Gigantic Skinner Blend and New Seamless Cutters

I made this huge (9" x 14") skinner blend the other day.  It was so big I had to get Dave to hold it for me so I could take a photograph of it.  It will be used as the background for a vase that I am covering.

 I sure couldn't have done this without my DREAM machine so am glad to have found another use for it.

And speaking of tools that help to improve our work and production, our clay order arrived today from Shades of Clay.  I didn't order too many fun things to play with this time except some of the new seamless shape cutters.  I felt it would be a great improvement if I don't have to repair the marks that the seam in the metal cutters always leave behind when making our buttons and jewelry pieces.  I also like the rounded corners that the square shape cutters have.

I did notice a bit of "roughness" on the inside edges of the cutters so I just smoothed them with a scrap piece of 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and they are super smooth now.

Go Fly a Kite!

I once saw a beading project for a necklace made with "Kite" beads that totally fascinated me. The design of these beads is unusual where the hole enters on one corner and exits the opposite corner and opposite side. When they are strung, they overlap totally hiding the stringing material. I kept thinking about those beads and wondered if they could be formed out of polymer clay, so I thought I would give it a try. The above necklace was the first prototype we made and since we had one under our belts we thought we would try our hand at another. The one in the photo below was done in a mica shift and skinner blend of an olive green and golden yellow. 

We plan to do more of these in a wider range of colors and designs.