Polymer Art Jewelry Challenge - Day 2

To continue on with day two of the Polymer Art Jewelry Challenge, I would like to thank Joan Tayler, who was the second person to nominate me.

Joan is another Canadian artist and the first person who introduced me to polymer clay when she was teaching a class at a local bead show.  Dave's mom had given me some money for my birthday which I used for that class and it was one of the best gifts I ever received.  Of course she benefited from it as well with the many jewelry pieces I enjoyed making for her.

So I thought I would share some of the first beads that I made after taking the class, 10 years ago.  The first technique Joan taught us was how to make a jelly roll cane and that was what I used on these.

The polymer artist I would like to nominate today is Cynthia Blanton.  Cynthia is another Canadian and even though we have never met in person we have communicated in other ways.  We both share the same interests with creating accessories for knitting and sewing as well as jewelry.  Cynthia is on facebook but she also has a blog which you can see some of her work here.

More Butterflies and Owls

There has been a big demand lately for items with butterflies and owls.  These are more butterflies this time  made into shawl sticks.

And here are more owls made into shawl sticks as well.

Whenever I make a new item such as these owls, I like to take a photo showing basic construction.

I then print it out on an index card with more instructions such as clay thickness, clay color recipes used, etc.  I then keep it in this mini album that sits on my desk for a quick reference guide.  It is important that I do this and not just trust my memory for when I need to make more.

Here are more owls that I made using Judy Belcher's Knitting technique on CraftArtEdu.

My friend, Cynthia Blanton, lives miles away at the other end of the country, but thanks to the internet and e-mails, we feel much closer.  We seem to have a lot of similar interests -- at least where polymer clay comes in.  She has been playing with Judy Belcher's tutorial as well and you can see some cool items she has made on her blog.  I love her "knit" sweater which would pair quite nicely with my knit socks.

I should mention that all of the above items (except Cynthia's adorable sweater of course) are now available at The Falkland General Store.  This is a real gem with lots of great supplies and gift type items for the knitter or anyone else who just enjoys cool stuff!