Blue summer pendant

Tags

blue, pendant, polymer clay, virtual retreat

It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog. I have been making things, but I have also been doing some rearranging (my time, my room and my photography), so it hasn’t filtered through to the blog yet. The Art Fair went well, so I have been making more jewellery featuring my Spectrum Palettes. Here’s a pendant I made in my Blue colours.

The design is from a tutorial on the 2017 Polymer Clay Adventure by Elena Marunich. It’s pretty big so it’s quite a statement piece.

I have been experimenting with different backgrounds in my photos (trying both more texture and pure white product shots). You can see more examples of my experiments on my Patreon post.

Polymer clay challenge week 41 – toggle

Tags

2015PCchallenge, button, flower, flower power, polymer clay, toggle, virtual retreat

This week, for my Polymer Clay Challenge, I made a flower power toggle. I started with two different sheets of blended colour, and then I cut and replaced flower shapes to create a pattern.

Flower power by Cate van Alphen

It’s a variation of the technique I learned earlier this year in Anke Humpert’s class on the Virtual Retreat. (You can still join the 2015 retreat as all the classes will be available for a year after the last sign up.)

Flower power button clasp by Cate van Alphen

The flower shape means the button I created from the cut out fits through the hole easily as it is longer across the petal tips than between two petals. I noticed this when I made my indigo mokme gane pendants back in week 31. I’m still planning on adding an edging to finish off the components.

Flower power focal by Cate van Alphen

I drilled a hole through the thickness of the loop so it could be attached discretely with a seed bead anchor. Or the hole could be used to secure a wrapped attachment so it doesn’t slide away sideways.

Flower power components by Cate van Alphen

There is a different pattern on the other side created from the second blend of clay.

Fairy Door Swap

Tags

fairy door, glass nugget, polymer clay, runes, virtual retreat

I made these fairy doors back in February for the Virtual Retreat swap. I wanted to give them some time to reach their destinations before I showed them on my blog. Then I got distracted, and now it’s May!

Fairy Doors by Cate van Alphen

The doors feature a glass nugget as an inter-dimensional portal, a little bell to call the fairies, and protective runes so that only friendly fairies can come through.

Back of Fairy Doors by Cate van Alphen

I surrounded the doors with natural things like wood, stones and plants made from polymer clay. I had to stop myself from endlessly adding bits of moss and flowers.

Fairy Doors by Cate van Alphen

I experimented with different reflective surfaces behind the glass. I tried foil, glitter and silver acrylic paint. They each resulted in different effects each with their own appeal.

Spring snow

Tags

Cate van Alphen, inchies, polymer clay, swap, virtual retreat

With the sun making a spring appearance, I thought I’d better show my snowflake inchies before they melt. I had been waiting for them all to arrive with my swap buddies, but I’ll put the last one down to an exotic postal system and show the rest now.

Snowflake inchies by Cate van Alphen

I made these polymer clay snowflake inchies for the Virtual Retreat January swap.

Inchies from Carole Klinko, Claire Fabian, Eva Eriksen and Tina Struck (left to right)

Here are the inchies I received in return. Thank you ladies for your lovely artwork and all the extras you sent with them 🙂

Orange kaleidoscope canes

Tags

kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope cane, polymer clay, polymer clay cane, virtual retreat

This week I have been inspired to make some polymer clay kaleidoscope canes by Teresa Pandora Salgado’s class on the Virtual Retreat.

I’m surprised I don’t make more canes since this is what originally got me hooked on polymer clay. I’m pleased with how these came out – I think the patterns look like designs from antique biscuit tins.

Polymer clay canes by Cate van Alphen

Unfortunately as I was a bit impatient with mixing colours and blends I didn’t end up with as much cane as I’d like, so I don’t know if I will get to try scayning (sculpting + caning) with these. I’m planning to use these in toggles for my 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge so I want to focus on the engineering of that without the added dimension of petals.

I can picture some fantastic focal pendants though… [Insert more TIME here!]

2015 Spectrum Challenge

Tags

2015 Polymer Clay Challenge, Cate van Alphen, polymer clay, spectrum, virtual retreat

I tend to flit between projects, so nothing forms a series of work. While I was having fun making my spectrum beads, it occurred to me to divide the year up into 7 and focus on each colour of the rainbow in turn.

Spectrum beads by Cate van Alphen

It was a vague idea until Katie Oskin from Kater’s Acres invited me to join her 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge. This helped me focus on what I wanted to make featuring the colours…

As I have been populating my new Etsy store with jewellery components, I keep thinking it would be good to have beads that co-ordinate with each other to form sets. So I figure if I spend each week making beads or components featuring one main colour they should co-ordinate with each other at the end of the block.

So my plan is to cycle each week between focals, toggles and accent beads with a review and colour change every 7.4 weeks (a year divided into 7).

Focal

Pendant, cabochon or large bead (1″ or larger).

Toggle

Toggle, button or other closure method.

Bead

Spacer beads or accent beads up to 1″ diameter.

I have also signed up for the Polymer Clay Adventure Virtual Retreat so I hope I find the time to do it all :).

Something to look forward to

Tags

art, mixed media, polymer clay, Polymer Clay Adventure, virtual retreat

I’m really excited to have signed up for the Polymer Clay Adventure Virtual Retreat. Just have a look at the awesome selection of teachers (and click on the links to see what they’ll be teaching)!

BUT it only officially starts 1 January 2015, so there are a few sleeps to go. But now, as the year speeds by so quickly I barely have time to notice it, it’s a good thing 😉