Holy CaBezel Scarf Necklace

It was overcast today -- not from clouds but smoke from the forest fires -- so thought I would pop outside and take some photos of our new CaBezel beads.  I wanted to share a few more ideas of how they could be worn.  There is a snap embedded into the back making them interchangeable so they can easily be switched out and worn many different ways or change out the large pendants for a different design or color.

Another way they can be worn is on a scarf.  I show how to make your own scarf bails in my tutorial:  Constructing Accent Pieces for Your Scarves, Sweaters & Shawls.

We add a special clip to the snap base making it easy to interchange from a necklace chain or cord to a scarf bail.  These clips are available in our jewelry supplies of our online store and the snap bases to create your own interchangeable jewelry pieces are in our DIY snap supplies section.

I also want to thank Sage Bray for featuring of our interchangeable beads and Wendy's CaBezel jewelry molds on the Daily Polymer Arts Blog.  If you haven't yet discovered The Polymer Arts Magazine, it is worth subscribing to.  I prefer going paperless and love how you can subscribe digitally.

And I should mention that we are having a Flash sale on all of our snap supplies and in case you missed it, we have extended it for a few more days ending midnight August 13!

Photographing Outdoors

The weather here has been really fabulous lately.  With the midday being so hot we are thankful for the central air conditioning in our home but the morning and evenings are perfect for sitting out on the patio.  We needed to photograph some of our scarf jewelry for listing on our new website and noticed the lighting on our patio under the shade of our large umbrella was perfect for this.  My set-up was quite simple which was a white tablecloth draped over a garment rack.  We have several of these racks for displaying our scarf jewelry at shows and now found another use for them.

While taking my pictures a few little visitors on our patio caught my eye -- they were the baby chipmunks that live underneath our deck.  I managed to snap a photo of one before he scurried away.

And here are a few photos from today.  These items will be available on our new website very soon.

Faux Red Turquoise Stone Scarf Necklace

Bargello Scarf Necklace

Pink & Purple Scarf Necklace

Polymer Clay Art Jewelry Challenge - Day 5

This is the last day of the Polymer Art Jewelry Challenge.   I thought I would show you my owl scarf necklace.  The owl head was created from our own mold/texture plate and is attached to a specially made clay bail.

The person I would like to nominate this time is Cindy Lietz.  She is another Canadian polymer artist and member of the Vancouver Guild.  Like me, she is also a full time artist and works together with her husband.  Cindy has found her own niche in the polymer clay community, with her teaching videos.  I admire anyone, like her, who jumps in with both feet and works full time with their art whether it be teaching or creating.

Polymer Art Jewelry Challenge - Day 4

For day four of the Polymer Art Jewelry Challenge, I thought I would show you one of my latest scarf jewelry designs --.  We had found a supply of some luxurious silk scarves and had fun creating some different style pieces to go with each of them.  This one is our Nautilus Shell in a color combo of Marsala, Dark Green and Gold.

For today I would like to nominate another Canadian, Lawrence Smith.  I first met Lawrence when we were both part of starting the Vancouver Polymer Clay Guild.  There is always the mainstay in every guild or group and we wouldn't have a guild without them.  Lawrence has been and still is a main "pillar" of the Vancouver Guild and someone you could always count on.  Perhaps this nominatiom will encourage him to share some of his wonderful art pieces he has created with us.

Creating Shawl Pins and Scarf Jewelry in Your Own Style

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.

Cell Phone Purse

I found this "Mini Clutch" bag tutorial some time ago and saved it to my Pinterest board.  I love Pinterest as it is such a neat way to organize the cool things you find on the web so you can actually find them again later!

I finally got around to sewing one up for myself to hold my cell phone and a few cards, etc. Instead of adding the key chain I decided to attach one of my stripe blend bangles in place of a strap.  I used one of our coordinating bargello buttons for the closure.

I am one of those "matchy matchy" types that has to have everything coordinate and so here is a scarf necklace I made for myself along with the earrings and bracelet.

You can learn how to create your own bargello designs as well as the stripe blends shown in the above bangle with my tutorial, "Building Bargello Motifs".  When my scarf jewelry tutorial is finished (soon I promise!) you will learn how to make several styles such as using a bargello style.

More Scarf Jewelry Delivered

With the BC Quilt show over with, I thought I was going to catch a little free time in between preparing for the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts coming up in July but I thought wrong.  I didn't mind really when one of the stores had called to tell us they were in need of more scarf jewelry and we had a few more stores waiting as well.  The scarf jewelry has been keeping us busier than ever which is a good thing.  Don't worry though -- I am still working on that tutorial -- it is just taking a little longer than planned.

So I am happy to announce that there is a nice supply of scarf necklaces now available at A Twist of Yarn in Vernon as well as at The Sewing Basket in Salmon Arm.  To see all of the stores that sell our scarf jewelry you can check them out on our website here.

Shades of Gray in Polymer Clay

The Christmas rush is over but orders for our scarf necklaces are picking up again.  I enjoy creating these pieces as I never seem to run out of ideas for new designs.  To start out, we bought a supply of scarves in a variety of colors and styles and then we matched up our clay colors to coordinate.

Our scarf necklaces are sold with the scarves as a complete set in some of the local shops.  The scarf jewelry pieces are also sold without the scarves in several local yarn shops so one can knit their own scarf or  add to ones they already have in their closet.  Click here (and scroll down) to see all of the shops in the area that are selling our scarf jewelry.

One of the most popular colors is in black and white or shades of grey.  That seems to be the case with other jewelry designs as well.  Perhaps this is because the colors are neutral and can go with just about anything making the jewelry piece more versatile.  We have been making more of the scarf necklaces in these shades and even though we use the same color combination, each piece still comes out in a different pattern making each one unique.