Jewelry Making Classes

I'm teaching basic jewelry making at The Sewing Basket in Salmon Arm.  My first class was yesterday filled with 10 excited ladies learning how to hard wire their first necklace.


These are some of the many beads and pendants I created for the class.

At the end of the class, everyone went home with their own finished Necklace in the colors of their choice.

Part 2 of the class is in two weeks where my students will learn how to make earrings and a bracelet to match their necklace. 

Sodalite Blue

I love how Pantone describes this blue shade as a classic and dependable maritime hue that brings order and calmness.


These are more buttons I created using the Sutton slice technique combining this gorgeous blue with Tangerine Tango and Solar Power.

It is also the main color in these Bargello pieces we created combined with shades of purple (Bell Flower) and turquoise (Cockatoo).

This shade of blue combines well with almost any color and here are few examples to hopefully inspire you:


Sodalite Blue with ...

... Cockatoo

... Solar Power & Sweet Lilac

... Margarita

... Tangerine Tango

... Bellflower & Cockatoo

If you already have my Clay Color System, you already have this color on file.  It is the same as recipe # 9-4 Royal Blue.  You can create this color using Premo clay by combining the Ultramarine Blue with a bit of white or pearl.

Brighten Your Day with Solar Power

I love the shade of yellow in the Pantone Spring 2012 Fashion color palette that is described as a hue that radiates warmth and cheer providing a jolt of energy.

 

This sunshine shade of yellow is so pretty and makes a great compliment to the other Pantone Spring colors.  Here are some combinations for inspiration:

Solar Power & Sodalite Blue

... with Tangerine Tango & Cabaret

with Bellflower & Tangerine Tango

.... Cockatoo & Sodalite Blue

And here is the clay recipe using Kato polyclay:

Solar Power

4 parts Kato yellow

1 part pearl

Adding the pearl to the Kato yellow not only makes a perfect yellow that matches Patone's spring color Solar Power but it also adds a beautiful shimmer.

For more fun Pantone color inspiration and combination ideas you can check out my Pinterest Board here.

Pretty In Pink Awesomer in Orange

I never considered myself an "orange" type person until we decided to paint a feature wall in our dining/living area in "Spiced Pumpkin".


But the Pantone Spring color, Tangerine Tango is a cheery shade of orange with a hint of pink.

While mixing up this yummy color my brain was conjuring up all sorts of combinations and uses for this shade.  I kept imagining floral bouquets of gerbera daisies, tulips and poppies.

I created several clay blends combining both the Tangerine Tango and Cabaret with a yellow (Solar Power).

I then used these blends to create this floral shawl pin which is now listed in our Etsy shop.

I was also experimenting with a new texture sheet I bought using the sutton slice technique to create some fun new buttons with left over pieces of my blends.

So I have two recipes to share with you for the Tangerine Tango using Kato polyclay.  My original recipe has a lot of pearl so makes a great mica shift.

Tangerine Tango

(Mica Shift)

8 parts orange

1 part magenta

8 parts pearl

If you do not want to use so much pearl, you can substitute it with a smaller amount of white mixed with transluscent.  Here is a 2nd recipe I created using some of my white mix along with the pearl so it still has a nice shimmer to it.

Tangerine Tango

8 parts orange

1 part magenta

5 parts pearl

3 parts white mix #1-2*

(*see my Clay Color System)

Tomorrow I will share with you the clay recipe for the bright yellow, Solar Power.

Cabaret - Pretty in Pink

With Valentines Day around the corner, I decided to start off my Pantone Spring 2012 color recipes with the gorgeous color of Cabaret.

Pantone describes it as a sensual and intense rosy red and to expect to see a lot of this shade in summer clothing and cosmetics this year.

I find the color is a somewhat softer shade of last year's Honeysuckle yet still an intense shade of pink.

To mix up some Cabaret here is the recipe using Kato clay:

4 parts magenta

1 part yellow

2 parts pearl

Pantone Spring 2012 Colors

I haven't posted in a few days as I've been busy in the studio working on a variety of projects.


I am happy to say that I am finally getting caught up and managed to find some time to mix up the new Pantone Spring 2012 colors.

There is a brochure you can download for free that explains all of the new colors (click on the above photos for the link). I noticed at the end they list the  men's fashion colors as well.  They are pretty much the same with just a few shade differences such as Hawaiian Ocean instead of the Cockatoo and Granita in place of Cabaret.


