Adventure #12: Geeking Out!

I am a massive fan of the The Lord of the Rings books and movies. The movie room we're building will be a shrine to the story, with figurines from the movies in niches above the TV and replica swords as door handles on the DVD cabinets. And our most beloved burmese cat is named for the eccentric wizard, Gandalf.


I have wanted my own replica of Arwen's necklace, the Evenstar, for a long time. And I finally felt now was the time to have a go at making one from polymer clay (Image 1). I used silver Kato clay and for the back part, made my first mica shift to get those lined effects. I also used my lovely new Makins extruder to get the backbone of the piece so perfectly round. I am very proud of my Evenstar and now can't wait to get a chain and wear it around in all my geekdom glory!!!

Image 1: The Evenstar replica in silver polymer clay

While I was on the geek-train, my hubby asked me to knock up a Green Lantern ring for him (Image 2). I had to wrap paper around my ring mould a few times to make it big enough!

Image 2: Green Lantern replica ring

Adventure #11: Colour Me Happy!

I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with choosing and mixing my own colour combinations. I've been working through Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio's book Polymer Clay Color Inspirations. The pivot tiles exercise has been invaluable, allowing me to see how different colours shift each other and get a much better idea of how to go about mixing certain colours (Image 1). And I have loved creating my own colour collages, giving me pallettes to work from in my projects. Here is the stunning necklace I created using the pinched petal necklace exercise in the book (Image 2) - taking the colours from my first collage (Image 3).

Image 1: Colour pivot tiles using packet Kato clay colours

Image 2: Pinched-petal neckalce

Image 3: My first colour collage, made for working through the projects in Polymer Clay Color Inspirations

Adventure #10: Mrs. Jo Bangles

So I wanted to make something spesh from polymer clay for my good mate Jo for her birthday. It had to be a bangle, something a bit funky. I got practicing and before I knew it, I was smack bang in the midst of a bangle-making frenzy! And every time I sat down to my clay table to try something new, that old song Mr. Bojangles would start up in my head!!

The first thing I had to do was find a mold to make the right sized base. My hubby found me skulking about in the kitchen pantry looking at various tinned goods with a maniacal gleam in my eye.....

I have used food tins, drink cans and scone cutters to make various sizes of bangles. As well as covering a wooden blank from a craft shop and metal eggrings with polymer clay.

Jo's bangle (Image 1) was made by paneling rectangular kaleidoscope cane cutouts onto a baked clay base and then laying a thin layer of clay over the edges. I've since used the same technique to make a few more bangles (Images 2 & 3). Deb Crothers kindly provided me with her own tutorial for making sculpted eggring bangles - these are just so fun to make, you can really add just about anything you want to them. This is definitely one of the most fun things I've tried in clay techniques (Images 4 & 5). Since writing this post, Debbie Crothers' sculpted bangle tutorial has been published in Australian Beading Magazine. Do yourself a favour and check it out!!

Image 1: Polymer clay bangle made with kaleidoscope cane panels

Image 2: The first kaleidoscope bangle I made - my mould was a bit too big!

Image 3: I've since made another version using an extruded cane to make the panels (this was my birthday present to myself...I'm good to myself, aren't I?!)

Image 4: Sculpted eggring bangle with playful dolphins

Image 5: Sculpted eggring bangles - mum's birthday present!!!