Bead Stats: In Case You're Wondering

My plan for my long weekend was to do massive amounts of beading & polymer to prepare for the craft show on the 1st. Thanks to the monstrous order and lots of pretty things, beading took most of my time. So what did I accomplish? Let's do this numerically.

Polymer pendants: 14-ish (I haven't counted yet)
Polymer bead sets: 2
Earring pairs: 2
Necklaces: 19

Whew.

All About Themes

On the other blog, I've been on a kick talking about themes. We all have them, whatever we're making. My featured jewelry this week is a few pendants in the same theme. I like trees, can you tell? With jewelry and art in particular, the interesting thing about themes is the variation.

Right now I'm also on braided things kick, and of the necklaces I've made during the binge, three are braids. I like the way the texture works, both when you have strands of the same thing (I made one of coral chips) and strands of different things (coral, shell, glass). They're chunkier necklaces than I've tended to make before, but fun by way of branching out and expanding my comfort zone. One of them might even work for Katherine's Christmas shopping.

Another thing you'll also see a lot of in my work is silver. I love my spacers. They're so nice for adding length, texture, and tend to dress things up. Themes, patterns, motifs. There's no escaping them.


P.S. On the pendants, the surface color all comes from gold and copper pearlescent powder + TLS. The differences you see in saturation, tone, and gloss mostly come from how much TLS I used. The two diamond pendants are the best example of this since I even used the same coloring (gold in the middle, copper on the edge). With the one on the top right, I painted on TLS that had the powder mixed right into it - thus the greater saturation - and the gloss comes from using my old toaster oven instead of my regular oven, and it gets very hot very fast. Greater heat, greater gloss. On the bottom left I put TLS on the pendant, then stippled powder into it on top.

A Note on Pearl Powders/Surface Treatments

Pearlescent powders are great to use with polymer clay. Their main problem, though, is that if you don't seal them, they'll rub off. Now, if you're mixing the powders right into the clay, this is a non-issue. However, if you're using them as a surface treatment, as with the carved pendants, it is an issue.

My first experiment: I found a clear acrylic at the hardware store (originally intended for sealing wood) and used it to seal my first pendants. Unfortunately, the bond isn't as good as I'd like and the acrylic will peel off. I've heard people say that baking the acrylic on will help prevent peeling, but I've not tried it yet. Also, I like things to be really durable, not just sorta. So, I tried to think of another way.

My second experiment: I'd just been reading about using liquid polymer in projects, so it was on my mind when I sat down at the table. I had a "eureka" moment, and wondered what would happen if I used TLS to help set the powder. It worked beautifully. I like to texture my pendants with a hard bristled brush, and adding TLS tends to fill-in that texture, but at the same time, it adds some of its own. I like the result, it makes it seem a little more organic. Here are two texture examples.

Light TLS:

Heavy TLS:

Carved Pendants

Supplies: Baked polymer pendants. They should have a thin layer of color on top - in this case, pearl powders (mixed with TLS to set them) over a black polymer base.

Lino carving tool

Step 1-?: Pretty self-explanatory, start carving. For this one, I used the spot where the two colors meet as a starting point.

I added some lines, then a few more, and this is the end result. One tip: it's better to have shallow initial cuts than those that are too deep - you can always go back over the line again to deepen it, but you can't really fill in. Also, controlling your pressure = controlling your carving tool, which means your lines are more likely to go where you want them to.

Faux Dichro

"How'd you do that?"
-Repeated question


I've hit on a new polymer technique and I've made over a dozen pendants using it. I've had quite a bit of fun, even if some didn't turn out quite as I hoped. Those that turned out well look quite like dicrhoic glass which I love. Whoever invented pearlescent powders should be kissed.

Here are a couple of closer looks (pardon the aluminum foil - I promise better pictures later):

Primitive "Jade"

I still haven't decided how much I like this one. The polymer was an experiment with opalescent powder and translucent clay + a bit of green and blue. Constance thought it looked like jade, and I'm stealing her description. I like the shapes, but I'm not sure yet about the color. Kinda depends on what mood I'm in. The disc beads are aventurine.

Uneven Polymer

My favorite thing about this necklace is how the dark blue and gold play off each other. The polymer was made using an uneven jellyroll cane, where I crumpled the sheets as I rolled them. The effect isn't incredibly pronounced, though. The other beads are brass spacers, metallic seed beads, and freshwater pearls.

Misfires

In the process of all this jewelry making that I do, I make a lot of pieces I'm happy with, and a few that I end up not so fond of. So, here are some of my misfires.

I like the polymer beads for this one, but putting them together with gold and carnelian makes the necklace look more washed out than anything else. The gold, especially, is just too much. In theory, the gold and the red stone would have echoed/pulled out the corresponding colors in the beads, but actually doing it just didn't quite work.




