Polymer Clay Bead Giveaway Update – Happy Dance Side Effects

I am doing the happy dance too. I am so excited for you Silverleaf. The beads are really pretty. And thanks Cindy, this is going to be such a great opprotunity to see others work.

Anna -Des Moines Iowa.

Congrats on your sale, Silverleaf! Your execution of the watercolor beads is beautiful! Mine did not turn out so nice, you can barely see the contrast :( I think I need to let my clay cool down more.

It is SO fun to look at all your beads on Facebook and see how someone has used the lessons we learn here. Great work!!

I am using artfire.com for my work (I won't post a link yet – my work needs some work LOL!) but..it is so cool because they have a widget that connects into Facebook. Create an FB biz page and add the widget to your arfire account and you can process sales! Good luck! And keep up the great work.

Malinda

I always put my jewelry on Deviant Art, Facebook, and Photobucket(I use it as a photo storage for my blog) and obviously my blog… I put my canes on Facebook too, and I've got comments from my friends who haven't got a clue how I do it lol

Indeed Cindy G, I've put some work and canes on Facebook and the canes amaze and baffle people.
I'm so happy for you Silverleaf. It's always exciting to get that kind of response.

OK – I've avoided Facebook as long as I could. I just signed up – and I even have a link to Cindy on my first post. Now, how do I make it so Cindy can see it? Cindy, Are you on Facebook? I guess what I need to know is how to get you on as a 'friend'. Being one of the older set I don't know how to use all of these newfangled programs. But I'm learning.

This question has nothing to do with this blog, but I can't find an answer any where. If I were to use pencils on my 'cooked' ('fired' – whatever) PC, would I use watercolor pencils or regular pencils? I have colored markers, but they don't do what I want. Does anyone have experience with adding detail with pencils?

I've set up a Flickr acct recently and had uploaded some of the pieces I've made using your techniques, Cindy. I've even shared a link to Flickr on Facebook, now how do I link the specific photos back to you? What an adventure.

Wow Cindy, thanks for mentioning me and for being so nice about my beads. I can't wait to see what everyone else has made!

So far Facebook has generated quite a bit of interest… one sale, several people saying they are thinking of buying pieces as birthday presents, and one person wants an "Anna Roberts original" as he put it, he just hasn't decided exactly what yet but it will be a custom-made piece. So yay! It's such a boost to my confidence that people have been making nice comments as well.

This whole thing has spurred me on to actually get on with finishing some pieces – I assembled 24 pendants today and have another 33 to do later. I've decided if I can get 60 pieces assembled, photographed and listed in my shop by the end of the weekend I'll reward myself by ordering some more clay from Penny, and playing with the faux raku technique.

Oh and I'd love it if we could all link up on Facebook! My profile is at facebook.com/silverleaf79 so please add me if you're on FB as well. And I'm also silverleaf79 on Flickr.

Way to go Silverleaf, those are just beautiful pieces you made. Thanks for sharing.

@carolyn: Hi Carolyn When I first started with polymer clay I saw a show on HGTV Thats Clever I think. To get to the point they made a pendant with translucent clay. She shaped her bead then baked it after baked and cooled Ithink she sanded then used oil based color pencils to draw a profile of herself. Colored the hair in and eyes, blushed cheeks and red lips. Then she took a very thin coat of I think it was Kato brand liquid translucent baked and repeated this 6-7 times. I would have to look in a file where I download and printed out instructions from several shows to find out for sure. The pendant turned out beautiful with such a shine from the layers of liquid translucent. Anyway I use Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor – colored pencils. I also believe Walnut Hallow has the oil based pencils. You can buy them on the internet. I got a great deal on mine thru ebay. Hope this helps.
Love and Uuuuuuggggggs, Peggy

GREAT JOB Silverleaf and everyone else who has been working so hard to enter this contest. Most of all, SUPER JOB CINDY for showing all of us how this can be done.

If anyone want to add me on Facebook, here's my profile: facebook.com/cindy.graveline

@Peggy Barnes: There is no problem using oil based products on PC?????

The crackle faux raku cost me my heat gun. It was the first time I used it and the whole front melted. I'm taking it back to Michaels tomorrow!

@Carolyn: That's weird! How close were you holding it to the clay? Never heard of a heat gun melting like that. You should take it back! As far as using pencils (oil or otherwise) I don't really have much experience with that. I have colored a few photocopies with watercolor pencils before doing an image transfer and it worked well, but other than that, they are on my list of things to try. You'll have to go on your own experience and some of the others here like Peggy for now.

@Rachelle – Isn't the web fun :-) On Flicker and Facebook when you post photos of your beads and jewelry that are related to my tutorials, what would be great is if you could say a little about this contest in a way that might inspire other clayers to get involved as well.

