Sing a song of sixpence

I've been quite obsessed with adding text to clay lately when I should have been concentrating on context. I made some little bird beads and started thinking about the children's rhyme "Sing a song of sixpence" and the necklace just sort of happened. The pie was fun, the pockets of rye not so much. The birds I'm making in every color because they are so friendly and I sure could use a friendly face right now( even if it is made out of clay and has a beak).

Poetry Redux

It's spring and poetry is in the air (along with lots of scary thunder and lightning and rain). I've been experimenting with adding text to beads for a while and finally settled on a design I really like. Here's a bracelet with the text of an Emily Dickinson poem I love. I've also done one with Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". What direction should this take: more poems, quotes, different colors....?

Spirals

I so admire the complex canes that some polymer clay artists are creating. At this time,however, experimenting with the diverse effects you can achieve with simple canes has me enthralled. The fingerprint bracelet started out as a simple black and white spiral reduced and manipulated until the spirals turned into fingerprints.

Bubbles!

Such a simple concept that feels so fresh and spring-like when done in a soft palette.

Diva Disks I

My hands want to make BIG beads. For my purposes, that doesn't really work. Smashing them into disk beads makes them more manageable. I love to string diva style bracelets of disk beads and matching spacers. P.S. The names are as important as the beads.

Painterly polymer

Inspired by Polymer Clay Daily (as I am most weekdays), I tried some controlled surface imagery in polymer clay. Normally I love to put colors together, manipulate the clay and let images emerge as they will. This new technique toward a more controlled surface image was very labor-intensive but worth the effort. The beads have an oriental, delicate look

OOOOH, shiny!

Though I love matte finishes and the detail you can make with polymer clay millefiori, sometimes a girl just wants something shiny. Copper leaf in the clay gives the beads just that bit of sparkle that satisfies.

Carved Beads

I know the blog has been neglected for a while in favor of actually working at the clay table. I'll post small groups of the experimentation that has fascinated me for months. Let's start with simple carving. The two Ancient Mystery sets were carved and backfilled with white clay and paint. Calypso started out as a bead covered with multicolored extrusions and then carved to reveal the layers within. Silver spice was an attempt to carve more complex designs and add a patina to show depth. My favorite is Ancient Mysteries I.

Making the mala

I made this mala for someone I love very much. I saved beads for months to have 108 that fit perfectly. First I started with 7 glow-in-the-dark beads. After a spacer, 21 beads were added. Another spacer came before the main body of beads (mostly in earth tones). More glow-in-the-dark beads were interspersed to represent that there is light ahead when things seem bleak. Some of the beads are rough-textured just as some days are rough. Some are smooth and shiny. There is a ball of yarn bead to stand for the times when our words get tangled. Other beads stand for memories I cherish that even the recipient doesn't remember.