Etsy Treasury

Tonight something for you, Ladies. I made etsy treasury sporting colorful, fancy, imaginative and one-of-a-kind polymer clay rings.

Leave comments and let me know which ring you like the most.

Polymer Clay Inspirations

Today, I would like to show you my polymer clay inspirations. There are great many gifted artists out there and below you can see only a small selection of work presented on flickr.

I hope they will inspire you as much as they inspire me to keep working and honing my skills.

1. Pastel Cat Sculpture, 2. Bangle, 3. ...Singing silk..., 4. Tropical flowers, 5. Ikat Necklace., 6. Cosmic Blossoms B-Side, 7. Black & White Ikat Shield - Aug 2009, 8. Polymer Clay Seabreeze Bracelet, 9. 'Gem (in hot pink)', 10. Filigree Bracelet bangles in many colors, 11. Robin Egg Beach Balls, 12. Green Retro Earrings, 13. Spaceballs, 14. Atardecer en el mar / Sunset on the Sea, 15. Blue Spiral, 16. Magic mushrooms, 17. Polymer Clay Star Flower Pendants, 18. Polymer Clay Necklace, 19. crumpled brooch, 20. Colgantes transferencia, 21. Leaf necklace, 22. Black Polymer Clay Heart with Pink Flowers, 23. Namtar , 24. ACEO Deep Forest polymer clay 1, 25. PS145c

Polymer Clay Starter Kit

Working with polymer clay does not require tools but they are very useful if you are looking to create smaller, precise pieces - especially jewelery. There are literally hundreds of tools for polymer clay craft out there. And if you are anything like me, there is a part of you that loves tools. I guess it's the same part of me that is in fact a boy and always played with guns and climbed highest trees in the neighborhood. Oh well.

Most of the tools are not very expensive but it is a good idea to limit yourself to a starter kit before you are sure that polymer clay is what you enjoy.

At first it might be a bit confusing to choose the necessary tools (at least it was for me) so I compiled a list for the beginners out there. Here are the tools that turned out to be most useful for me:

1. Pasta Machine

As weird as it may seem, pasta machine is the most useful tool you can get. It serves to warm up and soften the clay, create uniform sheets of clay (of different thickness), blend colors, and many other purposes. A good place to buy pasta machine is on ebay. You should not invest in any high-end pasta machine because you should never use this machine for food preparation. The cheapest one will do just fine.

2. Cutting and Sculpting Tools

To create detailed ornaments, you will need to use cutting tools. I mostly use these 5 tools.

1) and 4) Sculpting tool and doll making needle. Useful for connecting pieces of clay together, moving and fixing small pieces of clay onto the project, sculpting little holes, etc.

2) and 3) Modelling knives. Can be used for moving and fixing elements onto the project. They are also good for cutting shapes and small elements.

5) Slicing blade. It is used for cutting slices of canes and blocks of clay. It is also flexible so that it allows you to create different shapes.

3. Acrylic Roller

Another essential tool is an acrylic roller. You will use it to flatten your pieces, roll in cane slices and many more. Before I got my acrylic roller I was using a small wine bottle. But the problem with a glass bottle is that the clay can stick to it and your projects can get ruined.

4. Cookie Cutters

Ok, so they are not absolutely necessary but still very fun to have. You can of course shape your pieces by using knives and blades, but cookie cutters are handy and will make your job easier.

5. Examination Gloves

And last but not least, examination gloves. They will help to protect your skin and keep colors of clay separate and clean. Thanks to the gloves you will also be able to keep the surfaces of your clay projects clean of fingerprints. Just make sure that you buy a tight fit for your hands.

Hooked on Earrings

Have a look at a few earring pieces I've been working on. The biggest challenge in this project was the wirework. Turns out it is not at all easy to bend the wire for loops. It has to look aesthetic and be identical for both earrings. Big respect for all the smiths out there and maybe someone would like to take an apprentice?
Meanwhile, have a look at my earrings. I especially love the blue ones, but the pink ones are also cute (only the color is less aggressive and more rosy in reality).

Polymer Clay: Working the Cane

My experience with polymer clay is advancing. I have to say I enjoy very much working with this medium. It is flexible, colorful and the effect of your work is almost immediate.
But it can also be a bit frustrating. When you look at clay items on the Internet and read the descriptions it all sounds so simple. But once you start working on it yourself it turns out that, even though the method is simple, you need a skill to perform it. Well, whatdayaknow...

Anyway, I struggle especially with cane making. It is one of the basic techniques of polymer clay. The simple idea is that you wrap layers of polymer clay sheets. Reduce the cane by pressing it from the middle out and than cut thin slices to use in your work. Again sounds simpler than it really is. The reduction can distort the image and the cutting can easily change the shape of the slice. But practice makes master and I shell not give up! Here comes a few points about what I learned so far:

1. To cut thin and well shaped slices you need a really good blade. A modeling knife is too thick and other thinner pieces of metal will not be sharp enough. Have a look at ebay and get yourself a proper polymer clay blade (cost: around 5 pounds/$7.20/6 euros)

2. Make sure that each layer of clay is thick before reduction. Otherwise it will become so thin, once you reduce the cane, that it will blend in with the others.

3. It is easier to reduce the cane when clay is still warm. But it is easier to cut thin slices one the cane cools down (an idea: put the cane to the fridge to cool it down quickly).

4. Black looks good as a divider between colors in the cane. However black Fimo Soft smudges a lot when cut. Very annoying.

Below is one of my first cane projects:

Blue and White Polymer Clay Beads

I am very excited about this new beads I made this weekend. Look how awesomely blue and girly they are! I made 7 of them and it took me over 2 hours - a little bit long, no? It is precise work, but I hope I can shave some time of this work in the future.

Anyway, I love them and I am very excited to make more. Do you also like them, or am I completely blind? Should I make more? What colors should I use now? Tell me, tell me, tell me!

PS.
You can see more photos on my flickr account and if you work with polymer clay and share your photos online, you can also join Polymer Clay Art and Craft group on flickr. I checked and all the other groups seem restricted geographically or by type of polymer clay items. My group is open to everyone and invites all types of polymer clay works. So feel invited!

Polymer Clay: Second Date

It's been quiet here for a moment. But I have an explanation, really. I spent the last week honing my polymer clay skills but couldn't show you anything because the weather was really gray here and photos wouldn't be any good. I still don't have really good equipment for product photo taking (donations anyone?). Anyway, today the sun came out for a few moments so here it comes.


So, what do you think? Have you tried polymer clay? How did it go for you?