Zuleykha's polymer clay

Clay leftovers and cutters

2011-03-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

Like probably all of us, I have loads of clay leftovers, cane ends, dirty clay pieces, etc.

I separated all my leftovers into groups of different colours, and mixed every group into one colour. I ended up with a lovely collection of muted colours:

Also I had a great number of various little cutters, most of which I never used:

The muted tones of clay leftovers reminded me of retro floral patterns, so after combining my beautiful clay leftovers and those tiny cutters here what came out:

Multicolour necklace:

If you didn't like the patterns of the beads, you can wear a necklace from a wrong side:))

Bright patterns of black background:

A few pendants in retro style :)

And just red and white beads

That is it for now :))

Flowers!

2011-03-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

While visiting us, my mother taught me how to find a little time for hobbies with a baby in the house :))
So here what I created so far, using my new and old flower canes:

Pink beads and white agate

Lilac beads

Red

Black and white beads and snowflake obsidian

Black and white pendant and black agate beads

Inside the polymer clay beads I've put some Sculpey Ultra light to make polymer beads a bit lighter :)

New bracelets

2011-02-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! :)

My mother came over for a couple of weeks to see her new grandson. She turned out to be such a great babysitter, that I managed to get to my clay table and make some jewellery. I didn't have time to try out anything new or to experiment with new techniques, so I only made something my hands remembered how to do :))
First of all I had to make this necklace on custom order:

Then I made new poppies, and assembled some old flowers, which I made almost a year ago, into bracelets and earrings.

Also I made a few thimbles

They all are now in my shop :))
Well, that is it :)) I guess next time I will get to my clay table when my mom comes again, or my baby goes to school :)))

FREE shiiping in my shop

2011-01-15T10:56:00.000-08:00

While the baby is sleeping (in my lap, which is the only way he sleeps during the day :) ), I have a few moments to write this post :) Although I have not been making any polymer clay jewellery for almost a year, I still have a shop full of things to sell :)
So I decided to give free shipping to every customer until Sunday, January 23, plus a free gift with every order :)
So you are very welcome to come in and look around :)

News of the year :)

2010-12-14T04:29:00.000-08:00

A week and a half ago (on Dec 2) I became a mom, now we have a beautiful baby son, whom we called Ross :)
I don't think I'll get back to polymer clay for a while yet :)

Polymer Play Days 2010 (and more)

2010-07-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

It has been a while since I wrote anything in my blog. It seems that the less you write, the more difficult it becomes to just sit down and write something :))

And I do have something to write about! Not about my creations (I am not very creative lately), but about a fantastic polymer clay festival called Polymer Play Days, which took part here in England a couple of weeks ago. Jist like the last year the festival was a lot of fun. We had 6 workshops, half a day each, with 6 fantastic teachers. To my delight I also had an opportunity to speak Russian again, as there were 3 more Russian-speaking wonderful ladies apart from me this year :)) And I was happy to sit again at the same table with Diane and Jo.

So these are the things I made during three days of workshops:
Alison Gallant taught us to make a chrysanthemum cane, which we used to make different kinds of beads

Sylvie Peraud taught us to make mosaics. This is a technique where you have to sand your pieces for a very long time, but the results are fabulous.
These are my unfinished yet items

And this is what mosaics should look like when sanded and buffed, these are pieces made by Sylvie herself.

On a second day we had workshops with a lovely couple from Spain, Natalia and Dani.
Natalia has shown us how to make these felt broach style beads

Dani has shown us a very interesting and complicated technique of making hollow beads. I did not like my beads, which is why I will show you Dani's examples (Photo from Olga's blog):

I liked the ideas of these hollow beads, I will have to try making them at home some time.
On a third day we had workshops with two fabulous American artists, Donna Kato and Lindly Haunani.
On a Donna Kato's class we were making funky rings with rotating discs. My ring:

Lindly's class was about colours and Skinner blends.
I only had time to make these two plates at the workshop:

Then I made a few more items out of leftovers of Skinner blends at home.

I think I am almost inspired now to get back to clay :))

And that wasn't all yet! :))
After all the classes on a last day we had a charity auction for Macmillan cancer support. I won a gorgeous seed bead necklace! I think making such a jewellery of seed beads is extremely complicated, and I am very happy to own this masterpiece.

And that is not all yet! :))) We had a raffle! I was lucky again, and I won a beautiful ring made by Sylvie!

I bought myself a lovely pendant by one of my favorite Spanish polymer clay artists, Noelia. I love how accurate and neat her works are.

Not to make two posts in one day I also want to show you the beautiful beads I bought from a polymer clay artist Elena (shim-shoni)

And that is it for now! I hope you enjoyed the photos! :)))

The end of holidays

2010-04-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Nice and long Easter holidays have finished, and it is time to go back to work (sigh). Last week I have been working on a large wholesale order for my flowers, they are to be sold in a bead shop in Hawaii! How exciting! :) I have sent this collection, I hope they go well there.
My favorite flowers of the new ones are these

Also I had a time to make a new tutorial, which I posted in my Etsy

The book has arrived!

2010-03-30T03:23:00.000-07:00

And the first thing I did, was find my page, of course :))) After writing this post I will sit down, and enjoy looking through all the photos, and reading what people wrote about themselves.

You can see the cover and contents of the book here
I want to say Thank You to Martina and Anke for the great idea and a wonderful job they have done with the book!

