New Shawl and Collaboration

Over the past few months I have been collaborating with a good friend of mine, Carmen, who is also in the same Artisan Co-op Market that I am in.  She is a talented crocheter and goes by "Stitches in Tyme - Contemporary Crochet".  I have been posting some of her pieces with my buttons and shawl pins on my facebook page but I wanted to share more about it here.

This is a shawl she recently made for me.  I had the yarn sitting around hoping I could find the time to eventually make something but never seemed to manage it.  So I was more than happy to give it over to Carmen when she offered and now I am so excited I have my finished piece and can hardly wait to wear it!

Isn't it lovely?  It is also super soft and drapes so beautifully.  The yarn is from Colour Adventures and in a Cupcake blend which took 2 "cakes" to create.

The shawl sticks are from my Snap Decisions Collection which have a snap base and you can interchange the decorative snaps.

Carmen has other beautiful shawls that she has created available in the Shuswap Artisan Market.  I have matched up some optional shawl pins to coordinate in case someone is looking for that perfect match.

Or if you would like Carmen to make something special for you, she does custom orders.  You can see more of her creations on her facebook page here.

Carmen also crochets hats, scarves, finger-less gloves and unique baskets, just to name a few.  We have also teamed up by adding a snap base, instead of typical buttons to some of her hats.

This is so much fun as you can choose your preferred accent design and interchange them for a whole new look!  We have a selection available in my online store and if you would like Carmen to make you a different color or design with an added snap base, just contact me or Carmen with your request.

Large Interchangeable Snaps in Faux Stone

I really love creating clay designs with the CaBezel jewelry molds.  These pieces were made in our faux red stone and on a snap for interchanging to be worn in a variety of ways.  I filled the center hole in the small designs with a bit of faux white stone to add a bit of contrast.

The new 'Holy CaBezel' jewelry molds come in three sizes.  I really like the variety as even if you created a pendant from them, not everyone prefers the largest size so it provides more options.  Shown below is the smallest size of the 'Carolyn' design (my favorite -- not just because it is named after me!) that is on a snap and worn as a necklace.

Here is the same snap combined with the large size and a small 'Sue' design to create a three piece interchangeable snap necklace.

And a few more ideas as to how to use this size of art bead.  It could be used as bracelet links or in this case a snap added to one of our new wrap bracelets.

It is also the perfect size for adding to a shawl or hair stick.  We make our own clay covered sticks with a snap base for interchanging which are available in our online store as well as several yarn shops that sell our work.

And if you like chunky rings, the small size CaBezel can be worn as one as well.  Having it on a snap allows one to choose the ring base they prefer for a proper fit.  We have a selection of rings with a snap base in our online store.

So even if you aren't into making interchangeable snaps, I hope this can give you a little more inspiration on using the CaBezel jewelry molds created by Wendy Orlowski which are available only at Shades of Clay.

More Fun With the Ripple Blade Technique

These buttons were made using a stacked mokume technique.  We call these buttons "Moonscapes" and make them in a variety of colors.

After cutting out our buttons from the decorative clay sheet, we usually have some small pieces left over that are too nice to scrap but are the perfect size to make some snaps!

Snaps and Interchangeable Snap Pendant

We had some extra stacked clay sheets so I had to play a little more with the ripple technique and just love the results!

The ripple effect in these pieces are 3-D -- similar to a ripple potato chip.  This photo of a side-view here shows it a little better:

Naturally all of these pieces are mounted on a snap rather than adding a necklace bail or brooch.  The snaps are so awesome as the pieces can be interchanged and worn so many different ways.  I especially like them on the plain snap pendant with the tube bail that fits onto the thick buna cord.  Here it is on the frost white softglass cord from Shades of Clay.

Interchangeable Snap Pendant

Interchangeable Snap Shawl / Hair Sticks

We now have some of our snap base items and decorative snaps listed in our Etsy shop with a larger selection from our Snap Decisions Collection in our online store.

