Teaching and Learning New Things in Polymer

There are several things I love about working with polymer clay.  I love how I can create so many different colors and color blends.  I love how I can feel the clay in my hands when I work with it and how it is soothing to touch and not sharp or jagged.  What I like most of all is how it can take on so many different forms.  Many techniques I have developed myself or mastered from other ideas and have written tutorials to share them with you.  Other techniques I felt would take too long to figure out and have learned from others who have mastered those.  I have learned over the years that with the polymer community, there is plenty of sharing and exchanging of ideas.  We are all learning from each other and I believe that is how we hone our skills and grow as artists.

Before I discovered polymer clay, I use to spend most of my days sewing and had a real love for fabric and textiles.  It is so cool how one can imitate many of these looks in the clay.  I have tried various techniques and ways to imitate the Ikat fabric but with not much success.  I really liked the look that Lindly Haunani achieved with her Rainbow Ikat technique and finally decided to give it a try.  I must say that I was most impressed how it turned out the very first time.

To make the Ikat pattern that Lindly shows in the lesson, you need to start with three colored clays, a pink, blue and yellow.  I was working with the Pantone fall 2013 fashion colors at the time so decided to try those.   For my pink I used Vivacious, for the blue I used the Mykonos blue and for the yellow, I used the Pantone color Linden which is actually a green but is mostly yellow (click on each of the names to see the clay color recipes).

When working with a lesson, I find it is helpful to follow the original instructions as closely as possible.  Once I feel I get the idea as to how it works, I can begin to play around with it a bit more and experiment with different variations.  This is how one can eventually develop their own "style".  So this is the Ikat "leaf" pattern that Lindly shows how to make which I turned into a scarf clip.

And here is another scarf clip made from the same Ikat cane.

I've had many people ask us where we get the scarf clip findings.  Well I will be revealing that to you very soon and will be sharing a free tutorial on how to attach them so stay tuned.