Clay, Color, Creativity

I love making these rocks.  I had a customer ask for a necklace with all black rocks.  I made this one but want to make a few more to give her a choice.  I made a few bracelets with the leftover rocks.  Rock on…

These rocks are so cool and fun to make.  Thanks to Kim Cavender for her wonderful demos at the Buckeye Clay Bash and to Cynthia Tinapple of Polymer Clay Daily for the Beach Pebble class at CraftCast.

Two big events in February .. the Buckeye Clay Bash Retreat closely followed by the Synergy II Conference in Baltimore.  My head is filled with new information and my studio has a few more tools and texture sheets (as if I needed them.)  Today I placed an order for the new Pardo clay.  I can’t wait to try it out in some Lindly and Maggie blends.

Our special guest at the Bash was Kim Cavender.  I love making the stones she taught and had enough to make a bracelet.  I spent the day today making more rocks & stones and will have a necklace and bracelet to show soon.

Since Kim was showing the rocks we decided to have a “nature theme” swap.  I demonstrated my flower fish as part of the swap and was delighted with all the fish that the attendees made.

In the January issue of  “Art Jewelry” magazine, Seth Savarick had an article titled “Go Big” where he gave instructions on making a bold bangle bracelet.  I followed his instructions to build the form but instead of using a silk-screened veneer I use Lindly’s bubbles.  This bracelet is HUGE and I would never be able to wear it but I LOVE it.  I call it my “Bodacious Bangle.”  I decided to make a smaller one that I could actually wear and I call it ” Baby Bo.”

I promised myself I would clean my studio over the holidays.  Every time I started to clean I would get distracted and end up claying so I gave up.  Today I pulled my book out from under a pile of skinner blends, conditioned clay & deli sheets, cleared some workspace on my table and started blending colors for the “Bargello Bead Project” inspired by Laura Liska  on page 75.

I didn’t get around to making “color scales”  with Premo metallics but I loved the hues I got when I made my “Pivot Tiles” so I decided to use them for this project.  I was really disappointed with the finished cane.  The blends weren’t as smooth as I had hoped and the lines distorted.  It would not have made a nice bargello pattern.  I sliced off a piece, thinned it out and decided it wasn’t a total waste.  I played around with it using some of Lindly & Maggie’s trademark shapes and came up with some fun pieces.

Tomorrow I plan to use Kato and refer to my color scales for help.  I hope to get better shading and straighter lines.

I probably won’t be getting back to the book until after the holidays but I wanted to post some pictures of what I have been doing in the meantime.

I wanted to skip ahead in the book and do the Bargello project but then I would probably never come back and do the color scales.  So at this time I am diligently working on my color scales.  I love watching the colors change subtly as I go but they are time consuming.  I plan to make the color-scale triangles too so I may not be posting for a while.

I skipped the “Ruffle Spiral Flower Brooch” project but decided to revisit it after Maggie ’s weekend extra.  I chose a light and dark purple but realized after making the cane that I needed much more contrast.  I liked the dark purple I had chosen so I kept it. I changed the value of the light color by adding more white pearl.  The book suggested that you added black to the dark color in equal proportions for the wrap, but I learned from making my pivot tiles that Kato black was much more concentrated than the others so I used less.  Actually, I used a lot less, and I was pleased with the end result.

The contrast in the second cane was much better so I decided to add a few more elements and made a cane similar to the one I learned in the Julia Sober workshop.  I love it.  I should enough to make several beads.

My Julia Sober Workshop Creations

I’m taking a break from “Color Inspirations” for a few days so I can play with what I learned from Julia Sober last weekend.  We had Julia here for a two day workshop.  On Saturday she taught her Faux Enamel Reversible Pendant and  Sunday was all about  Mixed Media Jewelry Construction.  Julia is a wonderful instructor and I loved the pace of this workshop.  Her calming personality brought out the creative spirit in everyone.  On Sunday, many had difficulty getting to the Art Center because of road closures due to the Marathon but Julia found a way to work around this and everyone was caught up by the end of the day.  If you ever have a chance to learn with Julia go for it.  I am posting pictures of the few things I have finished.  I have been coloring every chance I get so there will be a lot more Faux Enamel pieces in my future.

Last weekend’s extra was doing the watercolor beads.  I have tried making these before but my colors were too bright and they didn’t look good.  I made some blends to match the colors on my collage and set out to make the beads.  My first mistake was that I made way too much of each color.  My second mistake was not having enough value difference between the colors I chose.

After adding colors with more contrast I ended up with the Green & Orange beads.  The blue necklace is one I made after I took Maggie’s color class several years ago and I didn’t mud down the colors.

Maggie was in town for a book signing at the Beehive Bookstore in Delaware, Ohio this weekend and I attended along with some fellow guild members.  We were invited to Maggie’s parents home before the event and it was so nice to see their lovely home and visit with Maggie’s family.