Faux Christmas Candy

For my friend Jen's December birthday, a set for her and one for me! She was so determined to see if you could make ribbon candy out of polyclay, she actually found me directions online. I invented the candy cane (so obvious an idea, how can I call it "inventing"?), and also the design of the peppermint ring, which was a tiny bit cleverer.

locket open:

Locket and Earrings

This is a technique from Mike Buesseler that I found in Polymer Pizzazz. I absolutely fell in love with his designs and I can't believe I pulled off one of my own! This locket may be my favorite project yet. The hinge is a pin backing with the pin and tang trimmed back. Brilliant.

Doing this project made me feel like a genuine polyclay artist. I learned that going slow and being very careful with each step really pays off..

3 Prairie Style Switchplates

I designed these switchplates for our makeover of the second bedroom, which we're doing in Prairie or Mission style. I adore the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, so I used some of his stained glass window designs for inspiration.

These turned out just perfect for the room!

2 Butterfly Bookmarks

The design of these was suggested by Christie Friesen's bookmark but ended up going a totally different direction.

Bookmark bases were made of a blend rolled thin and trimmed. I started out lightly etching the butterflies, baking, then going over the lines with gold leaf pen. I colored in the wings with marker and then highlighted with similar pearl powders, coated with glaze, and baked. This combination created a very nice enamel look but the gold leaf lines were blurry and the "enamel" needed more definition. So I used thin ropes of gold clay over the outlines and filled in with UTEE and rebaked.

I also learned during this project that the Makins clay extruder does not work AT ALL!

Gold Choker

Used premade macrame choker purchased at Bead and Button Show 2007.

This was really a fast project because I had leftover chrysanthemum cane (note to self--it's good that you hold on to all cool leftover scraps!). Added it to some gold clay to freeform the heart. Wired in the gold leaf beads and added the plastic flower bead after baking. Coated with Future for the gloss.

Green Choker and Earrings

Used premade macrame choker purchased at Bead and Button Show 2007.

Fun working with mixed media for various metallic and shiny effects: the foil, the leaf, PearlEx and metallic clays. Again, coated with Future for the gloss.

I concluded once and for all on this one that the gold leaf pen is not good on clay (see also the butterfly bookmarks). It mixes with the clay and discolors in an unpleasant way.

"The Collaboration Set" - Mahogany and Embossed Silver Bottles and Bracelets

I created a pair of bottles and two identical bracelets for myself and my friend CC Rogers, to celebrate our collaboration on the graphic excerpt of "As Commonplace as Rain."

The embossing technique creates a pattern in the clay even though it is smooth, and is achieved by pressing metallic clay with a stamp and then carving off the surface. It worked really well!

The rough scallopy edges on the mahogany pieces on the bottles were an accident of my clay-designated pasta machine. I thought they looked so nice I left them as is.

Trickiest part of this project was trying not to spoil the pretty grain when affixing the faux wood clay to the bracelet forms.

Rock Gardens

I bought the instructions for these from Christie Friesen online, as a great craft to do with my two daughters. And I do always love making rocks out of polymer clay! Katie, the premiere artist among us, made the great flower. Amanda, who almost never is crafty, did a fabulous job with her flower-less garden and enjoyed herself immensely... we were proud!

Slugs

Here's a second project that Katie and I did, also from Christie Friesen, that was featured in the October 2008 Polymer Cafe magazine. The use of unbaked clay to make stamps (spirals on my aqua slug, S-shapes on Katie's amber one) was really nifty.

Troublesome Cat Trio

I wanted to do a trio of cats for Christmas and then found the mini-light string at Michaels that was the perfect prop. I searched in Google images for other polyclay cats as well as cartoon cats to determine the cutest type of features to incorporate. Small ears, big noses, tiny eyes and stubby legs seemed like good choices. The miniscule toes were a sudden creative flash. If you copy my style, please link back to this page! I think the Trio could be changed up for different seasons. I could bury them in small silk leaves in fall, make lots of polyclay Easter eggs for them in spring, tangle them in red, white and blue yarn for the 4th, etc....cats can always find trouble!

Hitchcock Door Knob

This is the door pull on a cabinet my daughter Katie made for her sister Amanda for Christmas (Manzi is a huge Hitch buff). The cabinet is decoupaged with Hitchcock movie posters. I cut out the famous silhouette from a thin layer of black clay, attached it to an ivory clay square, and baked. I molded ivory clay around the original wood door knob and baked that separately, then glued the two together after cooling.

Cat Bookmark

I made a flat version of the cats above and combined it with yarn in an ingenious manner that serves as a bookmark! Thanks for the assistance with conception and execution, Katie.

Morpheus the
Dragon - based on Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" Comics

Use of thread in clay, mixed media

Interpreting a character in clay

Fans of Gaiman's famous comic book character, Morpheus aka The Sandman, will make sense out of this sculpture. The dragon style is another Christie Friesen-inspired design.

Morpheus, in the graphic novels, sometimes takes other forms but always retains some key characteristics. In creating this dragon, I imagined Morpheus if he were to take dragon form. That's why you will see that this dragon: (1) is black except for the fire motif in his tail, like the bottom edge of The Sandman's robe, (2) has The Sandman's trademark spiky hair, (3) has the same eyes, black with white irises.

The dragon's accessories are also Sandman-derived. The Sandman's powers rest in three magical objects: his strange helm (helmet) that sort of resembles an elephant head, his pouch of sand, and his ruby. Here Morpheus the dragon guards all three possessively.

I made the helm first, out of silver clay, with really cool stones embedded for the "eyes." The pouch is of clay but actually has fine cord woven in for the drawstring...I've never seen this done but it worked really well! The ruby is a Svorovski crystal bead on a "chain" that was made from fine chain mail ribbon.

To make Morpheus's unusual eyes I used black beads and filled in the holes with white pearl clay. Perfect.

I followed Christie's tips for how to decorate a dragon, including the black bead embellishments along the spine, the pudgy wrinkled look of the arms and legs, and the toenails. The "feathers" on the wings were made using a flat, triangular tool, and I really liked the effect.

It was also fun blending the colors in the tail to resemble The Sandman's robe!

This is the perfect pet for a Neil Gaiman fan, which I certainly am!

Dichroic Organic Pot

Wiring strands of beads into clay

I'm not gonna lie, this is one of my favorite projects yet. Sometimes the esthetic stars are just all aligned.

I started with a little round maraschino cherry jar, covered it with a blend of clays highlighted with Perfect Pearls (pearlescent powder) in gold, copper, blue and green, and baked. I strung various beads on copper wire and incorporated them into the embellishment of the pot with various organic shapes of clay. Then a little more highlighting with the powders, a second baking, and voila. I was amazed at how sturdy the wiring came out.