More Pardo Experiments

I am almost out of the Pardo Art Clay that I purchased at Hobby Lobby so I placed an order with Poly Clay Play and am now anxiously awaiting it's arrival. Unfortunately her supplier is out of white so the white I ordered is on back order..... hard to do much without white but I will do my best.  

As you can see the translucent that I tinted with the Pardo Green Metal Paint is no long translucent but it is a pretty pearly green. I put it though the pasta machine to the thinnest setting (#9). I wanted to see how stamping with ink would work on the clay. The larger one I stamped before curing and the smaller one with the bird I stamped after curing and then put back in the oven for 10 minutes to heat set the ink.  The one I stamped prior to curing shows up the best.  

Click on the photos for a closer look. 

And I did have success making swirlies with the art clay.... although I did have to swirl twice as long as with Kato or Fimo Classic.  

I made a couple more canes. My flowers are always a little goofy looking but as you can see the art clay holds up well to reduction.  I like the funky cane I made in black and white. 

And here are a couple pendants I made with the canes. I was going to remove the eyelet before I sanded but couldn't get it to pop out so I sanded over it.  On the first one I used silver PearlEx on the top and lower edges and sealed with a thin layer of Kato liquid clay.  I wanted to see how the Art Clay would hold up to the heat gun and it did pretty well. It did start to bubble a bit on the blue striped area on the left side so I stopped as soon as I saw the bubbles forming and was able to sand them off.  I sanded and buffed both pieces and I got a better shine on the one where I used the heat gun.

Hope you found the information helpful. Please feel free to ask questions. If you have been working with art clay I would love to see what you've done with it. 

Canes for the T2T Swap

I had big plans for the weekend, I was going to make canes on saturday and finish the coasters for the Coaster Swap on sunday. 

 I started off pretty good. I was searching through my canes for a couple I wanted to duplicate...  then I got involved in sorting and rearranging. That was my down fall. I'm next to receive  the 2nd Trash to Treasure Swap Box so  while I was doing the sorting and rearranging I thought it would be fun to select some canes to put in the swap box.  There are several that I have way more of than I'll ever use, like the red rose, the bluebird, the brain cane and the leaves.  I wanted to make sure they were all in good shape so I reduced them a bit and took a couple slices, even made a few beads.  Here is the assortment I came up. They are all about 1 1/4" long and different widths ranging from the 3/8" Scotty to 1 1/4" for the big red flower.  I decided to leave them in the storage box so they won't get squished. 

Click on the photo for a closer look.

I've also got some finished pieces to put in the swap box and I was thinking maybe some buttons  to use for molds and I always have odd wire doodads lying around.  I don't have many extra supplies as those always go to my granddaughter.  

I'll post more photos when the swap box arrives... should be here monday or tuesday. 

Now I have to go wrap each of the canes in plastic wrap.......sheeez!! 

Polymer Clay Steampunkery

My version of Steampunk. 

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I made a Skinner blend sheet in soft pearly colors, stamped with one of my favorite texture sheets, added a little PearlEx and then decorated with watch parts and wire. I'm not to fond of the coiled wire on the second one, I may take it off and try something else. 

 This one is my favorite, I haven't decided if its a bug or an alien.

 And this of course is an mirror image elephant.  his trunk was inspired by creatures in CF's book. I added some vintage chain, watch gears and Swarovski rhinestones.  He is quite a handsome fellow.

 I liked doing these. I have ideas for more. 

Mixed Media Polymer Clay Pin & Pendant

First of all I want to report the painters are finished and the house looks mighty good. My feline friends and I are very happy. I can freely stroll around the house in my ratty pj's without someone peeping in the windows. Fritz can relax and snooze on the back of the couch and Corny no longer follows me around the house complaining in that high pitched whine .... peace has returned at last.

Since the house looks so good I spent the last few days sprucing up the yard.... well the back yard anyway, that's where my flower gardens are. I pulled weeds and pulled weeds and pulled weeds.... and pruned trees. There are still lots of weeds to pull but I needed a break so thursday hubby and I went to the nursery to buy plants.

Oooooo there was so many pretty plants, I love plants and I wanted them all. Hubby said get what you want so I grabbed one of those wagon carts and started loading it up. I finally stopped when it wouldn't hold anymore and we hauled it inside. Most folks there were buying one or two plants, the ladies that own the nursery were checking them out and when they saw us coming I heard the one say to the other "Oh this is going to be fun!". I think I made their day, which was fun for me too. I spend the afternoon planting and it looks pretty good. It always amazes me how much smaller the plants look once they are in the ground. I'm going to need more.

Friday we ran out to Wal-Mart to get one of those roller-up things for the garden hose and I needed zinnia, marigold and hollyhock seeds. I told hubby I would just take a quick stroll through their plant department.... I usually don't buy plants from Wal-Mart, they don't take care of them and the poor things are droopy and scraggly. A new order had just arrived, they were putting out some pretty nifty plants..... so I bought a cart full. I then hurried back home to plant before it rained. Darkness drove me inside although I still had several plants to set out.

