11 Thu Feb 2016
I have been making more jewellery using some of the orange polymer clay components from my Spectrum Year. You can find these, and more, in my Folksy shop.
Spiral necklace by Cate van Alphen
Kaleidoscope humbug earrings by Cate van Alphen
Retro macrame bracelet by Cate van Alphen
Hmmm, nice warm colours! 🙂
30 Sat Jan 2016
Posted in Art Bead Scene, jewellery, My work
Tags
art bead, bracelet, Cate van Alphen, earring, handmade bead, JAN ABS, polymer clay, star, starfish
As my girls would sing “For the first time in forever…” I have made an entry for the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge. I do follow along every month and usually plan something, but I don’t often get to sit down and make it.
Landscape with Stars by Henri-Edmond Cross
Watercolor over graphite on paper, ca. 1905–1908
I had been thinking about making polymer clay star beads over Christmas, so I thought it would be easy peasy to make a couple for a pair of earrings. But, then I had enough clay for three stars so I thought the third would make a nice charm for a bracelet. So I made a few more beads in different shapes to make a bracelet. And a few more stars in different sizes…
Polymer clay jewellery by Cate van Alphen
In the end I didn’t use the third star charm and I now have a bowl of beads waiting to become something when they grow up. The bracelet ended up daintier than I planned. The chunkier beads in the bracelet irritated me – I think because I use my hands a lot.
Star bracelet by Cate van Alphen
Initially the earrings were just supposed to be the large star charm on the bottom hung from an ear-wire, but they grew.
Star earrings by Cate van Alphen
The back shows a little cross-pollination with Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”.
Back of earrings by Cate van Alphen
Some of the stars twist around the wrong way but they look quite cute – like little starfish. Sometimes I feel like my sparkle is hiding on the inside too so that’s ok. 🙂
17 Thu Sep 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, beads, My work
This week for my indigo colour scheme toggle I super-sized a shank button.
Indigo polymer clay toggle by Cate van Alphen
I made a hook from silver coloured copper wire.
Polymer clay focal toggle by Cate van Alphen
I made two loops at the back so one can be used to attach the beads and the other is for the hook. I thought it would give it a better “V” shape to a necklace than using only one shank. It also means that they are off centre so it gives the option to use the focal as a slider pendant without it flipping over.
Polymer clay and wire toggle by Cate van Alphen
03 Thu Sep 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, jewellery, My work
This week of the 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge I made a ring to go around one of my beads from last week to make a compound focal/pendant.
Indigo compound bead pendant by Cate van Alphen
I even sanded it to make a smooth contrast to the textured bead.
Compound focal side view by Cate van Alphen
Compound indigo focal by Cate van Alphen
The only problem now is that I think several of them would look good all joined up together to make a necklace, but I don’t know when I’ll find the time to make them.
01 Tue Sep 2015
Tags
Cate van Alphen, kaleidoscope, landscape, miniature painting, pendant, polymer clay, sheep, Sheep Fest
Here are the last of my Sheep Fest pendants. Click here for part 1 and part 2. These are a combination of polymer clay and heat set paint to pick up some of the details.
Painting pendants by Cate van Alphen
I made the green picture first to test the frame idea. It’s 100% polymer clay with a little acrylic paint to antique the frame.
Green landscape pendant by Cate van Alphen
The back is inspired by the ubiquitous slate walls in this area.
Back of landscape pendant by Cate van Alphen
For the next pendant I used marbled polymer clay to form the landscape which I accented with a bit of texture, and painted in the details of the sheep and background walls.
Sheep painting slider pendant by Cate van Alphen
Again the back was inspired by dry stone walls.
Back of sheep painting pendant by Cate van Alphen
The last pendant is larger, more of a medallion than a miniature painting. Again I started with marbled polymer clay to form a basic landscape which I accented using heat set paint.
Sheep landscape medallion by Cate van Alphen
The bail and edging is intended to suggest the dry stone walls.
Stone wall edging of pendant by Cate van Alphen
The pendant is a hollow lentil which I made in two parts and joined together. The back makes slightly less sense as it is from a sheet of kaleidoscope cane veneer that I had left over on my work surface. It makes a nice pendant on its own, but perhaps it doesn’t work with the rustic stone edging. However, instead of making a more refined faux metal bail, I decided to be true to the front of the pendant. It probably would have made more sense to make a faux stone back too.