Spring, fish bracelet and more :)

2010-03-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Warm and sunny spring has finally arrived to the north of England:

Although the forecast suggests us not to relax, because as much as a snow is expected tomorrow. So not to waste a sunny Sunday,today we went to the seaside. To catch some fish :)))
I caught enough fish to make a bracelet! :))

I caught some other kinds of fish, the stripey ones, they will be used in some accessories. Here is all the fish I "caught" today :))

And a few new flower bracelets, which were also made using commercial metallic frames.

Pips jewellery

2010-03-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

I love buying other artist's polymer clay creations! This time I bought a gorgeous aquarium bead from Pippa, whose shop you can find here. Her new line of focal beads is incredible!!! I fell in love with those with fish, and could not resist to buy one :))

The colours of the bead are beautiful, and it is sanded to such a high shine, which I never managed to reach :) Have a look at Pippa's other focals, they all are gorgeous!

Featured

2010-03-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Marylee has featured my tulip bracelet in her blog.

Thank you Marylee!

More cupcakes

2010-03-18T01:00:00.001-07:00

I was busy baking cupcakes last night :))

Detailed photos of every cupcake are in my shop

"European polymer clay art" book

2010-03-17T09:33:00.001-07:00

The "European polymer clay art" book will be out soon, in the end of March. And my poppy bracelet is on the cover, hoorray!!! :))))

You can pre-order the book here, and I already did :)
45 polymer clay artists, 16 European contries and more than 200 photos

A fruit pie and cupcakes

2010-03-11T03:38:00.001-08:00

Is it a lunch time yet? :)) These polymer clay treats make me hungry :)))

A little fruit cake:

And two cupcakes. Cupcakes are very popular in all kinds of crafts. In our Newcastle craft mafia quite a few girls are doing something with cupcakes. Cassandra prints them on t-shirts (tea shirts, as she calls them :))), Amanda makes them of felt, girls from Pet Lamb Patisserie bake real ones. Now I will add my polymer clay ones :)
White cream:

Pink cream:

My new craft room

2010-03-10T00:58:00.000-08:00

We moved to a new house, and the first thing I did was setting up my new room for claying! :)) I love my new room! It is very sunny and warm, just gorgeous! :))) I wish I never had to leave this room :)))
A view from the door:

I keep all my claying stuff on shelves and in drawer chest from IKEA (my favorite series of theirs - Leksvik). There I have instruments, epoxy resin, paints, pastels, seed beads, and so on. The table in the middle is very light by weight, so it is easy to take it and put it by the window. It is my table for taking pictures of jewellery.In those plastic boxes on a table I keep all my Etsy stuff :)

Books and magazines about polymer clay

Here I keep commercial beads and findings for making jewellery

My joy - my new oven! :) I bought it cheap from eBay and it is wonderful. Unlike my old oven, this one hold the temperature nicely, so now I can just put my beads in it for a certain time, and go away. With my old oven I had to sit next to it, and to manually control the temperature by turning oven on and off :)))

Working table. Using moving house as an excuse I took this table into my room :)) It is a computer table, but it very heavy, which is ideal for attaching a pasta machine to it. The handy lamp is from IKEA.

I keep clay inside the table, easy to reach.

At the moment I am trying out molds for miniature bakery I bought from this shop). I like seeing other people's miniature food, so I decided to give it a go and try making some :)

My little bonsai, I wanted to keep it in my room, but I am afraid it is too hot for it on this window, so we had to move it into a different room.

And finally one of my trial cakes.

Laura's cupcakes

2010-03-08T23:34:00.000-08:00

Cute, cute, cute! :)) Lovely Laura has sent my these two cupcake beads!

I think I will use them in future in some themed bracelet :) Thank you, Laura!!!

Raspberries

2010-03-01T05:05:00.000-08:00

Elena (shim-shoni) makes gorgeous silicon raspberry beads! I have bought a few, and received them last Saturday. They are so real! I had to try hard not to srart eating them :))
I bought these red and yellow ones (photos were made by Elena)

My precious! :)))
Here Elena sells leftovers of her handmade raspberries in different colours. She also has an Etsy shop, check it out :)

Cara's flower cane

2010-03-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

Lovely Cara from Surfingcat has made a flower cane using my tutorial. As I told her in a letter, it is not the first time I see students making this cane better than me :) I love it!

Eugena Topina

2010-02-22T01:28:00.000-08:00

Eugena Topina is a very talanted polymer clay artist! Her beautiful works in faux cloisonne and faux lampwork are very original and very different from other polymer clay jewellery. I have a few of her tutorials, which are written very thoroughly, with a great attention to details.

In her blog Eugena regularly features Etsy shops of other polymer clay artists, and this time she found mine! Eugena normally describes her impression of the featured works in one word and I like the word she has chosen for my bracelets - charming :))
Some of my new bracelets and sets:

They are already listed in my Etsy shop

Angelfish

2010-02-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

I have made these beads a while ago. I was going to make all kinds of marine fish, but couldn't find time for that. So I am showing these angelfish beads on their own :)

I made this cane using Edit Zoota's play-doh technique
I am still planning to make a whole aquarium of fish beads :))

Bead soup party!

2010-02-11T00:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry I am a day late with my reveal :)) To be late is not in my habits, I just blame my day job for being very busy lately :))) My swap partner, lovely Kella, who made an outstanding necklace out of my beads, have sent me gorgeous beads in sky blue colours, a fantastic dragonfly and a lovely blue pendant with a lot of possibilities :)

Although dragonfly was made into a clasp, I have decided to make it a central piece in a necklace. And also to place it into its "natural habitat" :))), i.e. to give it some flowers. The pendant had very convenient holes in it, through which I managed to attach my handmade polymer clay flowers, and make a sort of a basket with flowers :)) And here is my result:

Taking part in bead soup party was a great fun for me, I hope we'll do it again some time! :)))

Make sure to look at the creations of other Bead Soup Party participants!

