Showing our Canadian Pride!

Things have been pretty crazy these days for us and friends and family living south of the border.  The tariff threats that have started and more still looming over our country has brought out a huge amount of support and pride here.  For the first time ever, people are more focused on buying Canadian products (supplied and/or produced here) and supporting our own people.

I decided it was time to dust off those Canadian designs I first created a few years ago for Canada's 150 year anniversary celebration.  They were quite popular and still are a great seller -- especially for our July 1st Canada day celebrations.

These are all available in my online store and to make them easier to find, I have put them all in our Canadian Collection category.

We are also having a sale on everything in our online store (including our Canada Collection).  Just use the coupon code below.  Sale ends March 21.

Sweater Print Snaps for the Holidays

I can hardly believe how much time has lapsed since my last post.  Right after I had urgent eye surgery.  I had another hole in my retina repaired -- this was the second time but this time in my other eye.  I had to be careful for 3 weeks after -- no stooping, hanging my head down, bending over or lifting anything more than 5 lbs -- which meant I couldn't really do much.  I did manage to rest up which was a good thing.  Right afterwards, however, I ended up with an intense pain in my arm -- mainly my elbow.  Today I am finally feeling a bit more back to normal but babying that arm so as to not aggravate it any more than I have to.  I am discovering that aging really sucks and wish I could trade a few body parts in for some new ones!

So I did manage to finish off some items which will be delivered to the Artisan Market in Sorrento and Shear FX Hair Studio in Chase later this week -- that is as long as the weather cooperates.  We have had some huge torrential rain storms resulting in major flooding in our part of Canada.

Where I live (interior BC) is fine, however the flooding destroyed all of the highways between us and the coast.  This means that there is only essential travel to the coast and supplies are being transported through at a snail's pace.  Canada Post put our area on a yellow alert which means that the mail service will be very sporadic and extremely slow for a long time.  So if you are planning on ordering anything from my online store, please allow an extra week or so for delivery. 

So here are some Christmas sweater themed pieces I created using more silkscreens from Tonja Lenderman.  I really love the sweater designs which were fun to create with.  All of these pieces are on a snap so they can be interchanged.

I have added some of these pieces to my online store.  The necklaces shown in the above photo are cork in (off) white and available in many different colors.

Combining Pantone Fall Fashion Colors with Tonja's Silkscreens

I created some new polymer clay pieces in the Pantone fall colors with more silk screen patterns.  I was wanting some new designs so ordered several silkscreens by Tonja Lenderman.  She has some really unique patterns and I selected the ones that would work well on smaller pieces of clay such as earrings and snaps.  Many of the silkscreens out there have quite a bit of open "space" and  work best when creating larger items.

The colors here I started with were in the Pantone Fall colors Pale Rosette and Spring Lake.

Snaps in Pale Rosette & Spring Lake
Silkscreen prints by Tonja

The silkscreen below is called Zen Waves and is fun to work with.  I used the Pantone color Spring Lake and printed it in white. 

Silkscreen by Tonja
Printed on Snaps in the Pantone Fall color Spring Lake

Large (unfinished) "Snaps"

I really like the Mini Gingham - Hound's Tooth pattern.  I wanted to experiment a bit first without using too much clay so I positioned the silkscreen in the center of the clay sheet and printed a partial section of each side.  A little sheet of clay can go a long ways when making snaps, earrings or other small jewelry pieces.

Pale Rosette
Silkscreen Mini Gingham-Hounds Tooth by Tonja

Cork Bracelet with Interchangeable snaps in Pale Rosette

I mixed up a third clay color of my own -- a rich autumn gold that matches the cork jewelry pieces that are my own design and create.

Cork Necklace with matching clay "snaps"

This is another tip for saving time and clay with your silkscreen project.  Sometimes I will roll out clay in two different colors.  I will butt them up together to create one complete sheet and then silkscreen over the entire area.

Pale Rosette and Autumn Gold Clay
Swirling Vines Silkscreen by Tonja Lenderman

The Scalloped Lace silkscreen is really elegant.  I did the same with creating a half sheet each of the same two colors.  The design is very intricate and works really well for my small jewelry snaps and earrings.

