Art Vessel – week 20

Tags

2016PCchallenge, ArtVessel, mosaic, orange, polymer clay

This week’s vessel is more of a techniques sampler than a harmonious object. Some of the things I tried have potential and others not so much.

The ruffled neck of the jar is starting to work, but next time I think I need to do that first and then work on the rest of the jar afterwards to get a more harmonious shape. The feet slipped when I put the jar into the oven on so, in addition to its other problems, the jar tilts to the side slightly.

Because I was planning to do the ruffled top, I did the base of the jar first and it doesn’t look right as a whole. I do like the frilly feet, but not on this jar.

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Orange Jewellery

Tags

Cate van Alphen, earrings bracelet, jewellery, necklace, orange, polymer clay

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! 🙂

Haloween humbug earrings (flashback)

Tags

Halloween, handmade bead, humbug, Murano glass, niobium, orange, polymer clay, purple

I made these earrings a while ago, and I just realised I don’t think I’ve shown them here on my blog. They would have been a good post yesterday, for Halloween, but I’m not that organised!

Humbug earrings by Cate van Alphen

The focal beads are polymer clay which I made earlier this year as part of my Spectrum Year. They remind me of mint humbugs. The amethyst and gold beads are Murano glass. They are on dark purple coloured copper wire which I have hammered to form a pin (I rather like the way the purple coating came off at the bottom to reveal the copper underneath).

These earrings are currently in my Etsy shop.

Orange flashback

Tags

Cate van Alphen, gold, kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope cane, orange, pendant, polymer clay, red

I have just found and listed this orange kaleidoscope pattern pendant in my Etsy shop.

Orange kaleidoscope pattern pendant by Cate van Alphen

I made the cane earlier this year when I was working with my orange colour palette, but in all the confusion of the impending move this pendant slipped between the cracks.

Polymer clay challenge week 8 – beads

Tags

2015PCchallenge, handmade, kaleidoscope cane, orange, polymer clay beads

I usually post my weekly polymer clay challenge piece on a Thursday, but I decided to do it early this week as I wanted to make some kaleidoscope humbug beads and today is the last day of orange. 😮

Polymer clay beads by Cate van Alphen

I didn’t manage to get the beads the same size as each other, but I did get better at not distorting the kaleidoscope pattern. I also got the corners sharper on the later beads (if you compare with the first bead on the right).

Polymer clay beads by Cate van Alphen

I can’t believe it’s already time to change colour palette! I thought I’d get bored after a week, and need work with several different palettes based around orange. As it is I feel I was only just getting warmed up and I’m a little sad to be saying goodbye to orange.

Polymer clay challenge week 6 – beads

Tags

2015PCchallenge, art beads, artisan bead, Cate van Alphen, handmade beads, humbug, orange, orange beads, polymer clay, retro

This week I made orange beads again. I made a set of orange pinstripe tetrahedrons. I think of them as “humbugs”.

Orange pinstripe humbug bead by Cate van Alphen

I drilled them through the centre of the straight edges rather than from the base through the apex. They were fiendishly difficult to photograph.

Orange pinstripe humbug bead by Cate van Alphen

I also made another set of my retro beads in a different colour combination.

Retro beads by Cate van Alphen

Without planning it I found I had used each colour only once for the different parts of the bead. I wonder if I can resist the final colour combination in the sequence?

Polymer clay challenge week 5 – focal

Tags

Cate van Alphen, flower, flower power, orange, pendant, polymer clay, spiral

This week I made focal pendants. I was practicing a technique wich would enable me to feature symbol or simple line drawing on the pendant.

Focal beads by Cate van Alphen

The small focal is a hollow hemisphere with a spiral doodle.

Spiral dome slider pendant by Cate van Alphen

I added a bit of copper mica powder to the back attachment.

Back of spiral dome slider pendant by Cate van Alphen

The second pendant has a flower design because I just can’t shift the orange + brown = flower power equation!

Orange flower pendant by Cate van Alphen

The back of the pendant is a blend of colours.

Back of flower pendant by Cate van Alphen

Polymer clay challenge – week 3

Tags

2015PCchallenge, art bead, bead, brown, button, handmade, orange, polymer clay, retro, toggle

This week, for my polymer clay challenge, I have made toggles. I wanted to make a toggle to go with my retro beads from last week.

The decorative dot conceals the holes of the button. But it also caused some technical difficulties.

I ended up making three toggles because the first hole was too small to account for the bump on the button. So I made a new thinner button without the dot, and added a stripe of the patterned clay to the brown frame to link the two pieces.

Then the second toggle frame was too big and it got scorched in the oven so it’s now covered with mosaic made from scraps. Although the colours seem to be departing from orange, I think this one is my favourite. It just goes to show that  mistakes are often opportunities with polymer clay.

Which one is your favourite?

Polymer clay challenge – week 2

Tags

2015PCchallenge, bead, bracelet, brown, handmade beads, orange, polymer clay, red, retro

My orange colour palette includes orange and chocolate brown which is a colour combination that screams “retro” at me. So for this week I used one of  the techniques from Syndee Holt’s class in the Virtual Retreat.

See the black bracelet with wasabi and cerise dots on square tiles (bottom left)? Retro – right?

I made little polymer clay tile beads featuring central dots of contrasting colours. The beads have two parallel holes and a flat back so they would be ideal for use in a bracelet.

 

I couldn’t resist doing several colour combinations…

I’m not sure that the red beads play very nicely with the others though.

What do you think – is the red too loud or does it add a nice bit of pep?

Polymer clay challenge – week 1

Tags

2015PCchallenge, abstract design, Cate van Alphen, doughnut pendant, orange, pendant, polymer clay

I have completed my first focal for the 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge. After spending so much time working on colour swatches, I came up with an abstract design with blocks of colour. I was thinking of Mondrian compositions. I wanted to create a painterly effect, although that probably would have horrified Mondrian!

Orange colour block pendant by Cate van Alphen

For the shape of the pendant I went back to my comfort zone and made a hollow doughnut.

The back is textured brown polymer clay.