1. Lori, Pretty Things - A host of a party! Thank you Lori for all this fun!!! :))

2. Mallory, For the Love of Beads
3. Terri, Blooming Ideas...You Are Here
4. Cindy, Sweet Bead Studio
5. Lorelei, Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
6. Kerry, Kabs Creative Concepts
7. Erin, Treasures Found
8. Jeannette, Jeannette Blix Wire and Metal Jewelry
9. Adrienne, Adrienne Designs
10. Nan, Spirit Rattles
11. Laurel, Rue's Daftique
12. Nancy, Beading From the Heart
13. Mary, MK's Creative Musings
14. Cassie, The Glass Beadle
15. Dot, Winchell Clayworks
16. Sharon, Sharon's Jewelry Garden
17. Lisa, Lo and Behold
18. Norma, Bead Dreams and Moonlit Fantaseas
19. Judith, Judith B.
20. Debbie, Prairie Emporium
21. Maria, Garden Path Beads
22. Susan, Kaplan Creations Jewelry and Glass Design
23. Melissa, Melissa Meman: Art, Love, Life
24. Marianna, Pretty Shiny Things
25. Lisa, Joolz by Lisa
26. Cristi, 2 If By Sea
27. Sandra, Marbella Jewelry Design
28. Maria, Greene Earth Originals
29. Barbara, Jewelry of Distinction
30. Leslie, Bei Mondi
31. Loretta, Designs by Loretta
32. Linda, Bella Bead Jewelry
33. Kathie, The Bead Cult
34. Patty, Plays With Fire
35. Nicki, Nicki's Reef
36. Anne Marie, Heart's Desire
37. Mary, Mary Harding Jewelry
38. Jayne, Mama's Got to Doodle
39. Emanda, Artemesia's Studio
40. Whitney, Whitney Lassini
41. Marcie, La Bella Joya
42. Suzann, Beadphoria
43. Jen, Jen Judd Rocks
44. Julie, Credit River Art Glass
45. Janiece, J Birds Garden
46. Kate, Organic Odysseys
47. Laurie, The Mermaid Tale
48. Michelle, My Crazy Crafty Adventure
49. Sue, Sue Beads
50. Janeen, Janeen 365
51. Nancy, The Rabbit Muse
52. Kristie, Artisan Clay
53. Regina, Regina's Writings
54. Tari, Pearl and Pebble
55. Lyn, Lyn Foley
56. Beth, Sunshine Daydreamz
57. Cathryn, Chile Cats
58. Emma, Fred Bean's Nook
59. Connie, Cetta Cheese Chatter
60. Juli, Jul's Beads
61. Julie, RockerJewlz
62. Libby, LibbyLeu and Glass Too
63. Melanie, Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
64. Katie, My Life and My Beads
65. Zuleykha, Zuleykha's Polymer Clay
66. Rekella, Me But a Little More in Depth
67. Ricki, What's New at Ricki Voges Design
68. Lisa, Lucid Moon Studio
69. Jo, Daisychain Jewellery
70. Lynette, Rock Hill Designs
71. Lynne, Island Girl's Insights
72. Chas, One Woman's Haven
73. Chas, One Woman's Haven
74. Ruthie, Rose Works Jewelry
75. Elizabeth, Turquoise Sky
76. Maire, Maire Dodd
77. Janet, Singing Woods
78. Eileen, Dorset Hill Beads
79. Julie, Miss Kitten's Jewels
80. Joann, Jo's Jewels
81. Patti, PJ Clark Designs
82. Mel, Kookie Designs
83. Erin, Every Heart Crafts
84. Dale, Flights of Fancy
85. Dee, Runako Designs

My birthday giveaway

2010-02-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

To celebrate my coming birthday I have decided to hold a giveaway :) The prize is any three items from my Etsy shop.
If you would like to take part in my giveaway, please leave your comment in this post in my russian blog. I would appreciate if you gave a link to that post in your blog.

PS. I closed comments under this post, just not to get confused counting the entries.

Etsy
Buy Handmade
Zuleykha

Lilac fantasy

2010-02-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Of all jewellery I have made this week this set is my favorite :)

Tiny purple flowers look very delicate in a bracelet.

I liked making these dangling earrings :)

Red ones:

They match this bracelet:

As you can see this is also my attempt on making photos in artificial light :))) What do you think of the photos? Are they too dark on your screens?

Laura's giveaway

2010-02-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

These my beads and many more Laura is giving away in her blog. Check it out here, and enter the draw :)

Wedding order

2010-01-30T04:55:00.000-08:00

I have spent this week working on a special order for a wedding: 150 lime charms for wine charms, flower bracelets for moms, and pendants for bridesmaids, everything in purple and lime.

I quite like this colour combination myself :)

Lime tutorial and soft fimo

2010-01-30T04:31:00.000-08:00

FIMO clay became very soft recently. That is either my hands are hotter now, or they changed the formula of clay. Even Fimo classic is very soft, not to mention Fimo soft. You don't want your clay to be soft when you are trying to make a cane :) A few days ago I had to make a lime cane for one order, most of which is translucent clay (Fimo soft). It was so soft, it reminded me a used chewing gum. So I had to leach out some oil of it: placed a thin sheet of clay between two sheets of paper, put a heavy box on top of the stack, and left it for a few hours. I didn't even have to pass translucent clay through a pasta machine. I have just stretched it with my fingers.

After a few hours I have managed to make a lime cane:

A little request :)

2010-01-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

Please do not ignore this post :)

Your opinion is very important to us!

