Posts

Necklaces and Clavichords

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My Necklace on the Clavichord Plans This past weekend Peter and I were busily working on our individual projects - I was making my first large hollow bead necklace while he was building a clavichord.  Usually the noise is out in the garage but this weekend he had some delicate drilling to do and needed to be in our Arizona room while I was working in polymer clay. Drilling holes in the soundboard of the clavichord This is the story of the necklace I made and actually it is the second such necklace.  I threw the first one away.  I tell you this just in case you think I never make mistakes! When I opened one of my plastic boxes, I found a layer of clay that had design lines made of various canes.  It dawned on me that it might make great beads.  I recently saw a video by Kathleen Halverson Dustin showing her technique and wanted to try it. sheet of polymer clay canes in design lines The first thing I did was to make scrap clay in the shape of the necklace and cover

Shiny Beads

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It's winter in Prescott and the cloudy skies and rain make me a bit depressed.  I needed to do something in color and Deb Crother's tutorial showing the techniques of liquid polymer clay was just the thing to brighten my day!  Thank you Deb!  http://www.debbiecrothers.com/product/curing-kato-liquid-clay-and-so-much-more-with-debbie-crothers Generally my beads are in a satin finish.  I find I'm not a shiny glitzy girl!  But when I say the way Deb finished her polymer beads I just had to try.  Liquid polymer ( Kato's liquid polymer is the brand I used) is a milky white semi-thick liquid that I applied to each bead with a brush.  Then I used the heat gun to cure it with crystal clear shiny finish.  Wow!  What a difference.  The colors popped and the beads seemed to have more depth.   The bead on the left has the liquid polymer coating. Debbie Crother's tutorial is well worth the price since she shares set up, techniques and tips for more that just maki

Creating A Music Box! - "The Impossible Dream"

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Polymer Clay Sheet Fabric that inspired the project Last week my post was about the process of making a polymer sheet of clay with design lines made from polymer canes.   The two pictures above are of the original fabric that inspired the idea and of the finished sheet.  The final sheet was so colorful and interesting that I wanted to use large pieces of it.   How to use it?   A friend gave me several small wind up music boxes about 2" x 3" x 1"  and I've been wondering how to use them for a couple of years.  Now is the time!  I'd made a box that combined both the music and the design sheet.   2 Finished Music Boxes Making a rectangular box was more difficult that I anticipated. First I cut 4 sides and a bottom from the design sheet.  I used a cardboard corner and cured 2 corners at a time and connected the sides with Bake n Bond to cure the sides together and to the bottom.  It worked but was hard to control.  That's the box on the