My First Polymer Clay Buttons

If you’ve been following me, you know I like to work in many mediums and learn new techniques.  So when I bought Donna Kato’s book, The Polymer Clay Millefiore Techniques, I knew I’d be making canes! http://www.amazon.com/The-Polymer-Clay-Millefiori-Techniques/dp/0823099180/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340064070&sr=1-1&keywords=Donna+Kato.  I also took several classes online with craftclass.  www.craftclass.com 
One day I was playing around on Facebook and joined a group of polymer clay addicts!  ‘Just Polymer Clay Tutorials’ where artists post tutorials about polymer clay for free and for pay.  I’ve downloaded several, watched a few and was sure I could do any of it!  I understood the concept.
A friend and I took a trip to a quilt shop. She quilts – I don’t!  I wore my new brass/polymer bangles https://www.etsy.com/listing/102355695/classy-bangles and that got me some attention and started a conversation!  The owner showed me the polymer clay buttons that she buys from Albuquerque and said, ‘It would be nice to have a local source!’   You see where this is going don’t you?
My friend had just made me a quilted tote for my birthday and I decided to make a button that matched the fabric.  As I worked on this first button project, my ‘I can do anything attitude’ became….’I can figure this out!’
I mixed my clay to be the color I thought would come out butterscotch.   After adding the surrounding colors, I remembered a lesson in color mixing.  The color changes depending on the adjacent colors
Stages of getting the right color!
Lesson two – Putting warm clay in the refrigerator helps keep a shape.  I worked with the clay long enough to get it mushy.  So much for the nice pointed ends on the long oval shape. 
Colors I used in the button

Finally I made the center cane and liked the colors and shape.  The white background sheet of clay was ready for me to start placing the designs.  I started in the center and worked my way out to each side.  Yeah! It looked good until I realized that I had not added the white around the center cane.  After experimenting and much to do, I finished it and baked it.  I must say I am happy with it. 
Lesson three – Tutorials are there for a reason…practice.  Like anything else, good quality work requires practice.  I’ll be working through some tutorials and small projects to develop my skills!
Lesson four– Matching the fabric exactly may mean that the button disappears!  In this case it does not because the stripes do not line up.  Next time, I will take a design element from the fabric and enlarge it.  After all, I want my buttons to be noticed!
Not ready for button sales but I’ll get there! 
Finished buttons and fabric
Labels:
Location: 100-198 E Goodwin St, Prescott, AZ 86303, USA

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 22, 2012 at 8:35 AM

    I really like the buttons with the fabric. These are awesome!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning As We Go!

Image
Viking knit is the oldest method of chain making and I've become fascinated by it.  Once I conquered the single knit, I decided to add beads.  I could have googled or asked how it was done but it seemed like something I could just figure out.  And I've learned a lot as I proceeded first with tumbled turquoise beads and then with pearls.  I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.   Iif you want a great tutorial on viking knit technique, Trina Ann at http://blog.trinaann.com/  has written a clear concise easy to understand tutorial.  I highly recommend it.    Tumbled tuquoise beads in viking knit  I used tumbled turquoise beads in the first viking knit chain and I did not really know what I was doing.  But I went right ahead and as it turned out, I liked the end result.  Since the beads were irregular in shape there was a random quality to the finished product. During that process, I began to really understand the technique of viking knit.  Loo
Read more

Spring Do-Over Challenge

Image
Re-do of Original Pieces Plus My Art Beads  I’m hooked!  The Do-Over Challenge that Jeannie Dukic ‘JKD Studio’ www.jkdjewelry.com offers has become something I look forward to.  Jeannie sends pieces of her ‘old’ jewelry to those of us who sign up and we get to create something new from them.  It does not matter if we like the piece she sends because we take it apart, add beads from our stash and create a completely new piece.  It’s a great way to recycle. Original Necklace and earrings When I received my piece to re-create, it lay on my bead try for a while as I sorted through the possibilities.  There were 3 art beads that might work but only one yelled, “Me!  Take me!”  Fortunately I had more of the polymer cane that was used for that bead because I wanted smaller one to go with the big chosen art bead.  The green chips were to be filler beads highlighting my art beads.  Large 'Take Me!' bead! I made two pair of earrings.  One pair could be part of
Read more

The Draw of the Mojave Desert or Why I Started Designing Jewelry

Image
When you look at my etsy stores you see Mojave Stone jewelry .  In the 1970's, my father and two brothers mined a stone in the Mojave Desert in the middle of nowhere California!  Actually, the mine was somewhat but not very close to Desert Center.  It had been a gold/silver mine before they staked their claim and began mining stone.  My family lived in Missouri and the stone had to be trucked from the desert after strip mining it.  I was married and away from home so I got to hear the stories of making a road, fighting off bees, surviving the heat, being careful of the critters and all the other 'Wild West' excitement.  And I did not have to rough it! Dad was going to retire (some day) and make and sell the polished cabochons (a stone cut and polished usually with a flat back and a convex top) for jewelry.  In the meantime, he had some distributors sell it, some metal smiths create pieces, and he trademarked it as 'Mojave Royal Blue' and 'Mojave Stone'.  He
Read more