Multi-functional Snap Jewelry Available at Intwined Fibre Arts

To go along with our multi-functional snap jewelry (see my last blog post here), we have been creating some new snap art bead designs in a slightly larger size.  These snaps also have genuine Swarovski crystals to accent the deep jewel-tone colors and add some bling.

These work really well on our multi-functional brooches as well as our new shawl sticks with the snap base.

We are happy to announce that a selection of these new snaps, shawl sticks and multi-functional brooches are also now available at Intwined Fibre Arts in Salmon Arm.

Althea of Intwined Fibre Arts

Intwined Fibre Arts is a colorful store packed full of a wide range of yarns.

Althea and store mascot Gus

There are also lots of beautiful knit pieces on display for plenty of inspiration.

Althea loves color and besides the yarn, she also sells high quality chalk style paints from The Fat Paint Company made right here in Canada.

Twisted Yarn Buttons and Shawl Sticks

I love making my own molds from old vintage buttons and other findings to use with polymer clay.  The other day I was rummaging through my large tin of "collectables" and pulled out this old vintage button I had for years.  It reminded me of some knitting or twisted yarn.  We decided to make a mold from it and then see what it would look like recreated in the clay.

Adding mica powders or antiquing with paint gave it quite a different look than the original piece.

We then decided that it could make a really neat shawl stick so here are a few that we made up.

A Giant Ladybug

When we first started making our lady bugs, we had no idea they would be so popular.  We sometimes receive requests for custom items from customers at the local shops that sell our work.  One customer asked for a ladybug shawl pin with our "signature leaf" stick.  This is the design we created that has both a green and a black and white leaf stick that can be interchanged for a different look.

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.

New Tutorial: Constructing Accent Pieces for Your Scarves, Sweaters & Shawls

I am excited (and relieved) to finally have finished and published my latest tutorial:  Constructing Accent Pieces for Your Scarves, Sweaters & Shawls.  In this 50 page pdf lesson I give step by step instructions on the basic construction of our most popular selling items -- our scarf jewelry and shawl pins.  We have been selling our shawl pins in local yarn shops for several years now and are a very popular item.

Our scarf jewelry is our main attraction in any of the shows we are in.  They are our best selling item and we have made and sold hundreds over the past few years.  My purpose for this tutorial is to teach the basic construction of these pieces so that nearly any technique can be applied and this way you can give them your own personal style.

You are welcome to sell any items that you create from this tutorial, just do not share any of our trade secrets, copy, share or teach from any of our published lessons.

My lesson is broken down into segments with plenty of pictures to make it easier to follow.  There are links throughout for easier viewing on a tablet.

This is a break down of some of the content:

-- The Shawl Pin - Supplies and Determining Size
-- Making the Shawl "Ring"
-- Adding embellishments to your Shawl Ring
-- Making the Shawl "Pin" or "Stick"
-- Adding a Decorative End to the Shawl Stick (3 different methods)
-- The Scarf Necklace - Supplies and Determining Size
-- Making the Scarf Necklace Bail
-- Working with Crystal Rhinestones
-- Making the Beads for the Scarf Necklace (3 different Methods)
-- Assembling Your Scarf Necklace including basic jewelry making Instructions
-- Making a Scarf Buckle in a faux "tooled leather"
-- Making Your Own Custom Texture Stamps
-- Making a Form for Baking the Shawl Pin Rings and Scarf Buckles

Also included is a two page photo gallery for design ideas along with supply references to help you find some of the materials we use such as scarves, etc.

The supplies needed to make all of the items in this tutorial are all easy to find and very affordable.   Most items you probably already have on hand.

I have had many requests to share what we use for the stick in our shawl pins.  We were not prepared to divulge this trade secret of ours but I not only share what the material is but a simple and effect method for covering it with clay.

The tutorial is available as an instant download in our Etsy Shop or in our online store where we will e-mail it out to you (please be sure to give the correct e-mail address and check your spam box if you do not receive it within several hours of paying.)