“My doctor told
me that I should be
living in a beach house
making jewelry.”
~Brenda-M
These “Spot” features are for you guys to display your accomplishments, share stories of inspiration and even ask for assistance with challenges that you may be experiencing. The projects are based on techniques learned from articles here at the blog, as well as from tutorials at the Polymer Clay Video Library. My hope is for these “Show and Tell” features to help everyone get to know each other a bit better, thanks to this wonderfully artistic medium of polymer clay. And… there’s prizes too!
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
If you are interested in sharing pictures of your polymer clay projects with the community, please follow these 2 simple steps:
1) Email several of your photos to me as attachments. My email address is shown in the “From” line of the weekly Polymer Clay Newsletter that gets sent out each and every Friday morning.
2) Include a description and/or story about your pieces, being sure to reference the tutorial(s) or blog article(s) that provided at least some level of inspiration for your work.
Don’t be shy. Everyone is VERY friendly here.
In the comment section below, please do compliment each other; Offer encouragement; Ask questions about the techniques used; And in general… be social. This is your community! It’s up to you to make it a fun and supportive place to hang out. All of you are amazing and it’s wonderful to have everyone here!
Polymer clay is like going on some great adventure and to have such a superb guide in Cindy, is a real treat.
~Susan-B
| ************************************************************************************************** | ||
| ** Did You Know… Members with current subscriptions to the weekly tutorial videos are always entitled to a 10% discount when purchasing 6 or more back issue packages in a single transaction. If you are interested, let me know which back issues you would like and I will send further instructions on how to complete your order. |
||
| ************************************************************************************************** |
So true, Brenda! These beads are lovely, and wire-wrapped so nicely into pendants! I’ve seen some of your other pieces that are gorgeous, as well. You may very well end up in that beach house after all, creating gorgeous jewelry for everyone to enjoy! I’m so glad you took up clay again. I’m happy you are sharing your work with us, plus, it’s so fun to have you around here. You’ve got a great sense of humor — as well as a gift for making fantastic polymer jewelry!
I especially like the black and gold one. I’ll get into wire wrapping someday, right now need to find more time to work on Cindy’s techniques.
Brenda, How to describe this black bead and the wrapping had me puzzled for a bit. I put away my usual adjectives and came up with a saying of sometime back. I’ve probably dated myself but that’s OK.
“Wicked georgous” is what it is to me. I love the color combination and
the simplicity of the wrap. It just speaks to me. Now the yellow, pink and green is beautiful also. Just goes to show that you have something for everyone. Way to go! Thanks so much for sharing.
Brenda, gorgeous beads, with absolutely beautiful wire wrapping… I only dream of wire wrapping so beautifully. I just don’t have any talent when it comes to the wire wrapping. Pehaps seeing work as lovely as yours will give me the umph I need to keep trying…(thank goodness copper wire is relativly inexpensive!) :)
Keep on Clayin’,
~Lisa :)
Wow, I’d love to learn to wire wrap like that!
Your work is absolutely beautiful!
Very pretty, aren’t lentil beads fun? Like others have already mentioned, your wire wrapping skills are amazing…they look so delicate!
I love both the beads. The colors are striking.Your wire wrapping is gorgeous too. I never know where to start in wrapping, so I never do start. :-)
Joyce, I’m from Maine and can say “wicked gorgeous” ‘cos that’s how we talk up heah… I love these “swirlie whirlies”! Actually, I would never have thought of using cane slices for lentil beads but they turn out intriguing as well as beautiful.
@Koolbraider: Where in Maine are you?
My DH is from Maine and we spent quite a few summers there. It really is a beautiful state. We followed the rugged coastline one summer and felt like we had really left the state. Love Bar Harbor and Cadillac Mtn.
We are driving from FL to Nova Scotia later this month. So please turn up the heat and send the rain where it is needed. We shared a duplex with my in-laws in Dexter, any where near your area? “up heah” is a dead give away, there’s a story with that one. Happy claying.
@JoyceM:
Joyce, I’m in Oakland, just a few miles north of Augusta. The heat has come and gone but we’re deluged with heavy rain tonight. I’ll have to see where Dexter is. If you go through Bar Harbor again, be sure to see the Asticou Gardens. The sign on the road is hard to see but the area is “wicked gorgeous”! It’s world famous. If you are going through next month you will probably see the flowers in bloom. Asticou is known for its azalea varieties. (So, what’s the story?)