I mixed the howlite and glass beads in another necklace, and really liked the combination. However, my impulse to add the dangles just botched the design. With them hanging off the necklace, the piece looks overweight and bulky.

This one is made with experimental beads, and while the end result (reminiscent of tiger eye) is kind of fun, the spacer beads make the design fall flat. Perhaps pairing the polymer beads with some genuine tiger eye could improve things.

Last Call

I'm totally fed up with the two guys out in PA who said they wanted jewelry from me for their wives. They said this in February, before Valentine's day. I still have not received payment from them. One of the necklaces I made specifically for one of the guys (including the polymer beads), because he liked one of my others that now belongs to Anissa. So, I do a custom job for him within a week, because I wanted to get the deal done ASAP and I don't like making people wait on me. I told them this one was ready:

They said, "great" and now it's the middle of May and I still have no check. Boy am I ever glad I said I would send the jewelry after I got the payment. At least this way, I may have no money, but I do still have the merchandise. So, today I send them an e-mail saying I have someone else interested in the pieces (okay, a lie) and they have one week to send me payment or I will no longer hold the jewelry for them (totally honest). Maybe this is the kick in the pants they needed, or maybe not. Either way, in another week I can stop this irritating waiting on them to get in gear. I mean, three months. My god. It does NOT take that long to write a check, it really doesn't.

Variations on a Theme

The polymer beads for these two necklaces were made using the same technique (using a thin sheet of translucent clay to laminate a dark blue sheet of polymer that had been painted with silver acrylic paint). The pendants are the same shape, but the bead shapes are different, as are the other beads used on the necklace. The one on the right has metallic seed beads and blue glas pearls, while the one on the left has silver spacers and labradorite chips.

Finished Product

A while back, I put up some pictures showing the steps for making a set of polymer clay beads.
http://ev-boulevard.blogspot.com/2007/03/project-pictures-polymer-bead-set.html

Here's the final necklace. Along with the polymer, I used citrine chips, metallic seed beads and small maroon freshwater pearls.

Nebulas Necklace

Forgive me my poetic license, but that's what this necklace makes me think of. This necklace is made of black polymer clay which I painted with metallic and colored acrylic paints and doused with pearlescent poweder then ran through the pasta machine again to create fractures. The next step was to laminate the sheets with a thin layer of translucent polymer, so the paint wouldn't flake off. Add some dark blue glass pearls and a few seed beads and Viola!

Salami

Fimo with black pepper inclusion, garnet, and gunmetal seed beads. This is the one I'm wearing today, in some ways, one of my favorite necklaces, because it's the only thing I have that is so blatantly red. Due to the colors and the black pepper, I always think of salami or pepperoni when I think of this necklace.

Project Pictures: Polymer Bead Set

"I haven't heard from you guys in a while..."

-Part of my e-mail to David's friends who ordered jewelry from me a month ago and who have yet to send me payment. Grr.

When they ordered the jewelry from me, they asked for pictures that show the process. Here are the pictures I took while I made the custom necklace.

Step One: Mix clay for color. In this case I used different amounts of gold, white, translucent, and black Kato & Sculpey.

Step Two: Roll colored clays into snakes and combine into one large snake.

Step Three: Twist and roll snake to mix colors. Repeat until satisfied with color mix.

Step Four: Slice the cane and form beads.

Step Five: (Not shown) Pierce and bake beads.

Final Beads:

Necklace of the Week

"Yay"
-Me, on Friday

I had lunch with my mom on Friday, and when she came to the door, she came with a box marked Vanns.com. My camera! I was pretty cheezed. After lunch, I got to playing around with it and over the weekend did some experiments on how to best photograph my jewelry. While I’m still not one-hundred percent thrilled with the results, I’m quite happy with how well the details of the beads come out.

Anyhow, I started taking pictures of necklaces I think I could sell and ended up with forty-five. Neat. I also got to thinking of doing a Necklace of the Week type post. I may change the regularity, but that’s what it’ll start as. My first piece is one I made over Christmas break. I’ve worn it to campus twice and both times received a compliment on it-once from Constance and once from Katherine. It’s one of what I like to think of as my signature necklaces (when I think of what an artiste I am, in my head). I consistently get more compliments on these than most other necklaces I make. The pendant and corresponding beads are made of polymer clay which I hand-mix, meaning no batch is exactly the same. The pendants are hand-formed, and the other beads were rolled with a bead roller. (FIMO clay with silver spacers, blue goldstone, and malachite)

This week, since it’s week one, I’m going to do a bonus pic. This one was one of the first necklaces I made in this style. The gloss comes from my experiment with covering the polymer with embossing powder before I baked it. The polymer beads on this necklace were entirely hand formed/rolled. (Sculpey clay with labradorite and metallic seed beads)