#2015PCChallenge : Week 35 : caned bangles

Hi !

I discovered that I had a 2oz slab of Premo wasabi with me . I was not sure what I could do with it. I made a skinner blend of it with white and paired it with a skinner blend of navy blue & white. These were the results.
I actually liked the cane and the color wasabi waaay more than I thought I would. I unfortunately reduced the canes too much ( never know when to stop :( ).

Thanks for dropping in ! Have a great day :)

#2015PCChallenge : Week 33 & 34 combo

Happy Onam everyone !

This week I am posting for both week 33 & 34. I could not post last week due to an internet issue, which is now rectified ( thank God ! ).

So,week 33 : Batik Printing on Polymer clay with Alchohol ink

I had been planning on trying out a batik effect for a while , but I kept putting it off. Recently I have been seeing the batik effect on polymer clay , popping up quite often online. Last week I was talking to Preethy ( fellow clayer & friend ) , and I mentioned this.She very helpfully explained to me the process that is followed for textiles. Keeping that information in mind , I gave this a try.

While I am quite happy with this  , I don't think it completely captures the spirit of Batik printing. I certainly could not get the veiny effect , which is something I love.I have not varnished this since I like this texture.I made this for me , so I might as well as check out how the colors fade in time.
I have a semi idea in my head to get the veins as well , hopefully it works out :)

Artybecca has a pretty great tutorial on this. She also has other amazing stuff if you are wondering. Thank you Artybecca :) I am certain that , this is the reason I was able to do this technique quite easily.

For some reason the rubber cement / masking fluid I had was not working very well with the clay , and I was rather stuck the last time.This time ,I was playing with some split fevicol and discovered that white glue does this job just fine.It worked much better than I anticipated.

Week 34 : Simple textures

I was planning on doing an Onam themed challenge , but I finally changed course and made something I could wear for onam :)
Little selfish huh ?

so here it is , week 34 :

Primary piece : Chunky  rustic earring , translucent clay with acrylic

I love translucent clay. I dont know why I am fascinated with it , but its probably tied with my love for alcohol inks. So when I realized that all stores have run out of translucent clay here I was very sad. I finally found a few bars a few weeks before  and I ordered it immediately. The clay I received was super crumbly and I was absolutely unable to work wit it.

I was very upset , so I hid it away.

This week I wanted to make a floral cane ( which I did not make btw ), and I wanted some translucent clay to fill in the spaces. Since all I had were the crumbly clay , and no amount hammering was helping me out in making them workable , I finally decided to give a go with baby oil to soften it up.

I was very hesitant about doing this , because the very first pack of translucent clay I bought was crumbly, and I attempted to soften it by adding baby oil. It unfortunately backfired. All the pieces I attempted  using that batch were crumbly after baking, even though the other pieces ( which did not contain translucent) baked just fine.

Yes , I can use TLS / clay softner as well , but the thing is , TLS & clay softners are rare here.they are impossible to find. I do not want to use TLS here , and finish my stash , so this was the only option.And with so many clayers swearing by it , it must contain some truth ,even if my first experiment was a disaster.

Anyway, this time it worked.

What did I do differently ?
 I worked the oil in without natural absorption the first time , baked it within a few hours to a day after softening it.
The second time , I smashed the clay and put it in a ziploc. Poured more oil than I planned, and forgot about it for around four days,Then made it into an oily (icky) blob and wrapped with a printer paper , and left it to leach for half a day.This resulting clay was softer , but not even. So I then worked it with my hands , part by part ( took me a few hours ) eventually resulting in an even soft texture. I left it for a day ( in another ziploc) and then took a small piece and randomly put in a few drops of alcohol ink. Baked it and Tada ! it

So the end result is not spectacular to look at , but what it stands for is pretty amazing to me :)

Secondary piece : My selfish piece for Onam

This is my great grand piece to wear with my kerala saree ( when I get to it).

 It took an awful amount of time and a nice  little boil sort of thing on my finger with all the chaffing from the mini pliers.

 I bought a few ball end pins last month.Even though it was clearly mentioned 20 mm , I happily bought it ( I didnt see ( UGH )). What happened was that they were too tiny for my original plan , so I had to scrap that . For the next trial I used some gold colored seed beads instead. They were still surprisingly difficult to wrap around.
Then I tried to reduce the thickness of the clay instead ( made other disks) , but they crumbled( after already using up quite a number of my limited stock of ball ends).So I went back to the original plan. As you can see, the wrapping is below par , some have one wrap , some have two. I am too exhausted to sit and redo it, since it only for me,I guess I will just keep fixing it if something happens. On the other hand they are quite snug , and I don't think they will fall off.