As I have been writing before I am a lucky member of a wonderful big and friendly group of crafty people called "Newcastle Craft Mafia". We have knitters, jewellery makers, artists, clothes makers and others in our group. We are trying to promote everything handmade, make "handmade" popular with general public.
So now we have an idea of making an online magazine, full of creative ideas and modern trends.
Leeanne, a co-founder of our Mafia, has prepared a survey to help us choose the right ideas and directions for our future magazine.

I would be really really grateful if you could take this survey. It will take you only a minute, but this way you will help 25-strong group of crafters, and with this you will help promoting "handmade" (isn't it what we all want? :) )

TAKE THE SURVEY

Thank you!
PS. Add our blog to your blog readers! More interesting stuff to come! :)

Beads in metallic frames

2010-01-22T08:20:00.000-08:00

I keep playing with various metallic frames I've got. I wrote a tutorial on using them here.
These are some new bracelets I've made with hollow metallic links.

My bead swap stash

2010-01-21T03:34:00.000-08:00

I am taking part in a lovely game called Bead Soup Party, organised by Lori Anderson and today I received my lot of bead goodies from Kella, and I love every bead! Particularly a handmade clasp - dragonfly, I think it is absolutely fabulous! And a lovely blue pendant!

Isn't this dragonfly a piece of art?
I am not sure what I am going to do with these treasures, but I am sure I will come up with something by Febuary 10th :)
Thank you Kella!

Waiting for spring

2010-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Making flower bracelets and wearing three at a time :))
Just kidding :)) Although I like it how three bracelets look together. Nice and bright.

Posted them in my Etsy shop
Following my experiments on making beads with metallic frames I have made a few more new shapes.

I am not sure how to use them yet, other than using them as pendants :)) Do you have any ideas?

Apple pendant and apple tutorial

2010-01-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

Just a cute realistic apple :)

An apple tutorial below. Make an apple out of translucent clay, paint it with powdered yellow pastel first, then paint half of it with red, and another half - with green pastel. Add leaf and other details.

My first interview

2010-01-12T04:33:00.000-08:00

Everything's very simple, nothing fancy :) The organizers of Beads Perles blog have asked me for an interview and even have translated it to Spanish. English version is in the same post below pictures.
I am very flattered and honoured :)

Amy's flower cane

2010-01-09T12:39:00.001-08:00

Amy has kindly shared pictures of the cane she made following my tutorial

I think it came out beautifully, and I love the colour and the detailed stamens of the flower. Amy promised to make this cane in many colours, I can not wait to see them all! :))

Bead soup party and bead swap

2010-01-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

I am in!

Check out Lori Anderson's blog for details

My new beads

2010-01-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

I have bought these metallic open flower charms a while ago, planning to fill them with polymer clay, but then I forgot about them. A wonderful work by shimshoni reminded me of my flower frames, and soon I came up with these flower charms:

I am not sure yet, which way to use them, as a necklace or as a bracelet. I have tried to take pictures of different ways of using them :)

Here you can see that they are like little padded cushions :) They are very pleasant to touch :)))
I took photos when making one of those charms, so if you like you can find a little tutorial below :)

I prepared a millefiori sheet and a few open flower charms. I have bought these charms on eBay, I can even give a link

Place flower frames on the sheet of clay. One of the frames will remain in the charm, the other one is only used temporarily.
Press frames into clay, using your roller.
Cut out the excess of clay around the flower frames.
Lift clay and frame off the working surface.
Carefully stretch the clay sheet, so it becomes raised over the metallic frame. Keep an eye on the edges of clay sheet, don't let them pop out of the frame. Donna Kato taught us this thick at the Polymer Play Days last summer :)
The other side of a sheet. То, что получилось с изнаночной стороны.
Cut off the excess clay.
Two parts of the flower are ready.
To make a flower puffy, you have to place a piece of scrap clay inside it.
Put scrap clay on one half of a flower.
Take the second half of a flower out of the second frame.
Put it on top of the scrap clay.
Now pinch the edges of a flower, hiding the ugly inner sides of flower parts under the metallic frame. You can use a toothpick to push the most stubborn bits inside.
The clay has to slightly overlap with a metallic frame from both side of a flower. This way the frame will not come off the flower after baking.
Here is the resulting puffy flower charm.
I smoothed the surface of charms with corn starch. It removes fingerprints and makes it easier to sand charms after baking.
All charms - baked, sanded and glazed :)
I also have round open charms in my stash, I will definitely try to work them out in the same way. They are a lot smaller than these flower charms, I still did not come up with a pattern for such the small circles.

PS. Sorry for such a long post, I hope you liked it :)

Thimbles

2010-01-02T11:26:00.001-08:00

I have not been maintaining my English blog for awhile, but I am back now! :))) Happy New Year everyone, may all your wishes come true in 2010!

I have been busy with Christmas markets all December, and did not have time to make something new. A friend of mine asked me to make some thimbles for her, I made a few, and then realized, that I can not stop making them! :))

Here is my collection of 10 thimbles, and I don't think they are the last ones yet.

All together:

And separately. Little frogs:
Sheep, sunflowers and poppies:

And all sorts of flowers:

Thimbles were made for decorative purposes only, I am afraid they can not be used as they are supposed to be used :)))

Fruity hearts

2009-11-22T08:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing special, just my favorite fruit canes. Shaped into hearts this time :)

An opportunity for european clayers

2009-11-18T01:58:00.000-08:00

A great opportunity to get published in the album which will be sent to USA to the Synergy II Conference (a place I only can dream of going to for now :) ). Check out for details in Anke's blog.
Anke is writing that they will select a good number of people, so I think I will give it a try. I just need to take a few good pictures of my works :)

Spring in autumn :))

2009-10-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

I have not been doing much in the past few weeks. All I made is assembling this necklace and earrings. They were made on order following my flower bracelets.