@Silver leaf: You are very welcome! That is so cool about the sales and everything!

Thank you Lynn, Peggy and Cindy G for your great comments as well! It is so nice to see you all chatting with each other like that. I am getting too busy to respond as often as I'd like, so it is great to see you all helping each other out!

I stayed a good 1 1/2 – 2" away from the clay – and the heat gun didn't damage the clay – and it didn't feel hot to the touch. Then I turned it off and propped it on it's little stand on a wooden cutting board on the kitchen counter. I smelled something weird and heard a crackling, but just figured it was cool down noise. After I finished what I was doing with the clay, I went to check to see if the heat gun was cool enough to store away – that's when I saw that the stand had melted into the housing and the entire front was melted and warped. I was going to take it back to Michael's this afternoon but it's been snowing off and on all day so I stayed snug in my home. Tomorrow is another day!

Can a torch be used for embossing? Or would that heat the powders too hot, too fast?

Carolyn, it definitely sounds like there is something wrong with your heat gun… an overheating problem of some sort.

Don't use a torch for embossing or doing the raku effect. It is definitely too hot and too fast! Use your oven instead (for either technique) until you get a new heat gun. Just put your item on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and check it every 60 seconds or so.

oil based things on PC- I read somewhere that you can buy oil pastels and crunch them up and add bits to liquid polymer clay to colour it – that is my only experience of using oil based colours with PC (predictably I am now stocking these pastels on ClayAround!

@Penny: Are pigment pencils the same as oil pencils? Maybe pigment pencils would be the way to go. I saw some at Michaels yesterday but didn't buy them because I really didn't know what they were – except that they were quite expensive!

@Cindy Lietz from Kaleidoscope Canes: I took the heat gun back to Michaels. They looked at it like they had never seen such a strange creature before! I got my money back, and while at Lowe's for bird seed I wandered the tool aisle – should call them treasure aisles: I got the 120 grit drywall mesh for sanding, a small butane torch, and a heat gun! The mesh and heat gun were actually in the paint section but you get the idea. It was really exciting! Don would have directed me to Lowe's in the first place – I just wasn't listening with that inner ear! These things were almost like gifts from him.

@ Carolyn: Can you use that small butane torch from Lowe's to make balls on the tips of silver and gold wire? I've read that you can use the culinary torches (like those used for creme brulee), but I'll bet your Lowe's torch costs less.

@Linda K.: Haven't tried this trick yet – in fact haven't tried anything with this new torch yet, but it did only cost $15.

@Helen (honeyclay): Meet me here! Were you able to get to that part of FB where you can create a photo album?

@Helen (honeyclay): Well, apparently you didn't need me after all! I looked up your facebook and saw your jewelry! Congratulations! You've got some beautiful things…

Phaedrakat—–WAIT, WAIT, WAIT……..I do need you. I don't know how I did it, plus I lost two pictures somewhere!!!!!! Your directions were just perfect. Really terrific. I couldn't find facebook post to get the rest of the directions so I tried it myself and messed it up. I had to download a whole role of pictures because I lost two and I just found this blog. I was so nervous, so I don't know how I did those three pictures. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, can I have the rest of the directions? THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!

@Helen Sperring (honeyclay): Of course! Don't worry, we'll get it figured out, okay? (At least I hope I can help you ;-) Tell me what you've done so far, though. You were able to get to the "Photos" tab, right? And you saw the "Create a Photo Album" button?

Pheadrakat, I'm so sorry I'm taking up so much of your time. I never thought that maybe you were trying to get some of your own creations on line before the deadline. If you have do have some time for me I would really appreciate it. I followed your directions up to "On photos tab you have create an album" and after that I don't know what I did because I didn't write it down. Plus when I lost two pictures I got real nervous. I think I had a panic attack, so I don't remember what I did. I would really appreciate it if you could give me the rest of the directions. Sorry I'm being such a pest but I love learning. Thank You, Thank You, Honey

No problem, Helen. Actually, I'm still nursing my back, so I'm not going to be able to get anything done before the deadline. It's going to have to be "next time" for me. Anyway, I'm glad to help. There are instructions on Facebook, as well. I'll tell you where they are, and then give you any additional insight I might have. Help is up at the top of the page under "Account" (where it says "Home" "Profile, etc.) and it's called "Help Center." Go to that, then find "Photos" which is in the second help group called "Facebook Applications and Features." Click on the Photos help, then there's a list of different things you can do with the photos. You would start with the first, which is "Creating and uploading." Click on that. The first item is "How do I add photos and create an album?" Then, you'll see the steps I've shown you so far. Okay, do that, and I'll be back!