Polymer Clay Designs

The birth of a gallery. September 2010

2011-02-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

It has been an amazing year.
We knocked down my old sunroom/workroom and built on a lovely big conservatory extension which we use as a longe room.
The old livingroom was so tiny that when we sat in there our knees practically hit our chins so we have knocked out the fireplace and put the office furniture in along with some seriously good railing and hung our paintings up in what is now a little gallery/office.

It was difficult deciding how to rearrange the space because I wanted to retain a workplace where I could use my polymer clay. The stainless steel table I work on fitted into the kitchen alcove and so my workstation was relocated there.

This is how the gallery looks.

We are quite excited about being able to invite people in to view the artwork and polymer clay pieces in the near future.

Spring has sprung in East Yorkshire

2010-03-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

There have not been many new polymer clay beads over the winter period. I find the temperature much too cold to work effectively with the clay in my little studio and if I bring my equipment into the kitchen then it's too warm.

I did manage some new swirl beads last month though and also a selection of novelty brooches and buttons since they are fairly quick to produce.

On March 6th Rob and I were at the Goole Rotary Club's Annual Hobbies & Crafts Fair where I demonstrated some polymer clay techniques and Rob painted.

It was surprising for me just how much interest there was in my idea to run some classes this autumn. I now have a small list of people who would like to come along when the classes are up and running.

Hopefully this September or thereabouts I'll have the space and be organised enough to make a start. I'd do it sooner but we are having a bit built onto the back of the house this summer and it will be chaotic and dusty for a while.

Another lovely surprise was the increase in sales of my hand made beads and the lovely emails from customers which followed. I also had a very flattering email from a lady in the US who was fascinated by some of the beads I have on Flikr.

Here are some of the bits and pieces I've been making since I last blogged:

There's more to see on my website (http://www.lornastorey.co.uk/) and I have already sold the little pink and blue swirls :o)

Autumn is a good time for using polymer clay

2009-10-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Because it's easy to keep my hands nice and cool!

I make most of my beads in my little studio which doubles as an art room and also a sunroom although in reality there is nowhere to sit with my poly clay stuff all about.

Maisie the pug does manage to find the second best seat, the rocking chair and jumps up there to watch me work. Poor Chester is too heavy for jumping so he has to content himself with a rug on the floor.

I've been much too busy this summer with craft fairs, talks and demonstrations to do much polymer creating but I'm back in step now with these sets:

Hopefully I will get some jewellery together too before the big Christmas Fayre rush. I think we have an event booked for every week between now and the new year!

Polymer clay wall art anyone?

2009-06-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well here we are steaming through summer and I've been sidetracked from beads and jewellery.

The thing is, there's so much else you can do with polymer clay!

There are a couple of beads sets and I have found that gloss varnish over a well sanded bead surface is what the customers want but I've mainly been experimenting with tiles, mokume techniques, mirror image stuff and mica shift work.

This set of beads was created using most of those techniques and I was quite happy at the outcome.

Next step is some wall art of a sculptural type. I'm off to the Isle of Wight for a break now but watch this space on my return.....polymer clay as you've never seen it before I promise!

Where does the time go?

2009-05-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

It's been so much work getting the soap stocks back up after Christmas,

we underestimated just how much would sell!
The Spring saw us gaining trade orders from places such as garden centres and holiday cottages so it was back to the crock pot for us.

I still kept my hand in with the polymer clay beads but it definitely took a back seat for a while. Here at last are all my new sets, made between February and May of 2009.

Be nice to sell some now!
I have begun to try working organic style shapes and textures.

But a little glitz doesn't hurt either.......

Then there's just pretty............................

Or spotty :o)

Or spotty

Swirly beads, bracelets and sewage.

2009-02-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

The nasty flu bugs caught up with us around Christmas so that it was hard to do anything much in early January except stay warm.
When we had the horrors of a drain back up in our sun room ( and we are talking sewage here) it seemed that 2009 was not destined to be one of our better years.... though I have had worse ones!
Getting back into the swing of things was hard, especially as we had to replenish the soap stocks too. There wasn't much room to work in after all our stuff from the sun room had been re-located throughout the rest of the house while the floor was attended to.

I made a few little lentil bead sets to keep my hand in :o)
I also joined Etsy.

Etsy is mostly for hand made and craft items, I like that. Over the past couple of years eBay has really taken a downward turn and is so full of cheap foreign imports that I don't even venture onto there now.
Etsy by comparison is a breath of spring air!

One set of swirly beads I made last week just cried out to be made into a bracelet though. I combined the swirly lentils with Swarovski crystals and sterling silver, put it onto the art site Rob and I are members of (yes they take jewellery too!)

http://www.affordablebritishart.co.uk/ and it sold the very next day.