That's me trying out new accessories:

Black and white bracelet and flower beads tutorial

2009-10-08T00:33:00.000-07:00

We'll be making black and white flower beads like these:

The technique I am going to demonstrate below, has been created by Israeli artist Edit Zoota. Make sure to check out her Flickr album and Etsy shop! Edit generously shared her genious idea with the whole world. For me (and, I think, for other caners as well) this discovery has the same importance as Judith Skinner's technique of making colour blends using pasta machine.
It is a long process, so arm yourself with patience :) You need a lot of patience when making canes. To make a neat cane you have to pay a lot of attention to each detail, do everything without a hurry, smoothen every bit of a cane...

First of all we'll make a flower cane. Cut your petal cane into a few pieces. 5 or 6 is optimum for this method. More petals will make it difficult to remove background without distorting a cane.

Roll out a medium thick sheet of dough. Wrap it around the cane.

Next we'll fill our cane with a background. It is a very important step, because the shape of your cane depends on the accuracy of your background. Since you are going to remove background you cane use just a scrap clay for it. I use this particular piece of scrap clay for background for the third time already, so it is a great economy. Make a triangular cane out of your scrap clay and fill the space between the petals. To avoid your petals getting a square shape after reducing make sure that you put enough background between petals. See how I add another layer of scrap clay on top of the triangular cane between the petals, so that the height of the background between the petals is the same as the petals.

Cover petals with clay and put a final layer around the whole cane. There is no need to save on background clay here :)

Reduce and cut the cane. I've made a few canes of different size.

Clay does not stick to the dough, that is why you can easily remove it. Remove all of the background and putt your canes and used scrap clay in cold water. Leave pieces to soak for a few hours. Three hours is normally sufficient to dissolve most of the dough.

Be very careful whem you take canes out of the water. At this moment clay is very sensitive to your finger, so be sure to hold your cane very lightly, do not rub the surface of clay with your fingers.
Here you can see, that there is some dough left between the petals. You can brush it off with an artist's soft brush. Keep dipping your cane and a brush constantly into the water.

You can remove the most stubborn dough with a needle. Very lightly, without pressing, pass your needle between the petals, releasing the dough, then wash it off, using a brush.
Leave you canes and cleaned scrap clay to dry for a few hours. Overnight, perhaps.

Now the cane is ready to be used. Cut off a few slices of it. I used embossing tools and Sculpey tools for shaping my flowers. Although, I guess, you could use thick knitting needles for this as well.

With your fingers smooth the edges of petals of your flower. Shape the slice cane into a flower as you can see it on the picture below:

Then the usual - bake, sand (no picture there :)) ), glaze and make into a jewellery.

You don't have to shape cane slices into flowers, they are just the same pretty as the simple flat slices:

That's all from me :) This post was written with a big gratitude to Edit Zoota. Edit, thank you for your discovery and for your generousity!

Flower bracelets

2009-10-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

The revolutionary Edit Zoota's technique of making backgroundless canes opened plenty new horizons for me and other caners :) One of my results of using this technique you have already seen in this holly leaves bracelet. This week I have been making backgroundless flower canes. They resulted in many bracelets :)) I only wanted to make two or three, but, as always, I got carried away, and I think that I will have about 15 bracelets eventually :)))
Bracelets all together:

And bracelets individually. Which one do you like the most? :)))
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

At the moment I am working on black and white flowers, taking pictures of the process at the same time. So tomorrow or a day after tomorrow I will show you the whole process of making canes with Edit Zoota's method (I asked Edit for permission :)) ) and making flowers from canes slices :) Stay tuned! :))

Holly bracelets

2009-09-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

I have tried a play-doh technique invented by Idit Zoota for making canes of unusual shapes (you can read more about it and see videos at Yonat's page), and I came up with these holly leaves.

I've added some red glass beads and finished leaves into festive christmasy bracelets.

New blog on the block! :)))

2009-09-22T02:14:00.000-07:00

Check out this new blog by Anna Panik, she makes incredibly beautiful flowers of polymer clay!

Click here!

Faux polymer clay pebbles

2009-09-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

I forgot all about these pebbles I made some time ago. One of my Etsy buyers asked me about them recently, which is why I took the beads out of the box and drilled holes in them.
They are very pleasant to touch, very smooth, and have a vice soft shine, being polished with Dremel.

I do not know what to do with them, though :)) Should I make an elastic bracelet? Or something on a rubber cord?..

You can see all of my pebbles separatly with explanation of additives here

Flowers sampler

2009-09-13T05:43:00.000-07:00

I have been tidying up my box with canes, and I decided to use up all my old petal canes. Here what I made with them :) These are all pendants.

