Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Polymer Clay Madness

It all started simple enough....I saw a tutorial on distressed polymer clay headpins by Ginger Davis-Allman from  The Blue Bottle Tree.  I bought some of her headpins previously and thought, hey I can do this, they are so cool, just what I need and want ...so I bought the tutorial and downloaded it on the spot.
  This tutorial is really well put together with every little detail covered.  The step by step instructions are clear and easy that even a learning impaired adult like myself could understand it.  There are lots of pics, again clear and nothing left out...Ginger did a great job.

Next stop, good old Micheal's for the little packages of clay...I chose  Premo and Fimo...I thought I'd try both to compare the two.  I have tried making polymer clay beads before and went through about a pound of the stuff with some disastrous results...Ginger told me I was using crap clay for starters and between her and Rey at Greybird I  realized I wasn't cooking for a long enough time and at too low of a temperature...  Yes Rey!  The high priestess of clay started with polymer...have a look at her old sales if you don't believe me...she put polymer clay into the stratosphere...  I sent her one of my bead mishaps clear over to the Isle of Skye and she helped me too.

Here's the first batch...

 So...I have been clay shaping, bead painting crazy over here ever since I got the tutorial...somebody stop me!!  cause I am hooked...it's fun...it's challenging and you get some cool beads and focals no one else has.

The Ancient Ones were inspired by American Indian pottery...



Chaco Canyon




Bullseye!



Pottery Shards...



see I told you...Stop Me!



Works in progress



And another thing I learned...is how time consuming, frustrating, did I say time consuming making beads is...I had no idea...So next time you have to send you hard earned cash to Greybird Studio, Ragged Robyn,  ScorchedEarth, Numinosity, Sara at DivineStudio2, Happyfish, Shipwreckdandy...be thankful these hard-working gals are doing it all for you and at a real bargain for all the time involved in the making of hand-made beads.  

Still a lot to learn and many mistakes to make I am sure... 





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