Image Transfer Inspiration

Recently I found these really pretty floral file folders (tongue twister alert) from the dollar bin in Michael's. I loved the pattern so I made a color copy and did an image transfer onto thin white drop-shaped cutouts of polymer clay. I poked holes in them, baked them, varnished the cured pieces, and finally, attached earring wires. The result is these floral drop earrings. They're super light-weight and have nice movement.

For those of you interested, here is my image transfer process:

1. Start by printing your desired image onto plain white printer paper using a color laser printer. Lay a sheet of clay onto a tile before cutting it into the shape you want. You will bake the clay on this tile. Now cut your paper to size. (For these earrings I used my drop-shaped cutter to not only cut out the clay pieces, but also to trace the outline on the paper. The clay pieces and paper turned out the same size so I could line them up easier).
2. Next, lay your paper carefully onto the clay (image side down) and burnish lightly with a bone folder or your finger. Don't burnish hard enought to indent the clay; you just want to bind the clay and paper.
3. Put the tile in the toaster oven at the recommended temperature for 5 minutes.
4. Remove the tile and peel off your paper. I use a craft knife to gently lift the edges of the paper in order to peel without touching the clay.
5. Your image should now be adhered to the clay. Continue to bake your pieces for the remainder of the recommended time.

* If you're making earrings, don't forget to poke your holes before you apply the paper. * To make sure your edges are clean, sand them if needed. * You'll also want to protect your piece with some kind of sealer or varnish. I prefer Delta Ceramcoat varnish in gloss.

The Bead Goes On...

I'll be donating 5 of my Funky Chunky Flower beads to the Toledo Museum of Art for their "The Bead Goes On" project. They are working on a bead curtain to be installed in the museum itself. It will be composed of 10,000 handmade beads from craftspeople all over the world! Can't wait to see it. If you're interested, click here for more information and the submission form. The beads must be handmade, non-perishable and no bigger than 4" long by 1&1/2" wide. You can submit a maximum of 5 beads. The museum is accepting submissions until October 2010.

Quartz Inspiration

I've wanted to try making faceted polymer clay beads ever since I saw this woman's work on Polymer Clay Daily. Of course I wanted to give it my own twist, so instead of using regular opaque clay, I used a mix of translucent with a teeny bit of color added. What I ended up with was beads that looked like stones - perhaps rose and citrine quartz with a little jade thrown in? I mixed them with some pink shell chips and completed the piece with a duo of matching green Swarovskis and a copper toggle closure. I gave it as a gift to my mother who helped me with my taxes this year (again!). I think it came out really nice and I can't wait to make more...

New Flyer! (click on image)

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