Groovy blast from the past

Tags

earrings, jewellery, polymer clay, retro, teacup, vintage

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.

Polymer clay challenge week 38

Tags

2016PCchallenge, beads, necklace, polymer clay, retro

This week I have made some beads using the canes inspired by the vintage teacup I’ve been working with. So far I’ve made one necklace.

The beads have different patterns on either side so the look changes depending on how the beads are flipped.

I plan to make some more beads using the canes, and I have made some accent beads to go with them when I do.

Remember it’s nearly time for the Art Charm reveal :). I’ll be showing the fairy tale inspired charms I made along with links to see what the other participants have made. This will also be the start of the auction to benefit Beads of Courage, so be sure to come back on 30th September.

Week 37 – still a vessel?

Tags

2016PCchallenge, ArtVessel, fairy garden, polymer clay, retro

I’m not entirely sure what I’ve made this week for my 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge. I decided to do something with the base of the broken cup from last week. I started by covering the sharp edges with polymer clay. Then there was a scar left from where the handle broke off, so I made some retro flower canes inspired by the cup pattern to cover that and make it into a feature.

I decided to make a little garden inside the teacup. And because I had massively oversized unrealistic flowers, I decided to make it an unreal fairy garden. I made the ground white to match the china cup. And there’s a silver bridge over a golden river.

I used gold ink in liquid polymer clay for the river, but it didn’t end up as sparkly as I’d hoped. I did consider adding some residents, but my miniature work is still a bit ham-fisted.

I’m not sure that it still counts as a vessel since it’s now full, so you wouldn’t really want to put other things in. My daughter says it’s a wishing garden. I suppose wishes don’t take up much room.

You may have noticed that I have not yet revealed what I made for the Art Charm Swap. That’s because the date is now 30th September 2016. The theme is Fairytales so there will be lots of enchanting things to see then. 😉

Polymer Clay Challenge – week 8

Tags

2016PCchallenge, art bead, bracelet, handmade bead, polymer clay, retro

This week I have decided to alter the parameters of my challenge – because it’s mine so I can! Last year I tried to do my weekly blog on a Thursday, this meant I could play on Friday evening because I didn’t “have to” finish something off for the challenge. My vessels are taking longer to make than I expect, which is fine because I love doing them, but now I am trying to simplify my ideas to fit them into a self-imposed timescale of a week. I’m not enjoying the stress and I don’t believe artists get bonus points for how quickly they work (unless you use the time is money* equation).

I am now also using the beads I made from last year’s challenge to make finished pieces of jewellery. I do this when I’m waiting while the girls do ballet etc. so it comes out of a different time budget. Therefore I have decided that my challenge will now be as follows: I will work on my vessel each week, and if it is not finished within a week I will post some of my ballet-time jewellery instead.

Maybe by the end of the year I’ll be able to work quicker and more efficiently and have a vessel completed each week? But for this week it’s a ballet-time bracelet.

I used beads from my Orange Palette for this bracelet. I made the red stick beads specifically for it after pairing the square retro beads with the gold pearls. You can find it in my Folksy shop.

Hooray! Tonight I can play. I’ll probably finish off the trinket box I’m working on. But I don’t “have to”. 😉

---

* I don’t think money is the best measurement of an artist either.

Polymer clay challenge week 15 – toggle

Tags

2015PCchallenge, Cate van Alphen, handmade bead, mosaic, polymer clay, retro, toggle, yellow

This week I’m slightly early for my Polymer Clay Challenge piece because it’s nearly time to start the next colour – green. I made toggles this week. I kept it fairly simple because I knew I didn’t have much time to work on it. I wanted to make something to go with my retro beads.

Yellow focal toggle by Cate van Alphen

I used the cut and replace technique from Anke Humpert’s class on the Virtual Retreat. It’s the same on both sides, but I think it would be interesting to try contrasting colours on the reverse.

Mosaic focal toggle by Cate van Alphen

The mosaic focal toggle happened by accident because my on my first attempt the clay was a bit thin. Adding shards of polymer clay helped add some thickness and I like the look of it too 🙂

Now you can find it in my Etsy shop.

Polymer clay challenge week 14 – bead

Tags

Cate van Alphen, handmade bead, polymer clay, polymer clay beads, retro, tile bead, watercolour, yellow

This week I made yellow polymer clay beads again. I started off with some macaroni beads with random patches of colour made from leftover mokume gane sheet rolled to the thinnest setting and torn into small pieces. The result reminded me of painting watercolours onto wet paper.

Watercolour macaroni beads by Cate van Alphen

I also made a curved piece that I was going to cut up into smaller beads, but I like it too much as a whole. I think I’ll make it into a torque necklace once I’ve done a bit more sanding and tidied up the ends.

Torque necklace – WIP by Cate van Alphen

Then because it was the Easter weekend, I decided I had some time to revisit the retro beads I made earlier in the year. I thought perhaps if I made several all together it would be quicker and more efficient. It wasn’t really 😐

Yellow retro tile beads by Cate van Alphen

Almost as soon as I’d made them I wanted to switch some of the colours around. I have an idea about what’s worrying me with these beads and I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve figured out how to articulate it.

Retro tile beads by Cate van Alphen

Name the bead

Tags

Art Deco, artisan bead, bead, Cate van Alphen, handmade bead, patchwork bead, polymer clay, retro

I rarely make the same thing twice, however I have found myself going back to these polymer clay beads a few times. They are quite fiddly to make so I find them a good way to relax.

I think of them as patchwork beads, mainly due to the process I use to make them. The name sort of works when I use a mix of colours like in these earrings.

Patchwork bead earrings by Cate van Alphen

But when I use more homogenous colours it doesn’t really describe how they look.

I can’t quite think of how to describe them. They aren’t really geometric enough to be Art Deco. Retro? Nouveau Deco? What do you think?

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 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?