lucky to attend a Pods and Cocoons workshop with Christine Dumont in London on Friday. It was a wonderful day and I am really pleased with some of the things I made. It was great to catch up with the lovely Toni (who I met at Polymer play Days in Nottingham) and to meet some more lovely people. I have only had time to sand and buff one of my Pods made on Friday . It looks very glass like.

Can't wait to make some more!!

First piece of jewellery sold!

2010-09-18T10:37:00.000+01:00

I am so excited I have sold my first piece of jewellery! I gave some bits to my mum to try and sell for me at charity coffee morning and sale she is having on the 24th September. I hadn't given her prices cause I was still struggling with those, I felt that what I wanted to charge might be too much. Well a friend of hers came round and wanted to buy 3 of my necklaces (I only sent about 6!). Mum called me but I was on a train and there was no signal so she made the price up but only let her buy 1 in case the price was wrong.

She sold this necklace

The good news is I was thinking of asking about £16 for it but was worried it was a little high and mum sold it for £17.50! I now have confidence to charge the prices I want to. I have 3 other sales lined up in October and November all of which are opportunities which have come to me which is amazing. just need to get on and make some things now!!!

New earrings on my new earring cards

2010-09-13T23:39:00.000+01:00

Finally I grabbed a bit of clay time. I am trying to gear up to sell my polymer clay creations. Here's a sneak preview.

Blue and White beads

2010-08-16T22:53:00.000+01:00

I have been making some blue and white beads to make a bracelet for my friends birthday (she has a blue and white flower print top). I made a pair of simple matching earrings too.

Faux turquoise spoons

2010-08-12T22:39:00.001+01:00

IMG_3076
Originally uploaded by surfingcat clay

We made these 2 spoons a while ago but only did the last bit of paint application last night.

The one on the left was made by my good friend Ruth and the one on the right is mine. She was more delicate with her paint application and her sanding and it looks more organic and natural than mine. Needless to say I like the lumpy organic nature of hers and she likes the brightness of mine.

I made some more faux turquoise things including quite a lot of 'tumble chip beads'.

It's my birthday!

2010-08-08T12:24:00.000+01:00

It's my birthday today and we have lots of things planned (mainly revolving round food it seems). I got some lovely presents; ice cream maker, an amaco bead baking rack and some money to pay for some polymer clay workshops. I have just booked to go to Christine Dumont's Pods and Cocoons workshop in London in a few weeks. I am very much enjoying life - just need to find some more time to play with my polymer clay as well.

hope you are all having a good weekend and I look forward to sharing my latest couple of projects with you soon

Cara

Striped blue cane

2010-08-06T23:49:00.001+01:00

IMG_3032
Originally uploaded by surfingcat clay

It's the school holidays and the kids are home keeping me busy!! we've had a week camping with our friends and done lot of swimming. We have only played with some polymer clay a bit making some tiny bones which we have been playing treasure hunts with and enclosing in treasure rocks (rock like salt dough) to excavate.

Tonight I finally felt awake enough to play with my clay. I am working on a blue and white project. Here is two of the canes I made for it - spot the difference between them? Amazing the difference an extra layer of blue made. I was rushing a bit so the stripes could of been more even (note to self - don't rush!)

Look what my kids made!

2010-07-21T23:52:00.000+01:00

These are the end of year present for my kids teachers. I tried to persuade them to make a covered spoon or a pen as I thought these would be more useful presents but they were both quite determined to give jewellery (guess it is often what I give these days). Daisy in particular really loved my necklace below and wanted to make one just like it for her teachers.

The inspiration made by me

I obviously showed them what to do but the following necklaces were made entirely by my children! They chose the colours and the way the beads were put together.

James aged nearly 6 made these for his teacher and his Beavers leader

Daisy at work

Daisy aged 4 and a half made these for her 2 nursery teachers

Daisy made the blue one first about a week ago and then made the other today - she even remembered how to make Natalia's 'Spongia' beads (they are the central ruffled looking ones)

Can't wait to see what they are creating in a few years time!

And the winner is....

2010-07-21T17:21:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Gayle who was the lucky winner of the CSN stores voucher. Hopefully she has already received her voucher code so she can get shopping in any of the CSN stores. Do let us know what you buy!!

My daughter really loved picking out a scrunched up piece of paper from a bowl and she spent some time picking them up and opening them all and did it again! Unfortunately there could only be one winner.

Life has been hectic recently and haven't had much time for clay :( I hope to get a chance to do some tomorrow as it may be my last uninterrupted time for the summer holidays.

