What goes around comes around - cuffs and rocks

Hi and many apologies for not posting for a while. I have been pretty busy 'making' and have a couple of pictures of new things I have made to share today.

The picture on the right shows 2 of several Rocks bracelets I have made since attending the Melanie Muir 2 x 1 day workshops in South London on June 9th and 10th. 
I really like the Mokune Gane effect and this fits right in with the Kimono fabric theme. I used a flower rubber stamp and a mixture of pearl and plain colours to get the 3D effect.


Here are a load of other bracelets that I have been working on. The other workshop with Melanie was her Cuff bracelet technique. It was nice to revisit the technique which had already been covered during the 2012 Polymer Pamper Play. I did have a dislocated finger at the time (still sore by the way )

Apple blossom and butterflies

The apple blossom is just coming out but the butterflies have all gone home for a warm drink and some thermal leg warmers. Brrrrrrrr

This Kimono pattern veneer was lovely to do. I used the Donna Kato 'component caning' method and built the picture from its component parts. The gold Premo background lifts the picture and gives it the look of a Japanese screen.

I cut three oval shapes from the veneer but mounted the other two in portrait direction.The component canes have a gold surround which I would leave out if I do this again.

The pendants are mounted on my favourite stringing material of the moment which is the wonderfully soft silicone rubber tubing that comes from France.

You can find it here.

Life is just too short for ironing - Kimono water Lily jar

As you can see by the tablecloth in this picture of my recent attempt at a water lily flower I dont iron. I dont iron on principle (and because life is just too short). In the 60s when we were all encouraged to burn our undies I thought that the ironing board and not the bra was the true symbol of womens enslavement to the home. The term Housewife implies marriage to the home doesnt it?
Anyway enough of that you will say (if you have any sense) :)
This flower uses the Donna Kato 'component caning' method where a picture is built up using small parts (one petal cane can create many different flowers).




Another view of the Kimono water Lily jar showing the leaves and the peacock cane background. There was a space when I applied the veneer as I hadnt intended it for a jar but had to use it quickly as it was drying out.

I filled the space with scrap clay and some end slices of a butterfly cane I made recently and used a few slices of the petal cane to create a blossom for the butterfly. The petal cane uses white and flourescent pink Premo clay and it really pops as you will see in the next post.

Cuff bracelets and Kimono veneers

At PPPII we had a cuff bracelet workshop with Melanie Muir. Thanks Melanie it was really great and I learned so much.

Here are a couple of examples of cuffs I have made since I learned the Melanie Muir technique incorporating more of my kimono veneers. The background to these is Pardo translucent clay. One cuff (the one on the right in the top pic) has translucent Pardo with a little green Premo mixed into it which makes the water above the fish seem milky green. The same cuff has a layer of Premo pearl clay beneath the fish.
The second cuff (on the left in the top pic) uses Pardo translucent alone and in a much thinner layer. The fish in this bracelet are stamped directly onto the aluminium cuff blank.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photographs, I only had a few minutes to take these and didnt have time to get out the studio lights and grown up camera equipment. The pic on the right shows the ends of the cuffs with the flower canes and slices of my Acer leaf cane. The cuffs have swapped position in this pic.
Alison thought the Acer cane wouldnt work because the leaves were not pointed enough but I like to think its in the true spirit of Impressionism (sloppy in other words). :)

I really like the translucent jelly roll canes with metal leaf in them that here form the surface ripples. They have a lot of uses for something so simple.

Kimono fabric pieces

I have been very interested in re-creating the feel of antique Kimono fabrics in polymer clay. Here are a few examples of my progress so far.
A friend at Polymer Pamper Play II (Ruth) gave me this bangle blank which was originally covered with leather which she had removed. I had already made the veneer using the peacock cane as a background and with applied flower cane and swirl slices so only had to fit it to the bracelet.

The ghostly hand is a plaster cast of my friend Angela's hand. She was impatient and wiggled her fingers in the algeanate so the ends of the plaster cast are not as good as I would have liked. Still its a good reminder of her as she now lives in Australia and this ghost of her hand lives on my bookshelf.

PS this bracelet shape is almost totally impractical unless you are Wonder Woman.

Kimono honey jar and Altoids tin

Here is a jar I covered with the last few slices from the end of my Japanese flower canes and a few slices of a transparent clay and metal leaf jellyroll cane (you can just see a slice of this one on the right side of the rim). I rather like this jar.

Here is an Altoids mints tin covered with the remains of the sheet used for the Kimono jar. There were a few breaks in the surface as the canes are pretty old and dry so I put a thin layer of Premo Frost on top before firing this filled in the gaps and gave a lovely surface to sand and polish. It feels really nice to the touch as the surface is so smooth and the colours and detail of the canes is only slightly dimmed by the extra layer..