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.

Rumpus - #18-23: the polymer 6

I have now officially ventured off into polymer clay territory. And I love it.

Began with 5 simple earring shapes and 1 pendant shape (Mr. O's hand) which were cut from rolled out black Sculpey clay using a needle tool. I baked them at 275 for about 25 minutes (gave it a little extra time than the recommended 15 minutes due to having a full pan). Before baking them, I used olive oil (what I had on hand) to smooth out finger prints and rough edges. This seems like a step that HAS to be done with some kind of oil if you want decent looking pieces. 

After they were cooled, I spent a few hours experimenting with a hodgepodge of decorating supplies. My pattern eventually became something like: coat of acrylic + a few different eyeshadow colors rubbed in for effect. I also used decoupage on a couple sets and everything was sealed with multiple coats of matte sealer.

If you're wondering about the eyeshadow...  I don't have any mica on hand and I recently read that eyeshadow is a great substitute. Luckily, I had a number of colors to choose from and they all seemed to add a nice iridescent effect.

Then I started to do mock-ups in my working space...

 Results...

Overall, I am really pleased with how these have turned out and I am looking forward to a lot of future work with polymer clay.

Lucid - #17: the bead-drop earrings

This pair of earrings was made using all new craft store material. Nothing on it is thrift store or pre-owned, so it is the first of its kind for me. Though it's a fairly simple design, it is also a completely original one.

I started by doing a mock-up with the intention of practicing with beading and closing an eye pin. I used turquoise, blue, and purple O-rings to connect colored glass beads that I strung on an eye pin, each of which was ended with a crimp bead. Another eye pin was then wrapped around the wooden circle bead for connecting a fishhook clasp. Easy peasy.

Belfry - #16: the skull-drop earrings

Probably my most original work to-date due to using almost all new materials for the design.

My first step was to strip down this horrendously ugly pair of earrings, which I already owned, to get rid of the clusterfuck of O-rings and the weird fishhook clasps.

What remained was a simple gold metal circle and my new stash of supplies from the craft store.  I set about putting together a mock-up of what I would make and I had a metallic theme in mind.

For each earring, I secured two crimp beads and a skull bead on a head pin before closing the wire around the original circular earring. I then connected three O-rings in a pattern of silver, purple, black, and ended with a new silver fishhook clasp.

Prop - #15: the ironing board

There are a lot of uses for a table like this, some functional and others decorative. It seemed like a nice piece to work on when I saw it in a thrift store, though it did have an odd two-tone appearance which is due to it being built with different types of wood. The shelves had a rough and more open grain while the side boards seemed to be generic pressed wood.

The first thing I did was sand off any residual sealer and tried to open up the wood. Afterward, I wanted to try the "pickling" technique but not with a basic white wash. So I mixed together some white, blue, and red acrylic paint and then diluted about 60% with water to try and achieve a light violet wash for an aged appearance.

Results...

Once dried, I matte modpodged two prints by expat French artist, John James Audubon, famous for birds.

There are a few things I would do differently were I to do this again. Namely, sand more, potentially go with a white wash instead of a violet wash, and reconsider the print placements. But it was a learning experience and a fun paint job, if nothing else.

Eastward - #14: the origami jewelry set

It felt like I needed to do an earring and necklace set so I used some pieces that were on hand but hadn't been worn much.  The metal disc necklace was from one of my favorite antique stores and may itself have been a home-crafted piece. The earrings were just basic solid white metal hoops.

From my recently organized growing selection of go-to paper for projects, I chose a sheet of origami from an Asian themed collection, and prepped for the earrings by arranging the cut strips:

Results...

The same sheet of origami (plus an additional clip art figure) was used for the necklace once I pried off the embellishment and used white acrylic on the beadwork.

Insulate - #13: the round pallet

I hate round pallets. Among other reasons why, making sure that the sealer is applied evenly can be a bitch. This thrift store wooden picture circle is one of very few larger round pieces I'll ever do.

Here, two prints from the Spectrum art book series (vol. 8) are juxtaposed with a classic work by Banksy (taken from the book, You Are an Acceptable Level of Threat), on a black acrylic base.

Normally, I would apply 2-3 coats of paint but found that I liked the unfinished appearance of just 1 coat in this instance, and I played with the effects created with a small foam brush.

Getting this positioned and glued in place would have been next to impossible without first applying a light mist of spray adhesive before the final sealing.

The quote says, "LIVE THE DREAM - ENDURE THE NIGHTMARE"