Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Sometimes a special person asks for something and even though you had not planned on doing it, you say ‘Yes, of course, I will’!  That is how the second generation of polymer sun catchers came to be.  It’s been a while since I made the first batch when I was experimenting with polymer clay and alcohol inks.  I should have made some notes but of course since it was an experiment that expanded into a dozen eye catching dangles I just did not think I’d need them.  Previous post - http://www.lindabrittdesign.blogspot.com/2015/08/making-sun-catchers.html I started conditioning several packages of translucent polymer clay (Premo) and found that some were crumbly.  I softened those with Sculpey Clay Softener and continued to put them through the pasta machine.  (For those of you who do not work with polymer, conditioning the clay usually required putting the clay though the widest setting on the pasta machine many times).  Then I divided the white translucent clay in to sections an

Translucent polymer clay with no color added Translucent polymer clay has intrigued me for quite a while.  Every time I went to Hobby Lobby I would buy 3 packets of Pardo Translucent Clay.  When I asked if there were more, the response was, “Each store only gets 3 packets a month!”  I would have felt bad about taking all three but it was usually the end of the month!  The funny thing is that I did not use them often and now have a nice stash.  Of course, when you keep polymer clay a while, it can get crumbly and be difficult to condition.  Yes, that did happen to several packets!  It just takes more time and a little of clay softener to get the clay to the correct consistency.  Pardo seems to be the most translucent and you can actually see print through the cured clay. There are two beautiful polymer clay necklaces hanging on my studio wall that I made a good year ago.  I did not add color to that clay, edged the circles in wire and found it fun to work with.   The al

Does anyone else wonder what to do with their canes once they are complete?  My dilemma- what to make using my frog cane.    I made the charms with the frog on his lily pad and you saw it in the previous post but I wanted something more sophisticated!  After watching Barbara McGuire’s tutorial on translucent canes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48YOkLypJvE   I just had to try to use the technique she demonstrated and add my frog cane slices.   Polymer Canes  I love these beads!  And yes, I’ll do mor e of them.  Beads Before Curing Beads Before Curing Finished Bead Finished Bead Finished Bead Finished Beads I have another idea for a pendant with the frog so be watching for it!  Any other ideas for the frog canes?  I would love to hear from you.  And by the way, I’m trying to reach 900 likes on my facebook business page.  If you haven’t looked, please take a moment to click on www.facebook.com/lindabrittdesign .  I’d really ap

One sunny fall day while walking by Willow Lake I took some photos of lovely translucent white seed pods.  They were worn by the wind but still standing.  Their shapes were ragged and lantern like.  They hung from straight white dried stems and I just had to see if I could recreate them in translucent polymer clay.  I've been thinking about how to do that for a few weeks and decided it was time to jump in and experiment.  I thought I’d share some of the steps I took. First I bought my 3 packages of Pardo Translucent Clay at Hobby Lobby (all they had).  I had not worked with Pardo before and I love it!  Not sticky like some of the other brands of translucent.  I’m hooked! After making the lantern pattern, I found a great texture plate to give a cell like organic texture to the clay.  The clay was rolled to #6 on my Atlas machine because I really wanted the translucent quality. The first time I did not use wire and I like the look but it was not strong enough.