Cruising - #24-25: the clay earrings

Having recently returned from a quick trip to hit some major eastern US cities as well as Ontario and Quebec, I did find some new inspiration in the surroundings and activities. I will delve more into those influences and hopefully increase the technical aspect of some jewelry pieces in the near future.

Meanwhile, I wanted to kick out these 2 sets because it had been a few days since I had my hands in it and I was itching to bake some polymer.

I started by using small clay-cutting shapes to punch out various pieces with clay that was purple, white, and light blue. For one set I layered two pieces and in the other set, the clay worked as an enveloping frame for a larger glass bead. My main goal with these sets was to experiment with baking polymer that had eye pins and beads in place prior to baking.

After baking and cooling...

For the framed beads (purple), I added a two layers of turquoise acrylic paint to the back and sides, rubbed rose eyeshadow on the back for iridescence, and attached beads, O-rings and ear hooks to the eye pins. I also glued a silver bead on each corner and all was secured with a shiny sealer.

The top layer (white) of the clay set was brushed with off-white paint and rubbed with a rose eyeshadow for iridescence, then the sides were painted with a medium purple. The bottom layer (light blue) had the sides painted with off-white and small amounts of chain attached to the eye pins for the ear hook attachments. A small stock paper butterfly was decoupaged for a final effect. All was secured with a shiny sealer.