Todd's Toys and Miniatures

If you are interested in creating miniature polymer clay food, like these adorable gelatin dishes, surf on over to Todd’s Toys and Miniatures, and check out their Top Tips page by clicking here.

[tags]todd’s toys and miniatures, miniature food, tips and tutorials[/tags]

Fireworks Cane

Inspired by our U.S. tradition of Fireworks on the Fourth of July in celebration of Independence Day, I created this cane and wrote up a tutorial which you can visit by clicking here.

[tags]fireworks cane tutorial, make messes, polymer clay cane how-to[/tags]

[tags]polymer clay central july challenge, clebrations[/tags]

[tags]ipca, progress and possibilities, book[/tags]

from Polymer Clay Express

If you’re having a “Manic Monday,” but can still manage to carve out about a half hour of creative time, why not try making these small scrap dragons brought to you by Polymer Clay Express? The tutorial can be found by clicking here.

[tags]polymer clay tutorial, dragon tutorial, quick projects, polymer clay express[/tags]

by Seana

On Thursday mornings (ET in the U.S.,)  Jackie Sieben hosts a polymer clay chat, “Discussions from the ClayPen”  over at the Polymer Clay Central forums.

It’s a great chance to chat with fellow polymer clay artists, and ask questions if you are a beginner or are trying to solve a polymer clay related problem!

Chatters are encouraged to submit photos; some weeks there is a theme and sometimes the theme is simply “Artist’s Delight.”  Click here to see some of the latest work that chatters have created!

[tags]discussions from the claypen, artist’s delight, polymer clay chat, polymer clay central[/tags]

by Heather Powers

Last week, I posted Cindy Lietz’s thoughts on packaging.  When I saw this unique packaging idea from Heather Powers of Humblebeads, I knew I had to share it.    She’s offering a beach-inspired grab bag on etsy here, and has the beads photographed to look like the treat they are!

[tags]Heather Powers, Humblebeads, packaging, polymer clay beads[/tags]

picture courtesy of Naama Zamir

Idit Zoota has come up with a simple and easy way to reduce canes with no background.  Naama Zamir has translated the tutorial into english on her blog.  Click here to get the scoop!

[tags]Naama Zamir, Idit Zoota, cane reduction tricks, polymer clay canes[/tags]

So I printed out all the comments and the commenter’s name, cut them into separate pieces, and put them all in a hat.  Well, to tell you the truth it was a cardboard box. 

I drew a name  (well, actually my daughter drew the name while I held the box above her head,)  and the winner is…

Blanca B., you are the winner!  Please e-mail me your mailing address at polymerclay@craftgossip.com by Monday night!  Congratulations Blanca!

Don’t be too dissapointed, the rest of you – we’ll be having another giveaway soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it!

[tags]giveaway results, polymer cafe[/tags]

Buttons by Lisa Clarke

Lisa Clarke of The Polka Dot Cottage has a wonderful article up on her blog right now, titled “So you want to try polymer clay.” it’s full of great advice, tips, recommendations for books, and encouragement.  If you are new to polymer clay, or are just thinking about trying it out, go take a look!

from Desiree McCrorey's website

It’s December 30, and you know what that means?

It means it’s International Love Your Pasta Machine Day!

Okay, so there isn’t really an International Love Your Pasta Machine Day, but if you work with polymer clay you know just how very useful this tool can be.   So maybe we should just declare it the “First Annual International Love your Pasta Machine Day!”

When polymer clay artists began using pasta machines to roll out sheets of clay, it made incredibly complex canework possible, as well as that near-magical combination of colors called the Skinner blend.

(Here’s a link if you’re unfamiliar with the Skinner Blend:)

Instructions for a Skinner Blend

So, why not show your pasta machine a little love and look through these

Pasta Machine Basic Care Tips shared by Desiree McCrorey?

Or if you’re feeling extra ambitious, you can always try her

Extreme Pasta Machine Care

Are you a novice who just needs the basics?

Basic Use

And if you are already a Pasta Machine pro, you can take a look at her

Narrowing the width of the Pasta Machine tutorial

While you’re at Desiree’s site, don’t pass up the chance to look around at her intricate polymer clay and wire jewelry, here’s a sneak preview:

"Hidden Heart" by Desiree McCrorey

If your just starting out working with polymer clay, you might be better off with one of the cheaper ones like the Amaco brands. You never now if you’ll like claying or not.

Then again, you may have to end up buying a better one because the Amaco types tend to get their gears warped. When you get as far as buying an Atlas, you’re hooked, LOL! But, if you’re REALLY into it like some of us, you have to have the Marcato Atlas. They roll smooth without ripples, my Atlas doesn’t seem to get as “dirty” as the cheaper brand. But let me warn you, the Atlas’ brand will do the same if you put clay that is too firm or shoving too much into it isn’t going to help either. Make sure you soften the Kato clay some before putting it in the rollers.

Oh, make sure you are taking a hammer, acrylic roller, let me think, maybe a sledgehammer would be best for Kato brand clay, it tends to be a little on the firm side. Then use all that built up tension and swing like hell. Pretend it’s your husbands head after you just found out he forgot to mail an important letter!!!!!

