The first is a picture of an altoid tin I decorated for my mother-in-law. She loves frogs and I wanted her to have something bright and colorful. I worked really hard on this and I think it's the best polymer clay piece I have made. All of it is made with Sculpey Premo. I used mostly regular colors, and also pearl. I used alot of Pearl Ex powders for the different metallic and pearly shines. I also made a cane for the green leaf fronds. I could not have done this without my new Czextruder. It was a life saver being able to do all the extruding with a drill to do the turning. I want to thank Kimberly Idalski at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/kimis-jewelry-from-the-heart for being the U.S. distributor and helping me with my questions. I really appreciate it, and I love my new extruder. :)
I decided to seal the powders with Fimo Deco Gel rather then use a high gloss acrylic coating like I normally do. I didn't really want it to be too shiny, and I thought the Deco Gel would also make it so that none of the pieces would fall off. I think it worked pretty well, although I think next time I am going to try to thin the Deco Gel a little bit. The coating came out a little thicker then I wanted, and it also disintegrated my paint brush. Other than that, it actually came together fairly easily. It took quite awhile to get all the elements in place, but I didn't have any trouble with any of it. I hope you like it, would love to know what you think.
The next piece is also for my mother-in-law. It's a whimsical brooch, I wanted her to have something to make her laugh and be able to wear for Christmas. This is all made with Sculpey Premo. The frame is made with Premo 18k gold color, the background is Premo Pearl mixed with a little white to brighten it up. The bell on the hat was made with the 18k gold as well. When I was done with it all, I ended up going back and adding Pearl Ex to the bell and the frame. It wasn't as shiny as I wanted and I figured it added a little sparkle. I probably should have added some sparkle to the Christmas lights too, but I was so tired by that point that I ended up skipping it. I sealed the parts with the Pearl Ex powders with Crystal Varathane because I wanted that hard glossy shine. On the back is a brooch pin and also a loop so it can be used as a pendant or even a Christmas ornament too. I hope you like my Santa Frog, he was a lot of fun to make. :)
The last piece I am sharing is actually three pieces given together. My husband's aunt crochet's and I wanted to give her something to make it a little easier on her hands. We gave her a subscription to a crochet magazine, so hopefully these will be useful too. I used Sculpey Premo in the pearl colors and metallics, and some white glitter clay for one of them. I did mokume gane to give it some interest, but I wanted it to be very smooth so I didn't add any canes. They turned out pretty good considering all the trouble I had. I used a sampler pack for the blues and pink and purple. I didn't realize it was old until I started trying to condition it. The pearl colors just flaked and flaked and I ended up putting some clay softener on them and letting them sit for a half an hour. I don't normally have this kind of trouble with Premo, it's usually really great. Anyways, by the time I was done with all of them, I was glad I had decided only to do mokume gane. Anything else would have had me falling over from exhaustion. It was worth it though, they turned out really pretty. I tried to take a picture that would do them justice, but I just couldn't get the lighting right and I was too tired to set up my light box. Hope you can tell how nice they look. :)
Well, that's it for my pictures today. I will be sure to post more after the holidays. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, (or whatever you celebrate or if you don't, a good week), and a Happy New Year!!!
Thanks for visiting my corner of the web!!
Sharon Mhyre
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