I got up Saturday morning to rain. It let up around noon but it was to wet to plant so I went back to pulling weeds. It kinda misty rained all day and I got damp and muddy. My cats sat at the back door meowing for me to come in. My husband and grandson were busy watching tv.... every now and then one of them would call from the back door "You should take it easy... or... don't overdo it" The men in our family melt if they get rained on.

It was raining again this morning... I'm hoping it dries up a bit so I can get back to planting.

In the mean time I made some wire doodads to put on these polymer clay pieces.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

This one will be a pin, I haven't put the pinback on yet. When turned on it's side it kinda looks like a bird head.

This is a pendant. I added a wire charm and made the chain with matching blue wire. The beads are pink glass squares. The sun is out so I'm heading back outside. See ya later.

My Two Favorite Mediums Polymer Clay & Wire

No, I'm not dead. I did have the flu or a cold or a virus... something along those lines, I felt like crap and mostly slept but I'm better now.

Then I got side tracked with rooting around in the basement... I'm never going to be done with the basement. The more I root around the bigger the mess gets and I keep finding things that I "can't" get rid of. Maybe I should go on that "hoarder" show. Yesterday I found some things that I thought should be in a closet upstairs... which led to sorting and organizing the closet so I would have room for the stuff from the basement. You get the idea, this is how I spend my days, just moving stuff from one place to another, no wonder I can never find anything.

Here is the Polymer Clay and Wire pieces I made recently.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

The pendant is made from polymer clay and the chain is copper wire accented with seed beads.

Close up of the pendant.I made this layered pendant some time ago. I used brown wire and pink square glass beads to make the bail and chain.

Close up of the pendant
I used one of my "rattlers" for the center of this pin and then added the wire and bead flower. The hand display is smaller than a real hand. I think I'll put a bail on the back so it can be worn as a pendant too.

Polymer Clay Canes, Buttons and Beads

I am trying to improve my caning skills so I've decided to devote some time each week to caning. This one started out as a simple 5 petal flower cane and then I made it a little more complex with a band of swirls, 1/2 bulls eyes and wedges.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

Before reduction:
After reduction. I like it.
Then I went back to playing with buttons. These are sample pieces made with scrap/green "guts" clay

I liked the clean lines of the design on this button, it's simple but attractive. I used PearlEx to highlight the design and then sealed with Kato liquid clay.

The design on the button doesn't show up well in the photo, it looks good on the polymer pieces. One is highlighted with gold PearlEx and the other with silver PearlEx.Another vintage plastic button with an interesting design. I left the button holes as part of the design on this one.
I like the attractive design and the gentle curve on this button. I made a mold with scrap clay which I then used to make the round tile. I didn't like the bumps made by the button holes so I cut them out with a round cutter and added a ball of clay in the center. The raised area of the design is highlighted with PearlEx and sealed with Kato liquid clay. I used my heat gun to clear the liquid clay.
This is a sampling of vintage carved and molded Bakelite buttons. I've always loved these big Bakelite buttons but wished they came in more attractive colors.... and now they will, all I have to do is make molds.

Polymer Clay Buttons to Beads

I'm still slogging around in my basement. The cleaning is slow moving as I keep finding things that distract me. My latest find was a box of large coat buttons, many with attractive designs.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I like the pattern on this button, it is simple but very attractive. I was running scrap clay through the pasta machine and liked the copper look so I used it to make a couple tiles.

This large coat button has lots of texture so I used it to make the hollow pendant.

In between playing with clay, cleaning the basement (actually I'm making a big mess down there) and doing a little yard work I made a few wire doodads.
I made a necklace using one of the "copper" tiles and the blue wire doodad strung on dark blue waxed cotton cord. I have dozens of large buttons with fun designs, good thing I saved them, right?

Polymer Clay Heart Pendant "Thing A Day" Day 26

I love this heart pendant!! I made it with treasures I selected from the Round Robin Trash to Treasure Swap Box. The beautiful marbled heart was made by Pam and the wonderful animal print beads were donated by Cat. I had hoped to have the necklace completed but I'm feeling a little yucky so will have to finish it later. I think I will make a triple strand of seed beads to hang it on.

Click on the photo for a closer look.
The Round Robin Trash to Treasure Swap is moving along at a pretty good clip now despite the daunting winter weather. It's fun to read the comments of the swappers and see the photos of what they kept and what they added. I hope others will show us photos of what they make with their selections.

Polymer Clay Asymmetrical Necklace "Thing A Day" Day 24

I made the polymer clay beads from one of the canes I made on Day 1. I made a sheet with the canes, cut out 1" squares folded the corners to the center so the beads are hollow. On one side of the necklace I strung the beads with dyed cultured pearls on colored wire. On the other side I made round links filled with matching beads and the pendant is a swirly lentil filled with pearls on twisted wire. I used long beads of coiled copper to complete the necklace.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

Polymer Clay Necklace "Thing A Day" Day 19

Todays offering is a two part polymer clay pendant joined by dyed mother of pearl disk beads. I completed the necklace with matching beads on brass wire.

Click on the photo for a closer look.