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Delicate, summery flowers and little bobbles make this necklace a light and airy piece to whip up. The polymer clay flowers that are constructed could easily be any other colour, depending on your whim. Deep red roses, darker chain and … Read More...
These beads look like the composite or faceted eyes that some insects have. The use of mica powders gives the whole piece a nice shine and colour variation. Andrea Machler, the author, refers to the mesh she uses as tulle … Read More...
The charm of this type of cane and bead or applique is that you could use a skinner blend instead of the simple black and white bullseye for the full colour effect. Or you could use solid colours or varying … Read More...
Almost all of the polymer clay work I do involves canes – canes to make beads, to decorate bowls with, to add to sculpted pieces. Some of those are simple canes and some are more complex. One type I’ve done … Read More...
In case you haven’t checked out CraftArtEdu.com – a site started by Donna Kato a few years ago – you should! There’s plenty of offerings in clay and other media. There’s even some freebies here and there. Deb Hart has … Read More...
Here’s a picture tutorial for a tiger skin cane (what got used to make the nifty beads pictured above I’m betting). Animal skin patterns are often fairly straightforward canes to make and are forgiving of reducing and asymmetry. Tiger and … Read More...
Rose canes are one of those canes I make absolute scads of. I usually use a slight variation on the tru-leigh rose and it works well for me. This one is a more tightly wound rose that would look lovely … Read More...
Great clay trinkets! Amazing with one theme – adornment – and one material that people make such varied and interesting work:
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| Beehive and Branch Necklace by blockpartypress | Goldstone and Goddess by sculptedwindows |
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| Crossword Cat Brooch by catmadecom | Silver and Black |
Julie Picarello makes fantastic mokume gane and there’s a freebie tutorial on Sculpey.com with instructions for it. The tutorial uses Sculpey’s new Soufflé clay but I’m betting you can tweak the colours in the clay of your choice to make … Read More...
When I teach classes for new clayers I always do a variant on this rose to give people confidence. You can make a great little rose bead in moments and if you hate it, squish and try again. Most people … Read More...
Isabel Krueger rounded up some of the good notes and (sourced them even) and popped them into a handy polymer clay basics document.
You should have a peek and bookmark it.
Everyone always has slightly different takes on the … Read More...
Make a lucky penny keychain! The tutorial makes a neat embedded piggybank keychain. The bake times are a little low – I would bake an hour or so for this just to make it durable. If you keep the temperature … Read More...
Amy decided her Premo and her cab molds would be the answer to a gift giving dilemma. She whipped up marbled dangles to use in earrings. The tutorial shows off Polyforms new cab mold which is pretty nifty. My only … Read More...
The Crafts Channel has a video tutorial on how to use Fimo Air to create a mobile. Fimo Air – and the similar Sculpey products – are great for this kind of work where you want to hang larger pieces … Read More...
Rachil of The Cwafty Blog has a tutorial to make a mini stylized carousel – something I actually haven’t seen in polymer clay, really. You can totally put your own spin… I’d probably make this sort of dimensional object into … Read More...
Beautiful, summer days here. Gardens, no snow, swimming and sandals are all summer cues for me. Of course, doing production clay work means that at the height of summer I am working on my fall and winter pieces. It’s the … Read More...
This one’s simple and adaptable. you can add designs and paint and textures. And while I don’t recommend using Fimo clay for food you could finish it with food-safe resin and it would probably be safer to use to … Read More...
Here’s a tutorial – this links to the first steps, with the others found in the photostream – by Patricia Roberts-Thompson for a great cuff bracelet. There are photos and text explanations (in the photo description) for each step. The … Read More...
Emma Ralph makes fabulous clay beads and here’s a free tutorial of hers. The technique creates a faux anodized aluminum look. She uses her ultrafine glitter in the tutorial but mentions you can do this with mica powders or other … Read More...
A cute necklace with a pretty bow on it. The tutorial uses simple clay techniques in the colour of your choice to make a great little decoration for a necklace. You could use strips from a blend to add dimensionality … Read More...
