Polymer Clay and That Thing That Happened...

There I was, being a Good Girl and resting on the sofa. I spent the past week making the blog rounds, rearranging the furniture (so to speak) on my own site, and watching a LOT of movies from streaming Netflix. My back is beginning to feel marginally better and I started to get bored.

For the past few days I went into the studio for a short while and found that something wonderful had happened.

I decided to make some pins and earrings using really old canes. The slices I made were cracked and crumbly (we're talking 6 months old here). So, thanks to Alice's advice, from Polymer Clay, Etc, I reduced the canes down: small, smaller, and smallest. I had no idea these canes, originally about 1.5 inches square, could go down as far as 1/4 inch. They made beautiful borders.

I began building my brooches with a single large slice. As I played with my new mini canes, I realized that I'd need to add some contrast between the center area and the borders. I textured some 18 karat gold leaf-covered clay and cut it to fit. Add on the borders and... "Wowzer!"

While reducing some of the canes, I stopped at about 1/2 in and tiled slices together to make a larger kaleidoscope design.

This I cut into several different shapes and added black and gold leaf borders. A few slices from my favorite flower petal cane added an exciting detail to these new earrings and necklace.

I also had some regrettable "junk canes" sitting in a drawer. I'd mish-mashed some scraps of clay together and added some blue and white as borders. The final result looked uninteresting, to say the least. I reformed the round cane into a rectangle and cut some slices. Add some black, gold leaf, and bright border cane slices... NOW we're cooking. The final touch: a single honey-colored Swarovski crystal in the center of the junk cane slice.

I have no idea where these new pieces came from. I guess I should take more time off!

~~~

Now I need to come up with a name for this new series of pieces. They remind me of old-fashioned tapestries and/or Persian carpets. What do you think? The person who comes up with the name I decide to use will get a special prize - a pair of these pretty earrings:

So spread the word to your friends. All ideas are welcome! Just be sure to leave your contact info in the comment you leave here. The contest will end on Sept 25 and I'll post the winner in a blog entry shortly after that. Thanks for your help. :)


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