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| Lazy River Technique with Amethyst Chips |
By now, I've lost track of what day I've made what technique
in polymer clay. I do know that I am
enjoying trying the various ideas in Julie Picarello’s book, ‘Patterns in
Polymer - Imprint & Accent Bead Techniques’. I have never taken the time to explore a
technique book in depth and I find that I like being immersed in polymer with a
focus. Usually I flip through a book,
stop and look at something and go, “hmmm – that would be interesting to try!”
Today’s focus is ‘Lazy River’. My Lazy River is definitely different than Julie's but I use the same techniques. My colors are purple, green, teal,
translucent, glitter and silver. My theme is nature, leaves with shimmering dew,
moonlight through forests and swirling hidden streams. A friend gave me some amethyst chips and I
decided to use them as accents and work them into some of the layers of
clay. Just an experiment!
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| Large chips in circles for earrings, layered discs for buttons |
I stacked my
layers of clay keeping the darker greens for background. I took the green and imprinted textures
reminding me of leaves. Then I cut the remaining clay stack into two pieces, put them back together and imprinted my design with a
variety of tools. I cut slices from this
stack. The two pieces came apart and I lay them on my green background touching
and then spreading. It’s a fun way to
get dimension.
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| Large leaf is the 'lazy river' and will be a pendant I think |
The deeper I cut into the
stack, the less likely that the two pieces separated. I used those for beads and buttons.
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| Beads in upper right corner...very organic! |
It seems I was too busy to take pictures during this process
but you can see how many pieces I made.
After curing, I tumbled and sanded.
The pieces have great sparkle and the tumbling made the beads smooth
without looking smooth. I was concerned
about the amethyst being too sharp but it isn't. I can’t wait to make a necklace with
them!
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| Lots of pieces to work with! |
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