Liliana Birthday!

I managed to finish the necklace on time! Hooray! This is actually my very first completed piece of work except magnets I did last year. It turned out to be better than I thought it would be so I am very pleased and Liliana looks beautifull wearning it.

I had some troubles with the sizes of my components but fortunately I had enough small beads to finish everything nicely and even make a bracelet to go with the necklace :)

Another bracelet

I've been working recently on another project from the Ronna's book, a lovely purple mix bracelet:

I really like the 'look and feel'  Ronna had achieved here, great balance between the texture, shape and color of course...as always... so here it is mine first attempt...

I have made a bunch of them but I have to say, I am not pleased. It was hard to match proper color despite the fact I was sticking to the color recipe from the book. Golden from Premo is very intense, it turned everything in a sea green...so I have to play a little bit more with it, but...
...Yesterday I was working on a little birthday present for my friend, in a meantime I was playing with ''the marbling thing'' using clay scraps from the discs set (quite often just playing is the part when real creativity starts to flow) and there IT IS! I think I have found my way to marbling. I made nine little discs but  three in particular where exactly as I wanted them to be.

You can easily see those three light sea green discs, with a little bit of golden and white...They look a lot better than my whole bunch above which is too bland I think....

On the knitting needle I have a focal bead for the bracelet, I quite like it apart from the fact I have to add some more strings. I didn't realize that transculent clay can darken so much. I left some space between the strings, but after baking it looks unfinished rather than made on purpose...I will add photo later because I have to take it in the daylight...Unfortunately for me I can't find anywhere on uk ebay those spacer discs used in this project, so I am not sure when I will be able to assemble it all together...

Another bead on the needle is the yellow one. I am very pleased with the marble effect I have achieved here (remember those beads are my first and only samples so far...). I have mixed yellow with white and transculent. In my opinion looks lovely, quite dramatic but I like it that way. It can be used as a great focal bead in another bracelet or some necklace maybe.
Those three small beads next to it are made from leftovers and I am also quite pleased with them.

I have noticed my thinking has developed. I am trying to think about texture, size, shape and color a little bit more. Figure out first where is the focal point in the piece I want to make, how to achieve the best possible balance, and how to let those beads to shine at their best...at the moment more of it happens in my head only as I am very limited with time I can spend on claying...I try to look at the best possible artists I can find, and learn from them. Hopefully sooner than later I will be able to add my own mark on their technique and designs to create my own unique style but for now as I just began to learn..I am pleased with 'trying to copy' phase...

The last bead on the photo is the focal bead for my friend's birthday, I made it using form design from Linda Peterson's book ''How to Make Polymer Clay Beads'' and the color inspiration attempt was from Kathleen's Dustin '' blowing grass'' purse.

I love this color combination, although this photo does not give the purse the justice...I have another shoot of it from opposite angle in Maggie Maggio and Lindly Haunani book : Polymer Clay Color Inspirations, where you can really admire Kathleen craft!
The colors didn't turn out as beautiful but those are my very first attempts so I can't expect too much!
I am going to combine this bead with silver wire and some silver beads, and add some glossy finish maybe...will see. Probably I will do another version of it or two for myself or my mum, there is a lot to learn here...

I will add proper daylight photos of the beads during the weekend, I am quite busy till Friday. See you then.

Next Day

Another day and I am still working on the necklace from Ronna Sarvas Weltman book, the first project. It is not easy with two small children around but I am doing fine.
I have made a few more beads. The String Bead took me a while to do, I even made it twice..

Then I've decided that this bead doesn't look good with other beads. In description it is said to do 20 mm base bead, but with strings, mine became way too big..so...

I had to start again...

The other beads turned out quite nicely, of course this is a "pre-baked" shoot.

I have some problems with following the color recipes, especially those where cadmium yellow is used. I had to do ringed bead twice, and even after second time I think it is still too yellowish, the dots look better tho...

In the end of the day I had a few to bake...but after baking...I had an unpleasant surprise...

I made those four on cork clay base bead, but I am not sure what went wrong.
Possibly I should have waited until cork clay beads dry up (it wasn't mentioned in the book and I was afraid the clay won't stick to the cork beads if I do this)
So now I have to redo all of them plus the string bead;) Maybe I will use aluminum foil base beads this time round, or I will do one with "DRIED-first" cork clay bead...don't know yet, I have to order some more translucent clay first!


This is a shoot from another project I have started a few days ago

This is Pivot Bead Strand project designed by Maggie Maggio, another great polymer artist whose book I have proudly own. I have to do some of those beads again. I used colors with too much white in it and some variations turned out too opaque...


"(...)In every situations, at the beginning or end of the work day, you have a choice. You can look back or you can look forward. My advice: Look forward. Always think about next day(...)." Twyla Tharp.

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