Tag Archives: polymer clay

Brace Yourself!

Brace Yourself!

I’ve gone bracelet-making crazy!

Unakite with a hand sculpted mushroom button
Sodalite with a polymer clay button
Dragon’s Blood stone with a TierraCast button, This one was for Adrianne. She picked out the colors.
Two for me! Sodalite and Gray Agate with an AB (aurora borealis) coating
The buttons have been in my sewing drawer for years!
Rhodonite with black leather and pink cord
Unakite and 1.5mm leather, just to see. Another hand formed mushroom closure
Fancy jasper, natural turquoise leather, rust cord and a serene polymer clay button
Sunstone with a polymer clay button and Moroccan red leather (orange)
Red jasper, brown leather, and a vintage brass French horn button
Mookaite, burgundy leather, and a vintage button from my button basket
Morganite, white metallic leather and a sewing box button
Black agate, black leather and a TierraCast button
Rhodonite, black leather and an old sweater button
Gray agate with an AB coating, Chandi (lavender) leather and a sweater button
Aventurine, metallic ocean green leather, and a polymer clay button
Wood opal (petrified wood,) dark brown leather and a vintage button from my button basket
This one was on tv! Susan Thomas showed it on The Circle on JTV extra. The theme was Western World. She talked about it on the Jewel School broadcast, the next day, too!!! Stones are mahogany obsidian. The button is TierraCast.
Mookaite, burgundy leather, and a polymer clay button I made myself
Aventurine, ocean green metallic leather and a handcast polymer clay button

Latest Bracelet

Latest Bracelet
I am loving that ladder stitch!
The button is handmade polymer clay, cast from a fondant mold.
The beads are 6mm red tiger’s eye from JTV.
The leather is turkey red by Leather Cord, USA, and the nylon cord is an unnamed rust color from Bead Smith. Both were ordered from artbeads.com.

Unhinged, I think it looks like a snake skeleton! Thanks, again, to Tracy Proctor from Tierra Cast for teaching me this stitch.

Fresh from the Oven!

Fresh from the Oven!

No, they’re not chocolate! They’re polymer clay buttons! Some are shaped from molds and some are molded by hand. (the acorn, the zuni bear, and the mushrooms, for example)

They need sanding and staining and sealing. Coming soon to a bracelet near you!

Making Buttons…

Making Buttons…

like crazy this holiday weekend!

I’m making shanks from copper wire using bailing pliers.
The yellow molds I made myself. The others are commercial. The little mushrooms and courage bear are hand sculpted.

These flowers will need to be trimmed down before becoming buttons. I’ll also highlight the details with mica powder before baking.

Laura found an app!

Laura found an app!

It’s called ColorMixr, and it’s for polymer clay. I think you could use it for beads and fabrics and paints, and here are  some color palettes I’ve created. These are all taken from photographs. Let me show you the geisha.I look for Asian images to use with kumihimo, and she was in my photo gallery. In the app, you have these options:I clicked on, “Image from gallery, and my photos opened. I chose the geisha and this is what the app did with it.It isolated five areas from the photo, and created a palette at the bottom. Three of the areas were black, and I didn’t need them, so I moved those spots to another colored area. You just touch them on the screen and drag them where you want.Now I could use these colors to choose cords for kumihimo, or fabrics for a quilt, or paints to recreate the image.

ColorMixer goes a step further and gives recipes for mixing polymer clay to get these colors. Then, I could sculpt her! The app has a grid you can download for measuring “parts.” 

The next screen will allow you to save your palette and when it saves the palette, you can name it.It will also save your photo and the color recipes to your photo gallery on whatever device you are using. I am using iPhone.

What else the app can do, I have yet to discover, but I’m looking forward to it!

The app was developed by Nancy Urlich, and at this writing, is free! Find it in whichever app store you use. Look for, “ColorMixr,” and have fun!