Out of my comfort zone

I don't really like the colour orange. (I'm not keen on yellow or mustard colours either.) I guess I prefer cooler colours like greens and purples and blues, although I'm a big fan of red as well.

So I wasn't very impressed when some polymer clay beads went "wrong" on me and I ended up with orange.

I was playing with translucent clay and alcohol inks and made a lovely warm red colour. I added copper leaf and I was really happy until they came out of the oven... ORANGE!

A similar set I made at the same time with out-of-the-packet trans red and silver leaf looked exactly as I expected.

Ah well. Next experiment - red sand in translucent clay. Came out... you guessed it, orange.

So I thought, I'm being a bit prejudiced here. Plenty of people like orange, if I make some jewellery with the beads I don't like, someone else might love it. And I grabbed the offending beads, some copper wire and some other bits and pieces and almost forced myself to make a necklace.

And you know what? I actually like it. I'd like it a whole lot better if it was purple, but I like it.

And just for Carrie, here's how I did it.

I mixed alcohol inks into translucent clay. Note that the colour may be different when baked, so you could  do a test bake of a tiny piece before you commit to creating the beads. Adjust the colour if you want to. I also added some gold glitter to the clay and mixed well.

I rolled out a sheet of the coloured trans on the thickest setting, and placed a sheet of copper leaf on top.

Then I rolled this sheet into a jellyroll cane, with the leaf on the inside. It can be difficult to get the clay to stick to the leaf but persevere with it. It doesn't have to be neat but you don't want air bubbles.

I squared off the jellyroll cane and cut off a piece for the focal bead. I reduced the rest a little and cut it into sections to make the square beads. I softened the edges by gently rolling the bead in my palms, pierced and baked.

I textured the focal bead with rubber stamps, a different one on each side. Once it was pierced and baked I painted on brown acrylic paint, wiping it off the raised portions of the design and leaving it in the impressions.

I mushed up the waste ends of the cane to make some irregular oval beads, which I flattened out, pierced, and baked.

The beads were tumble sanded and buffed to a dull sheen.

Next came the wirework. For the focal bead I made a spiral in a piece of wire hammered it a little, threaded on a small round bead and made a wrapped loop at the top. I made a simple loop either side of the focal bead and dangled the round bead and spiral from it.

Each other link started with a hammered spiral with a straight "tail". I threaded the beads onto the tail and closed it with a loop. The loop attaches to the next wire just after the spiral - the pictures show this much more clearly than I can explain.

Some copper chain and handmade copper fastenings finished the necklace off.

So I learned a lesson. Working outside my comfort zone is good - I created something that's not my usual style, but is still a nice piece, and will mostly likely have an influence on the way my style develops in future. I feel it's helped me grow a little as an artist, and that wouldn't have happened if I'd just thrown out those orange beads.

I've been featured!

Well technically my pendants have, over at the lovely Cindy's blog.

I've had a lot of positive comments from people I've shown them to, and my local bead shop wants to sell them for me!

This is a great example of modification, which has lead to an original technique.

I've seen a lot of polymer clay work with metal leaf and inks - mostly mokume gane but also some funky crackled effects and I think it's cool. And fairly recently I spotted Cindy's take on this, and decided to have a go myself. As I explained on her blog, I couldn't get it right and didn't get the effect I wanted. So I tried a different way.

Here's how my technique goes, very briefly: (Next time I do this I'll be sure to take pictures of the process as I go, then I'll update this post.)

• Roll out black clay on the thickest setting.
• Add metal leaf on the top of the clay sheet. I usually use copper because I like the warm colours.
• Add drops of various colours of alcohol ink and leave to dry. This can take several minutes, I leave it at least 30 to make sure.
• Roll at next lowest setting. Rotate 90 degrees and roll at next setting after that. Some little bits of leaf will stick but that just adds to the effect so don't worry too much.
  
• Lay sheet on a ceramic tile and use cookie cutters to make pendants, disc beads, whatever shape you want. Peel away the waste clay, leaving the pendants/beads stuck down. Make the bead holes now - it's a bit tricky drilling them later.
  
• Bake for 30 mins and cool.
• Trim any rough edges, and add a layer of liquid polymer clay with a paintbrush.
• Bake again, 30 mins.
• Repeat with another layer of liquid clay and bake again.
• Finish with Future/Klear.

So yeah, a new technique that works for me.

Here's the same thing done in silver leaf, with some control over ink placement to create a rainbow effect.

I think modification is a useful creative process. Try a tutorial or a project from a magazine or book then think to yourself, how can I change this? What would make it better, easier, suit my style more? Then play around!