Pale Rosette and Autumn Gold Clay
Scalloped Lace Silkscreen by Tonja

I have a few more silkscreens that I haven't played with yet so will share my results a little later with you.

Fall Pantone Colors Leprechaun & Olive Branch

The last two clay recipes I need to share with you from the Pantone Fall Fashion colors this year are the greens -- Leprechaun and Olive Branch.  Personally Olive Branch is my favorite shade of green, however,  Leprechaun is a rich vibrant hue that, surprisingly, I quite like.

Olive Branch is actually one of the Pantone neutrals and has a real earthy tone so both greens are quite different from each other.  Mixing up the clay, however, you will notice that both of them contain my Olive base (recipe #7-8) from my Color System.

So here are the recipes using Kato clay.  I will have the recipe cards ready to download tomorrow.

Leprechaun

6 parts Kato Green

1 part Olive # 7-8 *

Olive Branch

8 parts Olive # 7-8 *

1 part Kato Black

* Note:  These clay color recipes are created using Kato Polyclay.  Any of the base color "mixes" used are from my Clay Color System.

New Mini Snaps

I am excited to announce the new addition to my Snap Decisions Collection -- our mini size snaps and mini snap base earrings.  These snaps are smaller than our regular-size snaps and can be interchanged with our wide selection of our own unique designer snap earring bases.  And if you like to create your own, we have already added supplies in our DIY snap section.  

These are already available in several locations:

Shear Fx Studio - Chase, BC

Shuswap Artisan Market - Sorrento, BC

And of course in our online store (shop here)

And I will also have my whole line available at the Pop-up this coming Friday at:

Kelowna Yarn & Needlecrafts

Huge Sale on Snap Supplies!

I can hardly believe that winter is starting to set in and that Christmas is just around the corner.  My first Christmas show for the year is already this Sunday.  I will be at the Kamloops Craft-a-Fair in the same location as the past 8 years.

If you are working on your Christmas shows or thinking of making your own gifts this year, I am having a huge Flash Sale of 35% off all my Snap Supplies! -- but hurry as this does not happen often and it is only for a few days!  Sale ends Friday, November 2, midnight.

* Use Coupon Code:    SNAPS35OFF

at the checkout in my online store.

* Prices are in Canadian currency

* Shipping is a flat fee --
-- no matter how much you purchase!!

* Free shipping with a minimum purchase

(after any discount codes have been applied)

If you haven't purchased my Snap Decisions Tutorial but have been thinking about it, that is on sale right now too!  The price has already been reduced so no coupon code is necessary.  As a bonus, if you purchase the Parts 1 & 2 tutorial package, you will receive your own personal and permanent discount code for 25% off anything in our snap supply section.

Notice:  If you have purchased this tutorial and never received a permanent discount code and would like to receive one, contact me with your request.

Playing with Resin

I am taking a break and visiting family for a few days.  It is nice to get away but the weather is much colder here than at home.

We now have more of our new blank snaps with a bezel frame in stock.  These are flat inside so don't need prepping with clay first before filling.  They also work well with other mediums like resin.  They are now available in 2 sizes, the larger 20mm and now also the slightly smaller 18mm.  I like both sizes but the smaller one sometimes looks nicer in the framed pendants and other findings and doesn't overwhelm them.

I have been experimenting with different ways of filling these snaps using resin.  The resin I was using before was a UV type.  I like this resin as it cures under a UV light and only takes about 20 minutes.  It does tend to get a lot of bubbles, however, and some are not visible and can later rise to the surface during the curing.  I found it is best to let them sit for a while and then pop any bubbles that show up before putting them under the light.

I recently tried the Art Resin from Shades of Clay which I found to be very easy to use.  You just need to let it sit longer (over night is best) to harden but is so worth the wait as it is a very good quality resin.

