16 Thu Jul 2020
I have finally managed to get another video tutorial filmed and edited. It’s a pretty simple tutorial since I’m still practising the video making. It’s mainly a tip I learned the slow way when making the heishi beads for my Thunderbird necklaces.
Hopefully I’ll get some more tutorials made soon. That’s if I can figure out how to get a longer video clip off my phone!
Let me know if there are any techniques you would be interested in seeing.
04 Thu Oct 2018
Here’s a little sanding tip for when your polymer clay has wire embedded in it.
I’m working on a series of short tutorials around this project, but I’m a bit inexperienced with video editing so I started with something small.
22 Sat Sep 2018
My blog has been a bit quiet while I sort out a backlog of chores at home and excavate my workspace. Part of this process has been getting my jewellery listed online (it’s not entirely logical but I feel like I can’t make new stuff if there is nowhere for my existing things to go). The good news is that I have finally gotten some of my vintage teacup inspired earrings listed in my shop. I made them a few years ago, so here’s a reminder.
I have also finally completed a little tutorial video. It’s just a small tip for sanding your polymer clay when there is wire embedded in it (like for the triangle shaped pieces pictured above in the last row). It’s currently available as a preview for my Patreon subscribers, but I’ll be making it public soon.
16 Thu Feb 2017
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I made another pair of forget-me-not earrings that I kept aside for a separate blog. And here’s why…
Forget-me-not earrings by Cate van Alphen
I have made a Patreon page. It’s a site for creators to find sponsors in order to spend more energy on creating and less time worrying about how to pay the bills. As part of making my page I clarified some goals for myself: I want to use more art beads (made by other artists) and I want to make more tutorials.
I planned for the earrings above to incorporate both goals. I’ve got the art beads: I made the ivory coloured floral disks from polymer clay and the blue ceramic beads are by Jenny Gholson-Morris. But the tutorial part: not so much.
Making a video tutorial is proving more time-consuming than anticipated – I’m struggling to get footage that is in shot and in focus. Oh, right! This is why I set up the Patreon page in the first place – because at the moment I haven’t got much time for figuring this out. So until I can make a full tutorial, here’s a little tip.
Faux concrete cabochon by Cate van Alphen
I made this cabochon as a way to use up the scraps from making carved beads. The muse wanted a matt concrete effect. My logical brain tells me this is to contrast with the shiny fragments. I wanted something more interesting so I drew in some scrolls and dots. I thought it still needed some subtle pep so I mixed green iridescent mica powder with a drop of water to paint into the dents. This caused the water (and mica) to puddle in the indentations and not all over the surface of the piece. I did the same thing for the petals of the flowers on the earrings.
I used Perfect Pearls for this technique as it has a built-in resin and I painted it onto uncured polymer clay. It didn’t seem to stick as well when painted onto baked clay.
By the way, if you would like to sponsor me, you can start from $1 a month and change your mind any time you like.
16 Mon Nov 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, Tips
Tags
Here are my colours for the red palette of my Spectrum Year. I had a bit of a struggle adding a sixth colour, but I decided on something eventually.
Here are the recipes using Fimo Professional. The numbers are percentages. I wrote an earlier blog explaining how I measure colours.
25 Fri Sep 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, Tips
Tags
colour mixing, colour palette, Fimo, polymer clay, purple, violet
I’m a little late with the start of violet since I wanted to finish my indigo beads. Here are the colour recipes I plan to use. I’m using Fimo Professional and the numbers represent percentages. Previously I wrote a post on how I mix colours.
Let the purple-fest commence. Yippee!
31 Fri Jul 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, Tips
I’m a little bit late posting my colour recipes for the next step in my 2015 Spectrum Year (if you don’t mind, just hop in your time machine and read this last Tuesday). We went away for the weekend and all of a sudden it was time for indigo! I’m beginning to suspect that I could spend a whole year on each palette :o.
These recipes are for Fimo Professional, and the numbers represent percentages. I wrote a blog explaining how I use them for mixing colours.
* (0.5% mix of 90 true yellow 10 true green)
The colours don’t adhere very strictly to the inspiration palette because I wanted the schemes to play nicely together. I decided to increase the differences between the indigo and the purple palettes so the purples are more blue. I also desaturated the green to a beige colour rather than introduce another green (the ones in the green palette were too bright for the other colours).
Yum, those hints of purple are starting to make me drool :).
06 Sat Jun 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, Tips
Today is the start of my blue period 😉 so here are the colour recipes.
I haven’t quite finished with green yet as I still have some beads to show for this week of the 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge. Also I’m hoping that I will be able to get some of the green components listed in my Etsy shop soon.
08 Fri May 2015
I couldn’t bear looking at the cracks in my green beads anymore, but I didn’t want to completely obliterate the green patterns, so I added a layer of transparent polymer clay mixed with green glitter. I backfilled the cracks with some green clay first to reduce the chance of air bubbles being introduced. I made a few spacer beads using the excess transparent clay.
Green glitter beads by Cate van Alphen
This time when I baked them I put the top shelf back into the oven with a tile on top to protect the beads. It seemed to work – I didn’t find any cracks or air bubbles 🙂
15 Wed Apr 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, Tips
Tags
Today is the start of green. This time I’ve prepared some ideas so the transition should be easier than the switch to yellow.
Here are my green colour palette recipes. I’m using Fimo Professional, and percentages for the quantities (click here to see why):
* (0.5% mix of 90 true yellow 10 true green)
