Making Frog Princes

https://www.etsy.com/listing/176165420/small-frog-charm-bracelet?ref=shop_home_active_1

 I found frog wrapping paper – not just generic frogs but Poison Dart frogs!  The wrapping paper frogs were caricatures of the real animals and I loved them.  I wrapped lots of presents in this paper.  I had some left over….and if you are like me…you keep it – for years!  Until you figure out what to do with it! 
Finished cane next to wrapping paper frog

After I learned to make canes, I decided to see if I could make my own caricatures of Poison Dart frogs.  And as you can see, I did it!  It took thinking, planning, patience and lots of polymer clay.  The finished frog cane was 3” in diameter and I reduced it to several sizes. 
I selected all the colors of clay I wanted to use and conditioned them.  Then I started rolling snakes of the different colors and stood them up next to each other using the picture (see photo) as a guide.  When I had to put the background around the color, I decided to use transparent polymer. 

Cane before curing - note the white color

As I was working with the clay, I came to like the white color next to the bright colors.  Along the process, I forgot the transparent clay would look different when cured.  I was a little surprised and disappointed the first time I took my frog prince out of the oven.  I've learned to wait and think before I do anything drastic when I feel that way.  Sometimes surprises are good!

Cured Cane with Translucent Background
Charms!  The first thing I would make would be charm bracelet for a young lady.  I had a sterling bracelet 6 ½” long and decided to use it for this project.  It was such fun to sit the frogs on lily pads for these charms and then to make the fill in dangles in coordinating colors.  The frogs really pop when light comes through the transparent clay.

Someone is going to love this!

6 1/2" Poison Dart Frog Bracelet









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Learning As We Go!

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

Giving New Meaning to UPCYCLE!