Both the earrings look quite heavy , but they are quite light weight ! The second one looks quite dressy and its gold , so hopefully I can wear it for some function soon.


Thanks for reading this lengthy & rambly post :) Happy Onam everyone ! Wishing you & your family peace & prosperity !Have a great day :)

#2015PCChallenge : Week 32 : Colorful Rustic cuffs

Hi !

This time I made a simple, yet colorful rustic style cuffs.These are the first attempts of this style for me , so will be working on this style for the next two weeks as well.
I have wanted to make these ever since I bought the Rustic beads tutorial from the BlueBottleTree blog , but I kept putting it off.I was feeling rather "off" for the last month, so I thought I shall revisit the basics and this was the result.
While I am quite happy with them , there are quite few kinks to be worked out.
Just one pic with both the bangles this time.

Thanks for reading & have a great day !

#2015PCChallenge : Week 31 : Floral Bangles

Hi !

I wanted to make something cheerful & some thing very colorful this week.I call these my adult sized kiddie bangles :)

While they look quite similar , they are not identical. They follow slightly different methods even though the end result is quite These are based on the week 10 entries , using translucent liquid & alcohol inks.

so here both the primary & secondary pieces :

Both are very colorful , but the bottom flowers look like they grow in the water & the ones one the top look like creepers on a wall. Incidentally , I wanted the blue to represent the sky ( lol ).

I am not happy with the finish of the bottom bangle , so that would go into my private stash.I shall be putting the top one up for sale soon :)

Thanks for reading ! Have a great day !

#2015PCChallenge : Week 30

Hi !

I keep thinking that this challenge will get easier as weeks pass on by, but it has not happened yet. I planned to have an easy month this time , and I set myself no boundaries at all. I experimented a bit , tried on a bit of bargello , a few faux ceramic jhimkis , a bit of mokume gane trials and made a few leaf canes to keep for later.

I wanted to make a few leafy bangles for this week , unfortunately all my flower petal canes have dried out :( . I am very very sad . They crumble when I try to cut them. I have now  put a bit of TLS on them and wrapped in a plastic sheet to rest , hopefully it shall come out fine. There is a shortage of white Premo & white translucent  in all the stores I buy from , this makes me bit wary to make petal canes again , as I don't want to waste the bit of white clay I have.

After that , I wanted to try making a mask , similar to the one worn during masquerades( shaped like a sleeping mask lol ) , I made a mess of that as well. I certainly learnt a lot , but wasted a fair bit of clay.

By now, more than half the week has passed me by. I was feeling pretty despondent by now, so I thought I shall try a mokume gane. Another failed attempt to my name :( . My color choices were terrible , and I have a lot to learn.

In between all of this , I was making a few jhimkis to list in my store . Frankly they were the only thing I am happy with this week.I did not want to list jhimkis again , but they are the only completed pieces I have , so here they are :

Primary piece : Extra large Jhimki in red , gold & pearl.This measures 4 cm at the widest.

This is the secondart piece : There are three of these jhimkis. They are quite small , measuring around 2.5 cms at the widest.

Thanks for reading , have a great day !

#2015PCChallenge , Week 25 : Calla lilies

Hi !

Whew , its finally the fourth week of my floral month.I love flowers , I really do , but this was a very tough week. I normally make imaginary flowers, realism is not really what I do , so trying to keep the 'real' part was tough.

To add to everything , my oven is slightly mad this week. I burned everything for two days.Now it seems ok , but I am going to listen to the advice I got and get it checked up as soon as possible.

Primary Piece : Simple floral danglers

And the secondary piece : Simple floral pendant

I am not too happy how this week turned out , I did not learn as much as I planned to.Hopefully next month is better.
Thanks for reading , and have a great day!

#2015PCChallenge: Week 24 : Hibiscus cane

Hi !

I am so glad this is the third week ! Every week of this monthly floral challenge is tougher than the last.I expected it to be easier as the month wore on ( as it normally happens with me) , but this was a tough week.

I decided that this week my attention would be turned towards hibiscus flowers.

Hibiscus flowers are commonly known as shoe flowers .I normally call it  Chemparathi , which is the  Malayalam word for it.Until I moved out of Kerala, I never realized how much I missed the dash of color this flower always brings , it just about grows in every garden and quite abundantly in the wild too.There many varieties and colors , mostly due to cross pollination. The most commonly found are the bright red shoe flowers , along with the pastel pinks and yellows.

