Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

My polymer interpretation of a piece of fabric A piece of fabric caught my eye in a fabric store and became the inspiration for my current project.  I started out wanting to make a lot of polymer canes (sticks of polymer with a design running through them) in colors that would go together but not match and would make me happy.  I also wanted to use up my Sculpey polymer clay that was getting old.  I used all the colors I had left and combined them in design strips of various sizes.   The wave design you see makes me think of fabric and gives a counterpoint to the structure of lines.  The piece above is approx 5" x 7" and it really does make me happy to see it.   Canes made into design strips Here's a little about the process:  The packages of clay were conditioned so they would be easy to work.  I made sheets of thin black polymer to use as wrapping for the finished design strips.  I think the black delineates the strip and pops ...

 It's time for experimenting and sharing!  This week I played with silk screening metallic powder and am pretty excited about the results! Starting with Helen Breil's silkscreen 'Pills and coffee' www.helenbreil.com/silkscreens , the tiny holes in the silk screen really make beautiful designs.  I used Ranger 'Perfect Pearls' powder  that come in a set of 4 metallic colors.(copper, bronze, silver and gold)  Little sponge applicators (in the package)  make rubbing the powder into the screen so easy.  If you brush the powder be sure to use a separate brush for each color.  Otherwise the colors mix together too easily. I used black polymer as the base and screened on the copper shown in this picture.  It was also easy to screen the pattern on the rounded shapes.   Really a nice look.  The powder adhered nicely after curing. Silk Screen I used Metallic powders I used Copper Metallic Silkscreen on Black Polym...

Large Detail of rocks at The Dells It's been a pretty full holiday season already and it's almost Christmas.   This fall my younger brother and his wife came for a visit (something I never thought could happen for health reasons).  My nephew Matt came for a visit and it was wonderful to get to know him better.  Peter and I were tour guides and as often happens we saw places we had not seen before and got a little different perspective on things we had seen.  Matt in front of some of the rocks at The Dells We are co hosts of a holiday party coming up and attended another neighborhood party.  Long time friends from Tucson came to visit and we are feeling blessed with all the love from family and friends.  I am reminded of how special each person is and how important it is to acknowledge individual talents.  This month I'm finishing several projects that I started or wanted to start throughout this year and thought I'd share a few...

  I grew up looking through my mother's and grandmother's button jars.  In fact, I still have one of those jars.  There is something about seeing and feeling those round, oval and square shapes that fascinate.  Some have pictures, some are in relief and some are just colorful and all are pieces of history. When the owner of a fabric shop asked me is I could make polymer buttons, I said "Sure"!  Having worked in polymer clay I was positive this would be easy.  After a lot of learning and practicing it is an intriguing enterprise that takes patience and is fun! My latest button inspiration came from a friend who looked at the buttons in my display and said 'Red and Black'  You need red and black and maybe burgundy for the season!'   These new buttons will be in showing up my display case and in my etsy shop though out this month.  My process begins with conditioning the polymer clay and then make polymer canes in dif...

Eight years ago we went to Ecuador and, of course, I took hundreds of pictures.   A few of those pictures were taken in a place where there was a Reptile House and lots of flora.  In a small area of the garden was a plot of the most interesting white succulent plants.  They reminded me of the green agave in Arizona but the ones in Ecuador were white.  It felt like I was seeing a black and white photograph.  White Plants of Ecuador - real color! A few months ago, the Prescott Art Market decided to have a quarterly art competition and anyone that had their work in the market could enter.  A 20 x 20 canvas with black edges done in colors of the season was the requirement.  I did not participate in the autumn competition but decided for the winter competition that I wanted to do something with polymer clay using the white plants of Ecuador as inspiration.  What I had in mind was a 3 dimensional painting made of polymer and everythi...

Light changes the world!  The late afternoon light enhances the clouds and brings out the shapes and shadows and gives a sense of peace.  We camped across from the Vermillion Cliffs on our trip home from the Grand Canyon.  I've always been fascinated with the myriad of colors that play across those rocks. Opening my eyes slowly to a world about to awaken, watching the sun color the sky, listening to the early morning sounds of birds and critters is a magical event.  There was only nature - and me!                 Color Scattered  The Vermillion Cliffs in the early afternoon sun.   The sun travels as the light changes telling the story of the day. May you notice and appreciate the beauty of each hour of your day!

An inspiration for a necklace! It's been raining a lot around our Prescott area  and mushrooms of various kinds are bursting through the ground.  On a recent trip to Tucson we went to the Sweetwater Reclamation Area (a favorite place to see birds) where we found more fungi.  I've been fascinated with fungi for years and have accumulated many pictures!  Thought I'd share some with you this week.   These tiny umbrellas are less than an inch in diameter growing next to a potted plant I find the colors, shapes and textures so interesting.   I don't know their names and need to look those up. In the meantime I'm sharing their beauty! Beautiful flare to this fungi Another angle of the flared fungi Stacks of bracket fungus I love how the bracket fungus attaches to the curve of the tree

Looks like leather!  I used chalk, guilder's paste and Golden's paint Silk screening on polymer clay seems to be a big topic of interest lately with lots of Facebook posts and tutorials.  Guess it's time for me to try something new!  Helen Breil has a great tutorial (free) to get us started.  http://www.helenbreil.com/silk-screen-demo.html   After watching Helen's tutorial as well as others, I decided that a rainy day would be perfect to start experimenting.   I used to do silk screening on fabric in college and this is the same idea. I took my Kato white polymer scrap clay, conditioned it and put it through the widest setting on my pasta machine.  I put it on a piece of paper to leach (that makes the clay stiffer and not so soft and squishy).  My stencils are made of paper that I verathaned to keep them waterproof so they would last longer and one small metal stencil.  I've ordered a couple of Helen Breil's stencils but...