That meant I had to make another one :o)

Swirlies again and with pretty little pink Swarovski crystals as spacers. What do you think?

Relentless practice to perfecting the lentil bead shape

2009-02-07T09:28:00.001-08:00

November 2008 saw me rushing about trying to accumulate so jewellery to sell at the Christmas craft fair in Howden.

Rob and I also make soap, in the traditional way (hot process) so for the larger part of 2008 we had been preoccupied with getting recipies tried and tested then arranging safety assessments for each different soap and finally working towards our visit from Trading Standards so that we could go ahead and unleash our range onto the public!

It's a long and gruelling (not to mention expensive) process as the packaging has to be assessed too as part of the product.

This meant that my polymer claying had to take a back seat, but now, with the soaps all sorted out and even Vegan certified :o) I was once again able to give time to my claying.

(Here Rob is tempted by the delicious smell of orange and grapefruit soap)

Around this time I was approached by someone who liked my little Greek style beads and commissioned a necklace to be made with similar beads to match her own necklace. It was to be a present for her daughter fo Christmas.

Again I used Vintaj Natural Brass components but also included some of my own solid brass aged beads and spacers.

These little turquoise beads have the look of Greek clay beads because of the fine brown grain effect on the surface. Difficult to see in this photo, I wish I'd taken a close up.

Here are two of the necklaces I made in time for Christmas. As you'll see, the lentil shape is still needs to be improved upon but it's definately getting more toward the shape I'm after!

Getting commissions and things

2009-02-07T02:58:00.000-08:00

Late 2008 I was working on my beads is search of the elusive perfect lentil shape. It's the hole making I've been struggling with. Rob, supportive as ever, bought me a dremmel drill and a stand last year. This was great for drilling round with nice neat holes but what of the lentil?

In those days my lentil beads were kind of flattened bicones with slender edges and getting the drill lined up was horrendously difficult. Rob managed much better than I, maybe because he is short sighted and I am long sighted ? Who knows.
Anyway we toddled along like this for a while until one day, very stupidly I attempted to drill a wooden bead using a large drill bit, while holding it. The ripping and tearing, the blood and my shock and having a large gash in two of my fingers made me scared of the dremmel for a long while.

Over that trauma now but I do find it easier these days to make the bead holes before baking the beads.

I tried out some interesting shapes with the clay around Christmas 2008, using Jones Tones and some spare clay the resulting beads were tranformed into earrings!

You'll notice I've not used silver findings. Nowadays my fancy is for Vintaj Natural Brass to complement my jewellery. It's definitely going to be the new silver and guess what?....It's available from my bead store at http://www.allthatjazz-crafts.co.uk/ so you can try it out for yourselves.

The necklace below was created using one of my own canes. I think the shape of bead works well with the Vintaj banana beads. This piece sold very quickly and looked very elegant on it's new host.

The experiments with foil on Polymer clay continue.

2009-01-30T08:27:00.000-08:00

Last year I bought some gold, silver and copper leaf with a view to giving my beads a little sparkle.

I liked the crackled effect and went on to purchase Jones Tones for an even more colourful effect.

The novelty didn't last though and I continued to try out various styles and shapes of bead. A truly pretty lentil shape eluded me for ages! I mastered the swirl and although the beads were a basic 'sort of' lentil shape I was still striving for the perfect one.

Around that time Rob decided that some of my swirlies would look good with a little silver wire wrapping. He is now big chief wire wrapper :o)

In the beginning there was polymer clay.....

2009-01-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

I began to play with polymer clay a few years ago.
Before that I'd been content to fashion my jewellery from the components and beads I sold on my website.

Don't you get tired of seeing the same tired old glass beads from India and China circling around all the jewellery makers?

Imports are now so easy to get hold of and so cheap!

I longed for something a bit different.

Attempting to make my own glass beads with a blow lamp ended in an interesting experience as six foot flames shot down the length of my kitchen so that was soon abandoned, however when I saw Emma Ralph's polymer clay beads I knew the direction I must take.
She is undoubtedly the UK queen of polymer clay beads.

The first polymer clay beads I made that went 'public' were a set I made into a necklace for Spectrum's Charity auction. They fetched over £40 and I was spurred on by this. Here it is:

I entitled it 'Mocha'.

Soon I bought a pasta machine and began making canes using the Skinner Blend technique of shading the clay.

It was great fun and produced the unique beads I'd hoped for.

Shading was now possible.

The next stage was to try and shape the beads into a more creative image than plain round.

The old mandrels that had been used during our unsuccessful encounter with glass bead making proved useful when creating tube beads!

Voila! Stick beads. These beads sold within hours.

I began making jewellery too from the polymer clay beads I had created and offering them for sale at our local market as well as on my own website.