Trial new brooch designs

I had a mega session on Saturday, creating the new designs I sketched out the other day. I decided to make one of each of the eight designs, using the same coloured 'focal' piece for them all. For this I made a sheet of mokume gane, using purple, turquoise, green, pearl and translucent polymer clay and some silver metal leaf.  I was really pleased with the way the mokume gane turned out and it was great fun to make.

These are just the faces of the brooches, they will need the backs finishing - and judging by the results of my voting poll so far, I will be using locking pins. As I have made these brooches smaller, I will need to get some smaller pin fastenings (I have a new recommended source from America) but hopefully I will be able to get these completed to take to Coatesville. Although they are more fiddly to make smaller, the brooches look more delicate - and I think more 'valuable'.

Today I decided I had really better concentrate on getting my new screens and certain important things finished for the Coatsville Market. I have also started to paint a few more canvases for a few of my 'in progress' brooches, such as the one below which I think will be called 'Golden Mask'.

I recently bought some templates and included in the pack were four rubber stamps. I wanted to try out this one of the face. It is not the sort of thing I would normally buy (in fact I want to design my own rubber stamps) but I think it looks quite effective. I stamped it on to some striped polymer clay that I had left and layered it over gold metal leaf and gold Premo Sculpey.

Creative doodles

This was my first 'sample' brooch, made a little while ago. It incorporates my first cabochon made with the Cabezel Jewellery Mould, rolled silver metal leaf on polymer clay and plain polymer clay. I want to make some more of these brooches, using samples of the different surface and decorative techniques I practice, as I learn. I will sell these brooches on their own (without being mounted on a canvas) as a lower cost item because they will essentially be made from my off-cuts and trial pieces.

Thinking it would be a good idea to try and make some more of these in time for the Coatesville Market, I recently started on this task. Although I used quite different colours and textures, I felt that I needed to work on some other simple designs for variety.

Yesterday, I did some creative doodling. Using the same curved triagular shape, I managed to come up with eight different designs - and most of these can be flipped the other way for even more variety.

I think I should keep the original little cardboard template, that I used to create that first 'sample brooch', as it may become part of my 'signature series'. Normally I would spend ages designing a template shape, measuring angles, lengths, etc but as that first brooch was really an experiment, I just quickly sketched out the shape that came out of my head. It seems to work and I like it, so I will stick with it - spontaneous creativity is probably better than it being over-designed.

More brooches in the making

This weekend I have finally finished this brooch, which I started about two weeks ago. It has taken me two weekends to track down a circle punch of the right diameter for the round piece of metal leaf - so a big thank you to Colin, for driving round every scrapbooking store on the North Shore, here in Auckland.


This is just a scan of the brooch because, with the winter nights here, there is not enough light to photograph it this evening. I need to think of a name for it - at the moment it is just called Orange-Gold.

I have also started three other brooches but they are all in various stages of production. I hope I can get them finished in time to photograph them in daylight, next weekend.

Alcohol ink on metal leaf

Having just got Donna Kato’s book, ‘The Art of Polymer Clay Creative Surface Effects’, I thought I would try one of the techniques from it. I have had a couple of bottles of alcohol ink and some blending solution sat in my craft box for months (I originally bought them to use with Friendly Plastic), so I decided to try the alcohol ink on metal leaf technique, as I am very fond of rolling metal leaf into the surface of polymer clay.



This is my first attempt. I worked the ink too much and lost the distinct blotches of different colours (I only have two colours of ink) but the principle worked. I did as it says in Donna’s book and covered it with the thinnest possible layer of translucent clay. When it had been baked, I was rather disappointed that the black polymer clay background, showing through the cracks in the metal leaf, looked brown (not noticable in this photo). Also, the translucent clay top layer had dulled the shine from the metal leaf. I will try putting a gloss glaze over it, when it has been incorporated into a brooch design, to see if this restores the original look.

Maybe I baked it too long, or I should have covered the translucent clay layer with cornstarch (which I believe I read somewhere should stop it discolouring) or I should have plunged it into ice cold water after baking? I will have to do some more experimenting. Otherwise, rather than putting the translucent clay layer over the top to protect the metal leaf, I would rather use a glaze, so the vibrancy of the coloured metal leaf is not lost.

Polymer clay photo frames

I am really pleased with these little photo frames - my first proper pieces made from polymer clay. The frames have a metal base, so I was able to bake them in the oven complete with the clay. Each one has been made with a different technique. From left to right:
1. Colour streaked polymer clay with metal leaf and silver gel pen additions, coated with satin glaze.
2. Mosaic-style tiles, coated with artist's matt acrylic varnish (it looks just the same as the satin glaze - it is not actually matt). This one is still in progress - I need to get some black grout to fill in the small spaces between the tiles.
3. Mokume Gane slices, with metal leaf, rolled into a black base clay. I do not want to glaze/varnish this frame, as I like the matt surface. The metal leaf seems well rolled in, so I think it will be durable.

Trial polymer clay covered pebbles

Here are my first pebbles covered with a layer of polymer clay - they have worked quite well.

I was a bit concerned when making them that the clay might crack or bubble, or come away from the pebble, as I had not glued it on. However, after baking, the pc has made a nice smooth, tight fit over the pebbles. I will need to glaze the one with the metal leaf, to protect it, but for the other two, I am deciding whether to leave them as they are or to use a satin or gloss glaze to finish.

Thank you to everyone at Clay-Polymer Yahoo Group for your replies to my request for advice on covering pebbles and other recent polymer clay queries.

Skinner blend brooch design

Today I also tried an idea for a simple brooch design, using the Skinner blend technique. I started with a blended piece of polymer clay, made with a purple/pearl mix, turquoise/pearl mix and sea green. I have used silver metal leaf in different ways, for the moon and for the reflections on the surface of the sea. The lines have been incised with an embossing tool. As I do not have a silver leafing pen, I have used a silver gel pen (which I read about somewhere) to colour the incised lines. I will have to see what happens to it when I add a pin and backing sheet to this brooch and bake it again.

I intend to coat the sea with gloss glaze, so it looks wet, and also the moon, to protect the metal leaf.

More marbling, metal leafing and experimenting

Thoroughly enjoyed playing around with my new pasta machine, creating marbled pieces of polymer clay. I do not think I could ever get bored of this. At the moment I am just cutting tile shapes out of the ‘practice’ pieces (so there is no waste) but longer term, I am thinking of creating inlaid pictures, in a complete sheet?

I also absolutely love rolling the metal leaf into the surface (it is a good job I have a large supply of it – bought on my last course at West Dean College [UK] and then never used – until now). Here is a selection of my experimental pieces.





I need to start designing some real pieces to make soon. I will have to order some more colours of clay and an extruder gun would be good.