My baked color chips are waiting on my work table and I will mix up some fun new color combinations and share those with the new recipes (using Kato clay) starting Monday.  Hopefully these new colors will add a bit of cheer to the cold winter days.

To Antarctica and Back

One of the best things about being at the Sun Peaks Christmas market was meeting Justine who was raising money for her trip to Antarctica with the "Students on Ice" program.   She arrived back from her trip and sent us this photo of her holding up one of our pendants while on the expedition.  We were following her adventure on the website (you can see some video footage here) and we feel like a part of us was with her!

It looks like rocks in the background but if you look real close you will see they are penguins.  Here is a photo she also sent of the cute little guys!

Just on an egotistic note, our jewelry has been worn on  every continent on earth!   (Now if I can only get to know an astronaut.)  lol!

Pinterest Board

Have you discovered Pinterest yet?  I've been on it for some time now and it is a great way to mark those favorite things you come across on the internet.  It is like having a gigantic message board on your computer that you can pin your favorite links and then find them easily again later. 

Like facebook, you can also follow each other or just certain boards with topics of interest, as well as leave comments.  I added a link to my Pinterest boards to the sidebar on the right of this blog if you want to check it out and follow me.


Have fun pinning!

Polymer Clay Tips - Recycle & Reuse

I have this basket above my clay table that holds something I find very handy.

They are used fabric softener sheets from the clothes dryer. 
Quite some time ago, a member of our Canadian Clayamies group shared a tip on using these to remove clay stuck to the pasta machine rollers. (I'm sorry I cannot remember who that was).  I since discovered they work amazingly well for cleaning the removable blades from the pasta machines such as the modified machines by Mona or the D.R.E.A.M. machine as well.  The clay adheres to the pellon-type material making a quick and easy clean-up.

I also like to reuse the wrappers from the kato clay packages (I buy the large 12.5 oz size) and I will use some pieces of the dryer sheet (after cleaning my pasta machine blades), to wipe the packaging clean so I can use it to store my clay color mixes in afterwards.  I find the clay stores much better than using a regular plastic wrap as they will not interact with the clay over time.

You can see how clean the wrapper is after wiping it with the sheet.

I seem to keep making more clay recipes and running out of space to put them so we bought this drawer storage unit to keep it all in.

I have the clay organized by color according to my Clay Color System so it is much easier to find a color I'm looking for.

I always say you can never be too organized!  lol!

Clay Day Workshop

I had a great day yesterday with Myrna who had requested some private lessons in polymer clay.  The day went by so quickly as I found her to be quite enjoyable to talk to and clay with.  She had her brand new pasta machine with her plus a few tools but for someone who had never even cracked opened a package of clay yet, was very knowledgeable.  She had done a lot of reading and studying up on the medium beforehand so already had some basic understanding of what we talked about.


It was a full day as I wanted her to leave with enough polymer clay basics to give her the confidence to experiment more freely afterwards at home.  We covered most of the basics including making a few skinner blends...

and even some jelly roll canes with those blends.

We also played with some of the CaBezel moulds ...

and I like how Myrna wanted to experiment a little further to texture and manipulate them so they would be more of a free form shape that was unique....  Here is another jelly roll she created almost entirely on her own and some focal bead pendants made from it...

Myrna is a textile artist and she was looking for a way to combine her love for fibre, threads and fabric with a new medium such as polymer clay.  We played around mainly with Premo as that is a much easier type of clay to start with but we also used some Kato so she could get a feel for it as well.


You can read more about our clay day together on her blog here as well as follow her new adventures in clay ...

A New Start for the New Year

January seems to be the month to get organized.  I got a head start by tidying up and reorganizing our studio these past few days.  It always feels so good to work in a space where everything is back into place and you can actually find stuff!  I took a few pictures of my work space as it might not look that clean again for a long time!

We had these trays we bought from a bead store some time ago to store beads in a drawer and decided to use them for my canes instead.  They fit perfectly in my Ikea table with the glass top and I love how I can see my canes clearly at a glance.  I have even more canes which are stored in these containers here ....

This old book shelf fits nicely on my clay table.  My clay supply is getting a little low as the shelf is usually crammed full so I will need to order more real soon!