Polymer clay flowers and knitting

I have been trying out some new flower moulds I recently treated myself to - they were originally designed for sugar paste but work beautifully with polymer (although you would need two sets if you wanted to use them with both).  They gave some lovely results and I produced lots of flowers in a short space of time. I used translucent clay with colours added, blue translucent and pearl.  They were all highlighted using mica powder, to add a bit of shine.

 The moulds I used were double sided and there is also a cutter to cut the flower shape first, then place it in the mould, add a small ball of contrasting colour for the centre, press the two sides together and voila!  A flower! They are versatile as the sizes of the flowers can be varied. I need to work on the colours a bit more but I can see a Spring flower necklace taking shape in the not-too-distant future perhaps.

The other thing I tried was pretend knitting in two different ways, both using the extruder tool.  One involved twisting two strands together, then another two in the opposite direction and then placing them side by side to create the pattern.
The other technique was more complicated and involved small loops of clay overlaid with a line which was indented between the loops with a cocktail stick.  I'd like to try these again to look like variegated wool, but I really enjoyed making them.

Latest polymer clay - Mokume Gane

I thought I would share my latest polymer clay experiments with you.  I have been investigating a technique called Mokume Gane (Mo-koo-may Gar-nay) which is from Japanese metalworking, where layers of metal are sliced through to create patterns. The same technique works really well in polymer clay.  I made a stack of purples and pinks, with a bit of silver polymer too and then impressed patterns into it.  I then sliced through the stack, creating the shavings you can see above.

 I then placed pieces together onto a base and created these pendants.

 I loved the swirly patterns - they reminded me of a machine at the fair where you could drizzle paint into a cylinder and centrifugal force would create a pattern.  Alternatively, they do resemble 1960s psychedelia too!

 For my next experiment, I used translucent clay, some tinted with purple, and glitter and foil and pearl clay.  Here's the stack I created with impressed patterns and some infills of pearl clay too.

These are the slices, ready to be put together.

 The finished result - quite subtle but I really like it. You can see the foil shining through the layers underneath.  I made some tube beads which I think will look like glass once they are sanded and varnished.

 I used the translucent clay with a tint of blue and some black, pearl clay and foil, for these.  I am really pleased with how they turned out too.

I have also decorated the backs, which I like almost as much as the fronts!
I used a fantastic book for techniques and inspiration - 'How to make Polymer Clay beads' by Carol Blackburn, which had lots of photos and very helpful advice.  I am constantly amazed by the versatility of polymer clay and particularly enjoyed using this technique.  I can see I shall be re-visiting this one!
I forgot to add that these are completely one of a kind - I couldn't replicate the patterns, even if I wanted to.  Isn't it great that no-one else in the whole world has pendants exactly the same as these?

Challenging myself

 I decided to give myself a bit of a creative challenge with my polymer clay skills.  I have been wanting to make some flowers for quite a while, so went onto some internet tutorials to see how it was done.  It all looked reasonably simple, so off I went to have a go.  Let me tell you, it is not simple at all!  Here are my first attempts at a sort of grape hyacinth (following the tutorial from make it with me) but my attempt isn't nearly as pretty as hers.  Of course, this is my first attempt and it will no doubt get better if I practise!

 Having mixed some nice purple shades, I thought I would try a simple flower shape.  Even that wasn't as easy as I thought.  Practise, practise, practise!

 Here are some beads which I am really pleased with (good to end on an optimistic note).  I have been struggling with using translucent polymer clay as my attempts hadn't quite worked out as I had hoped.  However, when watching Jewellery Maker one day, there was a polymer clay designer and she showed how to make foil beads using translucent clay.  I had a go, using silver foil over a variety of colours of clay that were in my scrap box and lo and behold...success!  I can't tell you how pleased I was with these.

Now I just need to use them in some jewellery!