All flowers separately. Which one is your favorite? :))

The backs of pendants:

"Fence flowers" bracelets and more

2009-09-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished a few items and assembled them into jewellery.
I call these bracelets "fence bracelets", because they remind me of fences, almost hidden behind tall flowers :))

All five bracelets on my hand. All together they look like a knight's armor :))

I think, I've mentioned before that Jael's works inspired me to start playing with polymer clay. Now I have tried to make "bone" beads like hers (and Karen Lewis's, of course :) ), using my canes :)

Details:

More items to come tomorrow! :)))

Bookmark

2009-09-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

I had some leftovers of blue petal cane, which I used to make tiny blue flowers. I added a few slices of leaf cane, combined them all together, and made this bookmark.
I think it is very sunny and summery bookmark :))

I was thinking on how to attach seed bead in the middle of each flower. The head pins have too large heads, which hide the seed bead. So I decided to make a loop at the end of a pin with a seed bead, fixed in that loop.
Larger photo:

Continuing a fruit theme

2009-09-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

I liked making charm bracelets, so I decided to make a few more of those fruit bracelets :)
These are three bracelets on my hand:

There is one of them:

I also made some earrings to match the bracelets, with miniature fruit slices :)

I love fruits :))

Hair clips

2009-09-07T04:06:00.000-07:00

I found a few metallic blanks for hair clips at home, which I immediately covered with clay :)) Here are the first six hair clips, sanded and varnished:

I loved making fruit canes! I've made my first bracelet with hanging charms, love it myself! :)))

Bead crochet and 3D millefiori

2009-08-30T02:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting in my English blog for a while, although I have so much to show! :))) I will try to squeeze everything into one post ))) First of all I learned how to do bead crochet. Turned out it is quite easy, and also very addictive :)) What I've done so far:
a necklace and a bracelet

a few more bracelets

I am planning to use crocheted bead cords with polymer clay pendants. Let's see how it will work out together.

In polymer clay I continue developing an idea of 3D millefiori. So far I only came up with these :)) :
A bracelet with a little birdie on a flower branch

And a few unfinished pendants. I am not sure if I like them or not, I haven't decided yet :)) I guess I need your opinion :)

Thanks for stopping by! And thank you for all the nice comments you leave in my blog, I really appreciate it!

3D millefiori

2009-08-17T23:44:00.000-07:00

My first attempt on making 3D flowers. These are made out of tulips petal canes leftovers.

I have got interested in polymer clay by accident when I found photos of beautiful 3D millefiori works made by Jael and ikandiclay. So they are to blame for my new addiction :)))
I think there will be more 3D flowers to come :)

Making coin beads

2009-08-05T04:28:00.000-07:00

On request of one of my russian blog readers I made a quick tutorial on how to make coin beads.
We'll be making these beads:

Start with measuring out equal amounts of scrap clay for each bead core.

Roll scrap clay into balls. Roll out a very thin sheet of pretty clay, which will be a background for your canes' slices.
In order to get millefiori beads all of the same size, you have to be sure that at each step you add the same amount of clay: same size of a bead core, same size of a background wrap clay, same amount of canes' slices on each bead.

Wrap a bead core into a background clay sheet.

Pinch the ends of pretty clay, hiding scrap clay.

Roll bead into a ball.

The ideal spherical shape of the beads is not necessary at this step.

Slice your canes. I've picked my favorite colour combination of green and yellow.

Put equal amount of cane slices on each bead.

Roll bead into a ball, trying to make it as spherical as possible this time.

Now beads are ready to be turned into coins:

Prepare a surface for flattening the beads. The baking paper is ideal for this purpose. If you press raw bead onto glass or tile surface, you might deform the bead when pulling it of the glass surface or a tile. The paper can be easily peeled of the clay leaving a bead undeformed.

On top of the paper put tiles or thick paper cards. The height of this level will determine the thickness of your beads.

Put your beads between the tiles. Press your beads very lightly with your finger to make sure beads don't roll away. At this step you can choose which part of the bead you want to be a flat surface of the coin in future.

Leave enough space between the beads.

Put another sheet of paper on top of the beads.

Press your beads with a tile or a piece of glass.

I prefer to use glass since I like seeing what I am doing :))

Now you have coin beads all of the same thickness.

Bake the beads:

And here is my result :))

Coin beads

2009-08-04T00:57:00.000-07:00

This is my new favorite shape of beads! :))) They are pushing pillow beads out of the way.

A bracelet of coin beads will look something like this

Which beads do you like the most - coins, pillows or round ones? :)))

Giveaway

2009-08-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

Check out my giveaway and enter it if you like the fridge magnets! :)))

You can sign in for the draw here

Trying out new canes

2009-08-02T02:23:00.001-07:00

New cane

2009-07-30T04:32:00.000-07:00

I've run out of pretty canes, but I still have plenty ugly ones :))) I don't know what to do with them yet, so I sat down yesterday and made some new canes.
I came up with this 3D design:

It is so nice to receive presents! :)))

2009-07-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

I was a second winner in a giveaway held by Lorelei, and I didn't know what I was going to receive (everything made by Lorelei is a treasure!) :)) The package came so fast! I received this wonderful magazine with plenty ideas (Lorelei's work has also been published in it) and I received AMAZING earrings!!! Look how beautiful they are! Wonderful, stylish, light, antiqued, with lampwork beads!

Check out Lorelei's Etsy shop for more of her creations!

I also want to show you wonderful beads made by Sue of SueBeads. They are so gorgeous! The whole sandy beach in one bead :)
I find the actual assembling beads into jewellery, so I have just made simple earrings with these beads. They are temporary, I want to make nicer jewellery with these beads, giving them the look they deserve. I would be grateful for some ideas! :)))

Here is Sue's Etsy shop!

Faux cloisonne butterfly pendant

2009-07-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

In a past few months I have bought myself a large number of tutorials both on polymer clay and wire wrapping, but until now I didn't use any of them. I think I just love browsing the photos of the tutorials, which gives me enough satisfaction :)))
Yesterday I decided to try out one of the tutorials I've bought from Eugena Topina.
I love her stylish works, and I love her well-written tutorials. I've made myself a butterlfy pendant following this tutorial.

