Friends spoons

 I have been busy claying with friends today. I helped a friend and her children (aged 4 and 6) to make some spoons as a present for her mother. Here are the spoons the children made - pretty cool! I am sure their Granny will love them!










In the evening a friend popped round but I already had my mind set on making some faux turquoise so she made herself a spoon too (I had made one for her boyfriends birthday and she felt she needed her own special spoon too - her birthday is New Year's Eve so a way off!). It's very groovy! The rose on the end was inspired by a spoon my 4 year old daughter made a while back which had a rose on the end too.

It has been really nice claying with my friends and I have realised you can learn a lot by watching what other people do even if they are fairly new to polymer clay!

I am off to finish of my faux turquoise and I shall  post some pictures later I hope. It's lovely and sunny here but I am suffering with my hayfever today :(
Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Cara

Lentil Swirl Bead Tip for Patterns

Well if you have made a lot of lentil swirl beads you will already know this but in case you haven't here's something I learnt about patterns today (I don't normally swirl with patterns usually it is just a pile of scrap).

I carefully placed a flower in the centre of the ball I started swirling thinking it would look nice swirled - but it disappeared!

Swirl lentil bead that started with a flower in the centre that 'disappeared' 

Desiree does say in her excellent tutorial on making lentil swirl beads that the rotation does draw the clay from the outer areas towards the centre of the bead. With pattern this means that the pattern at the edges expands and the pattern in the centre shrinks to the point of almost disappearing at the very top of the bicone. So when choosing where to place your round ball to start swirling put the pretty bit off centre! If it is in the middle it is likely to shrink very tiny the outer edge gets huge and somewhat distorted so the best place for that pretty flower is somewhere between the two.

 

Swirl lentil with flowers placed between centre and edge

This was using up my offcuts from some Paisley spoons I made for presents today (oh and one for me too ;).
I have refined my technique and can now make the fabric up (from the preprepared canes - I still have plenty!) and cover 6 spoons in about an hour. I have a feeling I will be making plenty more so that's good news.

Surf board spoon

It was my surf dude friend Al's birthday today. I decided (one of those lying in bed unable to sleep inspirations) to make him a surf board spoon. It turned out pretty well, my 5 year old son wants me to make him one now too. Here it is

I used a blue white and purple skinner blend stripe which I inlaid into the basic surf board shape which was made with translucent Kato polymer clay. I cover the spoon handle with white clay first as it showed too much without the covering. I also added a fin so there could be no doubt what it was. I hope it will be strong enough not to break too easily. It is made of Kato clay and was well blended in. I was sanding at night again and didn't see that spot I missed which is visable in the top photo. Must sand in daylight!

Busy polymer clay day for all the family

We have been busy playing with polymer clay for a lot of this afternoon (me with my bad foot up on a chair and lots of pain killers). Here are some things we made

James made an X wing (from star wars)

Daisy made a spoon, I gave her the bits she is too young(not quite 4) to be making roses on her own, yet....

I made my first kalidescope cane which was originally going to cover a

base to hold some pens for gifts but I had the wrong type and they melted in the oven so I changed to making  teaspoons and used a few slices of the cane to made a bead just because and off course the cane end tortoises I now always make. See polymer passions blog  for details of how to make them.  

Here is one of the 'filament wound' spoons I made as a gift for some people I used to work with 'filament winding' . It is a composite materials manufacturing technique where you wind carbon fibre around a steel madrel to make a carbon fibre tube. This is made from fine extruded black polymer clay (fimo in this case) wrapped round a teaspoon handle that had been coated in a layer of black fimo. I think this effect would be good using some colours so I will try it out another day.

I also  made a rather large bangle! I bought the tutorial from Tonjas Treasures but hadn't printed it out so tried it from memory having read it once. Being on crutches I formed it round a glass on the table which was to hand as I can't just rumage around like I would normally. I don't have any texture plates so must get round to making some to do this next time.

Things I have made in the past

Peppa Pig cake topper made for my daughter's 2nd birthday cake. Made March 2008

Earrings made from beads made from a slice of cane for my niece.Made March 2008

Spoons made from an extruded rainbow 'string' for my children. They use them everyday and I keep thinking I should make my own special spoon! Made August 2008