Chemparathis in my memory are all tangled up with my memories of my Grandma.One thing I remember, she used to always make sherbets out of the red ones which grew in abundant profusion in our house.It was a trick of hers to give them to visitors and when they oohed and aahed oved the taste and finally when asked where to buy them from,she would tell them she made it and everyone would be surprised. Our regular visitors always had some at their home , she was not stingy about giving it away.

She  used to add the flowers to her  hair oil  , and added them for me as well when she would send me some. My grandma had thick , jet black,  beautiful curls  and hardly any grey hair well into her seventies.Now that she is no more, I buy a version from the Ayurvedic shops , but they are no match for my grandmas recipe.Eventually I hope I can make them myself.

Even though this was a tough challenge , it was a nice one as well. I always forget how amazing my grandmothers are , all three of them , and this week as I was working on this , I was pleasantly reminded of it again and again.

I was unable to make any pieces of jewelry this time. So I am submitting two hibiscus canes. These were quite difficult for me to make as I had to visualize the flower and make it. I did see some canes , but they were single colored or dual colored , but I wanted the beauty of the colors to shine through.

I am a novice at cane making , especially floral canes . While I am satisfied with the way they turned out for trial 1 & 2 ,I now know how to improve it. I will probably go back to them and give it a try later.

Primary piece ( cane ) : Red hibiscus.

This was the first hibiscus cane I made. Took me around 5 hours. It was longer than I anticipated , and I didn't get it right. The stamen along with the pollen did not look right at all. Not to mention the green color just looked strange,
So I made the next one.

Secondary piece ( cane ) : Pink & yellow hibiscus

This took me about an hour from start to finish. Even though the other  cane didn't turn out so well , it helped me a lot with what to look out for in this cane.
This cane also has issues , such as the petals look squished and the pink area looks like the background rather than part of the petal itself.On the upside ,I am quite certain how to improve these particular issues , but I am sure the next cane will teach me some more.

Hibiscus flower

I still don't know what to make with these , so I am putting them away for now. Hopefully the tube light would come on soon and when it does , I shall update the post .

Thank you so much for reading. Have a great day :)


Update !

I just saw that the polymer clay group 52 weekly clay projects have some amazing hibiscus canes ! I unfortunately did not see these canes before I attempted mine. I sure feel stupid , because I am infact part of that group on FB.I could have saved oodles of time !
I saw a group pic upload on Pinterest and there is an indentical pink and yellow hibiscus cane right on top ! I dont know who made it ,  I would love to know :)
The canes look quite similar , but I am going to try making those to see where lie the differences.

#2015PCChallenge , Week 23 : Marigolds in Polymer Clay

Hi !

For this week , I thought I should try my take on the only flowering plant I have ever been able to grow , a marigold.In case you are interested, they are ridiculously easy to grow where I live.

They deck wedding halls , they sometimes form part of the Pooja plates in temples, they are used to make garlands for weddings and other functions, they are used to make the wreaths for the dead. If you pass market areas early in the morning, say around 4-6 am , you can see huge coils of these flowers , wound about and kept ready for sale.When you travel in the train , some areas are blanketed with vibrant shades of yellow; these are marigold fields.

Their colors range from a pale , almost white yellow to a  deep blood red , with a yellow band on the outside of the petal.

The heavily petaled ones would have looked liked an orange colored giant Allium by the time I was done,so I chose to make my interpretation on the simple, home style marigold.

It was tougher going than I expected. I knew exactly how it looked , and I was growing increasingly frustrated that I was not able to make the exact miniature , perfect in details.

It took me quite a few efforts before I realized that I actually liked the style it had morphed to somewhere during the process.I used that style to make  a few pendants , a bangle & a pair of earrings.

Primary piece : Marigold bangle

Secondary Piece : Marigold buds Jhumka

I am quite happy about how this experiment turned out. But no more oranges for a while at least.


Thank you for reading :) Have a great day.

#2015PCChallenge : Week 19 : Neck pieces , mirrored style !

Hi !

It is already week 19 for the #2015PCChallenge! Wow ! That's a lot of learning for me :)

I have accumulated a lot of scrap clay during this process , as I tend to experiment as much as I can.This particular pieces were made from a recent cane experiment.

I recently joined the 52 weekly cane projects group on Facebook.The theme of the week when I joined was homestead. A little hobbit home immediately came into my mind.This picture by Ted Nasmith is what I was thinking of.
I did not know of the artist before I searched it out , even though the picture has been a favorite for years.I feel really terrible about that.

