Fall is here!

It probably feels like I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth after I said I was off for a week long clay workshop. I kinda feel that way too. Life happened, adulting got in the way and this blog and clay in general really had to take a back seat for a while. But fear not, I still managed a few things here n there.

I made a few leaf suncatchers, similar to the butterflies. These are gracing my window at work. They seemed really big and many on my work surface at home but look lost on my window!! I think I need to add some more leaves, and maybe some larger ones.

 

Polymer clay suncatcher leaves

I also found time to make some wee carved pumpkins to sit on my monitors. They are perched precariously secured by a bit of poster tack. I’d planned to make a whole bunch of these, inspired by Jennifer Sorensen  from Wishing Well Workshop, but only got around to these five.

Polymer clay mini carved pumpkins

I’m glad I made at least this though. I feel like I need to have more clay related things surrounding me at work, since I spend so much time there. I’ve been meaning to make a pen holder forever (my pens are stored in a paper cup right now. Sad, I know). I bought the galaxy tutorial from KatersAcres recently and I think that will make a nice pen stand. Hopefully I’ll have a little time to try it out soon.

Polymer clay mica leaf

Let me leave you with this mica colored leaf I made. Again, I’d planned to make a bunch of these and stick them in a vase, but the interesting leaves I brought home kept drying up before I got around to them!

Beads, butterflies and silkscreens

Today I have some suncatcher butterflies to show off. I made these following Donna Kato’s really cool CraftArtEdu class. These are especially close to my heart because I made them for my mom. See, a while ago when my mom was visiting me, we both bought these really pretty butterfly magnets. Now my dad travels a fair bit and usually gets magnets from all the places he visits. So their fridge is covered with a bunch of cheery magnets (including, of course, the especially awesome ones I made!). A month or so back, my parents had a young visitor who really liked many of the magnets including the butterfly one, so my mom popped them off and gave them to her to take.

Now my mom isn’t nuts about magnets like me, in fact I usually end up buying a pair of whatever catches my eye and cajoling her into taking them back. But apparently she really liked the butterfly in particular and she mentioned that one a couple of times rather wistfully. Now for the life of me I couldn’t remember where we’d bought them. I told her she could take the one I had the next time she visited. But I couldn’t help thinking: could I make that in clay?!

Polymer clay window clings

Hence, these silver butterflies! They’re not as thin and delicate as the magnet we bought, but my mom’s eyes lit up when I showed them to her, so I consider my mission accomplished! I used Premo silver glitter clay for the outline and really like the bling they added. I plan to make a whole bunch of these and tack them on to my office window. That way they’ll be seen from the outside as well! I made a few smaller butterflies as well. Here’s a blurry picture of how the whole lot of them on my porch window. I’ll try to take a better picture later!

Polymer clay window clings on porch window

Apart working on these, I finally got around to trying out an idea I had batting around in my head for a while. Silkscreened round beads! I made some hollow round beads following Orly Fusions interesting technique. While the idea is really innovative, it isn’t the easiest in the world. On my tenth try I managed to make reasonably round beads which I used here, but you can see that they’re not really spherical. But I like that the beads really use nothing but clay so I don’t have to hunt down sugar balls or try to compress silver foil or anything. I think I’ll use these as accent beads in a simple necklace with a chunky focal and some thick cord.

Polymer clay silkscreened beads

Speaking of silkscreens, here’s another compact style mirror with a clay hinge. This wasn’t planned at all. I got a nice new bunch of silkscreens from Tonja and was super excited about a mushroom patterned one in the lot. So I pulled out some red paint and swiped it over a bit of white clay with the vague intention of making a couple of earrings or maybe a pendant. But once the pattern was on there I couldn’t bear to cut up the adorable mushrooms! So I left the sheet on the tile while I tried to think of something I could make with it. I was debating simply laying it on a tiny canvas when I saw a square mirror sitting in the corner of my work surface. And wouldn’t you know it, the sheet of clay was the perfect size to cover it! And since I was in a silkscreen frame of mind, I added patterns other side of the lid, the mirror frame and the back!

Polymer clay silkscreened mirror

In other clay related news, I’m getting super excited about two polymer clay workshops I’ll be attending soon! That’s right, TWO workshops! The first one is with Bettina Welker in Victoria. She’ll be demonstrating how to create her sampler necklace. I love Bettina’s work; I have a bunch of her classes at CraftArtEdu. I’ll be meeting some of the folks from Carol Simmons’ workshop last year, so it’ll be great to see some familiar faces.

In September I’ll be off for a whole week to learn all about master canes from Carol again. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am! First of all, spending a whole week claying sounds like a dream come true. I have been drooling over the master canes Carol and her students create for so long, and now I get to learn how to do that! September cannot come quickly enough! I already have a long list of things I plan to make with my master cane!

So if you don’t see some activity here for a while, don’t give on me! I’ll be back! In the middle of all this mayhem, I also signed up for a Japanese themed swap! I have a couple of ideas brewing in my head and of course they involve new consuming techniques! Stay tuned for updates on all of this and more!