Shades of Clay also carries some cool inclusions to go into the resin if you are looking for something different other than clay.  I just had some of the German Glass Glitter in silver which is in the red snap below.  The red color is from alcohol inks added to the bottom of the snap before adding the glitter.  Resin was added over top of that to create a glass-like finish.  The teal and green snap at the back (top) was created using the shredded type glitters and alcohol inks with mica flakes create a faux opal effect in the snap on the right.

For the snaps below I baked thin sheets of crackled clay in the bottom of the snap and then added the resin on top.

And the other day my friend, Joanne and I were playing with the clay circles cut out in the Pantone Spring colors to create various retro canes.  These clay logs shown here give an idea as to how the various colors were stacked and inserted into the extruder to create the pattern.

I baked some thin clay veneer sheets in the snap and then added the resin on top.  I love the glass-like finish on these and the resin  magnifies the pattern.

Holy CaBezels in Faux Turquoise Stone

I finally managed to find some time to work up large batches of faux turquoise in various colors thanks to our new assistant, Linda.  I have been teaching her how to mix up batches and create large veneer sheets.  She not only enjoys it (says it is one of her favorite clay techniques so far) but has a real feel for it as well.

I wanted to create some interchangeable snaps combining the faux stone colors along with the CaBezel jewelry molds.  I really love how the two work together so well and will have more colors to share with you later.

These ones were created in our typical Arizona blue turquoise.  I share this clay color recipe in my Fabulous Faux Turquoise tutorial along with how to create your own clay veneer sheets and roll your own faux turquoise stone beads.

These interchangeable snap pieces were created using the Holy CaBezel jewelry molds.  Left and top center is the Carolyn design and on the right is the Sue.  The one in the middle was made using the smallest shape to show you the size comparison.

And here are more in our green turquoise stone.  I developed this clay color later and you will find the clay recipe on our blog here.  These pieces all have snaps on the back for interchanging as well.  I couldn't add the snap onto the back of the smallest size if I cut out the hole so instead I filled it which gives them a unique look.

Left to Right:  Carolyn, Lorraine, Sue -- CaBezel Jewelry Mold shapes

These are all on the same Softglas cord necklace with a snap base.  I show how to make them in an earlier blog post here.  The top set of pendants are the small size with the filled in hole.  The bottom row are the large size with the hole cut out.

And here is a three piece set that I pulled together.  All the pieces can interchange of course and I was just starting to play around with the various shapes, sizes and styles to create different arrangements.

I will share more ideas using the smaller shapes soon and in more turquoise veneer colors.

Waterfall Necklaces with the New CaBezel Molds

I've been having fun making pendant pieces using the new CaBezel molds by Wendy Orlowski.  These ones have a hole in the center and I just love the new shapes.  They will be available soon at Shades of Clay and also in several sizes for each shape.  I can hardly wait and really excited to create with those as well.  I am thinking the smaller shapes would make great earrings to match the pendants.

I like to create the Bezel parts of the molds first so they are ready to fill with our various designs.

So all of these pieces that I created are interchangeable with a snap embedded into the back.  I shared a mini tutorial on how to do this in a previous post here.  The nice thing about making them interchangeable instead of adding a bail is that they can be worn in a variety of ways.  Every person has different preferences when it comes to wearing a necklace including size, color and even style.  With this method, we can create the art and the customer can decide how they want to wear it. 

I was photographing some of these pieces to list in our online store and made a cool discovery.  When I added them to our snap base with a chain tassel I noticed the chain would fit through the center hole of the pendant piece creating a cool waterfall effect!

No matter which shape I used, the chain fit through the hole and was perfectly balanced!

If you would like to create your own interchangeable snap necklaces we have several findings available in our Supply section of our online store (click on the photos for more info) with several items on sale until the end of the week or while supplies last.

Basic Snap Base Link with 2 Loops

Basic Snap Pendants

Snap Base Pendant With Attached Tube Bail

And to get you started, check out my Interchangeable Polymer Clay Jewelry in a Snap tutorial.  I share lots of tips and tricks on working with the metal snaps such as adding your clay creations, baking and finishing.

My tutorial (part 1 & 2 combined) is 25% off until the end of the month and you will receive your bonus personalized coupon code for 20% off your first purchase of snap supplies!