Ever since I discovered polymer clay, my whole world had changed. I have had several careers in my life but I have never felt so fulfilled as I do when creating with this wonderful medium! I find working with the clay in my hands is therapeutic and very satisfying. What I really enjoy most is that there are so many things you can do with the clay. I really love the engineering part and figuring out how I am going to tackle a certain project. This is how my scarf jewelry came about. More than 3 years ago I saw some metal pieces on the internet and I couldn't get the image out of my head. I was dreaming how I could create something similar in clay. The first prototype I worked out was a metal bail with one of my sculpted flowers added. We showed the piece to several stores that sold our work and they were an immediate hit.
 |
| One of my first original designs from May, 2011 using a metal bail |
I was then brainstorming as to how I could make the scarf bail all from clay and once that was worked out I discovered that all types of techniques could be incorporated into the design.
With my new tutorial,
Constructing Accent Pieces for Your Scarves, Sweaters & Shawls, I teach the basic construction of making shawl pins and scarf jewelry. The idea is that once you know how to make the basic forms, you can apply almost any technique to give your pieces your own personal style.
An example of this is how I have incorporated techniques from my other tutorials to show how they can be applied to the various forms in this lesson. For instance, the flowers from my "
Sculpted Flowers" tutorial can be used in several projects in this lesson to make:
A shawl pin:
A shawl / hair stick:
Scarf Jewelry:
This is just one technique of many that can be used. Included in my lesson are several pages of photos showing other examples for more ideas and inspiration.
Carolyn, polymer has changed my life too. In more ways than I could possibly imagine but especially in the connections that I have with a very generous and loving community. I do think too, that it is a most wonderfully gentle way for people to tap into their own innate creativity and skill.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Carolyn's generosity, we've had a sneak preview of the tutorial here at Samunnat and I want to say it is AMAZING. So clearly photographed, so generous, so practical! I really looking forward to working through things with the ladies later this year but because it is SO well done, I can imagine that they will be able to do so much independently! They will love it! Thank you!!!
You are welcome Wendy and I am looking forward to see what the ladies create with it.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with you about the polymer clay community and the connections. That is another "bonus" from working with polymer as having the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people from around the world!