Use Up Those Spare Beads!

Note: Yes, I'm finally back on my polymer clay blog again (!), and I hope to manage to pop in at least once a week for a while before my next unannounced months-long disappearance. ;o) Sorry to have been gone so long, but you know how it is. After you've been quiet a few weeks, it's hard to get back in the habit of blogging. Anyway, on with the clay talk!

If you're anything like me, you've probably amassed quite a collection of polymer clay beads over the years. Many of these are leftovers from old projects and early clay obsessions. (For me, it was crackled paint.) What can you do with all those beads when you have just one like this and only three like that? Plenty! Here are a few ideas to get you started!

• Make earrings. If you have matching pairs of beads, this is an obvious solution to using up extra beads.
  
• Set them off with metal and glass (or plastic). Mixing beads made of other materials in with your polymer clay beads stretches them. Also, this helps use up some of your store-bought stash!
• Make crazy, wild jewelry. (The craziness and/or wildness of your jewelry will depend on the craziness and/or wildness of your beads.) Mix and match beads for an eye-catching necklace. Combine beads with a similar trait (all faux naturals/organics, all from the same color family, all the same shape, etc.)-- choose a focal and pick beads that coordinate with it-- or go truly wild and put a little of everything together into one zany piece. (Maybe make a game of it. Pour all the beads into a bowl and pick them at random. Do you dare?)
• Turn the spotlight on them. Give them another look. Are any of them especially nice on their own? Even one solitary bead can make a striking accessory. One beautiful bead as a pendant or strung directly onto a leather thong makes a simple but powerful fashion statement.
  
• Turn a single bead into a ring with wire-wrapping. (Be warned: This can lead you into a whole new artistic obsession!)
• Make beaded bookmarks (a.k.a. book thongs). All you need to make several unique book marks is a selection of (preferably large-holed) beads and some thin ribbon. Cut the ribbon to the desired length. (One and a half to two feet is a common length. Adjust to suit the size of books you wish to use the book mark in.) Apply Fray Check (or plain old white glue, in a pinch) to the cut ends and let dry. Knot one end of the ribbon (double knot, if needed) and string on your chosen beads. (Usually two or three per end will do, but it's a matter of personal preference.) Knot the other end. If desired, knot the ribbon again just inside the strung beads, to prevent them from all sliding to one end of the ribbon.

If all else fails you can always make more beads to match or coordinate with the ones you have left. Sure, you may end up with even more beads rolling around your house, but you're sure to have fun in the process!

Butterflies in Paper

I've linked before to the Geninne's Art Blog. She does beautiful things in a variety of media-- mostly paper and watercolors, but also collage, fabric/fiber, and rubber stamps. Yesterday, she shared a work in progress-- a 3-D display of butterflies in paper. It got me thinking. Why not do something similar in polymer clay? I don't know if I'll ever try it, but it'd be a neat idea for someone. You, maybe? ;o)

Connections. . .

I've been trying out the "extruded snake wrapped around base bead" thing (as I wrote about recently) and am planning to play around with it some more, soon.

That's connected to:

This entry on Le Blog de Perlchen that illustrates how to use scrap clay, a clay gun, and a pasta machine to make an interesting effect.

. . . and . . .

This entry on Parole de Patê, which combines the extruded-clay-wrapped beads with a faux ceramic effect, very prettily. (There's also a link at the bottom to my faux ceramic tutorial and a similar one that was featured on the Polyzine back in 2004. Just goes to show, even if you think you're writing something "new", chances are pretty good that it's been done before. (g))

. . . which is connected to . . .

Something I saw on the Polymer Clay Central message board, back a couple of weeks ago when I stopped by. Someone (I forget who it was... Ok, looked it up. On the forums, she goes by carlierae26, so I assume her name is Carlie Rae, or something similar...) had shared photos of some recent work. It was yet another variation of faux ceramics. She'd used a base of black clay, with opaque glaze, with some nice results. She wrote that she started with opaque liquid clay, but if you have translucent clay, you can always tint it with something opaque. I know oil paint will work, and I think that powdered pigments (mica or just ground up pastels) also yield opaque color.

I'm definitely going to have to give all of these a try! (Maybe I'll remember them, now that they've been blogged...)

On another subject-- Here's a link to a new-to-me polymer clay blog edited by Heather Powers: Polymer Clay @ CraftGossip.com.
Seriously, there are so many great polymer-related blogs out there, and more popping up all the time, that I can't keep up with them all! I'm already way behind on my blog-reading, as it is. But I can't resist, so I'll be adding this to my reading list, too... You guys really don't want me to have time to play with the clay, do you? ;o)

Ok, got to go medicate the dog. . . (No, really. Daisy needs her pills. She's epileptic, poor thing.)

So much to do, so little time!!

I don't think I'll ever get around to using all the beautiful, exciting polymer clay techniques I've taken notes on! ...But it sure will be fun trying! ;o)

Here are a few items on my short list of things to try:

• Crackled/crazed paint on translucent clay. Something I saw in an ad in the latest issue of Polymer Cafe caught my eye and reminded me of something else I'd seen. Anyway, the basic idea is, I think, to crackle paint on an ultra-thin sheet of translucent clay. (I'll dip into my reserve of Bleached Translucent/Frost for this one, since ultimate translucence will help with the look of the finished product.) You may want to do this with a variety of coordinating colors of paint. Then you take a base bead (or sheet of clay or whatever) and apply bits of the crackled-paint-clay to the base, with the paint side facing down. Smooth seams, etc. and bake. Oh, and I'm sure you can layer as many pieces of the crackled-paint clay on the base as you like. Overlapping different colors might be a nice effect. Early in my "claying career", I was obsessed with crackled paint. I still like it, though I've wandered more in other directions. I think this technique might give more of the look of dichroic glass, which is why I liked the crackled paint so much to being with.
• Make texture sheets and/or molds from seashells, pressed glass, etc. I've been meaning to try this for such a long time. I have made molds of a few plastic beads, but beyond that, I've held off. There's really no reason to do so, though. I'm going to look through the house and yard for interesting textures to capture. I'm pretty sure I can find at least two or three in a couple buckets of seashells Donald and I picked up on Sanibel Island last year. :o)
• Make miniature foods. I've made mini sushi beads and tried some mini chocolates, but that's the extent of my miniature food experience. I'd like to try the chocolates again, as well as some cake slices and things. I'm a little less certain of where to start with this plan, since the minis I most admire have an unusual texture that really doesn't look like plain polymer clay. I probably need to mix something in with the clay to get the right texture, but I only have a few ideas as to what. Well, I can at least give those few ideas a try. :o)

So, even with just those three things, I could keep myself busy for a looong time.
Better get started!