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Loop dangle earrings in silvery blue

How-to and Give away

I trained as a metalsmith so I still think in terms of metal techniques sometimes. And sometimes...this doesn't work at all but other times it does, as in the case of tube rivets.

For those who are unfamiliar, a tube rivet is a cold connection for metal - meaning no soldering required. You drill a hole into two pieces of metal that you want to connect, line up the holes and put a small piece of metal tubing into the hole. Then you hammer into the tube, flaring the edges and sandwiching the metal pieces together.  I don't NEED this technique to connect polymer but you can use it as an interesting way to finish a hole.

Materials:

- polymer clay in colors of your choice

       I'm using bright yellow and medium grey for the tube rivet as it "suggests" sterling silver                    

- large needle

- pasta machine and roller

- cutters, patterns or templates of your choice

- flexible blade

1. Condition your polymer and make a base shape, cut out with a cutter or template or, as I did, just roll a blob through the pasta machine on the thickest setting.

2. Next make very tiny balls of grey clay - these are your mock tube rivets - they can of course vary in size but mine were about the size of peppercorns.

3. Mark a whole with your needle in the flat piece of clay to mark your opening.

4. Put the small ball of clay over the hole and CAREFULLY flatten with your acrylic roller. You don't want to squish the earring,  especially if you have any texture on it, and you don't want the rivet totally imbedded in the surface. Go slowly, you can always roll a little more if you need to. You want it close but not totally flush with the surface of the earring.

5. Re-pierce the hole with your needle and widen it further by twirling the needle.

6. Bake according to package directions. 

7. Enlarge the hole even more with a drill if you'd like. (I do.) The hole should correspond in size to the rivet - the larger the rivet, the larger the hole should be. 

Optional: if you like you can distress your earring with black acrylic at this point, wiping the excess off quickly. The little bit that is left at the edge of the rivet enhances the effect even further. Still too much paint? Buff with some steel wool. 

So here I've used this idea with some of my Shape earrings - I'm sure you can modify it to suit your purposes and style.

top: Grey Mountain earrings
bottom: Blue House earrings

The give away is now closed! Thanks to everyone who followed and commented. The winner will be announced Tuesday, Feb. 26!

I'm no longer posting to this blog but you can follow my new blog here...

Update on The Book!

I was recently taking care of some legal permission-y, copyright sort of stuff for the upcoming polymer clay book by Cynthia Tinapple. We now have a tentative title and a bit of an idea of what the cover might look like and its starting to feel...real. 

Diamond shaped inside out beads from Claire Maunsell (Sorry folks, these are sold. Aren't they great though?)

One thing I really find exciting is that beyond the 13  featured artists (of which I am one) and their projects there will be work from 125 artists from around the world featured gallery style. Sounds like it will surely appeal to us visual types who like books heavy on pictures!

Shapes in the Shop

Happy New Year - Here's to new beginnings! 

I'm really excited to start off the New Year working on a new line of designs.

The earrings that are coming out of my shape exploration are making it into the shop now. 

Level earrings in Mint

Mountain earrings in Black

Polygon in Warm White

Scrap of paper

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. - Pablo Picasso

So the truth is that I often don't have much of a plan at first.  I LOOK for a plan (or idea, or design or whatever you want to call it) and I figure, I'll know it when I see it. 

Thus my shape experiment. 

The shapes I liked the best are now patterns to cut thin sheets of polymer.  I put shapes together, some layered, as earrings. Larger shapes might become necklaces, parts of necklaces, they might expand to 3D bead. 

Polymer Arts

Polymer Arts Winter 2012 is out today - I'm really honored to be part of the Rings Galore article! Thank you to editor Sage Bray for including my work. 

Fragment ring in coal

Wandering planet

I read a BBC report the other day about rogue, orphaned planets that wander the universe.  

Scientists don't know how they came to be and where they are going.  

I find it comforting that we don't have everything figured out.  

Awe and wonder are good for the soul. 

Fooling around with colored pencil on black polymer

Have a great weekend! 

Just Keep Carving

Sometimes things don't work out initially but rather than give up you need to just keep going. I thought my initial carving with these beads was "flat" from a design standpoint.

But the second stage of carving I did really helps these little cactus-ish beads (Cactus, boulder, mountains? Not sure.)  Next step will be to try adding some colored pencil and securing it with Genesis medium. 

Have a great weekend! I was hoping to get out for a hike but the boy's yucky, nagging coughs will probably keep us at home. More time to carve. 

Thanks for reading! 

Its so nice to find my work on wish lists like Vickie's over at Unusual Magic!

(Thank you for  making my Wednesday,Vickie!) 

I''m going to be working on several smaller drop earring designs after school this afternoon. From talking to customers, small earrings make very good stocking stuffers and small gifts for friends at work, teachers, even hostess gifts. (This particular design incorporates scrap clay as the bronze background. REDUCE/REUSE/RECYCLE) 

Hurricane Sandy

We hunkering down here in south central PA. Hurricane Sandy is suppose to make landfall within the next 2 hours or so and the eye will be passing perhaps just over us sometime after dark. Not thrilled about that. We've been told to prepare to shelter in place and probably be without power at some point. 