Giveaway thanks to CSN

2010-07-11T10:50:00.000+01:00

I am pleased to announce that I have a £25 gift voucher to give-away to one lucky reader thanks to CSN Stores. CSN Stores has amazing online stores where you can find everything from cookware to ceiling lights to furniture!

They sell an amazing selection of goods, here are some of my favourite items

Beautiful bone china mugs

Fab cup cake stands!

Italian designed Chandeliers

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment below. You can have an extra entry if you become a follower or if you blog, tweet or facebook a link to this give away - please leave a comment to let me know you have done this. I will place every entry into a hat and my 4 year old daughter will pick the winner on Tuesday 20th July at 6pm GM time.

The giveaway is open to entrants from the UK, US, Canada and Germany. I am afraid people in other countries won't be eligible due to shipping restrictions. My daughter will pick the winner and the prize will vary slightly depending on where they live.

For a UK winner they will be sent a one-time-use £25 gift voucher to use as they wish on any of CSN Stores UK websites listed below

http://www.csnstores.co.uk

http://www.allmodern.co.uk/

http://www.cookwarebycsn.co.uk/

http://www.furniturebycsn.co.uk/

http://www.lightingbycsn.co.uk/

http://www.tvstands.co.uk/

If the winner is from the US or Canada, they will receive a one-time-use $25gift voucher will is valid on one of the 200+ CSN US websites which can be found through their main site http://www.csnstores.com).

A winner from Germany, will recieve a one-time-use €25gift voucher will is valid on CSN's German websites which are http://www.kuecheundhaushalt.de/
http://www.leuchtenbycsn.de/
http://www.moebelbycsn.de/
http://www.csnstores.de/

Good luck!!!

(updated to included details for international readers)

Really Round Natasha Beads

2010-07-11T00:29:00.000+01:00

I made another tube Natasha bead but then decided to make some balls so I cut it in half and reshaped them. I think the tube bead works better cause you appreciate the 'mirror' better but it is always good to try something new. Hope you are all having a fab weekend. I had a wonderful afternoon with the girls enjoying cream tea in the sunshine and then a night of cocktails - fun, fun, fun!

Dora's anemone cane

2010-07-09T23:56:00.000+01:00

I had a few minutes today and wanted to try something new. I went to Google Reader which I now use to follow all those lovely blogs people write and found some of my items tagged 'want to try'. I decided to have a go at this anemone cane from Dora's Explorations blog as it looked like I would get it done in the time I had (lovely husband has gone to pick up the kids from school for me).

I went with rainbow as I wanted to try out the method of doing a rainbow skinner blend we did with Lindly Haunani at Polymer Play Days. Using her advice I cut of a bit I didn't like and this is the cane I ended up with

Made a bracelet with the pearl spliced flower beads

2010-07-09T20:57:00.001+01:00

Finished bracelet
Originally uploaded by surfingcat clay

So they have been growing on me and now I love this little bracelet! I hope my friend does too.

I started making spliced flower canes when I watched Cindy Leitz's tutorial

New twist on the Bam Bam

2010-07-09T13:39:00.000+01:00

For my latest Bam Bam bracelet I tried putting twists of extruded clay around the end of one of the parts to disguise the join. This would have worked well if I hadn't of snapped one of the pieces whilst sanding a bit too roughly! I repaired it with Kato Paste but I can't get the elastic through so I guess some paste must of got in hole. I may try poking some wire down to see if I can clear it. This is what it would look like if I could assemble it. (you may notice that it isn't quite round - did a bad job sanding the ends - oh well more practise needed)

Zebra spoon

2010-07-09T13:30:00.001+01:00

Zebra spoon
Originally uploaded by surfingcat clay

Another birthday present this time a funky zebra print tea spoon.

More Bam Bam bracelets

2010-07-08T12:04:00.001+01:00

IMG_2844
Originally uploaded by surfingcat clay

I made this bam bam bangle (follow the link for details of the tutorial and my first attempt at a bam bam bracelet) a little larger than the others and therefore it slips over my wrist without needing to be in 2 parts. I covered the join with a little extruded string. I made another curved tube bead and have strung it on a simple cord. After sanding I buffed them with my home made muslin buffing wheel on the Dremel -they are beautifully shiny now!

Spliced Flower Cane with pearl and round Natasha bead

2010-07-08T00:05:00.000+01:00

I am going out for afternoon tea to a posh hotel in Bath on Saturday for one of my friends birthdays so I thought I would make her some jewellery as a gift (I don't think I have told her about this blog yet so it should remain a surprise!). I haven't made a spliced flower cane for a week or so now so thought I would make some spliced flower beads, funny how I didn't think I liked them till I made one and now I love them.