Anyway , my cane looks nothing like I planned ( LOL) , it was pretty fun never the less. I think I should proceed like a sane person from week 1 and THEN go into the second year :)

I used up the spare pieces from making the cane and also the pieces left over after reducing it,

Both the pieces are made using the Natasha bead technique. Even though it is an easy technique on paper , I found it takes some restraint from me to form these pieces.

The primary piece reminds me of a bubbling brook ( as the saying goes) , the plants in it swaying to a rhythm unknown to us.It is finished with silver colored chain.

The secondary piece reminds me of wahat I think plants on a ice would look like.It is finished with cotton cord and some rainbow beads , I still have plenty left over :)
I had cut a rather unlikely piece for the secondary piece. I cleaned it up a bit , but I left the trailing "tail" pieces as it is.If you notice , it has two separate Natasha pieces joined together.

In case any of you were wondering , here is my cane and "the idea". They definitely don't match! I sure have a long way to go!Please ignore the spelling comedies , if you can read my handwriting.

Thanks for reading through ! Have a good day !

#2015PCChallenge : Week 18 : scrap clay trials!

Hi !

For my personal May challenge , I am trying to utilize my time by using all the left over components and clay sheets to assemble a few pieces.

 I always have a few left over pieces / sheets of clay that were too pretty to throw away. I keep these separately so that I may use it later.This pile has been steadily increasing , so here are somethings I made with  them :)

Primary piece : Choker with rainbow beads , cotton cord and sliding knot closure

These beads are the results of the very first alcohol experiment. I wasn't sure what to do with them exactly , so I made a few tube-ish beads and some small round beads.This week I put them together.

I can just see someone lounging in a free flowing gorgette saree , playing with these beads as she sips something cold from a tall glass.

Companion piece : Square sunburst necklace , with gold colored chain and closure.

This is directly from my last week entry. I had a few left over pieces and they were just so pretty I did not want to ball it up or mush it up.I don't generally use chains to complete my pieces , however it went well with the theme.
I find this a very calming piece , just like the dawn :)

Thanks for taking a look. Have a good day !

In the garden : Week 12 #2015PCChallenge

Hi !

Its week three of the jungle challenge and I realized one thing , that  I love my jungle leaf cane. I am almost finished with it though , hope I can make another one just as awesome :)

The plan for this week has kind of turned towards home , towards the garden in our Kochi house. Kochi , like much of Kerala is a humid place , which makes it  very green. I never quite realized what an incredibly green state I lived till I moved onto college. Kerala has a lushness that Ihave never seen anywhere else. Green is certainly the predominant natural color,the various shades of green that pop up during the year are uncountable.

We haven't lived in the Kochi house for years , but I still remember the garden and my parents' constant struggle to keep it weed free. It could have been a house build in the rain-forests , ok probably not, but there was a small pond right next to us, and beside it grew huge towering bamboos , tall cotton trees ( teeming with little orange warrior insects) , wild cashew, wild almonds ,cassava plants and  yam plants with giant leaves.This bounty also meant , varieties of birds and snakes (hanging very picturesquely from the branches of some tree)  came to visit, and mongooses too.It was a tiny spot , but I could have spent the whole day studying it and the designs and patterns it presented to me,
This tendency meant we had a lot of Anthuriums and orchids growing aplenty in our garden. Roses never took too well.

This pendant was meant to be  jungly one , but somewhere along the way it went home :)

That was my primary piece , and here is my companion piece. This is an attempt to make Jhumkas.
Lots to fix in that prototype , but I am happy my idea worked out , so presenting it as my companion piece.

Thanks for reading ! Have a good day !

March theme announcement !

Hi,

I finally settled on the theme for the month. I had a lot of feedback for my jungle flower bangle/cuff combo , and I was asked whether there are any more pieces in this theme.I did not have anything else.   So the theme for this month is JUNGLE.

Hopefully this will give a me a chance to learn some floral and leaf canes and also to progress  in the finish direction as well.

Thanks for reading :) Have a great day !

Week 9 : Sunset in Lakshadweep & Bitter gourd earring

Hi !

My entry for #2015PCChallenge , week 9 is a simple chunky bracelet. Its based on the organic beads tutorial by  Ginger Davis Allman , from the Blue bottle tree. The primary piece : Sunset at Lakshadweep.

