Etsy Favorites

I love to cruise through Etsy to admire the work of others and charge up my inspiration battery. Here are a few recent artists that I'd like to highlight:Fringilla made this awesome romantic polymer clay heart pendant. You can tell that a lot of work went into this. I love the color palette on this piece - it has a very old-world style.

Image transfers on polymer clay can get real tacky, real fast. Restraint is necessary to avoid an eyesore. Miss Fickle Media has perfected the technique. This Bakelite-ish ring in particular is among my favorites. Visit her shop here.

Etsy Favorites Part 2....

There's this beauty from Stranded Treasure's "wearable hand-sculpted blossoms." Like many artist's, Sharlene takes inspiration from nature - specifically, flowers. Her creations are pure vintage; delicate and impeccable

This lovely bracelet is made by Amy whose Etsy store is named "The B-Line." Amy is a chemistry teacher by day and she makes these beautiful polymer clay creations in her free time. I love her signature "chunky" flowers which are so unique and elegant.

New Pendants

Here are some new polymer clay pendant designs I've made. The one on top was made out of leftover Mokume Gane clay which I ran through the pasta machine several times to get a striped effect. The next one down is also made from Mokume Gane leftovers - this time I used a base turquoise colored clay and covered it with the MG shavings to give it some dimension and depth. This pendant now belongs to my Mom - it was one of her Christmas presents. For the last one, I did something I've been wanting to do for awhile, which is to combine polymer clay with mixed media. I made a teeny-tiny little collage and glued it down onto a small rectangular block of polymer clay which I then varnished to give it a glossy finish.

Mokume Gane Process Part 1

Mokume Gane Process Part 2

Mokume Gane Process Part 3

Mokume Gane Pendants

I am attempting to gain college credit by evaluation for some of my art/craftwork skills. I was challenged to create a new polymer clay technique by one of the school's evaluators - and I'm glad I was, because this is the result. This is my take on the mokume gane technique (pronounced moh-koo-meh-gah-neh), which was originally a Japanese metalwork technique. For me, the process involved a lot of layering and manipulating different colors of polymer clay, then imprinting and shaving off the very top layer to reveal the wonderful marbling effect within. This was no easy feat - it was tricky, especially the shaving part. Each pendant has copper flake inclusions which I placed in between some of the layers when I was making them - it's the most obvious in the middle pendant above. I will be posting some pictures of the process as well (see above).

Modish Giveaway

If you love handmade goodies, then you ought to check out The November November Giveaway at Modish (yes that's 2 Novembers and for good reason). You can win more than $750 worth of all kinds of original creations - like jewelry, bags, notecards, and much much more! What you see in this picture is only some of what's up for grabs. What a nice holiday surprise that would be, no? Check the giveaway at Modish and find out how to win them.

New Polyclay Pendants/Earrings

Some new polyclay pendants and earrings. These were stamped with the acorn image, framed with a beveled edge cutter, coated in mica powder and then varnished in gloss.

WE DID IT!!!!