I always seem to make small spliced flower canes and then wish I had made them bigger so this time I started bigger. I decided to use my favourite green and my new favourite red (it's a 1:3 red:magenta mix with Kato clay) as they seemed like good colours for my friend. Funny how you see people all the time but it can be hard to remember what colours they wear. I was a bit concerned they might seem a little 'Christmas' or 'apple' like together but after putting scraps together thought it would be OK.

I decided I would try using pearl instead of white thinking it would give the beads a bit of a shimmer.This was a mistake however. There is less definition in the flower. Typical that I make a big one I don't like so much.

Oh well it is still pretty and I think the colours work quite well and aren't too 'Christmas' or 'apple' (let me know if I am deluded ). Going to have to make another cane with these colours and white now I think but must get some beads made from this one first.

I picked up the scraps from the cane and made a Natasha bead (see a lesson from PCC if you aren't familiar with Natasha beads - a neat way to use up scraps) . I always have trouble with the joins with these as I don't want to smooth too much as I want to keep the pattern crisp where the joins are in the centre of the bead and unless you cut very accurately there can be some uneven parts (you can control it for the first 3 parts but the last one has to match the other 2 pieces already there). Tonight I just rolled it and made it round. There was something about the colours and the patterns that was too organic for a square shaped bead. I put a skewer in the middle whilst rolling it to keep a hole and when I took it off the skewer it told me it wanted to be curved - so it is. More and more the clay is talking to me, I shall take that as a good sign of creativity and not a sign of madness (or more likely sleep deprivation from staying up late playing with clay!)

Sutton slice technique

2010-07-05T00:08:00.000+01:00

Whilst at Polymer Play Days I saw some stunning jewellery both for sale and being worn by the other participants. I shall perhaps try to feature some in the coming days. One of the pieces I admired had been made by Irene Hoiles using the Sutton Slice technique. She was kind enough to describe the process to us. I couldn't wait to try it out so had a go in my hotel room (luckily I was given some stamps in the goody bags we were given when we registered).

I used a tiny flower from a larger stamp, pressing white clay into the stamp and then shaving off the excess clay

Here is is after pressing a piece of blue clay on top

I used my lovely new cutters that I bought from Valerie (no they aren't rusty it's funny lighting I think)

Little finished piece

It's not perfect by any means but I had got the basics of the technique. Tonight I decided to practise it. Hmm I think it was beginners luck before and I had many attempts to get anything that wasn't screwed up for scrap. The problem seems to be to get the clay to 'stick' in the stamp whilst you are shaving of the excess and then getting it out. I can do one no problem, but not both. If I spray the stamp with a mist of water the clay will lift out easily - too easily so it just lifts out when I try to shave it. If I don't it will stick in well to shave it but not come out completely. I guess perhaps my shaving technique needs improving. As always tips most gratefully received!

Here are my efforts tonight. I do think getting the right stamp is important too. I don't have many deep stamps so will have to keep a look out for some better ones for clay work. These were 2 of the several I tried which worked best.

Clay in stamp

Clay on black backing

Using a different stamp

Blog Candy on Hickydorums

2010-07-03T00:13:00.000+01:00

Besides learning lots from all the wonderful tutors at polymer play days I also met lots of great people. I am working my way through all their cards that came with beads from the swap or from their shop displays to check out their blogs/webpages etc.

Tonight I came across Neet's blog and she has some great pictures from the Polymer Play Days weekend on her blog and also a blog candy giveaway - go check out her blog to see the photos and enter the draw for the blog candy.

Polymer Play Days - Nottingham - June 2010 - using the techniques at home

2010-07-02T23:23:00.000+01:00

Here are some things I have made at home this week after learning some techniques from Donna Kato and Lindly Haunani at Polymer Play Days.

I had another go at a spinner ring and was a bit heavy handed and broke the shank - luckily Donna had taught us a lot about mending so I fixed it! It isn't perfect but I know what I need to do to make the next one better. This one is a more practical size than my first and I think if I could make it stick out a bit less (I have a idea how to do that) I would actually wear it. I am getting bold in my jewellery these days!

