Creating a Landscape Pendant

Some time ago I did an exchange with Sandy, a fellow Canadian polymer clay artist.  I sent her a pair of earrings and she had sent me some beautiful landscape canes she had created.  I said I would finish some of them off into some jewelry pieces and share how I did it.  They were all so nice, I needed time to choose the best design .  This is what I created from one of her canes:

I took 2 slices from the cane and placed them on a thin sheet of clay,

lining them up to create a mirror image.

Place a sheet of tracing paper and burnish

with a thick piece of card stock.

You can see how the two pieces are now joined and fairly smooth.

I then cut out my shape.  A shaped cutter would've worked good for this,

however I didn't have one in the size I wanted so I just used my blade.

I rolled some clay out to the same thickness as the cane piece ...

and cut out around the piece creating a "frame".

I then removed the center piece and replaced it with the cane slice.

I burnished the entire piece smooth again to blend the seams.

I then made a textured sheet of clay for the backing ...

and placed the textured sheet below the cane sheet with wrong sides together.

I cut around it leaving a "frame".

I wanted a curve to the pendant so I baked it over

a piece of cut paper towel roll.

To attach a cord I made a couple of "tubes" from clay and attached them

to the back using liquid clay as a bonding agent and then baked again.

I sanded the entire piece and then gave it a nice satin glaze finish. 

I hung it from a velvet rubber cord and Voila!  I now have a

gorgeous pendant and keepsake memento of Sandy's beautiful cane work!

Announcing the Winner of our Naming Contest

We had a lot of great name suggestions come in.  A big thank-you to those who contributed.  We narrowed it down to three that we especially liked and want to give an honorable mention to Cynthia Blanton -- she gave a lot of good suggestions and we especially liked the one "Western Glitz" and an honorable mention to Kim Sturgis for the name "Country Class".

The name we chose as the winner is "Country Charm" from Dana and will be the official name for our  "Country Charm Collection".   Thank you Dana and we will e-mail you the $25 gift certificate.

And here are some of the new Bargello pieces finally finished:

Contest Continued

There are some good name suggestions coming in for a our contest but we are still looking for more.  This will be a permanent name for our new country western jewelry line so we want it to be special.

I finished off some bargello style beads and working on some designs with them.  Will have the finished pieces for you to see later.

  

Here is another finished boot bracelet which can also be doubled up and worn on the wrist.

  

And of course more feather styles in shades of blue:

  

Leave your name suggestions on our original blog post here for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to be used towards anything in our ArtFire Studio or custom order.

Name the Category Contest

We are expanding our product line and would like our readers help in choosing a new catchy name for the category.  Our new line will have a distinctive "western" theme and as the name "Cowgirl Bling" has already been taken, we need to find another.  This is just the start of our new western and nature themed line and we will be posting more pics as we add to it. 

Boot Jewelry

   

Necklaces and Earrings

  

  

You can enter this contest by leaving your name suggestion as a comment here on this blog post, on our facebook page or in an e-mail.

The winner of the name we select will be awarded a $25 gift certificate to be used towards any of our art pieces of your choice.

More Bargello

I'm still experimenting with the Bargello in the same color combo of Honeysuckle, Beeswax and Peapod I showed you yesterday.  This time I used the color peapod as the background and below that shows one done on a black background and a different pattern.

I made a piece that has no background showing at all which gives it a totally new look again.  These are all done from the same blended cane.

What do you think?

Bargello

Bargello is a needlepoint embroidery technique originally used for pillows and upholstery.  The stitches are done in a pattern using many hues of each color resulting in intricate shading effects.     Laura Liska created this same look in polymer clay in the most beautiful colors and patterns.  She fortunately shared her technique with Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio which is in their book, Polymer Clay Color Inspirations.

I followed this technique to create some Bargello style pieces but with my own color combinations from the Pantone Spring 2011 colors of Honeysuckle, Beeswax and Peapod.  You will find the recipes for these colors in my last blog post here.

This technique requires concentration and a very steady hand to achieve straight lines and a consistent pattern.  The first one I did on the Honeysuckle color background and was my first crack at it.  I love the effect from the deep colored background.  The one below shows the same cane on the Beeswax background with a different pattern which has a totally different look.

And of course I had to make a lentil swirl from this gorgeous color combo!

My next stage is to make some beads from these Bargello clay sheets and will show you later when they are complete...

More Pantone Color Recipes - Beeswax and Peapod

I decided to start the new year with two more color recipes from the top ten spring 2011 Pantone collection - Beeswax and Peapod.  Both recipes use Kato clay for the mix and you will notice I've added a little pearl or metallic clay of some form to each color.  I find these give that little extra shimmer and added depth.

Beeswax

6 parts Yellow

2 parts Gold

1 part White

1 part Pearl

                                                         

Peapod

3 parts Green

3 parts Yellow

1 part Black

3 parts White

3 parts Pearl

This is a fun skinner blend cane I created with the Beeswax, Peapod and Honeysuckle.  You will find the Honesuckle recipe I shared with you earlier here.  I will show you tomorrow what I'm doing with these colors.