Happy claying!

http://www.thimble.ca/?p=121 

http://www.squidoo.com/inkjetimagetransfer#module3026266

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/imagepaper.html

 http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/image.html

I’ve also heard of using the Golden mediums, but I haven’t dabbled that far along yet. I’ve been too busy trying to figure out how the all in one thingy printer works.

Oh, I can’t let you go without giving you an image to transfer … The butterfly images are graciously  provided by CassisCreations  of Etsy. I just love her images! You may need to click the butterflys once or twice before they are an acceptable size. They’ll get a bit bigger.

 OH! Don’t forget about the give-a-way I posted about back on 10/21/08. We will be giving away the newest issue of PolymerCafe this month and every other issue after that. This issue looks a lot better than the last few they’ve put out.  So, go vote at PCC then email me at polymerclay@craftgossip.com with your name and which entry you think will win. I will be holding out on picking a winner until the end of this month. 

I do plan on figuring out what works for me and the right transfer method needs to get here sooner or later. I prefer sooner, in the mean time, I will keep you informed

Have a great weekend

~~Wendy ~~

ps, if you want more links to tutorials or have been looking for one in particular , let me know. I may have a source

Hi ladies (and gents?) !

I was cruising around some old haunts on the web, and one of them was the Poly Clay Play website. When I found this gem of a site I was first beginning to explore clay. I love her site just as much today. Trish Hodgens is the owner of the Poly Clay Play site, which offers tools and unique supplies to help keep the polymer fun going with monthly sales. She also has monthly clubs for both, adults and children. There are free samples of a few of her her club projects on the site. Oh, and there are monthly challenges, this month was the Spooky Tabletop decor. It was a hard choice to pick from the entries . Last month the theme was “bugs”. That looked like a fun one also. She offers monthly kits for her members of the club to use with the challenges. Then, there’s the Yahoo group where you can keep up with the going’s on over there and to vote in the challenges.

The thing that I loved on the Poly Clay Play site; Trish has a new way of doing color-mixing recipes and it also cures the problem you may have of storing them. She calls her system ” Rainbow of Color System” “ The Poly Clay Play Color Recipes & Storage System”

Here is a small description from the website about her new color-mixing product- 

“The Poly Clay Play” website is a superb site for polymer clay beginners to start. The monthly kits have all the instruction you need and Trish doesn’t mind answering any of you questions. She has well stocked supplies of all kind of goodies, I spotted a texture sheet that’s gonna be mine! So, beginner or pro, at least check out her supplies!

A comprehensive kit with everything you need except clay.

Color chips at your fingertips. Easy to See – Easy to Recreate !

Poly Clay Play’s ~ Rainbow of Color System Everything you need to create and save your recipes!
Binder	Recipe Card Pages hold up to 180 Recipes
Printed Recipe Cards for your New Polymer Clay Recipes	Pre-Printed Recipe Card with lots of colors to try
Inventory Sheets	Shopping Lists
Polymer Clay Color Charts	Web Access to New Color Recipes
Step-by-Step Easy to Understand Instructions for making your own or following the included recipes.

Color chips at your fingertips. Easy to See – Easy to Recreate!

 Let me know if anyone has one or gets one, so you let me know how easy it is.

[tags]Polymer Clay – General, color recipes, Poly Clay Play, monthly kits, challenges, website review[/tags]

So that’s why I’ve ordered a Lortone tumbler. It’s the smallest one they make, but that’s all I need for no more than what I do. Besides, I’ve put it off as long as I could. I just didn’t want to fork out that much money on something to do the job when there wasn’t anything stopping me from doing it. Well, something finally stopped me, paaain.

I have been on the hunt for a Lortone (rock) tumbler for a few days now. I’ve scoured the web for the cheapest price I could find. I’ve been up and down the aisles of Ebay a hundred  times these past few days. I didn’t really want to buy from there, some of the sellers try to make major bucks on the shipping charges and that burns my buns. I compared many sellers from there and not to mention all the rockhound stores on the web that carry the tumblers also. Just when I thought I had my choice weeded out, I’d find something else I needed more info on, sizes, models, warranty’s, shipping charges, do I really need this, yes I really need this, no you don’t……..You get the idea, right?

Alright, I’ll get to the point already. I finally made my decision this afternoon and ordered a Lortone 3A single barrel tumbler. It includes a molded 3 lb. rubber barrel with quick-seal closure and a continuous-duty fan cooled motor. (Fan-cooled, that’s good right ?)  The barrel is: 4 1/8″ deep and 3 7/8″ in diameter, the capacity is 2 3/4 cups. Brand new, instruction book and warranty card are included . ( Okay, that sounds like a winner to me.) I plan on having plenty of beads for it to sand for me when it gets here next week.

The seller sent me a small how-to email that I’m going to re-read this weekend. Along with the letter and all of the great info that one of our dear mad scientists of polymer clay, Desiree McCrory, has spent countless hours to develop through trial and error, I will become a mad scientist of sorts myself next week. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you out in the cold. I’ll post about it here, you’ll just have to come back to see me if you want to know how I did.

Until then, if you have any pointers for a tumbler newbie, please leave them here in the comments for me I have a Lisa Pavelka DVD that I’ve planned on giving away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave me a tip on sanding polymer clay by posting a comment.  I’ll have my grandson to randomly pick one commenter on September 10th that I’ll send the DVD to.

[tags]polymer clay, sanding, Lortone tumbler, tumble sanding polymer clay, jewelery[/tags]