Sharing the Love - A Ripple Heart and Earrings Tutorial

After playing with the ripple technique I discovered a cool way to maintain that 3-D texture (like a ripple potato chip) in our finished designs.  I wanted to share this with you and since it is almost Valentines Day, I thought I would show how to make a heart.  I mounted mine on a snap, making it interchangeable, but you can finish it off any other way you prefer.

For tools you will need two blades:  A ripple blade (B) and a very sharp tissue blade (A).  Here I have two types of ripple blades.  The one that does the tiny ripples (C) doesn't work the same as the one with the potato chip size ripple (B).

You basically need sheets of clay in assorted colors to create a stack.  I used 4 colors here.  If you have my Clay Color System, then you will have these recipes, but you can use any colors you like.  Just layer light and dark colors to create enough contrast and interest.

The colors I used was Kato Violet, Turquoise - (recipe #8-2) , Spa (recipe #8-6), Kato Violet and White Mix (recipe # 1-2).   The Kato Violet and Turquoise I rolled out thinner than the Spa and White Mix.

All the colors stacked would be too thick to put through the pasta machine so stack them in two separate piles.  The first three colors in one stack and the bottom two colors in another.  Run them through the pasta machine at a thick setting.

Stack the two clay sheets and run them through the pasta machine.  If one of the clay sheets is shorter, then just stretch or roll it so it is the same length.  Cut the clay sheet in half, stack and run it through the pasta machine again.  You can do this one or two more times, depending on how thin you want the stripes to be.

Cut your clay sheet into equal pieces and stack them into a pile.  Trim the block so the edges are even.

Stand the clay block so the lines are vertical and stick it to a ceramic tile or your work space so it won't move.  Here I have a blade on each side to square it up so it is nice and straight.

This also helps to line up the first cut so it is straight.  Once you have your ripple blade lined up (make sure you look at it right above as shown), cut your first slice.  This piece with be flat on the back and rippled on top.

Now the next slice you make will be with your straight tissue blade.  This will create a flat back and rippled front.

These first two slices are a mirror image of each other.  Set the slices aside to use later.  Slice again with your ripple blade and then your flat tissue blade again, alternating until the end of the block.

I managed to get 6 slices from this stack and I have them matched up to decide how I want to use them.

You can flip them around to see which way mirrors up best.  They can be used individually or as a pair.  To make the heart, I played around with the pieces to see which design I liked best.  I am using some plain textured Kato Violet to combine with it.

Once you decide how you want it to look, arrange the pieces onto a thin sheet of clay, making sure no air pockets are trapped between.

Cut out your heart or preferred shape, cutting through all the thicknesses.

To create a nice curve shape we like to use the bottoms cut from pop tins.  They are our favorite baking form and can be used the other way to create a concave shape as well.  I added a Swarovski crystal as an accent.  You can see my tips I posted earlier on working with Swarovski crystals here.

After baking your piece you can add a backing to finish it off.  Here I added one of our "prepped" flat snaps by covering the back with a thin sheet of textured clay and then pushed the prepped flat snap into the clay.  I then added our signature stamp and baked it again. 

Now my piece can be worn as an interchangeable bead on a necklace but can also be worn other ways such as a brooch or on a shawl stick.

To make some matching earrings, select two more pieces from your pile.  I think these ones look a little funky.  Cut or trim them to your desired shape or size and bake them on a ceramic tile so they stay nice and flat.

Roll out some clay for the backing that is a little larger than your front pieces and add a texture.  Trim the top of the clay sheets so they are even.

Flip the clay textured backings over and push in a jump ring or other finding of your choice for the top.  I like to lay the clay sheets back onto the texture so it doesn't get distorted.

Add some liquid clay to the backs of the baked earring fronts.  Here I am using Kato Poly Paste which is thicker and has a better hold. 

Lay the baked clay fronts onto the clay backing sheets and push them evenly onto the clay.

Trim the excess clay and smooth out all the edges.

Bake your pieces and don't forget to sand them after.  When our pieces are textured like these are, after sanding, we give them several thin coats of PYM11.

So I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and happy Valentine's Day!

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!

Color Wheel Buttons

I have been experimenting with various forms of the mica shift technique which is also referred to as "ghost imaging".  When you impress or stamp polymer clay that contains a large amount of metallic (or pearl) particles, it leaves that image behind.  After baking, the piece is then sanded smooth to bring out the image even more.

Here are the new "Color Wheel" buttons we have created using a mica shift based on a stacked clay technique by Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes called "Holes and Lines".  Their special peeler works beautifully and is fun to use. Now with their new wider  peeler, we are able to make even larger (2 inch) buttons which are a popular item at the quilt and yarn shops that sell our work.

We make the buttons in several sizes (1-3/8", 1-5/8" and 2") in a round concave shape as well as a smaller "football" shape.

Kato clay has several metallic colors that can be used for this technique which are the pearl, gold, silver and copper.  I have been experimenting with some new recipes to create a range of brighter mica shift colors. As some of these brighter colors are difficult to mix up with using only Kato clay, I've had to combine it with other products (other clay / inks, etc.) in order to get the shades I wanted as in the buttons shown here:

And zipper charms in some of the matching colors as well:

Experimenting with a Faux Knitting Technique

When I came across some some of the faux knitting techniques in polymer clay on the internet, I was certainly intrigued.  I finally pulled out some scrap clay and my extruder and gave it a try.  Here are some heart brooch pendants that I created using the technique shown by Claire Wallis on her flickr site and Meg Newberg on her blog.

These were certainly fun to create with lots of possibilities for further experimenting.