BluPrint November 2011 Polymer Clay Canes, Beads and Jewelry

Volume 8 Issue 11, November 2011

What's New in November?

Banana Bread! - Ok, this is a bit different than my usual post, but I have to share this wonderfully easy and moist bread/cake recipe. All you really need is a couple overripe bananas.

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

• 1/3 cup melted butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 egg, beaten

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• pinch of salt

• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

This recipe is really easy—smash your bananas with a wooden spoon, pour the melted butter in and stir it well. Beat the egg with a fork before pouring it into the mix, add sugar and vanilla and mix well. Sprinkle the salt and baking soda over the mixture and mix again. Then add all your flour and mix completely. Pour into a buttered loaf pan and bake for one hour at 350.

This bread is moist and light and great with a winter cup of coffee. So, don’t toss out overripe bananas, it only takes a couple minutes to mix up this great bread.

Recipe borrowed from a recipe site.

Now, on to beads and canes.

Flower Canes - I am getting ready to mix up another batch of fun flowers. I have been working on new designs and have cannot wait to get started. I had to set up a new work bench in my little cabin rental in order to work on my flowers. Otherwise, the flowers were threatening to take over my kitchen table and then where would I put my laptop? :)

Artfire—In an effort to conserve space, accommodate my regular customers and to take advantage of a great handmade site, I have consolidated all my websites into one at Artfire. All of my other sites are still updated and used, you can still access your customer information and your order history, I am just using Artfire to save space and make it convenient for my customers.

You will find Blue Morning Expressions, X-Stitch-Patterns, The Seed Bead Pattern Store, and Clipon Earrings Boutique. If you are interested, you can find me at http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

Writing—I have spent the last month writing full-time and I must confess, I have sorely neglected all my canes and polymer clay items. I did over 250 web articles and one feature article for a local newsmagazine. All of these things were fun to do, but very time consuming and my clay suffered. I had quite a few sales of canes and over half of my inventory went out in boxes this last month. That is good for clearing space for me, but bad for providing a great selection of canes for you!

Beads—I am working on new focal beads and doing a few necklaces with the penguins that I did last year for Christmas. I have six focal beads ready go and will get those necklaces done soon. The next sets of focal beads will be ready in the next couple of weeks. You can find both the beads and the finished necklaces on www.bluemorningexpressions.com or at my Artfire store http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com     

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

Earrings—These are all created from my bead sets, I used both floral rounds, heart swirl lentils, and full size 20mm pillow beads to create 30 new sets of earrings. Each set is under $4—I wanted to create an affordable set of earrings for gifts that can be easily purchased in groups. They make great stocking stuffers and can be converted to pierced look earrings if you like.

 

 

A Penguin Ornament Winner

http://www.pacountrycrafts.blogspot.com/

Here is the winner of the polymer clay Penguin ornament.

Polymer clay heart lentil bead dangle earrings

Heart Lentil Beads - I created a set of these on a whim for the Peas and Carrots bracelet that I did and was so pleased with the results that I decided that I would create a couple dozen little earring sets.
My idea to create earring sets has been spurred by my adoration of the lampwork artists and their earring pairs. They are just affordable enough for me to buy a set of beads and create my own crystal and glass earrings. I wanted to do the same thing with polymer clay for folks that didn't want to get a whole set of eight beads. These earring pairs work up quickly and nicely - just in time for an evening out with friends.
I seem to be drawn to anything shiny, so I have a natural affection for Swarovski crystals and try to use them in all possible ways. These earring beads just begged to be dressed up a bit with dangling and shiny crystals.
I wrapped each crystal with wire so that I could attach them to jump rings and waterfall them down from the bottom of the heart. I used a lot of 4mm crystals in these earrings - they seemed to be the best size for the 10mm hearts.
Because I love black as a design option, I chose the black, yellow and red clay to use as my base bead. I knew that the yellow would contrast nice in the bead and give me the possibility of an orange combination. That also gave me an excuse to use my all time favorite Swarovski color - Fire Opal.
These earrings are fun and affordable and I know that I will be making a lot more of them, they just will all look different due to the combination of the clay used. I have a huge box of crystals in dozens of different colors, so I am not worried about any of these earrings looking the same.
See a pair of beads that you would like created into a similar set of earrings? Just let me know and I will create the earrings for you.
Enjoy shiny things,
Julie and Blu

Playing Through

Polymer clay golf ball pot holder magnets for the kitchen

 

