Monday, March 28, 2011

A Little Practice...

     Both my eye surgeries went well, though my vision isn’t back to normal yet. It certainly has slowed me down in the jewelry making department and eroded my confidence somewhat. That and the difficulty I’m having with polymer clay. What a great medium; and so versatile when trying to combine it with other art forms. The problems I’m having is getting a nice glossy finish. Having purchased some rather expensive spray shellacs I found that some products interact and make the clay sticky. So I’ve been working to solve that problem. The other is getting as smooth as surface as possible to minimalize the sanding and buffing needed. I’ve decided I simply need more practice and experience working with this product before selling some of my pieces on my Etsy site. So here are a few of my practice pieces that I have been experimenting with. This asymmetrical flower piece I actually made for myself. I’ll have to rework it to get it to balance on the neck better. I hate necklaces that slide around the neck so will have to tweak it, but I do love the design.

     The “mommy necklaces” are a great gift for mothers; something stylish and durable for the tug of little hands. A teacher friend loves bells so I made her a bell lanyard.

     I've enjoyed working with this new medium and exploring the use of more complicated patterns. Though I've created serveral new pieces, I've not put very many for sell in my shop. I want to get a little better at working with clay before selling them on the market.