In this case, resistance is not futile. In fact, a little resist makes very good beads. Batik, as a technique, relies on a resist and layers of colours built up. These beads by Artybecca use a fine tipped resist pen … Read More ...
Tips: Things To Do With Liquid Clay
I was helping a student use liquid clay to reinforce some joins and thin spots on a creation. They were puzzled by why I was insisting on adding “glue” to the project when baking it would make it stick just … Read More ...
Making Clay Tools
Garie, from Singapore, teaches many children and is a prolific polymer clayer. He also shares many of his tips and findings as he goes. This post is about some of the tools he’s made from found pieces and clay scraps. … Read More ...
Mixing Polymer Clay Colours
One of the first serious “lab” projects I did with clay – what I call the educational, learn my medium tasks – was make colour chips from the brands I was using. At the time, that was Fimo Classic and … Read More ...
Faux Knit Polymer Clay
Right now, it is cold where I live. Not as cold as it gets sometimes but, hey, January on the Canadian prairies is best enjoyed with knits. Real knits if you have ’em but let’s go with the clay ones … Read More ...
A Bit About Polymer Clay Buttons
Because I don’t sew or knit – or do much in the way of any fibre art – I tend to not use buttons much. Which means when I get asked to make them I’m always a little mystified. I’ve … Read More ...
Making Dragons
One of my favourite projects this year was making little dragon ornaments – like these – but it took me a while to settle on a way to figure out how I would do the heads. Kate Bloomfield has a … Read More ...
Polymer Clay Peppermints
Rachel from Lines Across whipped up a great peppermint cane to turn into peppermint slices. The slices are then strung on twine for a fun seasonal garland. They’d make adorable seasonal earrings or magnets, as well.
The fun part about … Read More ...
Metallic Polymer Clays
A little before I found clay online – and watched my skills really improve when I was able to see what others were doing – a very talented artist named Mike Buesseler released videos about metallic effects and mica clays … Read More ...
Saving the Crumbly Clay
I had a curious customer in my shop today poking at some of the scraps on my work bench. Some of those are stiff, crumbly bits of clay that I don’t use for much except filler. The customer wanted to … Read More ...
Tutorial: Decorative Cutwork Bowl
This project combines polymer clay and a die cut machine – in this case, the Silhouette Cameo. Mags Bonham has been teaching this the last few years and has now released it on the Sculpey.com site for folks to take … Read More ...
Fall Polymer Clay Beads and Jewelry Ideas
While searching for other topics, I came across Shirley Rufener’s site again. There is a wealth of art and craft material there including a good stack of in-depth, appealing polymer clay tutorials like this one for fall toned jewelry. On … Read More ...
Tweaking your Polymer Clay Buttons
Long ago, when I was newer to clay and to blogging on the internet I met Lisa Clarke who was also doing polymer clay and blogging. I’ve watched her tackle all sorts of other crafts since then including knitting where … Read More ...
Tutorial: A Miniature Autumn
If you love miniature things this whole page is a treasure – there’s a wealth of material on how to build up your whole autumn scene. All of the details including the building of props from planters to primitive decorations. … Read More ...
Making Polymer Clay Fish… Canes
One of the requests I had this summer was for little fish beads. I made a small fish cane quickly, turned it into beads and gave those to the customer. Then cursed myself for not photographing the silly thing. It … Read More ...