It's only by changing things that you learn how they actually work. And the more you learn, the more potential you have to create something truly unique.

Finishing, or lack of it

First of all I have to apologise - I promised myself when I started this blog that I'd update regularly, and I haven't.

I haven't been well recently, but as often happens I didn't actually realise it at the time! I've been trying to find a balance between working, resting, gardening and creative stuff and not managing very well - there just doesn't seem to be enough time for everything, even though I'm actually not getting much done.

I have done some polymer clay pieces I'm quite pleased with, but they are in various stages of completion at the moment. I have so much sanding to do! I admit I get a bit impatient with beads especially, it takes ages to go through 4 different grits. I wish I could afford a kids rock tumbler, but I can't even find a cheap one in the UK - only expensive ones.

I'm trying really hard to actually get some pieces finished because I'm working towards selling at craft shows later in the year and I need to build up some stock. Maybe I should ban myself from starting anything new to encourage me to just work on the in-progress things!

Hopefully I'll have something to show soon.

In the meantime, here's a picture of one of my very first pieces. It's a faux fossilised seahorse made using the mokume gane technique in stone-effect Fimo.

I still really like it, although I'm considering resanding it a little and buffing with my new Dremel-style rotary tool since it's finished with Fimo gloss. Well it was a while ago, I didn't know any better!

A little bit about me

Me

I'm 29 years old and I'm studying psychology at university. I like to describe myself as having the head of a scientist and the heart of an artist - I definitely need to have an outlet for my creativity, and I also love to experiment and break the rules!

Being inquisitive, I'm naturally interested in almost everything (except I don't have any patience for politics), but I'm particularly fascinated by evolution, the natural world, and the brain.

I love my organic vegetable garden, and enjoy creating wildlife-friendly spaces - my garden's designed to attract a wide range of birds, insects and mammals, and I also rehabilitate (and release) sick and injured wild European hedgehogs. In my spare time I'm often to be found with a pair of binoculars and a field guide in my hand, watching birds.

I've been battling fibromyalgia since I was 16. Life's an uphill struggle at times (fibro causes exhaustion, sleep disturbance, muscle pain, lack of concentration and motivation, and depression), I have to try to find a balance between keeping busy and getting enough rest. The sense of satisfaction I get from creative activities can really help when I'm not feeling at my best.

I sing with three choirs - usually sacred choral pieces (although I'm not religious myself). Music is a great way to escape from any problems I may be having - concentrating on singing a piece I've never even seen before, let alone heard, is enough of a challenge that I can't think about anything else! One of the things I love most about the choirs is the friends I've made - we have such a great time together even if concerts can be a bit stressful at times.

Jewellery

I've been making jewellery since August 2008, so I'm pretty new to all this! I'd like to think I'm learning fast. I've recently started working with polymer clay - I had a gift set of Premo for Christmas when I was 10 or 11, and I've never forgotten how much fun it was! I love way you can create so many different colours and textures and shapes, and put them together to make a truly unique and personal piece of jewellery. I'm using Fimo Soft these days, mostly because it's the most easily available here.

At the moment I'm exploring inclusion of objects into translucent clay. I'm had good results with spices which produce fantastic earthy colours, glass seed beads, sand, eyeshadow and glitter. I'd also like to try dried flower petals and perhaps strands of yarn. These are seriously individual beads!

I make beads in very small batches, usually less than 30, because I want every piece I make to be truly unique. I know it isn't very time-efficient, but that's not the point - I'm not running a factory!

Basically I make jewellery that I'd like to wear myself. Not that I've got round to making anything for me yet...

Knitting

My mum taught me to knit when I was 9 or 10. I don't have the patience to knit big things, in fact I've never knitted anything bigger than a hat or scarf. I like to see results pretty soon, and as I don't knit very fast (fibro makes my hands ache), sweaters and blankets just take too long.

One of the first pattern books I got was one with animals that my mum bought me when I was a child. I must have made every animal in that book, and then moved onto creating my own simple patterns.

I started making hedgehogs as a fundraiser for hedgehog rescue charities, especially Epping Forest Hedgehog Rescue, who have given me so much help and support with my own hedgehog caring. I'd previously tried pattens which involved making loops for the spines, but soon realised that using chinchilla/eyelash yarn does a much better job and is so much easier! I have lots of different colours of yarn so I can make them in team colours or even to match your décor! It's a great way to help our prickly friends.

Well, I think that's about it! I'll be posting more soon. I'm intending to use this blog to show how each piece is made, the techniques and equipment I use, etc. Please let me know what you think!