Fimo

Well, this is a long story but I'll try to make it short.....I've been using and loving Sculpey 111 for a while now, I love the colors and especially the softness and easy conditioning..

However, I've been questioning it's ability to be strong and durable for some of the jewelry I'm making...so I started reading....Tori Hughes wrote a wonderful book about using polymer clay to recreate the look of various natural materials..it's called "Polymer the Chameleon Clay" and in it she does a great job of showing how different brands of clay stack up according to durability, etc and in reading this I found that she greatly prefers Fimo....so I ordered some.

Wow...what a difference! I baked three identical shapes of clay, one was Sculpey, one was Fimo Classic and one was Fimo Soft.....I tried them for strength and immediately the Sculpey one snapped in my fingers...but both Fimos were strong and resisted breaking...so I'm hooked on Fimo now


Ok, so I looked at the few other Fimo colors I had ordered and saw one Fimo Effects in Copper....I absolutely adored the color...I mean, it is luscious and juicy and altogether my new favorite.....

I had a scrap of a simple striped cane left over so I started playing....and added the copper as an accent piece....and actually, I'm pretty happy with the whole thing....I keep thinking of new exciting things to do in this format and that usually is a good thing...

So...that's the story of how this pendant came to be, how I fell in love with a new color and a new clay....

A Wedding Necklace

My sister is getting married in a few weekes....and she wanted me to make her wedding necklace......since this isn't her first, she is wearing ivory and wanted a heart and some purple....so I just sat down and had a great time making it....

Seaforms

I made one of these and it sold right away on Etsy....a great motivation to do some more...so here they are.....

I'm kind of liking them, but they still don't feel quite right...

Maybe I need a trip to the beach.....for research....

Beads

I went through a phase with these beads....aligning different patterns and then chopping them up, adding them back together and shaping them.....fun really, but I just don't know what else to do with them....

A Step Back

I ran across these today and almost forgot to post them...I did these pendants a few months ago(shown without neckpieces)put them away and now I've brought them out of hiding to look at them in a new light....I think I am re-liking them....hmmm

Earrings

I'm going to be doing a wholesale show the end of May and I've decided to do some earrings...at least, I've been playing with teeny amounts of clay to that end....

Started with the ones on the left...then the rest kind of exploded...

I'm in the "I really don't like these" stage on them....for a time, I was in the "wow, this is great" stage but it got downgraded, as these stages seem to do...

Hopefully next stage will be "They're fine, stop being so hard on yourself"

We'll see....

Bakelite Tangent

I've always loved the look of Bakelite and have several pieces in varying colors, but mostly butterscotch....so I set out to try to match the look of that vintage 30's and 40's plastic that aged so beautifully. At first I had some trouble because I was using opaque clay and it came out looking chalky....then I played around with a combination of translucents and regular clay and I was happy!

However, once I ran these past my husband and chief critic, he frankly said he thought the earrings resemble corn on the cob or macaroni art....

It's amazing we've been together this long...

Newer Work

It's funny, but when I started this blog a little while ago, I hadn't done any of this style for months.....but looking back it kind of inspired me so I made some more....it's great to combine old designs with newer techniques and see what happens...