Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

    Strawberries happen to be one of my favorite fruits.  I especially love them combined with rhubarb, but         really, fresh strawberries and cooked strawberries; straight out of the field or frozen…they are all good!     When I mixed this red polymer clay with gold and yellow and added green, of course, strawberries came      to mind.  This is my interpretation of a strawberry fruit with its goodness inside and out!      I've never used the manufactured paper balls that I bought somewhere (guess we all know about that!)     and started reading about them.  https://www.etsy.com/listing/115947922/cotton-paper-balls-for-polymer-clay?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted&utm_campaign=supplies_low&gclid=CKTouvLDhL4CFQpgfgod0jYA3A      First I wrapped the cotton paper ball in foil to keep it from sticking to the clay.      I cut triangles for the petals and placed them on the ball keeping in mind that it needed to be flower l

One of my goals is to use my last container of Hadar’s Steel XT clay!  I want to start on some of the new clay and am determined to use patience as I deplete my stash of the older clay.  Here goes a new project! Usually I just thumb through my new book Art Forms in Nature book by Ernst Haeckel but for this project I wanted to get serious and really think about the underlying structure or skeleton forms in nature.  Focusing on a couple of pages that reminded me of what sea creatures might look like under their shells, I sketched some ideas, closed the book and started to create. Mixing Hadar’s clay is so easy – as long as I creep up on the amount of water and not get it too wet - and it has a reasonable working time.  After mixing the steel XT clay it went into the refrigerator as I made the molds for my creation. Several months ago, this muffin pan, a treasure from a thrift shop, was sawed in half to fit into my convection oven for polymer clay.  It worked great. 

I've been stuck in seed pods this fall! This is my sterling silver piece.  I thought it might be difficult to mold the silver clay into the correct shape and of course I tried several forms to accomplish the support. Among some of the solutions were egg cartons (they were not quite the right shape), paper (it did not hold its shape) and microsphere clay (it was too crumbly or I did not have the expertise to use it). Finally I rolled the clay to 4 cards thickness and used my paper pattern to cut 4 sections of the pod.  This is the same pattern I used to make the translucent polymer pod.  Then I used big bead of air dry clay as supports for the sections.   I also used a special form I made to be sure the 4 sections would fit together correctly and dried them separately.  Once dry, I knew I could sand and glue them together with water and clay and they would keep their shape.  The same texture plate was used as in the previous polymer seed pods and love the way

My friend, Luana, makes beautiful quilts and fabric purses/bags.   When she asked me to make 4 large beads for the rope she wanted to use in her latest ‘origami’ bag, I was flattered!   And of course I said, ‘sure’.    And we all know it wasn’t as easy as that!   I had a package of Sculpey’s Ultralight Clay that had not been opened and I thought this would be a great time to learn to use it.   It was such fun!   I molded lots of large beads with the idea that 4 needed to be about the same size.   These were going to be handcrafted and I did not want them to look perfect (like a machine made them).   After forming the bead and made a large hole in the center, I cured them in my convection oven.     The colors in the fabric turned out to be a challenge with lots of pinks and oranges.   I started polymer flower canes and made several and did not like any of them with the fabric flowers.   I made more.   And then I realized that if I combined the pink canes with the orange

Peter and I just returned from a road trip to Utah.   We drove to Coral Pink Sand Dunes that were once (170 million years ago) covered with ocean.   We climbed a steep wet sandy hill of beautiful coral colored sand and stood at the top looking across miles of coral colored sand dunes, high ridges swooping into flat beaches.   We carefully walked among the Welsh’s Milkweed plants taking pictures of the lovely thick-skinned leaves and the globe-shaped blooms.   The thick skins protect the plant from heat, wind and sand damage as the deep roots tap into water under the sand and send horizontal runners making new plants.   These plants are only found in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona and are on the federally threatened plant list. This is where I began to pay attention to the repetitions of shapes and lines throughout the road trip. I always try to be aware of design elements around me and I enjoyed focusing on this idea. I think I could have spent hours studying this inte

Saturday August 24, I’ll be giving a 3 hour workshop on making polymer clay buttons at The Sedona Knit Wits (928-282-3389) just in case you want to call and make a reservation!).    I’m planning on showing how to condition the clay and using three different techniques for buttons as well as finishing.   The class should be lots of fun! In preparation, my supply list is made, the tools we will be using are collected or the coupons from Jo-ann’s and Michel’s are being collected and the knit shop is advertising. Using 2013 colors, I selected two color schemes with 3 colors each.   Each student will have a choice of 3-2oz squares in cool colors or 3-2oz squares in warm colors.   Next I wanted to find out how many buttons I could make out of 6 oz of clay.   I chose the cool colors of clay, my tools nicely arranged and my class goals typed beside me.   I was ready.   You all can probably guess what happened.   I got side tracked right away.   I made one button and thought “Oh wh

One of the best things about Facebook is being in a special interest group.   I belong to a polymer clay group and a metal clay group.   The polymer clay tutorials are listed and I always look.   So when Emma Ralph’s (EJR Beads) tutorial was recommended, I looked at it on her etsy site.   http://www.etsy.com/listing/113890791/polymer-clay-tutorial-by-emma-ralph I thought it was expensive and so I looked several times before I decided to buy it.   Wow! Was it worth the money.   It was well written and documented with many interesting pictures, techniques and tips!   In this blog, I want to show you some of what I learned and the ‘Illuminare’ beads I made. I followed her directions and took a couple of side trips!   The Thistle Medallion was one of the side trips. http://www.lindabrittdesign.blogspot.com/2013/02/thistle-medallion.html     This bracelet was another.   http://www.etsy.com/listing/124530104/dragonfly-bracelet I made the flat clay sheets and embellished

My newest tools have been on the floor long enough!   The doming kit and the Swantrom Disc Cutter Set were getting dusty and I was getting anxious to try them out.   Out of the box and unwrapped! Swantrom Disc Cutter Set Remember my trip to the junk yard in a previous blog?   My friend, Kim, and I divided the scrap metal and the wire and it too was sitting on the floor.   Right!   I could hardly walk to the work bench. I had a couple of polymer clay discs ready for something and I liked the blue copper (someone’s failed etching project) from the junk yard.   So I took the disc cutter and tried it out.   After a couple of tries with the mallet, I had a disc.   Wow! It works!   And a second disc and tiny holes in each of those. I was careful to leave enough blue copper around the holes I cut so that I could use the leftover for another project I have in mind. Next the doming kit…not as easy.   In fact, I watched a Beaducation video on YouTube about using it and I will prac

Not long ago, I cleaned out one of my sewing drawers.   I had a lot of pieces of vintage lace.   At one time I was going to make wonderful Victorian accessories but that time has passed.   Ashley Spicer is a friend who is so talented, the creativity just drips off her fingers!   She makes fabulous children’s clothes as well as ‘Elf Coats’ for grownups.      She just started making corsets and cuffs and uses recycled fabrics.   She was the perfect candidate for my laces.  Check her out at http://www.etsy.com/people/beTwitterpated    My cousin, Sally, lives in San Angelo and we share our love of art and living often.   When I told her I gave my laces to Ashley, she said, “You photographed them first didn’t you?”   Hmmm. Well NO I had not.   It seems Sally does a lot of digital scrapbooking and was drooling over what she thought I had given away with no record.   You never know …..   The day I took photographs of Ashley in her ‘Elf Coats’ for her art submittal, I also picked up the