#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 28

Hi !

For this week's challenge , I made a mix of floral themed pieces.
I rather forgot about the challenge this week , so these were made quite quickly. They are made with a flower mold I rediscovered. They are quite simple to make , but the results are quite rewarding :)

I am trying to make a few more pieces for some experiments. I will try to post them here.

Thanks for reading this quick post :)

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.

#2015 PCChallenge , Week 22 : Alliums in polymer clay

Hi !


For the month of June , I have decided to go the floral way. I am going to select a flower for a week and try to make my take on it.
This is  week 22 for the #2015PCChallenge.  I have chosen " Giant Alliums" for the week.

I have seen pictures of these beauties , but I never knew that were part of  the Allium family , which also have onions , garlic , scallions & shallots on their list.

So here they are : Premo! used with mica powder & chalk.Cotton cord & glass beads used as well.

1.Primary piece : Giant pendant with sliding knot

2. Secondary piece : Three part necklace with glass beads & sliding knot.

Both of them have a few remaining touch ups to be done . The first piece is a slight bit crooked so I will not be putting it for sale.

I am planning on making a few more of these as a collection for my store.Some earrings , a few pendants are in the works and hopefully a few cuffs too.

I would love to hear your feed back .

Thanks for reading & have a good day !

Shilpa :) 

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 !