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Mandaloscope Inspiration

I'm home sick today and just can't seem to concentrate. I feel horrible but still needed some kind of entertainment that didn't just involve sitting like a zombie in front of the TV. I decided to take random images from the Web and manipulate them with my graphics program's Kaleidescope effect. The results are these interesting and inspiring Mandala-like images - or, as I'll refer to them, "Mandaloscopes." I've decided to post a couple of these images (with the originals). From the top: a magazine ad of a female clown from 1970 and corresponding mandala. Then, a vintage male contortionist and corresponding mandala.

What's interesting about the Kaleidoscope effect in PaintShop Pro, is that you can actually shift the image to an endless combination of positions based on the vertical/horizontal offsets and rotation angles - kind of like a real Kaleidoscope. So you can come up with an infinite array of images. It's an exercise in composition - and quite entertaining. Now I'm going to bed.

A Twist of Inspiration

Well, it's a snow day here on Long Island and I have off from work today! Yay! It's great because I'm really in a creative mood today, and if I were at work I'd just be thinking about all the things I could be making at home. For now, I'm posting some earrings I've made this past week.

Let me preface this post by explaining that one of the things I've always loved about polymer clay (and clay in general) is its malleability. It puts up with a lot of pulling, kneading, squishing, rolling, and twisting. It is impressionable, flexible, pliable, and very forgiving. It is the contortionist in the circus of craft (and a chameleon to boot).

With that in mind, I created these delicate little twist earrings. They're made out of translucent polymer clay with a bit of color mixed in and some copper inclusions. These photos portray their form quite well, but unfortunately they cannnot fully capture the depth of colors. The gold/copper earrings are especially pretty when they hit the light. There is gold Pardo clay mixed in to this pair and it literally makes the earrings glow.

I varnished both earrings with Delta Ceramcoat gloss varnish (my favorite by the way, if you're looking for a decent varnish for polymer clay). It makes the earrings look a little bit like glass - in fact when my mom saw me wearing the gold pair, she thought they were glass. I'm planning on making some more today - perhaps some longer ones with a taper. I'll post them when I'm done!

Rosenoir Inspiration

Here is a new poppy necklace I've made. The term "rosenoir" is a combination of the French terms for "pink" and "black." The outer petal of the flower is made of a combination of translucent and pink clay, with some pink glitter thrown in. The middle piece is a dark purple clay with inclusions of silver leaf and the center is black clay which has been textured and highlighted with silver mica powder.

Crater Inspiration

These 2 and 3-part crater earrings were a lot of fun to make. They look great with my new short haircut too! I actually used one of the discarded centers from my poppy pendants as a stamp to create texture. This is what created the speckled effect.

Harvest Poppy Inspiration

Here's my new Harvest Poppy necklace. It's made from polymer clay, liquid clay, mica powder, copper flakes, seed beads, and gloss varnish. The inspiration for the colors came from a sweater I recently purchased. When I first went to wear the sweater, I was disappointed to find that I had no jewelry to match. So I grabbed the sweater, took it to my craft desk and got some clay out. I ended up mixing a purple color with white and gold to make the outer petal. If you click on one of the photos to get a close-up look, you can see the gold shining in it.

I took a risk with this one and gave it a white center instead of black or dark brown. I like how it kind of looks like a mushroom top - to me it adds to the organic feel of the pendant. Finding the right color seed beads was a challenge. I almost took the brown strand out, then decided against it at the last minute. Without it, the piece just looked too matchy-matchy.

I'm definitely going to making another one of these. Right now I'm deciding what colors I'm going to use. Any suggestions?

Rock You Slideshow

Awesome New Resource for Clayers!

I just came across (and joined) a site called ClayLessons.com which is pretty new. It's geared towards clayers using polymer and metal clays. Right now there aren't that many users, but I could see that it is already developing into something wonderful. It's sister site is the more well-known JewelryLessons.com .

Here are some things you can do at ClayLessons.com:

• Buy and sell tutorials (some tutorials are free)
• Write articles and tips about claywork to earn "points" which you can use to buy tutorials
• Show your clay work and see others' work in the Gallery
• Participate in the forums and interact with other like-minded clay artists
• Take part in challenges and other events
• Read interviews with well-known clay artists

Please check this site out and join! It's free and the more users that join, the better it will be.

Montreaux Poppy Inspiration

I adore this necklace. It is inspired by the orange poppies that bloom on Lake Geneva in Montreaux, Switzerland. I've taken some liberties with color - the Montreax poppies don't have any blue in them. I used a technique from Weltman's Ancient Modern book, using an old light bulb to mold the outer petal.

Shabby Chic Inspiration

I wanted these earrings to look like they came out of a jewelry box from 1960 - something one of the women on Mad Men would wear. Another exercise in color restraint, the petals are a combination of bronze (base petal) and silver (top petal) Pardo polymer clay. Both petals have been accented slightly with gold mica powder and are varnished to make them sparkle. A silver-plated beadcap sits in the middle filled with black seed beads. The earrings hang from silver-plated lever-back hooks which allow them to hang straight down for maximum effect.