Sparkly little sugar beads are a nifty thing when you find them at the store. Making your own in clay can be a bit of a trick. These ones use clear microbeads for the sugar and TLS to adhere them … Read More ...
Tutorial: Faux Stone Cabinet Knobs
My outside of clay life is a mad whirl of shop renos in the sense of paint, drywall, cleaning, changing fixtures and all the endless details like that. Decorative knobs have been the final touch on some of my past … Read More ...
How-To: Journal Cover
Here’s another project that has multiple elements. The journal cover has a lovely watercolour effect painted in and the tutorial covers how to construct the cover. The design is sweet and clever. You could obviously alter the paint work to … Read More ...
Tutorial: Mixing New Polymer Clay Canes from Old Ideas
Sometimes, the best new ideas happen when you mix old ideas (and old canes, for extra credit). This project makes intricate-looking spirals by using very simple base clay canes combined over and over again into another simple cane. Little bullseye … Read More ...
Cutting Your Clay
Or, using die cutters with your clay. This isn’t so much a tutorial as a quick browse of people using polymer clay with their die cut tools to either engrave their clay or cut designs into their raw or cured … Read More ...
Tutorial: Spread Joy
Okay, so it’s not really joy but the ornaments in the picture have joy in letters AND shiny gold. Sometimes simple little baubles are the best things to make. These ornaments are a variation on a common theme: stamped cut … Read More ...
Tutorial: Making Fabric Canes
Over the years I’ve done canes to recreate elements of fabric swatches – the colours, the patterns and such. One tool that really helps with that – apart from a super colour sense – is an extruder. This tutorial shows … Read More ...
Clay Tips: Snowflake Cutters
If, like New Clayer Me, you couldn’t find a good snowflake cutter set and still wanted great, detailed snowflakes this idea was a bit of a lightbulb moment. Using a simple six petaled flower cutter
– which is common in … Read More ...
Tutorial: Christmas Nougat Cane
When I’m asked what a cane is and how my beads are made – primarily with canes – I often use the explanation of how some forms of candies are made such as saltwater taffy, nougats and candy canes. Here’s … Read More ...
Polymer Clay Tutorial: Mixing Techniques
I fully admit to not being a very brave clayer. Yes, I have my stash of metal leafs, pigments
, powders, some specialty paints, scads of textures… but most of my stuff is clay with very little else. It’s not … Read More ...
Making Polymer Clay Pendants
This falls more into the hints and tips and ideas pile than a straightforward tutorial. Some of the most effect pendants and charms I’ve seen use simple shapes, clever stamps and lettering, a little paint, ink or varnish and voila… … Read More ...
Combining Polymer Clay and Science
Outside of my art and craft world – which occupies a lot of my life, I admit – I have a technical background and an interest in things science-y. It is definitely one of the reasons that polymer clay appeals … Read More ...
Tutorial: Halloween Scary Clay Tree
While I work primarily with polymer clay – oven bake or low firing plastic clays – I do also play with air dry clays, both earth and paper based, as well as high fire stoneware clay. And occasionally with fondant. … Read More ...
Tutorial: Faux Leather
After seeing an impressive faux leather piece I went looking for faux leather tutorials and found exactly what I was searching for. This tutorial uses materials most clayers will have on hand and straightforward techniques.
Bonus: the faux looks very … Read More ...
Another Clay Dragon
This isn’t so much a tutorial as a glimpse in how someone else makes their dragons. The step outs start halfway into the process with the initial dragon built up over an aluminum foil core. The body is black … Read More ...