I'm very happy with a wire outline of a butterfly in this pendant, but not so happy with a resin layer. It's been a first time I used resin, and I think I've got mixed up with the ratio of components. I will make it better next time, just need some practice :)

Strawberry jewellery

2009-07-22T07:52:00.002-07:00

Little stamped strawberry beads:

In reality these are very lovely beads, looking very juicy and nice to touch. :))

A sheep bracelet made on order

Caleidoscope canes

2009-07-22T07:52:00.001-07:00

This is a butterfly wing cane I've made and I was very happy with :)) But the actual butterfly cane didn't come out too well, I think I've made a butterfly body too big. I've decided to turn an unlucky butterfly cane into caleidoscope canes. And I love the results! :))
The actual canes:

Bracelets:

Dremel workstation

2009-07-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to show my latest very handy purchase - Dremel workstation.
To insert your Dremel tool into its holder, you have to remove the cover from the tip of a tool.

Then fix it well in a holder of a workstation.

To insert a drill bit into the tool I normally hold a tool at an angle. With the tool fixed at the angle you can also polish your beads without holding a heavy Dremel.

I've got some clamp pliers to hold beads while drilling them. I still need to stick some rubber to the insides of the pliers, so they didn't scratch the surface of my beads.

You have to lower the drill bit into the bead VERY slowly,especcially at near the exit from the bead. Otherwise you will end up with a massive hole at the side of the bead where drill bit comes out of it. Like this :))

The other way to avoid ruining your bead, you can drill it to the middle from one side of the bead, then turn the bead upside down, and drill it to the middle from the opposite side.

New necklaces

2009-07-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

I've made these beads ages ago, but only recently I found some time to drill holes in them.

Detailed photos. Which ones do you like the most?
1 и 2

3 и 4

5 и 6

7 и 8

Millefiori landscape

2009-07-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting order I received a few weeks ago. I was asked to make a picture out of clay, which would have a blue sky and tulips in it. The size of a picture is 23 x 28 cm. It was a bit hard to make such a large background with a colour gradient, which eventually caught a few air bubbles, although I tried my best to avoid them. Luckily I was able to sand those bumps off.
I quite enjoyed making tulips :)

Enlarging holes in beads without a drill

2009-07-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

You can make holes in baked beads larger even if you don't have an electric drill.
Make a pilot thin hole in a bead before baking it. Then enlarge the hole gradually going from smaller to larger drilling bits.
To make it easier to hold a drilling bit, you can fix it in a craft knife instead of a blade; I managed to hold it on its own.
There is just one tip on this technique: after a few experiments I figured out that if you push a drilling bit through the whole bead at once, 4 of 5 beads will crack :)) You have to remove extra clay from inside the bead in small portions. You drill into a bead to a small distance, take out a drilling bit, shake off the clay dust. Then drill a little further into the bead, again take out a drilling bit and shake off the clay. Go this way to the middle of the bead, then do the same going into the bead from the opposite side of a hole.

Report on first outing :))

2009-07-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

I am very slow in filling in my English blog at the moment, but I promise to get better in it :))
So there it was, our first craft market, as a group (Newcastle Craft mafia), and my first craft market ever.
First of all, I enjoyed the event very much! I've spent an evening among crafty and totally amazing people :)
The place was a bit quiet :) The market has been held in the backyard of "Art Works galleries", about 6 or 7 stalls were out, most of which were taken by our group. There were a lot more sellers than buyers :))) Still I managed to sell two bracelets and three penguin badges, which I think is a huge success :)))
In the following photo there are 3-4 buyers, the rest are sellers and their friends :)

My corner of a table.

My new beads. The first beads, to make holes in which I used my Dremel tool with it's workstation.

I've tried to wrap a pillow bead in a filigree wrap. I like the result, looks vintage :)

I couldn't leave without buying this cute bunny! I've noticed him a few days ago at Amanda's Flickr site, and it waited for me :)

My first "outing" :)

2009-06-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled when the organizers of Newcastle Craft mafia offered me to join their group. On the website there is a photo of us from our first meting, I am the one in the center in a grey jacket :).
It was so wonderful to meet all these creative people (which are a lot more professional in crafts than me) and I feel very privileged to be in a group :).
Coming Thursday we are going to have our first group stall at The Art Works galleries in Newcastle, which is going to be my very first "outing" :))
I am very nervous about it :))
I took out of the draws all my beads to finish them into jewellery, they covered the whole table! I didn't realize, how far I went with clay :)))
Some mess in my clay room:

My table:

The Russian doll was bought by my husband when he visited me in Russia, it lives in my room now :))

I have lots of different findings, but I never have what I need :))

I continue experimenting with additives in clay. Paprika is certainly my favorite! Two sides of one paprika heart:

Do you remember my beaded beads? I decided to finish them as pendants on a chain.

I need to replace a wire inside the golden one. I've temporarily put a copper wire in it.
Bracelets, as usual :)

My English blog

2009-06-15T01:19:00.001-07:00

I've decided to change this blog's function. From now on it will be an English duplicate of my Russian blog. Although I have removed the word "tutorials" from the heading of this blog, I will still post my tutorials here just the same.

A bead covered with seed beads

2009-05-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

Here is an idea for recycling large polymer clay beads you don't like.
Materials: large bead, painted into one colour (normally, to match seed beads), seed beads, a needle and a thin invisible nylon thread.

I have chosen two shades of gold and blue seed beads. Mixed them in a dish.

To stop seed beads from sliding down from a large bead, place a stripe of a double-sided sticky tape.

Pass a thread through the bead and stick the end of the thread to a tape.

Take 4 beads and join them into a circle.

