Polymer Clay

While I have been waiting for more supplies for the bead embroidery, especially the thread (I use Fireline and refuse to buy the Beadsmith branded version, which only gives me 50 yards, when I can get 125 yards from a fishing supplier for only a little more. Checks were made with Berkeley the makers by beaders on another forum and were assured it is exactly the same stuff).

I digress, I've been messing about with polymer clay this week. I've been wanting to give it a go since I started jewellery-making, but the collection of equipment needed made it rather expensive, especially the pasta roller. However, a bit of canny shopping and a great starter kit from the Jewellery Maker channel on satellite TV, which my partner bought me, and I was away!

I do find it funny though, that if you go into a kitchen shop and buy a set of leaf cutters for icing, they are cheaper than the exact same thing with 'polymer clay' instead of 'icing' on the pack. Am I being cynical here? The only thing that is cheaper because it is specifically for polymer clay, is the pasta roller, simply because it doesn't have the attachments for spaghetti etc. (hmmm clay spaghetti beads...that would be interesting...NO! stop right there Teresa!)

Anyway, I'm the sort of person who likes to go right in at the deep end, so I made a flower cane. Not bad for a first attempt, though reduction distorted it a bit,and from that I made a cuff on the last of my 1 inch blanks.      

I think I had a little too much white, and while smoothing the surface I distored the flowers a bit more, but it showed me that it works, so this is something I will be working on in the future. It had a good reception on Facebook anyway.

Next I made another cane and messed that up completely. So it was made into swirly beads, while some leftover bits of clay were rolled and blended to make a new colour, a kind of dusty pink/purple which I love, so two bracelets were born.


I also have a lot of swirly beads made from leftover bits and mistakes, all rather interesting and unique.

Things did go wrong while I'm learning, but I know why they went wrong now, and a little practise has got me doing it right. Now if I could slice a cane without squashing it, that would be nice.

None of these will go on sale in my shops, though if anyone wants to make an offer they can have them.  They do have a certain amount of rustic charm though don't they?