Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Last week's beads Lots happening at our house this week!  I’ve been working on 2 translucent polymer necklaces from the beads I made last week.  It’s always interesting to see how pieces go together and what can be used that will accomplish what I see in my mind. The first one is made of oval beads, some with a black polymer edges and some with a silver alcohol ink edges.  I wanted the beads to overlap and dangle from silver jump rings.  The chain is made from glass gray spacer beads and each polymer bead has one of the glass beads hanging from a jump ring as an accent.  I think it works well.  I wore it to Chico’s and happened to find a blouse that went with the necklace beautifully!  Good thing it was on sale. lovely colors as the light comes through the clay against a black ground   The second necklace took even more thought.  I had to decide how to drill the holes in the polymer 3-d beads so a jump ring would fit.  I lost one bead by trying a too small

Translucent polymer clay with no color added Translucent polymer clay has intrigued me for quite a while.  Every time I went to Hobby Lobby I would buy 3 packets of Pardo Translucent Clay.  When I asked if there were more, the response was, “Each store only gets 3 packets a month!”  I would have felt bad about taking all three but it was usually the end of the month!  The funny thing is that I did not use them often and now have a nice stash.  Of course, when you keep polymer clay a while, it can get crumbly and be difficult to condition.  Yes, that did happen to several packets!  It just takes more time and a little of clay softener to get the clay to the correct consistency.  Pardo seems to be the most translucent and you can actually see print through the cured clay. There are two beautiful polymer clay necklaces hanging on my studio wall that I made a good year ago.  I did not add color to that clay, edged the circles in wire and found it fun to work with.   The al

Today I want to share some pictures of finished jewelry from last week's butterfly cane. I decided to use the scrap part (the beginning and end of the cane) and see what kind of designs I could create.  ( I have yet to cut into the 'good' butterfly canes.) Earrings         Pendants    Bracelets   Beads   Buttons Most of these are in my etsy shop  www.etsy.com/shop/lindabrittdesign

Inspiration comes from many sources – in this case a stylized butterfly on a pottery vase in a magazine. I knew it was time to play with my polymer clay.  Finding a photo of a favorite butterfly - the Monarch- and corresponding clay colors (some mixed and some straight from the package) got me started.  I'm including some pictures of the various stages in making the cane.  Maybe it will help non-clayers understand the process a little better. Ready for the white dots and then to reduce this cane. Adding the last bands of white dots to the cane.  There is a layer of black clay, rows of white snakes, another layer of black and another layer of white snakes.  This is added to the outside of the cane. It seems that every time I make a cane (clay in rods with color or pattern) it comes out much larger than necessary.  It takes more clay (I ran out of black and had to buy more).  The larger cane is more difficult to reduce. That’s just the way of it!  This

Chains and links fascinate me.  Every once in a while I stop and learn to make some.  Keith Lo Bue’s class using steel wire was such fun that I made a couple of long chains.  I also tried some in copper.  Steel Wire with hollow silver beads Copper Wire Chain While looking through a file of pages ripped from jewelry magazines, I came across Jude Carmona’s tutorial on silver chain.  (from www.WireworkMag.com   fall of 2013) and decided it was time to try her techniques.  I ordered 14 gauge half round silver wire.  While I was waiting for it to arrive, I made the first chain with 14 gauge bronze wire.  I cut the 25 pieces of 7” bronze wire for the links as well as all the pieces for the figure-8’s, jump rings and hook and eye clasp.  I balled the ends of the wires as directed and, of course, the balls turned a lovely pink while the wire between stayed shiny bronze.  But this was a practice piece and I continued on!  After all the links were made, I started assemblin

Guinea Hen The feathers on the backs of birds form patterns when birds fold their wings and sit, perch or walk.    Slate-coloured Boubou The male and females of the same species are different because the male birds are usually so much more colorful. (I've often thought that was unfair!)  Male Woodduck Female Woodduck I started paying attention to the bird’s back patterns in Australia when I took a picture of a bird on a tall stick and tried to identify it. (Of course, I can't find that picture for this blog post!) The bird’s back was toward me and the back is not a typical field mark.  Sometimes I’m so involved in looking at the feathers and patterns that I forget to look at the field marks for identification!  Great Argus  And color certainly helps form the pattern. Different sizes and locations of feathers on the bodies and the wings, the way the wings fold together, different colors and the different requirements for flight and cam