For the second circle take 3 beads, and join them into a circle with a top bead of the first circle. Pass the thread so that it comes out of the top bead of the second circle.

Make the full row around the bead.

For the second row take 3 seed beads and join them into a circle with a bead of the first row.

Now take only 2 seed beads, and join them into a circle with 2 beads (one of the first circle of a second row, and one of the first row).

Make a full second row around the bead, then make a third row.

To reduce a row, in some places (according to situation, depends on a size of a large bead) pass a thread through 2 beads of a previous row instead of one, and count those two beads as one. Take 2 seed beads, and join them into a circle consisting of 5 seed beads.

A few more rows, and your bead is ready :)

Making large oval beads

2009-04-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

Beads like these:

I am pretty sure there is a lot easier way to do oval beads, but the more complicated the process is, the more interesting it is for me :))) And I think my way is very economic, uses mostly scrap clay.
The working area:
A two-layered square of clay. A layer of scrap clay at the bottom, the layer of nice ochre clay on the top. Lots of canes.

Filling area with canes' slices:
If you are interested in the process of filling are with cane slices go to see a slide show :) (I didn't out it in a blog, as it's a bit heavy)

Rolling out a flowery clay sheet:

Now it is smooth, except for the edges of the sheet.

Wrap a knitting needle in scrap clay:

Then wrap it into a slice of a flower sheet, adjust and smooth a joint line:

Cut a cylinder into segments (1.5 cm in my case)

Gently shape segments into ovals. My knitting needle is quite thick, so the hole in a bead will be quite wide, for the thick rope (as the one used on the photo above).
Bake the beads (I made a few pillow beads from flower sheet leftovers)

Here is the result

Covering Altoid tin with polymer clay sheet

2009-04-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

I made a tartan cane following Dora's tutorial (Thank you, Dora!). I didn't reduce it too well, the pattern have got deformed. But the colours are still nice :)))
Roll a sheet out of scrap clay. Place cane slices in a row, trying to match lines and colours. When all slices are in place, roll them until smooth surface.

It is important to clean the box just before covering it with clay. Wash it with a soap, or wipe it with alcohol and let dry.
Place a sheet of clay on to the bottom half of the box. Make sure there are no air bubbles are trapped between clay and metal.
At the corners of the box press the clay gently toward the box. While soft clay takes a shape of the box corners.
Very carefully cut off the excess of clay. The best way will be cutting it off bit by bit, say, first cut away 5 millimeters all around the box. then another 5 millimeters all around the box again. Then 2 millimeters and so on. This way you are not going to cut off too much clay. Smooth the edge of the clay sheet with your fingers, hiding scrap clay.
Bake the resulting half-covered box.

Cool down the box and cover the other half of it with the second sheet.

Decorate the box as you wish. Bake the box.

Two tutorials in one post - flower canes and daisy buttons

2009-03-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

We are going to make two kinds of flowers from this lot:

Making a skinner blend using pasta-machine:

Making a shaded plug. Cut the plug into 4 segments.

Place 2 thin sheets of dark clay on sides of 2 segments.

Making a "stamen" :) I mixed light part of leftover clay into one colour and rolled it into a snake. Place a snake in the middle of one segment, cover with another one. Press and shape resulting cane into roundish cane.

Join the two remaining segments of shaded plug, so the white sides face each other. Roll them to get the right length, and to fix two segments together. Wrap the resulting piece around the first cane, and wrap the whole thing with a thin sheet of dark clay.

Here you can do whatever you want with you petal cane. You can reduce it and cut it into 5-6 parts, form them into a flower and fill the background with translucent clay.
I prefer keeping petal canes as they are, as you can use them just for petals as well you can make flowers out of them any time.

Making a flower. Cut a small piece of petal cane, give it a shape of a drop. Slice this cane into small single petals. Place petals on a rolled sheet of clay and press them gently onto a base.

For the flower center I took some yellow clay, placed it in the middle of the flower and pressed it with an embossing tool.

A second flower will be a quick daisy, a very basic cane.

Making a cane for the center of a flower. Make a yeloow and orange cane out of many smaller yellow and orange bull's canes.

Making a petal. I used Fimo "Sahara" for contours and lines inside petal.

I tried two colours for the base of a flower. In the final creation you don't see a base att all, so the colour of it doesn't matter. In one of the daisies I've bent the petal slightly down, which makes a future button less fragile. Buttons of a last photo are still unbaked.

These are some of my fresh petal canes.

For these yellow and red flowers I used the same petal cane.

An Altoids box, covered with my new canes.

Making polymer clay cakes

2009-03-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Making a cake base:
I mixed white, translucent and ochre Fimo to get the right colour. Roll out the clay to a required thickness, then cut out the shape. While the cutter is still in clay, press out a hollow in a cake base. Remove a cutter and give a cake base right texture with a tooth brush and shape it with a knitting needle.

For giving a cake the baked look I mixed two pastels into a colour slightly darker than the clay itself. Then applied it just to the top of the base.

Making whipped cream. Mix some white clay and liquid clay to a smooth uniform condition. Fill a syringe with the paste and sqeeze it out onto the cake.

Decorate a cake as you wish. I used my strawberry cane and made a few whole strawberries.

I made a second cake from leftovers of the first one.

Slicing a cake. Give a rough texture on a slice's cut :)

That's it :) Bake a cake in the oven and then cool it down. Glaze the strawberries.

Then take lots of pictures :)))

Bon appetit!

My first cane

2009-03-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Being cross stitch addict in the past, I made my first cane with cross stitches :). Cross and square canes were extruded using Makin's clay extruder, then placed together to make a "cross-stitched" letter Z.