Creating with the Liane CaBezel Jewelry Mold

The Liane CaBezel jewelry mold is another new design from the CaBezel mold series created by Wendy Orlowski.  It doesn't have a hole like in the Holy CaBezel molds but does come in three sizes.  I loved playing with these molds and trying out various ways they can be used with a snap mounted for interchanging.

These are several arrangements out of many that can be made with the beads created from the molds.  The interchangeable beads on the necklace in the above photo were created using the medium-size (center) and small size (outside) in the Liane CaBezel mold.  In the arrangement below I used the large size (center) along with the medium size mold (outside beads).

The arrangement below is a combination of the small size Liane CaBezel mold for the 2 outside beads and the center bead made with the Fab Focals # 2.

I also created a large Liane shape with a curve and really like how it came out.  You can see a comparison in the photo below.  

Bead on the left was baked on a curve and bead on the right baked flat

The curved shape works especially well in the longer necklace design with the chain tassel.

 

And the beauty of it on a snap is that it can be easily interchanged and worn as a short necklace.

  

We create the art . . . 

. . . you choose how to wear it!

Bettina Welker Workshop

I had an incredible time last weekend when I attended a polymer clay workshop by Bettina Welker.  When I heard Bettina was going to teach, I had to go and was so glad I did!  The class was on Vancouver Island and so the weekend started by driving out with my friend, Joanne.

The workshop was for two days and I found it quite exciting to create something different than what I would typically make.  We also worked with the Fimo Professional clay so was a good opportunity to see how I liked working with it.  I have found that it does have it's uses and I like the fact that it was softer yet not too sticky even though the room was quite warm.  

Bettina's style is unique and the class consisted of us constructing different beads using various techniques.  These were the beads that I had made.  They are pretty much in the similar colors as I wanted to maintain a theme and of course lime green and teals are my favorite.

Beads I made in Bettina's class

After we made all our beads, Bettina showed us how we can combine them to create a necklace.  I am playing around with them at the moment to see what combination I like best.

Testing out how to arrange the beads I made in Bettina's workshop

These are the beads Bettina demonstrated in the class and then created a necklace with them.

Necklace Bettina made in class

She then had us write our names on a piece of paper and my friend Joanne was the lucky duck to keep it!

Joanne (left) with Bettina (right)

It was a fun time and if you ever have the opportunity to take a class from Bettina, I highly recommend it.  If it isn't possible, Bettina has several classes on CraftArtEdu that you can take.

I am so glad that Bettina and her family chose to come to Canada for a vacation and I hope they enjoyed their travels as much as we enjoyed her class!  We really appreciated that they were willing to share her with us while they were here.

And of course a big thank-you to Barb Alexander and Irene Corman for all the work that they put into planning and preparing such a wonderful time!

Some New Art Deco Designs and Shapes

I have been on an Art Deco kick for a while now and is my favorite technique since discovering it.  We had piles of containers of scrap clay that I was saving and just couldn't bring myself to mix up and planned on using to make Natasha beads one day.  That pile is finally being reduced, freeing up some of the containers, but we still have so much more to play with.

The fun thing with this technique is that the pattern in the cane changes making each piece totally unique.  For instance, it is hard to believe that the snaps shown below are all from the same cane. 

As I sliced the cane, I noticed that at one end the colors were more a combination of purple, green and blue and when I sliced it from the opposite end, the colors were mainly deep pink with little bits of teal green and blue.

Occasionally you can end up with several pieces that are close enough to pass as a matching set which work really well for items such as earrings.

Most of our Art Deco is being made into buttons for the quilt and yarn shops and snaps for our interchangeable jewelry.  I have also been playing with new shapes like these earrings.

And some round beads which will be made into a bracelet.

So I am off to play some more and see what other shapes I can come up with.  Have a great summer long weekend!

Rainbow Jelly Roll Cane and Recreating With the Left-Overs

We had to make up more of our Rainbow Jelly Roll "cane" last week to fill some orders for crochet hooks and stitch markers.  This cane takes quite a bit of work to make as there are six colors needed to create the gradual blend.

We made some "snap art beads" from this cane as well.

To make the snaps using a cane such as one like this, I simply reduce my cane to the same size as my round cutter used to fill the snap bezels.  I like to stretch my cane out so it lasts as long as possible so rather than using thick slices, I slice it a little thinner and back it with a clay circle.  You can then make it into a cabochon to fill the snap bezel following instructions on page 6 of my tutorial (part 1). 

