Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

http://www.etsy.com/listing/124597313/go-a-little-wild-brown-black-necklace?ref=shop_home_active Having a cold really slows a person down.  I rested, drank liquids and ate chicken soup.  Finally I just had to play.   Since seedpods have been on my mind lately, I made a polymer cane that I think looks like the inside of a nut!  I made earrings, beads, and buttons with it.  I made a bangle bracelet.  Then I decided to play with animal skin canes.  Leopards, zebras and giraffes!  More beads and buttons and bracelets to add to the collection.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/124595458/animal-skin-bangle?ref=shop_home_active It is probably a good thing I just had a cold because I could really get carried away with wild animals and even nuts!

Sea Anemone Underwater creatures just fascinate me.   Their colors and shapes and habitats capture my imagination.   No I don’t scuba dive or snorkel because …well to be honest I’ve always been scared of the water.   It took me two summers to pass the beginning Red Cross Swimming class.   I’ve learned to enjoy the sea life in glass bottom boats and aquariums.   I’ve also learned I can take really good pictures in those places. My photo of a sea anemone inspired me to make a polymer clay necklace.   Actually, I’ve been thinking for months about how to construct the necklace.   When ‘My Clay Fantasy’ (a FB group) had their recent ‘Underwater Creatures’ competition, it was just the push I needed.   I started with Skinner blends ranging white to fuchsia and ye llow to green.   Then I stacked layers including translucent clay to make striped canes.   Graduating the colors from yellow to green to fuchsia gave a fun 3-D effect.      A circle of paper formed into a shallow c

One of the things I love about Facebook is being directed to tutorials concerning subjects of interest to me.   For instance, I’d been playing with swirls and lentil polymer beads when I spotted a link chock full of helpful hints.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6Oq0G54jIYk   Thanks to Cindy Lietz, my beads look much better and I understand about getting the colors more or less where I want them.   If you haven’t seen this video, you just might want to!   A few months ago, I made red and white and ivory canes based on a quilt pattern design.   I made them in various sizes of squares and put them away thinking they would be great for the Christmas holidays.   This week they came out of their box and I started making buttons and earrings. What to do with the scraps?   Lentil swirl beads of course!   I’m having such fun forming my polymer balls and putting the scrap canes in a band around the outside.    Then I take my clear acrylic sheet, start

Lace transfer in center of ornament I did it!   I finally got the transfers to work!   Last Friday, I told you about the class I was taking on line (Heather Campbell and ‘Lady Luck Pendants’) and how I did not have the clay softener for the transfers.   If you missed that, please go back and read about how I decided to do Christmas Ornaments my way instead of making the ‘Lady Luck’ Pendants.   Also check out the other classes on this site: www.craftartedu.com    Lace Photos Transfered to Unbaked Polymer Clay   There doesn’t seem to be much sense in taking a class unless you try all the techniques.   This week I have all the ingredients and decided to follow the instructions for transfers!   Yes, putting the clay softener on the rolled out clay and placing the toner based lace designs face down on the clay with the softener between generally worked.   I had to really burnish the back of each design and as you can see from the photos some worked better than others.   I was abl

Peter loves me!   He has spent many hours/ weeks/months (take your pick) making me an 8” deep cabinet that fits under the overhang of the peninsula between the kitchen and the dining room.   It is made of maple, glass and love.   There are five lighted sections.   It is a beautiful place to display and enjoy family treasures.   When the glass doors were installed, I was given bronze plastic rectangles to apply where I wanted.   They were to keep fingerprints off the glass.   They were ugly!   What to do? One of my favorite china patterns is ‘Thousand Faces’.   I love the bands of color and the gold overlay.   Polymer clay was just right for making a cane similar to the color bands of the china.   I decided to make a thin black box for the cane.   This is the cane that fits in the black boxes!   I baked it first.   Then I used Sculpey Bake and Bond to adhere the cane to the baked box.   There happened to be a bottle of gold Adirondack Ink in my paint box and a st

I just took Donna Kato’s class CONTEMPORARY SQUASH BLOSSOM PENDANTS from Craftartedu.com As I was about midway through the video, I realized that this might be one of the few classes where I actually stopped the video to make the project at each step just the way it was presented.   The end result was very close to the class photo with a few exceptions to color shading.   I’m very happy with what I learned and with the piece.   While making my squash blossom, I followed the directions for mixing the colors, backing the cane slices and applying the canes, etc.   Copying a piece makes me feel uneasy and that’s why I tend to just watch the video or take classes that show a technique and turn me loose.   Could be I’m missing some of the finer points that way!   Thanks Donna Kato! After I finished the pendant, I decided to use some of the leftovers and make buttons and beads.   Sharing some with you. Buttons ready to sell! Might be my next creation!

A few weeks ago, a friend took me to a great little quilt shop in Prescott Valley, AZ. Quilt ‘N Sew Connection     www.QuiltnsewConnection.com   My friend, Luana, quilts.   I don’t but I do love to look at fabrics and how patterns are being put together.   I noticed the buttons on the checkout counter and found out some were polymer clay.   The owner and I chatted and she said it would be nice to have a local source for the buttons. If you’ve been following my blog posts about polymer clay extrusions and buttons, you know I’ve been experimenting and getting a system that works.   I made several buttons (27 to be exact) some are one of a kind and some two of a kind and even 8 of one kind.   I was wondering how to package them and came on the idea of using thank you cards from a previous business.   They had my logo on the front that I could cut off and attach my buttons with double sticky tape.   It worked!   I put them in a box and Luana and I went back to the quilt store.   I

The red and light beige finished quilt pattern What to do with those scraps?   Having been raised in Missouri and having an artist for a mother taught me not to throw away leftovers before I played with them to see what they could become.   I finally finished the red/light beige quilt pattern I had been working on in polymer clay and after storing the canes, I had scraps.   For anyone who does not know about polymer clay extruders here is a quick description.    Makin's Ultimate Extruder There is a tube with a plunger and on the other end of the tube is a cap where you place a disc with a shape cut out. The clay is pushed through the tube and out the cutout in the disc.   The shapes are then put together to form a pattern called a ‘cane’.    The cane in this case is a square and can be reduced or lengthened to be the size I want.   You can see various sizes in the photos.   The design continues through the entire cane making it possible to slice several pieces

Finished Button and Beads After two days of being on the phone with a credit union, a bank, Medicare, and social security, I needed a distraction.   It was time to open my new package with the polymer clay ‘Ultimate Clay Extruder’ by Makin’s and the Bullen’s Wullens Driver Adapter.   I’ve had these tools for weeks and just kept putting off setting them up.   Found an old variable speed drill and I’m ready! This project started when I signed up for another online ‘Craftcast’ class.   This time it was ‘Extrusions’ with Cynthia Tinapple.   http://www.craftcast.com/class-or-recording-item/279652-learn-to-make-extraordinary-polymer-clay   I attended class and was intrigued.   Of course I ordered all the tools to make the class project and waited.   This evening I watched the class video again and assembled everything.   After conditioning 6 colors of clay, I rolled them through the pasta machine on the widest setting.   I used the Kemper Cutter to make the correct size circles of al