Coolest Polymer Clay Jewelry Making Tutorials Get Bumped Forward

Yay for wire work that helps with our Polymer clay jewelry! (Still looking forward to the Holly cane too!)

I'll take anything that comes out of that amazingly creative brain of yours!!! Like Sara I love to learn wire working so I can't wait for this coming one. I'm also into the "joy of extruding" lol, since you taught the jupiter bead technique and just bought those adapter thingies for my Makins where the clay comes out with a hollowed out core. I haven't tried them yet but would love to learn some more bead designs that involve my favorite toy. Since you asked I just want to throw the request into the mix. As always thank you!

Elizabeth S. – El Paso, TX

Canes, canes and more canes for me! I'd love to know how to make a rose cane, how to get started on planning and making kaleidoscope canes and face canes, for sure!

Although I find the info interesting, I'm not so keen on the wire wrapping and all of that, but am more interested in more advanced work and techniques with the actual clay.

I've been bitten by the wire working bug..!! It just goes so well with chunky polymer beads! I haven't done much wire work yet – I'm waiting to order a jeweler's saw to make my jump rings better. I seem to get a pointy side when using my flush cutters. And how do you make an oval jump ring? I thought about using a popcicle stick, but that seems a little big…maybe if I split it in half lenghtwise. *wheels turning*
I too am excited about the up coming holly cane. I just love the necklace you used as an example to show us the different ways to use the cane. Gorgeous!!
Thanks so much for everything you teach us Cindy!!!!!

~Lisa

That pendant sounds intriguing. I love wire working as well. It is so much fun and so very very pretty!

Hey Cindy,
I became a member of your site and I am very happy.
I am really looking forward to seeing Holly cane video.
Can you do something with snowflakes and something with cats? I love cats, I have two Persian cats myself.

Alexa (From Russia, Living in Belgium)

Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments! It is great to get feedback from you all.

Nice to see you here Alexa. Welcome! Cats and snowflakes are great ideas to add to my list. Thanks for sharing!

BTW, Alexa is originally from Russia and is now living in Belgium. It sure would be nice if you all could give her a warm welcome to the blog from your part of the world. This is really turning into an International community!

As I can see from the comments, some people love wire work, some love canes and some of you love techniques. That is why I am now trying my best to balance out each month's tutorials in a way that should work nicely for everyone.

My plan is to include 1 technique video, 1 bead shape video, 1 cane making video and 1 jewelry making video (wire work, tools, tumbling, polishing, etc.) into each month. There may be times when the balance is off a bit, but that is the general plan.

For Lisa's question on oval jump rings, I would definitely try your idea to see if it works. I do know there are some oval shaped mandrels out there that are made for that sort of thing, but since I don't have one, I can't offer you any advice.

Thanks again everyone for your support of this blog and of each other. It is so fun to be able to share ideas with you all!

I don't think I need to vote Cindy, you said it all and your idea of a month's worth of videos is great. Leave it to you to find a way to please everyone. Although I really don't think you could make a one of us unhappy with anything you come up with. Not only are you blessed with this constant thinking mind of yours but God has blessed you with many talents the best one is knowing how to share everything with all of us. Just learning everything I have from you and being blessed to of found your site is enough for me. Once again I want to THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU!!!!!!!! YOU ARE AS KIND AS YOU ARE TALENTED!!!!!!!!!

Alexa I would like to welcome you to the best crafting site in the WORLD. If you find a half of what I have found from this site you will have a blast here. Welcome and enjoy each day.
Clayfull hugs, from Peggy in the state of Iowa in the good ol USA

Welcome Alexa! "Cat" happens to be one of the about 10 words I know in Russian. :) (I can't write it, but I can say it!)

Maybe one day I'll study Russian properly, it's such a fun-sounding language.

Hope you enjoy yourself here. xxx

I love the idea of combining a variety of things each month. I agree with just about everything mentioned…although slightly partial to the kaleidoscope canes; focal bead variations; wire work and techniques combined with different mediums. It's all inspiring though – the pretty and the practical!

Sketching/writing down ideas as they come is what I have to do as well or else I have a terrible time trying to recall something later on.
I'm not too far away…really enjoy hearing where others are from too.
Richmond, BC, Canada

@Alexa – Welcome to the best blog/learning site there is for polymer clay and jewelry making! It's a great community where there are always answers for your questions…

Hello from Midland, Michigan, USA,
~Lisa

Hi Cindy,

It must be extremely difficult to balance such a wide variety of reader interests!

To throw my own preferences into the mix:

My main area of interest is polymer clay techniques: surface effects, faux techniques, tricks with liquid polymer clay, etc. It's always interesting to see new approaches and consider how they fit with your own style.

Canes are OK occasionally — it goes in phases with me — but mainly abstract and geometric designs. I personally don't like floral or "pretty" stuff, although I'm in the minority there! But I'd second Alexa's comment about snowflakes: they're very cool as ghost canes and the possibilities are endless.

I'm pretty comfortable with wirework and my vast range of tools already, so that's not the kind of thing I come here for. Not that I don't have more to learn (!), but it's a peripheral subject here where it's the focus of other sites.

The only specific request I'd have would be metal-cored big-hole polymer clay beads, as would be used with Pandora-style bracelets. I haven't tried making these yet, and while I have ideas about how to tackle them your take would be great to see! Things like fitting the beads to the metal cores, particularly with the single-piece cores rather than the half cores that glue in from each side…

Could I also suggest hollow focals, of the type where you make the two sides separately and then glue them together, as a possible subject? They're light even when large, use relatively little clay, are easy to make and can be done with any kind of design or pattern, but not many people make them which is a bit of a shame.