@Koolbraider: Let’s see if I can tell the story right. My DH is a whiz in math but never mastered the English language and to this day mispronounces like words. We stopped at the local variety store on our way home one day and he related to his Dad that we bought several items at “Renee’s”. The first thing his Dad said was “up heah we call it “Reny’s”. One more reason that we could never forget his Dad. We always smile and laugh if we are in the area of “Reny’s,
Renee’s or whatever. If you have not found Dexter on a map I think it is about 35 miles north and west of Oakland. We would stop in Waterville at the Headless Woman Restaurant during its day. Then it became the Weathervane. Always had great food there. Happy memories of family and wonderful friends in that area.
As everyone else I love the wire wrapping!!! Beautiful pieces!
Brenda, your lentils are gorgeous and I like the flow of your wire wrapping. If I could suggest, though, they would be even more striking if the wires followed the swirls a bit more. For instance, on the pink and yellow one, I’d place the wire curls over the yellow part without crossing over the pink. I have a hard time when wires cross lines like they do in the black and gold one. I’d try accenting the swirls … you can always take the wire in one direction, hold it in place and then bring it back kind of like an ‘S’ curve. Give that a try and see what you think. Or not. This is just my suggestion. Anyway, keep up the good work. I am so glad it is therapeutic for you. I know it sure is for me!
@carolyn: Carolyn, I like your suggestion for the wirework and will keep it in mind for when I start doing it myself. I’m hoping for some time in my craft room soon but it probably won’t be much before we return from our trip. I love all the ideas that everyone is bringing forward. Can’t beat this loving, caring, and sharing community.
Joyce M
Love your sliced cane swirl beads, and the wire wrapping is fantastic. I am hoping to learn how to wire wrap soon. I took one class in that but forgot how to go about it. The spliced cane is one of my favorites…it is the easy cane and the colors are just amazing! Yours are beautiful! And yes, I agree, it is therapeutic. I am a caregiver for my father-in-law and I am pretty much home…so working on polymer clay is a way for me to escape and not think about anything but that!
These are very lovely beads — beautiful colours and I am very impressed with your wire work. Did you teach yourself how to do the wire work?
Simply gorgeous! Take 2 gold stars!!
@Brenda M, I love them! Great color choices! What size wire do you like to use? I have some gold at 20 gage and I find it a little difficult to do what I want with it. But, 20 gage in color copper wire is much easier. I got to try wire wrapping lentils you make it look so cool! Good job!
@Catalina: I use 20 gage. It is silver plated wire, and gold colored wire from the craft store. I am too scared to leap into real silver yet :) I am getting into wore more and more. You can do alot of fancy stuff with it. Using it with the clay just enhances the piece more.
@Brenda: 20 gauge? Really? It looks like you had great control. I made some hearts that look like faux dichroic glass and used 20 gauge wire and I had a time with it. Maybe the piece were too small or something. I love your technique it is very original.
@Catalina: Those two peices were one of my first I ever wrapped. They are about 11/2 ” wide. So, yes they are good size. I have sold about 8 pieces in the last few months. I found that if you keep running your fingers down the wire it warms it a bit. The you can manipulate it better. :)
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY EVERYONE!!!!!
@Brenda: These are your first!!! Wow. I’m so impressed.
@Linda K.: These are the first beads that I wrapped. I f I messed up I would cut the wire off and try over LOL a lot of waste. I just bought a pattern off of etsy last week. It is wrapping without the hole in the bead. It is much harder. I typed in the search on Etsy (wire wrapping tutorials)
@Brenda: Thanks for that information. I have wanted to learn how to do the fancy wire-wrapping for so long, but there’s nobody near me who teaches it. I’ll check out the Etsy tutorials.
@Linda K.:Linda, there are two websites on the internet. One is called jewelrylessons.com and the other is claylessons.com. You can buy single tutorials for wire wrapping there and some of them are really great. There’s also a website called Glitter Glow Beading that will give you all kinds of links to free tutorials on wire wrapping.
@Bonnie Kreger: oow…. Thanks for sharing Bonnie.
@Bonnie Kreger: Hi Bonnie ! Thanks for the websites.I saw the pasta mashine on your blog ,i also have an Atlas-but mine is leaving dark streaks on the clay and i decided to change it-i was thinking of buying Makin’s pasta mashine,as i read that it has non-stick rollers and leaves no streaks on the clay.But i think that may be it is also difficult for cleaning.I had also hard time cleaning mine.Is this new Atlas with non stick rollers and did you ever have problems with dark streaks?
