Morning Everyone and Happy Sunday, a month before the Big Day and the
Adien Grotto is in full swing! Today I thought I’d tell you about one of
this weeks makes, polymer clay pendants which are an old favourite of
mine but which I have never tired of making over the years.
Polymer clay is such a versatile medium to work with and these days is available in so many colours, I am like a kiddy in a sweet shop when buying any new.
I decided to make some of my Swirlygig (as I call them affectionately) pendants with a little addded sparkle for the Festive season.
I am sure that every clay user has their own techniques so mine may differ but I have found the way that suits me best, as many Makers do through trial and error I am sure.
First off I selected the colours to use for the pendant which in this case was a lovely turquoise, a silver and a light creamy shade. Before using it the clay has to be conditioned to make it pliable and easier to use, so I use a pasta roller to do this, sometimes if the clay has become a little old I add some clay softener and work it into the clay as there is nothing worse than getting half way through your creation and the clay starts cracking. After rolling and kneading each colour is rolled into a long sausage, I added a little sparkly glitter powder onto the cream before doing this.
I use a large piece of marble tile to work on, I find it smooth and cool and easy to clean. The next step is to twist all the colours together into a long coil, this is when you will know you have conditioned the clay properly as if it starts cracking you know you haven’t, and it’s back to square 1. Then it is a case of rolling the clay into a long sausage, twisting and rolling again until you get a pretty marbled effect. The number of times you do this varies, you can go too far and the colours will have blended too much, or not enough so the marbling isn’t clear, it’s just a case of judging by eye. I then shape the clay into a fatter piece about 3 inches long. This piece I then cut into 3 and roll round and round, up too 100 times, to shape the pendant, again it is knowing where to stop when you think it looks pretty.
Onto the final stages now and the beads are ready to go into my little oven, I have a mini oven on my work table which is used solely for clay so into there they pop and bake for about half an hour. After cooling they are given a few coats of protective varnish which also adds to the shine, add some wire for hanging and a sterling silver chain and they are ready for my shop. I also made some I called Christmas Toffee and Sparkle Berry, I called this one I have showed you Blue Christmas.
Well, that’s all from me, and that is probably enough! I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little of what goes into making, this is my first blog of this type so I hope I haven’t gone into too much, or too little detail. Hope you all have a wonderful day, if you felt like leaving a little comment you would see me doing a happy jig knowing I am not talking to myself. Di xx