Lakshadweep is a group of islands in India. I had the good luck to travel there a few years back. The water is turquoise blue and the sunsets are a vibrant orange.I tried to take pictures showing the beauty of the sunset , but I only had a lousy 2 mp phone camera , and I could not capture all the colors.

The colour combination for this bracelet reminded me of those magical sunsets I saw.

My companion piece is the Bitter gourd earring. Its a simple ,rustic , bumpy earring .

Thanks for reading , have a good day :)

Week 8 : Polymer Clay Challenge : Flowers in the jungle : Bangle and cuff

Hi !

This post is dedicated to my mother , the lover of flowers , the person responsible for me looking at everything in a different way. She taught me beauty is everywhere , and just because others may not always see it, it does not make its existence invalid.

I finally made something tangible with my pasta machine :) Yaaay ! I am so happy. This simple machine has reduced my work by more than half  and I was finally able to make some Skinner blends.
The jungle leaves were my second attempt , the orange petals my third and the pink petals my fourth.It was fun to make and I love wearing them. They looked perfect to me when it was fresh , but now that I have sanded and tried to buff the inside as much as possible , I can certainly see the areas where I must improve.

So here they are , entry for week 8 for the polymer clay challenge.The primary piece and companion piece are photographed together. The bangle is the primary piece and the cuff is the companion piece.

Thankd for reading :) Have a good day !

Week 1 : Polymer Clay Challenge : Back to back entry !

Hi !

 I entered the #2015PCChallenge quite late , as in the 5 th week. This leaves me for 4 weeks to catch up on.
I had a few completed pieces , but I don't think its fair to enter those , as most had been completed before January.I did not want to come up with brand new pieces either , because my competency level has certainly increased during this month , thanks to the challenge. While this is an excellent change , it does not show progression correctly.

What I have done is , I have a stash of half completed projects, components that needed sanding and buffing and trial canes. My plan for the back to back is to bring some life into them.


These were very first complex canes I made.I still remember how happy I was to be progressing from bulls eye canes and jelly rolls :) .

So Week 1 : Kaleidoscopic floral earrings : Primary piece

Week 1 : Kaleidoscopic Cell earrings : Companion piece 

I could not really bring out the translucency of these canes even after a lot of sanding. I think I might have to get a Dremel soon !

So what I did it was this :

1. I provided a thicker base. ( important learning bit for me  : make the base before hand instead ) 

2.Attached the stud base

3.Sanded from 320 grit to 1500. ( lost a few finger tips)

4.Buffed manually

5.Drilled using a drill vise

6.Made the jump rings

7.Put it together

I can see all the flaws , the finger print I cant sand away because it is in a groove , the browning in one of the studs , uneven application of cane slices.Even then I am happy , because all those flaws have taught me.

Thanks for reading. :)

Comments are always welcome !

Week 7 : Polymer Clay Challenge : Dragon Cuff & Bangle

Hi !

I am presenting both original and companion piece together : My dragon cuff ( primary) and my dragon bangle ( companion)

This is a bit of miracle as far as I am concerned , you see this is a floral bangle that got burned. I had somehow turned the temp knob up and I did not notice it. My nose isn't too functional ( myriad allergies) so I did not smell it out.When I happily went after an hour, opened the oven and saw it spewing out the toxic smoke , my heart was broken.I mechanically went through the crazing process, that's what dunking it in ice cold water is called, and waited for the smell to go away.

After a few sad hours I went back to the bangle / bracelet and I looked at them. Strangely , I liked it. I wore it for a few hours, then my husband came back from office and was all " whoa , that's a cool dragon bracelet ! " I was a happy girl.

I am also a lazy girl , I hate sanding.So this was lying around for a few weeks now and I found it a while back and I tried to fix it :) I love the end result !

Thanks for reading :)

Week 6 : Polymer Clay challenge : Rustic sky bracelet

Hi !

So I think my challenge is spanning out to have 2 separate but co-related pieces.I did not plan it , but I like the idea of companion pieces , keeping each other company :)

So this is my companion piece for the rustic orchid necklace.Yup , that's the name I came up with.

I had a small blue based cane lying round which I further compacted and then put it on the round beads.

A note , easier to drill before painting the rustic beads.
Thats all for now :)
Have a great day!

Week 5 : Polymer clay challenge

Hi !

I am finally done with my companion bangle.It was done yesterday, but it was dark by the time I got done , so I couldnt take any photos till today.

And Tada ! Here it is : Rustic cuff in dusky rose ( I am going to work on naming them ).

I am happier with this than the blue snaky one.

Thanks for your feedback, and have a great day!