When making canes, we always end up with left-overs (as shown above) so we like to use those "scraps" in other ways.  One of the most popular techniques is creating "Natasha" beads.  The Natasha beads are fun to make.  We call these "inside out beads" as the clay is literally cut and turned inside out to reveal the cool pattern.

One can use so many Natasha beads, however, and while making them one day, I was inspired with an idea to create a new technique that I call Art Deco.  Instead of a square bead, we end up with flat mirror images.  They can then be used to create other shaped beads, buttons, snaps and whatever else you can think of.

These are such happy colors so I named them "Fiesta" and are now available in our online store.

Art Deco Buttons in Black, White and Red

Here are some more buttons I made using my new "Art Deco" technique created from left-over clay scraps.  In my tutorial, I share a simple method for framing your designs which can show off the pattern even more.

This is one of my favorite color combinations made from the scrap pile shown below.  If you are one that doesn't do very much cane work, other scrap clay such as left over blends also work well for this. No matter what, we always seem to have so much left-over scraps and always looking for more ways to use them.

Left-over cane pieces and "scraps"

Textured Flowers for Rearranging

These flowers are another type of texture we like to work with.  Each petal is individually sculpted, textured, colored with mica powder pigments to give the metallic jewel-tone colors and then arranged into a flower.  They have a special finding on the back to allow them to be interchanged and used in a variety of ways.  We are still working on more prototypes and getting everything in order for our spring shows coming up in April and May.

Here the three flowers are arranged in a necklace ...

The same flowers can be worn in other ways such as a single pendant ...

...  as a ring ...

... or on other findings like this hair clip ...

It can even be added to a large bail to wear on a scarf ...

We are still working on some bracelet designs as well as other accessories.

Extruded Square Spiral Beads and Memory Wire Bracelets

When I first saw this free tutorial published by Marie Segal a while ago, I knew I wanted to give it a try.  It was even one of the first things I pinned to my Polymer clay pinterest board but it kept getting pushed down to the bottom of our "things to play with" list.  Then one day while working on our memory wire bracelets, I remembered those beads and immediately pulled out our extruder and dies and had to give it a whirl.  You need to make the extruded tubes first with the special clay core adapter to create a hole in the tubes for the beads.

Extruded strands with mica powders applied before twisting

I love how they turned out but for a memory wire type bracelet, we decided they should have a curve for a better fit and easier threading.  We had a bunch of these cool tins for covering with clay which are the same size as the wire so decided to use some as a baking form.  After applying the mica powders and twisting the long ropes, we gently arranged them inside the tins.  We placed the lids on each tin so they could be stacked on the baking tray in the oven.

Here are the long bead tubes after baking.  To seal the mica powders we like to spray them first with the PYM11 (Preserve Your Memories 11).  It was much easier to spray them first before cutting into bead lengths.  This way the mica powders wouldn't rub off during the cutting process.  To make cutting easier, we warmed the tubes first in the oven and then used a sharp, rigid tissue blade for cutting.

We then applied several coats of Pledge (Future) and then baked again at 200 F to harden the finish.

Here they are a few strung on the memory wire as bracelets.  We like adding our own clay rondelle spacer beads in with the twisted tubes.

To see our tutorial on how to make your own memory wire bracelets you can click here.  Making the beads and the bracelets are a lot of fun and so we have been making them in a wide assortment of colors.

Christmas Earrings & Chase Country Christmas

Our Chase Country Christmas is this weekend and we are preparing for our local craft fair on Saturday at the community hall.  It is a fun time and starts with a parade Friday evening with other events throughout the weekend.

These are some Christmas earring beads we made this year and will have for sale at the craft show.  All our earring beads and ear wires are sold separately to mix and match in our interchangeable system.

We will have lots of candy cane earrings on hand.  These are a real popular item this time of year.  We made some longer styles with chain tassels and Czech crystals in red or green.  You can click here to see my free tutorial I shared on this blog 3 years ago.  I added a slight variation on this last year which you will find here.

The red rondelle beads in these earrings are made from polymer clay and look like real glass pearls.  I have a published tutorial to make these type of beads.

These earring beads have Swarovski crystals embedded.  These beads are also reversible making them more versatile to wear year round.  To create the snowflake pattern, we used some metal snowflake findings to make our own "texture plates".  I share how to make your own texture plates and these type of beads in my "Constructing Accent Pieces for your Scarves, Sweaters & Shawls" tutorial.

Snowflakes are the theme for this year's Country Christmas celebration so we made some in different colors.

We love this time of year when we can get together with our friends and neighbors and really look forward to this weekend.