Thanks for encouraging reader input… I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Sue

@Lisa

Have a look here for oval jumpring mandrels (they should be able to be used independently).

jatayu.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=J&Product_Code=TJR-0410

Connie and her team are lovely people to deal with, and their prices are generally excellent too.

Hi, Cindy! If it were for me, I'd gladly watch videos about the faux semiprecious stones every Friday. I enjoyed all the "faux" videos I've seen here until now. Of course, the faux raku was just the icing on the cake. And I love all the innovations you come up with and that we can see nowhere else on the net. On the other hand, all the techniques you teach are so instructive, even if we tried them before. So I'm sure you'll continue to be great, whatever technique you'll show us.

I posted a comment on this yesterday but it doesnt seem to have registered – so I'll put my request in again. I'd like resin techniques and lava beads please Cindy, thank you.

@Sue – Thanks! :) I'll go have a peek…

~Lisa

Hi, Cindy I love everything you show us but i would especially love some more canes

Hi Alexa, welcome to a great site, and more so a great teacher Ritzs U.K.

Hi Alexa. Welcome! You're going to love it here.

Maureen
From the great state of New Jersey!

Hey Sue! I'm with you. I'm not the floral – 'pretty' style either. I like bold and 'out there' – I love mokume gane for that reason.

And yes Cindy – learning to make that pandora style bead would be very interesting.

I've done a couple of hollow beads and getting them to join up seems to be pretty tricky. I've had to resort to running a thin extruded line around them to cover the join. Is this normal?

Hi Alexa, You are so lucky. Being a member on this site is the best thing I ever did. I know you'll love it Welcome ………Cindy, are there any more ways to do the skinner blends? If there are, I would love to see them. Honey, West Palm Beach, Florida

@aims

That's nice to know! LOL
I definitely agree about bold and 'out there'. I also like modern minimalist, asymmetric, tribal… not QUITE everything except for "pretty", but almost. ;)

When I make hollow beads I sand the individual halves side-to-be-glued down, which increases the surface area for the glue and normally is enough to get them to line up well with a nice sharp edge (you can kind-of cheat a bit at this stage if they aren't quite the same shape, e.g. sand more where there's an overhang). I haven't had to run anything around them to cover the join — I sand the surfaces to be glued until they fit together with no gap at all — although occasionally there'll be a tiny nick or something that I want to patch.

I sometimes also make them flat on one side. I still sand the cured moulded halves so that they'll sit flat against that will become their backs. But then I just put a bit of liquid polymer clay on the edges of the moulded half (instead of glue), place them onto a sheet of uncured polymer clay, and trim around the edge so that it's exactly the same size and shape (even if that shape is wobbly). That also avoids a join "gap", and while it doesn't give a sharp edge like the other technique, if the colour of the backing clay goes well with the face (e.g. black or a contrasting colour for a bold look, or a complementary colour for a coordinated look) it still looks nicely finished.

You could probably make sharp-edged flat-backed versions by sanding the interior edges of the cured moulded halves more, so that if you placed them on a sheet of uncured polymer clay and then pressed them down they'd act a bit like like a cutter while still having enough contact area to join properly, but I haven't tried that exact way to date. (Maybe I will next time I have enough free time to play with my clay again!)

@Silverleaf:
Thank you so much.
That's nice that you know few Russian words . :)
Russian cat are: koshka.
^_^ xxx

I think i did somthing wrong with this comments. °_°

Thank you so much everyone.
I am very glad I'm here and I look forward to learn many new things.
:)

Hi Cindy,
I, too, would love to see a tutorial on making the Pandora-style beads.
Candy

Hi CIndy, I have been looking for holiday canes and the ones that I love are made for nail art already baked. I want small canes for beads and to make pens with. Can I buy the baked cane and warm it up and use it like a raw cane or is it too hard already? I have a craft show to get ready for so, no time to make them myself and all my jewelry too. I'm about to purchase your Volume 12 videos to make some gold and silver leaf pendants with ink, love that technique. Thnaks for getting me started.
Mary

Thank you everyone for your awesome detailed feedback. I couldn't do this without you!!

And thanks everyone for welcoming Alexa, that is lovely of you all to do that!

@DJ: I had no idea you lived so close to me. Someday we'll have to meet up!

@Sue: Your input is excellent as always! I will definitely take your ideas into consideration in my future planning.

@Helen: Yes there is more than one way to do the Skinner Blend. I will consider ways to share some of them. However, you'll probably find my Tear Drop Blend is the quickest and easiest though. :-)

@Mary: Baked cane slices can be added to raw clay but there will be a little seam that shows all the way around since they won't 'meld' together like two soft clays will. I would use a liquid clay like Studio by Sculpey's Bake and Bond to 'glue' the baked slice to the raw clay before you bake it. If you are under a time constraint, I would stick to simple designs and techniques otherwise you will run out of time to do quality work. You are better off with fewer good quality pieces than a bunch of low quality ones if you want to make sales.

Thanks Cindy, for the instruction of the baked canes. I made a jelly roll design today and covered some pens but, I will not attempt to make the hard ones. I have been buying my canes from girls on Etsy and making things that way. I have my jewelry to design and make also so, no time to make my canes. I'm pretty picky so, I would never get much done.

One more thing, Michaels has their clay on sale for 4 for 5.00 this week , time to stock up.

Thanks for answering my questions so fast.