A New Tutorial to Start off the New Year

The new year has been off to a slow start for us but we've been able to spend some time with family we hadn't seen in a while so that is nice.  I traded in some of my claying time over the holidays to do some baking and cooking up a few special meals instead which Dave has really appreciated!

We have accomplished a few things, however, this year so far though.  We've managed to list more items in our online store and I finally published my new tutorial, "From Scrap Clay to Art Deco"!

We always end up with so much left-over clay that we call scrap but it is never wasted.  We will sometimes mix it up to create new colors or use it as filler for beads.  We also love making Natasha beads or creating with Stropple canes and one day while playing around I discovered this fun new way to create bold and funky Art Deco patterns.

In my 16 page lesson I share my new technique along with a Kaleidoscope variation and tips on combining your scrap clay to achieve the best results.

Art Deco Kaleidoscope Variation

I also show an easy method to frame your designs to create buttons or jewelry pieces plus 2 full pages of photos for ideas and inspiration.

My new tutorial is now for sale in our Etsy shop as an instant download or if you do not want to pay the extra VAT tax, you can purchase it from our online store and we will e-mail it directly to you.

This is a fun new way to create new designs from your scrap.  We like to use the Art Deco patterns to create bracelet tiles, buttons, cabochons for our interchangeable "Snaps" and even create Tessellation patterns.

Bracelet Tiles

Tessellation variation

Interchangeable Fashion in a "Snap"

Stroppel Cane "Snaps"

We just finished making some shawl pins with our Stroppel canes as well as some buttons.  The Stroppel cane is named after Alice Stroppel, another polymer artist, who invented it.  It is a fun technique using clay scraps or left-overs.  I love how hardly anything is wasted with polymer clay.   The buttons, for instance, were made from the centers that were cut out from the shawl pins.

We then used some of the left-over pieces to make "snaps" for our interchangeable jewelry line.  I love how they all coordinate yet each one is completely unique!

The "snap" bracelet shown here is a new style we now have available in our online store.  You will find it along with some other jewelry pieces with a snap base in our "Snap" Decisions section.

Our Okanagan Guild Meeting

We had another great time at our new Okanagan Polymer Clay Guild meeting last weekend.  We have been meeting in the little town of Westwold which happens to be somewhat central between our members.  It is always nice to meet with other types of polymer clay artists.

Cassy-Rose is one of our newer members who drove all the way from Kelowna to join us.  Cassy loves to sculpt and she brought her latest project with her.  When she first showed us the photos, it was difficult to imagine how large this piece really is!

If you visit her facebook page you can see her step by step process as she creates her masterpiece as well as see some of her past work.

At our meeting I showed everyone how to make a Stroppel Cane.  We have several containers of scraps from our cane making so put them out for everyone to play with and this was the result:

And then we all made some beads from the canes.  The technique is named after Alice Stroppel who invented it and you can see the video here on her site.  

Afterwards, we took some time out to show how to sand their finished pieces and then Dave demonstrated how to use the Dremel to buff them to a high shine.  We feel this is an important part to working with polymer clay as anyone can create but the finishing can elevate you to a higher level. 

We are all looking forward to our next meeting in September.

New Scrap Art

Alice Stroppel of Polymer Clay Etc., shared a fun way to use up scrap clay pieces by arranging it into what she calls the Stroppel cane.  As soon as I saw it I couldn't wait to give it a try and I  just happened to have a pile of cane scraps (lol!) on my table ready to use.  It was tempting to use them all but I wanted to see what would happen if I used pieces only from a selected color pile and was happy with the results.

And here is a shawl pin I made from the cane.  I really love this new technique and this shows that when working with polymer clay, there really is no such thing as "scrap clay".