Scarf Jewelry Now Available Online

Our scarf jewelry has been a very popular item for us since we first introduced them to the local stores and art show last July.  Since then we have added many more new designs to our collection in a wide range of color combinations.  Since the Christmas rush is now finally over we finally managed to find some time to list a few of our pieces in our ArtFire studio.  Click on each photo to see more about each item that is listed for sale or check out our shop for other designs listed.  We will be listing more over the next week as we finish putting them together.

Can't Decide?

Gift certificates are now available in our Etsy shop and Artfire studio.  They are presented in one of our tin gift boxes that have an embossed clay design of your choice.  They can be shipped to the purchaser or sent direct to the gift receiver.

   

 
This makes a perfect gift for someone who will enjoy picking out their own present.  It can be a piece of jewelry, buttons for someone who loves to sew or knit, or even beads for a jewelry designer.  The gift certificate can also be used towards any home decor item like our custom made-to-order switch plate covers.

Some New Rings

I've been having fun playing around with some new adjustable ring blanks I purchased the other day.  By adapting my double-sided bead technique I can create some gorgeous rings that match my other jewelry pieces.  I created the matching post earrings in the same way.  I tested them out in our last show we did and they were quickly swooped up by several customers.  I guess that is telling us we need to make more!

New Look

Last weekend our followers reached 300!  I wanted to do the happy dance and celebrate!

We hope you have been enjoying our blog so far and we will try to continue to share with you more of our latest work and some fresh and new ideas.

I decided that since our home studio now has a new look that our internet studio (blog) needed one as well.  Other than the new color you will notice the sidebar has changed.  We didn't get rid of our favorite links but just moved them into a better place.  They now have their own page in one of the tabs at the top.  I categorized them in different interest groups so they are easier to find.  There is room to add a whole lot more which we will be doing over the next while.

I have enjoyed working in our new finished studio this past week.  At the moment I'm writing several new tutorials that should be published shortly.  I've been also working on some new color palettes for our beads and jewelry.  We have the small rondelle spacers in our basic color palette available for sale but we will soon have them available in a larger size as well as in more color choices.

This palette is in the Pantone Fall 2010 colors of Purple Orchid, Lagoon (turquoise), Woodbine, Endive, Golden Glow, Living Coral, Lipstick Red, Chocolate Truffle and Rose Dust.  I am in the process of mixing up some of these gorgeous fall color combinations into some of our new bead and jewelry designs.

This is our new jewel-tone color palette of lime green, teal, blue, grape, magenta, orange crush, melon, sunshine yellow and almond.

And here is a sample of some new lentil swirl beads in a combination of the magenta, melon, sunshine yellow and lime green now available for sale in our Etsy shop and ArtFire studio.

Imitating Turquoise

The most unique thing about polymer clay is how you can create with it to imitate so many types of materials such as semi-precious stones.  I think this is one of the aspects that most polymer clay artists enjoy the most.

My favorite stone to imitate is turquoise.  I love how it can look so much like the real thing yet not have the same weight that the natural stone has so is more comfortable to wear.

Here are a couple of sample pieces we created using this technique.  The one below has the "turquoise" embedded into a focal pendant and strung with "turquoise" beads each formed by hand.  The square beads in chili red were also hand crafted from polymer clay. 

This collar style necklace is one of our favorites and even though it looks heavy, it is quite lightweight due to using the polymer clay rather than the real stone.  The collar piece is strung with our own rondelles in black (see our tutorial we posted earlier) and some of our new handcrafted heishi beads using the same turquoise.