The super great skylight in my studio is proving not so great - its leaking. We've had this happen before but I definitely think its worse this time. I moved supplies around and everything is safe. I baked a tray of beads and other pieces this morning to keep me busy if/when the power goes out.  

Busy

The boys have the day off today and I am busy, busy in the studio. October will be an especially full month with Christmas orders starting in earnest (one would hope at least).

New Fragment Necklace

One big event for me in October will be a 2 day Kathleen Dustin workshop! I've wanted to take a class with her for quite a while and put myself on the waiting list for one at the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild.  I am thrilled to have gotten a spot!

Isn't it funny

Isn't it funny how things happen sometimes? I was considering diverting attention from rings for a while because I feel like people feel unsure about buying them online or about polymer clay ones or something.  "Some business decisions are sad." I thought, because I love rings.  

Then what do you know?  I was asked to write an article about rings and my process. 

So I am (quite happily) working through some ideas and the how and the why of it. (Thank you Sage at The Polymer Arts Magazine, for the excuse to do something I really wanted to do anyway!)

All my current Etsy orders are now completed and shipped so I'm back to working on gallery pieces for the polymer clay book. I've been fiddling with these island pieces for quite some time now. Hoping if I fiddle some more something will coalesce.

We're winding down our school year with just days to go. Amidst the flurry of putting together portfolios we all felt like getting out would do us some good. Samuel has expressed some frustration with drawing animals because they move so I thought getting out to the nature center would be more fun than drawing animals from photographs. I did some sketching too and felt rusty. I haven't been drawing enough lately.

I've been working on some new earring shapes and custom wires to complement them. The last pair of earrings is my Lake design but with custom ear wires rather than with the pre-made hoops. This was at a customers request and despite the fact that they lose the movement, I'm thinking I might like them better this way. Let me know what you think. 

MIA

Action is the key word in Missing in Action. I've not actually been missing; I was here, just very busy on several different fronts, among them being refining my carved rings. I want better, more comfortable shanks (the part that actually goes around your finger) because I think WEARERS want more comfortable shanks.

The vermillion one here, along with several others, a bracelet and necklaces are on their way to Corey and Co. in Portland. My jewelry and Barbara's work! Its such a great match, in my opinion.

(This is the grey version of their think spring attitude.)

A bit about the next things

One project flows into the next...so I shouldn't be sitting here playing with shavings. It looks like I should be cleaning.

Two new shops will soon be carrying my work. Watch for Jibby and Juna in Atlanta and Austin this spring.

And...drum roll... I will be included in a book about polymer clay coming out next year! This will take up a lot of my time and attention over the next couple of months and will probably mean that the Etsy shop, when re-opened, will be limited (because unfortunately there are still only 24 hours in a day).

Toga Beads How-to

Here's a short how-to for making what I call, for lack of a better name, toga beads. They remind me of marble "fabric" drapped on classical statues.

All you'll need is white polymer clay, a cutter, needle, black acrylic paint, paper towel and possibly some steel wool.

1. Make a ball of white clay about double the size that you want the finished bead to be.

2. Pinch and twist opposing sides of the ball making "handles" (sort of) and continue to twist until the bead has layers/twists to suit you. Less twisting will result in thick folds, more twisting results in thinner folds.

3. Carefully cut the handles off the ends of the bead.

4. Pierce, flat end to flat end, with a needle and bake standing up on one end or using a bead rack.

5. Brush with black acrylic paint, getting the paint into all the indentations, then immediately removing paint from the "high spots" with a paper towel. After the paint dries if you find you want more white showing, remove even more of the black paint with steel wool.

Black and white gives these beads a marble/toga feel but different colors of clay and paint would be fun too!

Small and special

I've decided to end the Stone Upon Stone line and will post the last (and smallest) of the earrings this week. This design originated after I was in a huge rockfall in 2008. You could say it was part of my healing process and now...I feel like I'm done and its time to move on. Although the rings and earrings have been good sellers for me I'll be selling off the pieces I have left.

Ah..that feels good. Making way for new things.

I'm trying to keep lots of new stocking stuffers in the shop right now. Small earrings are my way of practicing new techniques, 3D sketching in polymer, so lots of the tiny earrings are one of a kind or limited edition. Small and special doesn't have to mean diamond studs.

Ring, ring

I decided to try some paid advertising this year. The folks at 20BestTwenty could not have made it any easier (thank you Meg)! I went out on a bit of limb by choosing a ring to promote for starters. I know, not the easiest jewelry to sell since fit is key. I have full and half sizes 5-10 ready to ship - this is more production mode than I've attempted with rings thus far.

After a quick and helpful tweet chat with Danielle last night I realized that it would help if I provide some sort of chart, link, or ring sizers. So after the boys get started with math thats the first order of business this morning.

Danielle (HandyMaiden) makes the most charming animals. Hand sculpted, handed painted polymer - each with such personality. You can find your standard favorites (fox, owl, deer) but if its a Red Panda, Fennec Fox or Eastern Quoll you're after, she's got that too.

Live the good life

I believe in the idea of craft as part of economic, spiritual and emotional renewal! You can read about it here and here.

Most good things have been said and now just need to be lived. - Shane Claiborne