Side view of spinner ring

front view of spinner ring

I finished off my bubbles sheets that I started in Lindly's class and made some things from it. A coaster - a trial for a coaster swap I am taking part in on PCC and a Bam bam bracelet. I will definitely put beads between the 2 parts of my next bam bam bracelet (I think I said that last time too - I need someone to remind me - Toni where are you when I need you?)

bubbles coaster

bubbles bam bam bracelet

I have a million ideas in my head of things I would like to make and things I want to try with polymer clay - I just need more hours in the day!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend

Polymer Play Days - Nottingham - June 2010 - more photos

2010-06-30T22:46:00.000+01:00

Here are a few more photos of my creations

Spinner Ring I made in Donna Kato's class

Bubbles patterned sheet I made in Lindly Hanuani's class

Hollow balls made in Daniel Torres Mancera's class

A fizzy ball (you'll understand if you were there;)

Polymer Play Days - Nottingham - June 2010 - WOW!

2010-06-29T21:09:00.000+01:00

WOW! What a totally fabulous weekend. I was very excited about going but the event surpassed all my hopes and expectations. I met some fabulous new people (who know what polymer clay is - hurrah! ;), I attended 6 brilliant classes and learned so much. I made some stuff I am really proud off. It was amazing to be able to spend all day doing nothing but playing with clay in good company. A huge thank you to Helen and all the others involved for making this event happen!

Here is my first batch of photos - plenty more to follow but I can't wait to try some of these things again so I am going to play with clay instead of play with photos just now.

What I made in Natalia Garcia de Leaniz's class

What I made in Alison Gallant's class

What I made in Sylvie Peraud's class

I couldn't wait to try this again so had a go that night in my hotel room!

Melting pens

2010-06-21T20:25:00.000+01:00

I have been looking for some pens to cover with polymer clay and couldn't find the Bic stics that I know from people in the states are oven friendly. I tried out a few brands - without clay (having already learnt the hard way!) and they all deformed even at 115oC. I asked for help on the PCC forum and Tonja was able to suggest using some papermate pens - PaperMate Flexgrip Elite and PaperMate Flexigrip Ultra in capped rather than retractable models. I couldn't find either of those with caps either - only retractable.

I widened my trials and melted many a pen in the oven but I can conclude the following pens are safe for 115oC (Fimo curing).

Papermate Comfortmate - capped ball pen (this also comes in retractable but haven't tried those)
Papermate 2000 Stick
Papermate Flexigrip Elite (I had the retractable ones cause I couldn't find the capped ones and only tested the barrel)
Bic round stic ( I found some in a pound shop - hurrah!)
Bic soft feel retractable pen but you can take the retractable part out and it is only the very end cap
Staples own brand metal barrelled roller ball pen with cap - cost about £1.99

The following pens melt/distort in a 115oC oven

Staedtler Sticks
Reynolds by papermate
Staples own - Sonix ball point stick pens
Staples own cushiongrip ball point pens (retractable)
Papermate 2020 Stick

Hope that helps and I hope to be able to show you some covered pens soon

Very excited!

2010-06-19T10:13:00.000+01:00

I am not sure how I have failed to mention this on my blog before but I am off to Polymer Play Days in Nottingham next week! Being a mother of 2 small children it is a real treat to be able to escape and have 3 days of pure polymer clay! I am looking forward to learning some new techniques, meeting some people I have met online in person and spending time with other people who actually know what polymer clay is! ( I am trying to educate the people around me ;)

I have been making beads for the bead swap which is part of this event along with 6 workshops. I am so indecisive I couldn't decide what to make at all so I have a large selection. I just hope there is something to interest everyone. I'll give you a sneak preview

Can't wait to tell you all about it and show you the things I make in the workshops!

White flower green background

2010-06-18T22:57:00.001+01:00

White flower green background
Originally uploaded by surfingcat clay

My latest flower cane. I wanted something to cover some yellow aluminium crochet hooks and thought about making a sunflower cane. Somehow I ended up making white daisy type of flower with a green background in Fimo Soft (I usually use Kato these days as it gives much neater results in cane work for me). Strange how you end up doing something completely different at times.

It's quite a jolly little cane, if not perfect and I am using it to cover my crochet hooks.

Patterned sheet swap

2010-06-18T22:44:00.000+01:00

I am currently taking part in a patterned sheet swap held on PCC forum. This is a 2 part swap. The first was to make some patterned sheets and the second is to cover an object/objects with the patterned sheets you receive.

I didn't take a picture of my sheets but they were something like this. You can see them and all the other sheets sent in for the swap here on Barbara the host's flickr set (thanks Barbara for hosting and sharing these pictures ;)

Here are the sheets I received. I have until Saturday to do something with them so I had better get busy! I have a few ideas but want to make sure I really use them to their best advantage. I will post some pictures here when I have used them.