Back of sheep medallion by Cate van Alphen
28 Fri Aug 2015
In my previous post I mentioned that I’d been working on something other than my Spectrum Year, and now I’m baaa-ck to show you what. From 12th to 19th September it will be Sheep Fest in Sedbergh, so I have been making lots of polymer clay sheep :).
Sheep pendant by Cate van Alphen
I started off by finishing the dry stone wall pendants that were a WIP earlier this year. I made a new stone effect frame for the sheep scene with a bigger hole to see the details inside. The back of the pendant is rough and cracked in keeping with the rustic stone wall theme.
Back of sheep pendant by Cate van Alphen
I made a new sheep scene to go into the original dome. I also got a little carried away adding moss to the wall.
Sheepscape pendant by Cate van Alphen
I used the crackled components I’d made earlier to complete a necklace.
Sheepscape necklace by Cate van Alphen
But I didn’t stop there – I made plenty more, and they’ll be following shortly in another blog. I’ll be taking these, and the other sheepy goodies to the Craftworkshop on Saturday. Sheep Fest was great fun last year, so if you are near Sedbergh, be sure to stop by!
Click here for part 2.
27 Thu Aug 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, beads, My work
Tags
2015PCchallenge, bead, Cate van Alphen, handmade bead, Indigo, patchwork bead, polymer clay, polymer clay beads
I spent my clay time this weekend working on something else, so I went back to my comfort zone yesterday and made some more patchwork beads for this week of my 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge.
Indigo patchwork polymer clay beads by Cate van Alphen
They are always fun to make.
Indigo patchwork polymer clay beads by Cate van Alphen
But what was I working on this weekend? I’ll be baaa-ck soon to show you 😉
20 Thu Aug 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, beads, Doh!, WIP
Tags
2015PCchallenge, Cate van Alphen, chunky bead, handmade component, Indigo, marble, polymer clay, toggle
I was tempted to make more shank buttons this week for my indigo colour palette toggle, but then I realised time was running out for me to try some of the more interesting toggle mechanisms I’d planned at the beginning of the year.
Polymer clay clasp by Cate van Alphen
This clasp is formed from two hooks. By aligning the angular cut holes of the two pieces at 90°, they slide together to form a chain link. It’s very satisfying to open and close :D.
Indigo link clasp by Cate van Alphen
The clasp is based on one from a chunky wooden bead necklace that I found in a charity shop, but I’ve made mine from polymer clay instead of wood. It took a few prototypes to get this far, and it is still a work in progress.
Prototype clasps
The first couple of clasps were a bit too flexible for my liking, but I didn’t really want to make everything a lot bigger and thicker. I put wire inside the third attempt as reinforcement, but you can just see it peeping through on the inside of the hole.
Clasp Doh! by Cate van Alphen
From the photos above it looks like I’ve cracked it, but turn one of the hooks over and there’s wire sticking out. I lost track of which side had the gap in the wire for cutting the hole through, and I chose the wrong place. Doh!
I’ve given the link a good pull apart and although the loops do flex open slightly (the one without the wire noticeably more so) I think a necklace made using the clasp would survive a tug from a toddler. So on the bright side cutting the wrong side helps to prove that the wire does provide some support, but also that I need to think of a way to keep track of where to cut ;).
17 Mon Aug 2015
I couldn’t resist making several of my green polymer clay beads into earrings. Most of these earrings have now made it to my Etsy shop. Enjoy.
Dancing mobius bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Green and gold bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Tie dye pins and pearl stack earrings by Cate van Alphen
Green triangle and blue pearl earrings by Cate van Alphen
Long kaleidoscope pillow bead earrings by Cate van Alphen
Perfect for Mrs Wizard of Oz. 😉
13 Thu Aug 2015
Posted in 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, beads, My work
This week for my polymer clay challenge I made spacer beads using my indigo colour palette.
Indigo palette spacer beads by Cate van Alphen
I also made some disc beads.
Indigo palette disc beads by Cate van Alphen
And some double-sided disc beads (the other side is indigo).
Indigo palette double sided disc beads by Cate van Alphen
Fulgorine 