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Fulgorine

~ My adventures with polymer clay

Fulgorine

Tag Archives: wishpot

Evolution of a wishpot

27 Thu Sep 2018

Posted by fulgorine in jewellery, My work

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

art bead, handmade, necklace, polymer clay, wishpot

I’ve just finished a commission for a wishpot which has helped me work out some of the technical issues I’ve had with stringing them. I began making these several years ago so I’ll show you some highlights in their evolution. Apologies for the quality on the older photos, I’ve tried to fix the colour balance.

Pearl wishpot necklace

This mother of pearl effect wishpot was one of the first I made. It is strung directly on the necklace. The bead stopper can be lifted to open the wishpot. The necklace string keeps it in place when it’s being worn.

Pearl wishpot open

There were a few things I didn’t like about this design. Firstly the necklace needs to be thin in order for the bead lid to be opened (the stopper bead plus cord on either side needs to fit through the mouth of the pot). Also unless it is a specific commission I get stressed about choosing the length for a necklace.

purple wishpot

For my next version, I wanted the pendant to go on a thicker kumihimo cord. Since there was no hope of this going through the opening of the wishpot, I put it on a ribbon that created a bail to hang on the necklace. I included lengths of ribbon in the necklace to link the design together. This version was better, but still not massively versatile – I couldn’t picture the ribbon working on something like a chain.

wishpot mala

My latest necklace was for a wishpot on a mala necklace. I used beads made from imfibinga seeds. The necklace needed a specific number of beads which made it pretty long. I wanted a way to allow the necklace to be shortened without adding a clasp. My solution was to add a button toggle to the wishpot attachment.

wishpot mala necklace

This means the necklace can be doubled over and the wishpot used to attach the two sides together. The wishpot can now also exist independently, so for example you could pop it in your pocket or wear it on a belt loop.

wishpot

The thin nylon cords still allow the pot to be opened. and the bead and macrame knotted button hole on either side keep the pieces together. Hooray! It finally feels like all the pieces of this design make sense!

mala wishpot open

Another birthday, another wishpot

14 Mon Nov 2011

Posted by fulgorine in My work

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

BSBP, kumihimo, polymer clay, toggle, wishpot

This is simply a “what I’ve been doing” post (I do find these interesting on other people’s blogs, so maybe someone else will find this interesting).

So… I have made another wishpot – this time in purple as requested by the recipient (I love purple so this was no problem). 🙂

Purple Wishpot by Cate van Alphen

Probably the most time consuming part was the cord which I braided myself (using a kumihimo disk).

polymer clay toggle claspFollowing the Bead Soup Blog Party (which I am STILL looking through) I realize that a clasp can (and should) be much more than a cheap finding you add on at the end. Therefore I made a matching toggle with polymer clay and wove two different ribbons into the kumihimo braid as I worked to form loops along the whole length. This means the necklace can be worn at different lengths (by selecting a ribbon loop where you want to join) and the toggle can be a decorative element in it’s own right.

Purple Wishpot

Purple Wishpot by Cate van Alphen

P.S. Happy Birthday 😉

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Fulgor, n.
Dazzling brightness; splendor.
Fulgorine, n.
One who creates that which dazzles.

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