I’ve finished my 24 samples

Tags

24ozPolymerClay, art bead, bead, earrings, handmade, polymer clay

About 2 weeks ago I finished all 24oz of my polymer clay sample challenge. I unpacked all the beads I had made on a Twitch live stream if you are interested in all the details. Here’s a photograph to summarise.

Variety of handmade polymer clay beads.

Now there are so many beads to choose from I’m struggling to know where to start, but I have made a few of these beads into earrings. (If you are subscribed to my newsletter you may have already seen these.)

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What was good about this challenge?

It was really helpful for me to have preselected colours to work with. Often I find myself overwhelmed with the unlimited potential of polymer clay that I end up dithering when trying to decide where to start so I don’t actually do anything. I tried to experiment when making some of the beads by thinking that I have already allocated the clay to be used so I may as well use it (actually this is true for any polymer clay since things that are not working out can be squished into scrap). I had to be creative and find different ways to finish some beads as I couldn’t add more clay to do my first idea.

What was not so good?

When making canes I had to keep things smaller than usual as I had an imposed limit to the amount of clay I could use. It would have been better to start with larger canes so I could keep different sizes aside as I reduced. I struggled to find enough scrap clay for the inners of my beads so I didn’t get as many beads as I could have from a finished cane (i.e. by putting a thin decorative slice onto a thicker layer of scrap). There were some beads where I thought it would be nice add contrasting caps or edge the outside of a cane but I had already used up the colours I wanted to use so I couldn’t do that.

What will I do next?

I found it really useful to have a specific goal in mind to keep me motivated so I’m intending to define what I’m going to work on next. Unfortunately this week gone I was completely disabled watching the news of violence and looting in South Africa so I haven’t been able to make any decisions. I’m planning to continue with my colour palette reruns, so there’s still time for you to choose a colour in my survey.

Till next time, stay safe!

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Sample Challenge – beads in progress

Tags

24ozPolymerClay, beads, cane, headpin, polymer clay, tutorial

I am continuing to work through my 24oz sample colours and I’ve nearly finished so I decided it was time to use up the scrap cane ends that I had created previously. I used a cane design by Fiona Abel-Smith which creates a colourful pattern that reminds me of crochet Granny Squares.

I made this cane and a few headpins and beads on a live stream earlier this week. If you are interested in how I made them there is a video still available. I haven’t even baked these yet (I like to fill the oven before I do so), so photographing them was a little tricky and is the reason there is glass in the background rather than my usual photo setup.

Of course I didn’t take into account that making a new cane from my scrap ends would result in new scrap cane ends! I think the last beads I make will end up mud tone that I need to texture for interest and add some colour with mica powders or paints.

Anyhow, I think I will soon be finished and able to show you the collection of beads I have made. Let me know if you are doing your own sample challenge as it would be great to share. Stay well, bye for now.

Sample Challenge update

Tags

24ozPolymerClay, artisan bead, handmade, mokume gane, polymer clay beads

I am still working through my 24 one ounce blocks of polymer clay. Here’s the next stage of my progress.

My primary reason for doing the challenge was to give myself a starting place to get making beads again. Unfortunately I was finding that trying to record the steps as tutorial videos was hindering my progress, particularly when the children were home due to lockdown (again). They are very noisy during the day so I’d have to wait till the evening to begin and by that point I wasn’t feeling very sparkly for chatting while I make. Also it was discouraging me from just experimenting as it’s hard to explain what you are doing when you don’t know yet!

Instead I have decided to crack on with the making and show you my progress as I go. If you are really interested in any of the beads I make, let me know in the comments and I may try to do a dedicated tutorial for that. I have at least one video still to edit, so that will turn up eventually.

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  I started with some mokume gane lentil beads made using the offcuts from my kaleidoscope cane together with dark brown and copper polymer clay.

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  These tab beads feature some of the mokume gane shavings placed on a plain background.

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  More tab beads, this time with gold polymer clay edging.

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  I used the offcuts from the mokume gane sheet to make Natasha beads. The thin layers from the mokume sheet give an effect that reminds me of wood grain with some hidden colours.

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  I was playing around with some tiny scraps of clay which resulted in these cute “riveted” cube beads.

I’ve got more beads to show you but I’ll save those for another day. I hope you are well and making progress with your projects.

P.S. If you’d like to set yourself a sample challenge, here’s my earlier post with the guidelines I’m using.

Kaleidoscope Cane Video Tutorial

Tags

24ozPolymerClay, free tutorial, kaleidoscope cane, polymer clay, tutorials02, video tutorial

I have finally finished editing and uploading a tutorial for making a kaleidoscope cane. I have the footage where I used this cane to make beads, but as you can tell I’m pretty slow at the editing phase so I’m not sure when that will be complete.

This is part of the sample challenge that I set for myself. If you’d like to join in too, get yourself 24 different colours of polymer clay that are 1oz each and use them all up. You can use an actual sample pack or use what you’ve got and mix up your own colours (that’s what I did). Tag what you make with #24ozPolymerClay so that we can find each other on the socials.

Enjoy!

My “Sample Pack” Challenge

Tags

24ozPolymerClay, polymer clay

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have set myself a challenge, and I have finally finished editing a video for you to watch with the details.

In summary, the challenge is to get yourself a “sample pack” of polymer clay: 24 blocks of different colours that are only 1oz in size. Then use up all the clay, and only this clay (don’t supplement with favourite colours from your stash).

I’m going to stick to simple additions like glitter or metal leaf, and possibly add touches of acrylic paint to highlight texture. The idea is to work with the different colours, even ones that I don’t really like. I’ve also got different effect clays like “marble” with inclusions that I have never used before.

If you’d like to join in, and I hope you do, please let me know in the comments, or tag your posts with #24ozPolymerClay.

Have fun!