@Nevena: I have had 7 different pasta machines since I’ve been doing clay. They are all hard to take apart and clean no matter which one you use. Some of my guild friends use two PM’s. One for white and translucent and one for colors. Since I got this new one, I don’t have to worry about it. The blades come off in a second and I’ve never had other colors showing up on my clay. I bought the 180 Atlas because it is 2 inches wider than the 150 and it was only $5.00 more. I got it in 3 days. The rollers are the regular metal rollers and that’s fine with me. Works like a charm. My husband always knew when I was cleaning my pasta machine by the amount of swearing I did. No more swearing and no more streaks in my clay. YEAH. You can send her your machine and she will modify it for you if you don’t want to buy a new one. Don’t forget, Cindy gave a good tip a long time ago. Spray your clay with alcohol and wipe it with a paper towel. That will help take the streaks of old clay off from the pasta machine. If anyone wants the information about this new machine, click my name and it will take you to my blog. I put a picture and information about the pasta machine on there.
@Bonnie Kreger: Just checked out your blog and it is really nice! Love the Cat porcelain bead! You made me want to go to the “Cat Station” and play!!
@Bonnie Kreger: I had to take a peek at your blog to see the cats, very cute. I love ,love, love the earrings. I never thought to hammer the wire to hold the bead in place.
@Bonnie: Bonnie,thank you!
@Bonnie Kreger: Hi Bonnie, I’m familiar with jewelrylessons and claylessons…I get newsletters from both of them. I’ll have to look at them more carefully for the wire-wrapping tuts.
I never heard of Glitter Glow Beading before, but I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks!
Beautiful work! The colors are gorgeous. the pink and yellow go so well together, pretty and light and i love the brown and black – those are my colors. The wire wrapping is fantastic too. i do some wire wrapping but yours is simply wonderful and so neat. i love the curly swirls on the pink and yellow pendant.
@ Carolyn- I think thats a realy good idea as it will follow the natural swirl in the lentil and flow.
Beautiful wire wrapping. It does make like a small display case for the bead.
@ Brenda M: Your work is stunning! I would never have thought to wire wrap a 3-D bead like a lentil, but I love the results.
@ Joyce M: I knew you had to be from the general vicinity of New England when you used an expression like “wicked gorgeous!” I grew up a few mile outside of Boston, so it jumped right out at me and made me smile. It’s a great description of Brenda’s work, too.
Brenda, your beads are awesome. I love the spliced cane. I do a lot of those when I don’t know what else to do. Love your wire wrapping too. It takes it from a bead to a master piece. I’ll bet Cindy is proud of you. Looking forward to seeing more of your “Beach House” jewelry. LOL
Joyce, my ex MIL lives in Madison that has a “Reny’s”. We say “rennees” or “raynees”. It’s a cool shopping place anyway you say it. The Weathervane serves the best fried clams around! I have to admit that “Weathervane” doesn’t have the same impact as a statue of a woman without a head. Probably feminists decided it wasn’t politically correct. I always thought it was a wicked cool figure!
Brenda, this is some of the most beautiful wire wrapping I’ve seen! I hope to get into that someday! Just beautiful!!!
I also find the wire wrapping very beautiful! Does anybody has a link or something where this kind of wire work is shown step by step.I like the idea of the wire turning into a bail,as i ordered some bails on-line from different companies but when they arrived,i saw that they don’t match well to what i have done from polymer clay.Wire work gives you more possibilities of having a nice harmony between clay jewellry and metal parts.
@Nevena: You could check out wiresculpture.com and/or Fire Mountain Gems. They both have videos on basics of wire wrap.
Hi Carolyn and thank you for the websites!I saw also the beautiful rings on your site! i am just trying to figure out how to make a rose ring-to make the ring base by myself and then to glue the rose on top-i am just at the beginning of wire work and try to invent how to flaten the ring base or to make some polymer clay little piece(attch it in a way to the base) that will allow me to glue the rose on top.I tried this with a ready made ring base-it came out beautiful but i would like to put the hand made element in the metal work too-i just saw a couple of videos but they always had a stone with a whole in the center.
with a “hole” in the center:) I watched lots of the videos-find them very useful!
OMG!!! I just seen this page. I think I am going to cry from all the kind words. I have been so busy with my other business that I haven’t taken the time to stop and read.
@Ken: I love the wire wrapping with the beads too. The black and gold one sold as soon as I put it online for sale. The are good size too. You can see some of my work at my online store. Just click on my name.
I’ve been teaching myself to wrap for awhile now. I wish I can get really good. Thank you all again :)
I’m surprised on how many of you have trouble with your past machines. I try to wipe mine down with a baby wipe between colors and have yet to have any problems. I try to wipe underneath the rollers, as well. I haven’t even taken it apart yet. Now, I think I afraid to, lol!!
@Catalina: I know what you mean about being afraid to mess with it. Don’t forget the old saying, “If it ain’t broke; don’t fix it!”
@Phaedrakat: …Then knock on wood! LOL!! I, also, think that using small amounts of clay and making sure it is not too thick so that the pasta machine doesn’t over work, would help.