2015 Polymer Clay Challenge.

Honestly I had good intentions to post regularly about my entries in the weekly polymer clay challenge I'm participating in but the time just seems to fly away from me these days. I'm spending so much time experimenting with various techniques and creating wonderful things for the challenge that I don't have any time left to post about it all.  Anyhoo I'll try to get you up to date on what I've been doing since January 15th which was my first post for this challenge.
The first 2 weeks were spent experimenting with mokume gane and alcohol inks which is so much fun and I will be returning to it again during this year long challenge.
Weeks 3 and 4 occurred simultaneously with other challenges that I joined in so I killed two birds with one stone for each week.  I have been playing almost constantly with polymer since the holidays and came up with the following pieces of jewelry. I wanted to try to make some clay in the same color as the Pantone color of the year, Marsala. I combined many pieces of scrap clay from my collection and was successful in making these discs in a pretty close match to marsala.

I also entered them in the We're All Ears monthly challenge whose theme was the color of the year.

I created this neat brooch when I was experimenting with mokume gane and found it echoed the monthly art challenge on Art Bead Scene so I also entered it into that challenge as well as week 4.

Meanwhile I have been exploring the creation of a new style of jewelry and components for me. I've been working on a more organic look to my creations and these pieces are what I've come up with for Week 5.

Week 6 is something completely different as I've been wanting to make some cuff bracelets. This is my first attempt using some left over clay from my mokume gane experiments.

Not as easy as I thought and I needed to order some smooth bracelet blanks to help mold the bracelet shape. So I sent off an order to one of my favorite local suppliers that always deliver very quickly. 

There's still lots to learn about this process and as much as I love these bracelets I have to make them more durable since the first one below broke the first time I tried it on. I need to make them thicker and cook longer I think to make the clay more flexible and less brittle.

Well that's the last 5 weeks of the #2015PolymerClayChallenge. I hope you enjoyed seeing what I've been doing lately. You can see everyone else's creations on facebook .

Good night and have a good week!

Two Giveaways!

Today is the official day for all of the contests sponsored by participants in the Grow Your Blog Party hosted by Vicki of 2 Bags Full.

I have decided to give a piece of my handmade jewelry to one of the many people who visited my blog during the party. It sure was fun and I discovered many new blogs to follow. Not that I need anymore reasons to spend time on my computer! Thank you, Vicki, for all the work you do to organize this event every year. It is brilliant!
I am giving these earrings away to the winner of the random.org choice of the 52 commentators on my blog during the party.

Czech Picasso beads wire wrapped with ceramic drops from Petra of Scorched Earth

And the lucky winner is the number 26th and that person is...................

..........................................Linda H.!!!!!! A quilter from New Brunswick, Canada.

Linda writes a lovely blog about her quilting adventures called Stitch Lines.

Linda please send me your address so I can send your gift to you.

I reached a milestone as a result of this Grow Your Blog party. I now have 100+ followers in Google friend connect. I know that I have other followers through other avenues and if I ever figure out how to tally them up then I'll have another giveaway for those followers! 

I'm giving away a piece of my most current work..... a bangle bracelet made from polymer clay. This is a stunning piece of  jewelry and I am very pleased with it. I hope that you are too.

Bunny is not happy to lose his headband!

The winner of the bracelet was chosen by using random.org again including the number of my followers on friend connect. The number that was generated by random.org was 69 and the person associated with that number in my list of followers is................kathyinozarks!!!!!!! I'll be touch soon Kathy to arrange delivery.

My Partner for the Bead Peeps Swap and Hop!

I am happy to introduce you to my partner for the upcoming Swap and Hop  organized by the wonderful folks behind the Bead Peeps Facebook group.

  Johana Nunez is a very talented jewlery artist from Puerto Rico.. Her blog is on her website art incendi and she has a shop on etsy as well. She speaks Spanish in her daily life but is totally fluent in English as well. We first met last summer during the "My Country Blog Hop" hosted by yours truly! At that time I became familiar with Puerto Rico through her blog post and now am happy to have the opportunity to learn even more about her tropical island home. Can you imagine living everyday on a Caribbean island! Total bliss! This is especially true for those of us in the northeast struggling through another frigid, snowy winter!

After perusing Johana's website, blog and etsy shop I can see her favorite subject matter is the nature she finds all around her in her town of Aibonito in the central mountains of Puerto Rico. We have met and chatted online and she told me that she loves flowers and birds which I can see from her work.

She makes lovely enamelled pieces which she sells and incorporates into her jewelry designs. Beautiful and full of the most stunning colors you can imagine! I am thrilled to be paired with her since I know nothing about enamelling and am looking forward to learning more. She has an amazing sense of color as you can tell from her lovely components. 

You can see how her location affects her creativity. I'm sure that if I lived in a tropical climate that I would use more bright colors as well. I doubt if anybody wants to see jewelry reflective of the current climate in eastern Canada.......snow and ice which turns into grey mud when it melts. So I just dream of other places  and other times of the year when designing.

Winter in Canada

Spring in Canada

It is going to be so much fun to swap with Johana since we come from such different parts of the world. I am putting together a collection of beads and other goodies to send to her to stimulate her creativity and hopefully gently push her outside her comfort zone because that's what this challenge is all about. 

I'll post a teaser picture of her surprise once I send it off. You'll be able to see exactly what we swap and what we create  if you check it on the official reveal day, May 2, 2015. 

Have a lovely weekend and Happy Valentine's Day!

Art Bead Scene January Art Challenge: Hundertwasser!

I've always been attracted to and fascinated by the art of Hundertwasser so when I saw that his painting Imagine Tomorrow's World was the challenge for this month I just knew  that I had to participate.

It is a beautiful, complex and colorful painting and initially I focused on all the bright colours but I couldn't find inspiration. I know it's hard to imagine not wanting to create using all of these colours for inspiration but it just wasn't doing it for me.
So I put it aside and went back to my current passion: mokume gane with polymer clay. As I worked away with the clay eventually an interesting pattern emerged and when I looked back at the painting I realized that I had duplicated the background in my experimentation. to connect more with the painting I added a spiral of hammered copper wire to reflect the circular focus at the front of the painting.

 I know that most people would immediately gravitate towards all the colours but since this didn't work for me , my muse sent me a completely different message. Pretty much the story of my life...going against the flow!
Please check out the Art Bead Scene blog to see what everybody else created. Many talented artists were inspired by this painting and there are some amazing jewelry pieces.