Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

My Inspiration - Collection of Sea Shells Every year my collection of seashells increases.  If I find a really interesting shell at an estate sale I buy it.  If I'm walking on the beach I'm looking for unusual shells.  Apparently the love of seashells runs in the family as I now have incorporated some of my father's shells.  I love the variety of color and shape and love learning about the animals that left them. When I saw Donna Greenberg's latest installations of underwater polymer, I knew I had to use my seashells as inspiration to create my own polymer beach segment.  It was such fun to develop the shells.  The following pictures show the development of the mushroom coral. Basic shell shape I cut each oval in half and used a paper punch for the holes. I stacked each half and put a wire through them to create a circle. Find the finished mushroom coral below in another photo.  I experimented with many shapes and as I finished one I like, it went

Sea Snail 'Trap Doors' from Bahia Kino  My last two posts share my trip to Bahia Kino Sonora Mexico, my collection of sea shells, and how I'll use them in my jewelry.  The polymer clay molds from the shells (see the previous post) Silver Metal Clay Shells just out of the molds.  You can see the 'imbeddable silver connectors in two on the left. After experimenting with polymer, it is time for silver metal clay.  For those of you not familiar with this material, silver metal is cut into micro filaments and a binder is added making a pliable clay.  It is then fired at 1650 degrees in a kiln.  The binder burns out and the micro filaments of silver fuse together to make 99% fine silver.  When I saw these shells, I knew silver beads would be my goal!   'Imbeddables' are fine silver jewelry components that can be fired at the same time as the silver clay to become part of the piece of jewelry.  I sandwiched them between the front and back of the be

The Round Shells are the Sea Snail 'Trap Doors' in last week''s post  My 'shell project' started soon after we returned home from Bahia Kino.  (see last week's post).  I wanted to make molds and see polymer and silver beads form.   I started by conditioning my polymer clay to use for the mold material.  As you can see in the photo below, one side of the shell is molded in the brown polymer and the other side (which is a more shallow mold) is in the blue polymer.  There is also one mold where I used several shells and both sides for the design.  When the polymer is baked it becomes hard and makes great molds.  polymer molds and 2 of the shells Polymer Beads from the Mold The first thing I did was to use polymer to see how the details of the shells came out in the molds.  I made beads with both the shallow side and the deeper spiral side of the shells.  Both pieces are fired and a wire added for the connecting loops.  The wire extends each side

What do you do with too big of a collection?  Is there such a thing as too big?  too many? maybe! I'm sharing a couple of ideas today!  My focus when grouping or arranging like items (a collection) is to tell a story.  Any of my past design clients and friends know this about me.  Tell a story! One of my many collections has to do with magic and elves and fairies.  Bright colors, some glitter, some imagination.  There was an empty ledge at the top of my bookcase in my studio where I need some magic playing for my creativity.  So I grouped three of my elves with a polymer glitter flower, hung a butterfly and added an old birdcage music box.  Who wouldn't like to be part of that glimpse into fairyland? The second collection I'm sharing today is my seashell collection.  We've all seen the glass jars with seashells stacked and there is nothing wrong with that display.  But I wanted to see and be able to pick up the different types of seashells that I have.  So how