“I am trying to think outside the box this year… trying to be a little more daring with the bling.” ~Lupe-M
If you want to make your beads sing, you’ve got to add a little bling! And when I say bling, I’m referring to any kind of sparkle, both on and in your polymer clay beads. Here are a few quick tips to follow:
Add Metal to the Surface of Your Beads: Metal Leafs and Foils are great ways to add a little sparkle and glam to your beads. Listed below are a few articles that have already been posted about how to use and apply gold leaf and foils:
- Crackled Gold Leaf on Round Beads
- Differences Between Gold Leaf and Gold Foil
- Jones Tones Foil and Mona Lisa Gold Leaf
- Using Metal Leafs and Foils
Add Metal to the Inside of Your Beads: Putting a layer of gold, silver or copper leaf in between layers of polymer clay, makes a lovely Mokume Gane. Here are a couple of articles on how to do the Mokume Gane Technique:
Add Sparkly Powder: There are lots of different sparkling powders you can use on and in your polymer clay. Think mica powders, pigment powders, glitter and even eye shadow! Read the following articles for more info:
Speaking of glitter… if you haven’t seen the video I posted back in June 2008 about Ellen DeGeneres lobbying congress to ban glitter, it’s a must see. In the video, my friend the Crafty Chica (Kathy Cano-Murillo), a self proclaimed lover of glitter, makes a valiant effort to try and win Ellen over. Very funny stuff.
That was absolutely hysterical and I would have missed it totally if it had not been for The Treasure Hunt. ~Anna-S
Now I’m not sure if Ellen and Kathy ended up seeing eye to eye on this matter, but I was happy to have least passed along some sparkly tips to Kathy and her canes.
Cindy – Thank you for the awesome glitter tips! I am going to try making canes with my clay, now I am all excited!! Thanks to you!! Hugs, Kathy :) ~Crafty Chica
As you can see, glitter certainly does stir up emotions. It seems to be one of those love hate things. In fact, there are certain readers here at the blog who would probably side with Ellen DeGeneres when it comes to glitter… which I am totally fine with by the way. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion here :)
Does anyone recall who amongst us, made the following rather passionate (and recent) remark?
This was also the cane that showed me how much I hate glitter in my clay!!! ~:-)
Please share your thoughts and opinions about glitter and bling in the comments section below.
I love glitter! But in the right place, and definitely not over-used.
I made some simple black round beads with black glitter on the surface which looks very subtle but pretty.
Don’t like glitter in canes though.
I agree with Silverleaf…. glitter in canes not good…. it leaves drag marks and just frustrates me…. however I like the look of sprinkling glitter on a bead before making it into a lentil swirl…. I love the swirl towards the middle that it makes… I also do that with little pieces of metal leaf…. it swirls very nicely. You just can’t have too much of either when doing this because the pull of the clay with the surface still needs to be pretty strong so you can’t cake the clay with glitter or completely cover with the metal leaf.
I was actually guilty of saying I would never buy clay with glitter in it again… and I probably won’t but glitter as an accent can be very pretty. I am a HUGE fan of metal leaf and mica powders, though!!! Love pretty shimmery things.
Oh Melinda I did not mean for you to feel “guilty” for expressing your opinion about glitter. I think it is great that everyone has their likes and dislikes. It makes the world much more of an interesting place.
While we are still on the topic of glitter, I have to say how interesting it is to see how the “laws of the universe” work. After talking about glitter in today’s post, just by coincidence it up again in helping Ritzs with a PYM II (Preserve Your Memories II) question. You can see what I’m talking about by following the link by my name. I just posted a video from a scrapbooker who talks about how to solve some of the mess issues associated with glitter crafts.
Cindy – I have spent the whole weekend “with” you and your videos. I don’t think I have ever gotten more value from a purchase. I feel as though I know you and we are friends. Your teaching style is so warm and genuine. I have learned so much already and still have a long way to go. I will probably be watching some of the videos many times. I don’t want to ramble on and on but thank you so much for the wonderful opportunity. I haven’t had so much fun in a long time.
Love,
Bev
PS – who does your camera work? They are very good and the editing – insets, etc.- are excellent!
Thank you so much for the kind words Beverle. Glad to hear its been fun for you. I know exactly what you mean :-) Polymer clay is a blast! And in regards to the camera work and editing, that is compliments of my dear husband. He is as much a part of this polymer clay family as I am.
Don’t know if any of you have seen this saying but it totally cracked me up.
“Glitter is the herpes of the craft world.”
True, true, I love it but you can never get rid of it and unless you are very careful, it gets dragged into everything you don’t want it in. LOL
Sadly I despise it and think its only value is to adorn christmas cards – go on shoot me down! Haha!
@Laurel: Too funny! You definitely gave me a chuckle!
@Polyanya: Sounds like you would be a good friend for Ellen DeGeneres! :-)
Doesn’t it just! No i’m not a gloss or glitter girl at all – give me natural effects every time.