Smoosher Challenge – Black & White

We were challenged to find and share anything Black & White made by our fellow Smoosher. Since I like a good challenge I gathered up a few tasty treats for you all 🙂

Here is a beautiful necklace made by Strange Whimsy called Black polymer clay necklace with white jade beads

Handmade Black and White Heart Necklace

You can find this wonderful Eagle Feather polymer clay cane in ArtmakersWorlds Shop

Coltpizy is the artist that created this amazin Black and White Mosaic Keepsake Jewelry Box

I just adore these black and white mokume gane technique earrings made by Rivervalleydesign

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They’re All Done !!!!

The ornaments are all done and ready for the mail. Hopefully Priority mail gets them there in time.
Without further ado…… here is the purple set of 12 ornaments!

New Tutorial: Golden Lace Heart Pendant

Just finished another tutorial called Golden Lace Heart Pendants. Just listed it in my Etsy shop. Great project fro beginners and advanced clayers alike.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38416327

My 2nd Place Winner !!!!!

I entered a contest sponsored by the Polymer Clay Artist Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) and my piece tied for 2nd place 🙂 The theme was vessels and I entered my favorite Inro.

You can see the other winners at SCDiva’s Blog

Nail Art Canes In Stock – Low Introductory Price !!

Many designs to choose from !

For the first 2 weeks prices the Nail Art Canes will be available in my web shop for the low introductory price of $1.29 per cane. After wards, the prices will be $1.99 each. There are many beautiful flower canes, a few fun fruit designs, and several cute butterflies to choose from. Plus a great American Flag for the upcoming 4th of July. I have red and blue flower canes with white backgrounds that accent the flag beautifully.

The canes are very simple to use. Easy to follow instructions will be included with your order. All you need is a single edge razor blade or scraper blade, a safe cutting surface and a cup of hot water to warm the canes. A single cane can produce 60+ slices if you slice them very thin.

You can use the Nail Art Cane Slices several ways:
1. Glue them on to store bought acrylic nails with nail glue and clear coat them with an acrylic clear coat polish. (I recommend Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat) Then adhere the acrylic nails to your natural nails.
2. Embed the cane slices into the uncured acrylic as you have a nail tech do your nails. Make sure they are covered/sealed with the acrylic.
3. Pre-coated your nails with a layer of acrylic nail polish. Glue the cane slices onto your natural nails (with nail glue). Then seal them with an acrylic clear coat. (Again I recommend Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat)

I will also offer a variety of pre-sliced cane samplers, 20 slices for $1.99 if you prefer to not slice them yourself.

Here are just a few of the canes you will see in my shop.

Canes are approx. 3 – 5 mm across and 50 MM long.

One Color Wonders

I was cruising around Flickr and found the greatest clay group called Polymer Clay Today which led me to this artist who only used one color of clay. The item that cought my eye was gorgeous. I wondered how many other cool things could I find where the artist only used one color of clay.

Selena Anne Wells has a album full of one color pieces. Be sure to check them all out.

Pippa – Pip’s Jewellery (Her Blog)

Randee M Ketzel

Jill Palumbo

HeidYMetaL

Liva (Her Blog)

Laurel Steven (Her Blog)

Janice Abarbanel (Her Blog)

Jan Geisen (Her Website)

Enkhtsetseg Tserenbadam (Her Blog)

Sherri Kellberg

Flickr Finds For April

I can spend all day wandering around Flickr. There is an abundance of talented polymer clay artists that use the site to store their pictures. I think each month I’ll have to show 6 random artists I find interesting. Hope you do too, because here are the first 6 🙂

The gallery is by stamp company Inklings and Imprints. The artworks is Kim Detmers

Alkhymeia

Beadscraftz

Barb Fajardo blog

Cheryl Harris

Julia Fediakina

Art Imitating Nature

Melanie West has a series of bracelets called Bio-Bangle. And are they ever beautiful !!! They do make me think of sea shells and ocean critters. 🙂 Her eye for design, texture and color is incredible. I’ve seen Melanie’s jewelry over the past few years really blossom into exception works of wearable art. Can’t wait to see what inspires her next.

BioBangle - Bamboo

BioBangle - Octopus

BioBangle - Sea Polyp

BioBangle - Sea Shell

Yetta’s Hollow Donut Cabachons

It’s a technique that Donna Kato learned from Yetta in New Jersey. As Donna said “Her (Yetta’s) solution is elegant, efficient, simple and pretty much foolproof.” I must say, I may not have a donut cutter (yet), but I see the possibilities with any cutter. And I am tickled to say that Donna used the silk screen stencils I made and sent to her last year on the donuts pictured below. 🙂

Pardo Jewellry Clay From Germany

I had the honor of receiving a box full of clay from the manufacturer, Viva Decor, in January. There were 23 totally yummy colors and most were metallic. After putting the clay through it’s paces, I found it very similar to the clay I use and enjoyed the results. Pardo is very flexible after it’s baked and it sands quite easily. The metallic colors do a very nice mica shift and there is no smell at all, neither before baking or in the oven. It’s made without plasticizers. Instead they opted to use beeswax in it’s place. Pardo is a rather soft clay, so if you prefer a firm clay like Kato Polyclay or Fimo Classic this may not be a clay you would like. It felt like a combo of Premo and Fimo Soft to me.

There are a few drawbacks to this clay that have nothing to do with the clay itself. First, the packaging is nothing like we are used to in the US. It comes in a plastic jar and the clay is formed into little balls. Recycling is a problem for me living in a very small town in the middle of nowhere, so I have no idea what to do with all the jars. Maybe I can find a use for them as storage in my studio. Second, the little balls are kind of fun, at first, but I’d rather just slice a chunk off of a block of clay and blocks are much easier to store. Third issue for me personally is the price. The jars hold 2.7 oz and MSRP is $4.95 – $5.95. Considering I can buy many other brands of polymer clay for about $2.50 for 2 oz ($1 for 2 oz when on sale) I can’t see myself switching clays any time soon. Which is a bummer, because I really do like this new clay.

The quality of this clay is comparable to the other polymer clays I have used in the past (Premo, Fimo, Kato) and I did make a few nice items while experimenting.

Steampunk Heart

Twisted Pendant

Vine Necklace

Close-up

Asian Pendant