New Snap Brooches with Ideas and Inspiration

Our new snap brooches finally arrived yesterday.  We had ordered some samples sometime ago and really liked them so we now have plenty available.  The frames are in a beautiful tarnish resistant Tibetan silver and in three different styles, Cherry Blossom, Flourish and Leaves.

 

The snap base brooches are listed in our online store but also in bulk in our DIY snap supplies section.

I am excited about these new designs as another fun jewelry option as brooch pins have become fashionable again and not just for little old ladies.  A brooch pin is such a versatile piece of jewelry and can be worn so many different ways.  It is not only just an accent piece but can be used to hold a sweater or jacket closed or your scarf in place.

Brooches that can be worn more than one way (like the interchangeable snap type) are even better.  The first style of brooch pin we made was all from clay and had a pin back with an attached bail so it could also be worn as a necklace.  We have a special way of attaching the pin/bail to the back and this was featured in the Winter issue of the Polymer Arts Magazine.

Another style we create from clay is our Brooch Stick Pins (also featured in the same article by Julie Cleveland) which work really well with a sweater or shawl to hold it in place.  The piece actually swivels so it can be worn on the left or right hand side.

Since we discovered using snaps with our clay to make interchangeable jewelry, we have created several other styles of brooch pins.  One is multi-functional that can be worn not only as a magnetic brooch but also as a necklace, eyeglass holder or a sweater guard.

Our kilt pin style brooches work well with tighter weave knits.  The snap base is on a clip and detaches so it can also be worn as a necklace.  The charm also unclips for interchanging. 

And if you are looking for something a little simpler, we also have available both a brooch and lapel pin with a snap base that does not have a fancy frame.  These work really well with the larger clay snap styles.

So which brooch pin is your favorite?  If you are looking for more inspiration, check out some of the articles and pictures we have posted to our pinterest board.

And to make your own interchangeable snaps, I have published a tutorial on how to do this.  I have lots of tips and tricks to not only create them but for finishing as well!  I always like to provide a lot of information with my tutorials so you can dive in and start creating!

Favorite Flowers

We went mainly with a summer floral theme for this year's Shuswap Festival of the Arts.  Here is a sampling of a few more pieces that are available in the gift shop which is open until this Sunday July 22.

Lapel Pins

Brooches / Pendants

Kaleidoscope Designs

I have always been fascinated with kaleidoscopes and admire some of the beautiful kaleidoscope canes others have created in polymer clay.  I always wanted to give it a try and never got around to it until now.  It was a lot of fun experimenting with different techniques until I figured out a method that worked best for me.

Now that we have our new logo stamp (see our last post here), I managed to finish some of the pieces.    Here are a few pieces that can be worn either as a brooch or pendants.  I used some of my left over cane pieces and color blends in the Pantone Spring 2012 colors of Tangerine Tango, Cabaret and Solar Power combined with my favorite olive green.

My gecko friends

I happen to like geckos. Some people think they are creepy like snakes but I think they are quite cute. We use to have them inside our house in Mexico. They would hide behind the bookshelves or pictures on the wall and in the electrical sockets which were always a little smaller than the holes cut out in the brick. They mainly came out at night but every so often we would see one come out of their hiding spot. We never minded them hanging around since they were very beneficial as they would eat any annoying flys and mosquitos. Some of the geckos were so transparent you could almost see their little hearts beating like crazy.

We also had larger and more colorful lizards in our yard. They use to run pretty fast and our two little dogs use to have fun chasing them. They always managed to run just fast enough to tease them but stay out of their reach. We could always tell if our one dog, Chewy, managed to corner one when we would hear the little yipping sounds he would make.

Because of these fond memories, I decided to have fun with making geckos out of polymer clay. I started out with some gecko brooches and then decided to put some on top of pill boxes like the one shown below. So just like the real ones in our home in Mexico, you never know where my little clay friends will come popping out from next. We will keep you posted!