When you live in Florida, you are surrounded by both the beautiful waters of the Atlantic Ocean and miles and miles of golf courses.
Like a lot of my goodies, these started by those wonderful three words that we all love to hear, "Do You Have ....." which is a variation on the theme of "Can You Make..."
A friend of mine needed a gift for a lovely lady golfer and she saw some  ladybug pot holder magnets that I had done and asked how hard it would be to create golf balls for her friend's kitchen. I thought about it a minute and said, "well, I could do a set of two for your friend, if you give me a couple of days to get them done".
It was a mutually beneficial exchange, she had a set of magnets that couldn't be found anywhere else and I had a new product line that given my locale, made for a popular gift.
I used Fimo Soft to form my golf balls, I added my hook and glued it in before baking. I attached a heavy duty thick magnet on the back, and now these are ready for a place of honor on any golfer's refrigerator. Priced right and fun, those are two things that I strive for in my creations.
Most of all, fun.
See you on the 19th hole.
Julie and Blu

Purple Blue Disk Beaded Necklace Pearl

Hoppy Taw
Yeah, that's what I named this polymer clay piece featuring my kaleidoscope canes on large cookie shaped disk beads.
The Hoppy Taw was a staple of my childhood. No self respecting 3rd grader ever played hopscotch at school without a Hoppy Taw of one's own. They seemed to be magical and could make you stand on one leg a lot longer. This silly thick rubber disk was some marketing genius's bread and butter. In fact, it wasn't until a couple years ago that I even checked to see if it was really called a Hoppy Taw or if that was some misheard lyric type situation of childhood. It was in fact called just that.
When I created these disks, that was the first thing that came to mind. They are large, colorful and can probably make you stand on one leg longer than anyone else.
Each disk has been double drilled and hand sanded smooth and had a light coat of varnish added for some shine.
The potato pearls both between the beads and hand wrapped on the chain have been dyed to an iridescent blue and purple which is one of my favourite colour combination.
I merged the sets of cable into a single strand and loaded it up with delicas, plated chain and wire wrapped additional potato pearls and Czech glass beads.
The clasp is a pewter rose and the ends have been double crimped and double crimp covered. I used E6000 cement on the crimps and covers to secure the ends.
This has been designed to curve and will automatically do that when you wear it. The length is a comfortable 24 inches.
It is a lightweight piece but it does have a bit of bulk to it due to the size of the disks.
©jcleveland

Polymer Clay Pillow Beads with Floral Canes, Butterflies and Translucent Canes

Polymer Clay Beads Filled with Flowers and Butterflies!
My all time favourite beads to create are pillow beads. I don't know what it is about them, but I can't resist creating them. I like the way they feel, I love the size of them - most 20mm - although I do have some 15mm sized beads as well.
To me, it is hard to resist what I consider a blank canvas.
I start with a blank sheet of clay; either in a tinted colour - I rarely use a colour out of the package, or a neutral.
If I am using a neutral, I will take one of my kaleidoscope canes and cover the sheet of clay before I cut them to the size of bead that I am creating. The base on the kaleidoscope cane beads will not be a part of the design so it isn't that important to me what colour it is. I will tuck it under when I assemble my bead.
When I am creating a garden of beads, I use my tinted clay as the background and generously slice thin pieces of my leaves, flowers and butterfly canes onto the background. It doesn't matter where they go, I will be cutting them all up anyway.
Before I cut my beads up for assembly, I make sure that they are smoothed out. This helps me not to have to do as much sanding as I would if there were hills and gouges. I have carpal tunnel and hand sanding is a bit hard on my hand, so I do the best to keep it at a minimum.
Once I have cut my beads and assembled them with their pillow stuffing, I smooth my edges, doing the best that I can to make them seem seamless. I usually add a 1mm hole to them before baking, but lately, I have been uping the hole to 3mm. I have been reading beaders that are requesting a slightly larger hole, so I have been doing that for them.
Polymer clay is soft enough after it is finished to allow for hole enlargement if needed.
Once my beads are baked, I drop the flower ones into a bath of ice water immediately, it clears the translucent clay right up and makes it clear.
I handsand the beads through three grits and then add a nice little shine of varathene on them before putting them up to dry.
Once they are dry, I do my photos and the next thing you know, they are here as a new item in my store.
I hope you enjoy the beads and the work that goes into them.
Must go bead,
Julie and Blu

Polymer Clay Floral Cane Chunky Bracelet

Polymer Clay Floral Garden Bracelet
This bracelet was in the making for several years, which just means that I had the bracelet blanks for several years and didn't get around to actually creating anything from them for a long time. I have a habit, good or bad, of picking up things that I see can be used in future projects. I ran across a seller that had these blanks in her store and I bought ten sets. I didn't know what I would do with them and it was before I really got into flower caning, so my coveted canes were all by other folks.
They came in and they were a lot heavier than I realized, so with a hmmmm, I put them away with other bracelet blanks that I had collected with no idea what I would be doing with them.
One day as I was rearranging my studio, I came across these blanks and took them and set them on my work bench with the intention of working on something using them.
I had just finished some new canes and was cleaning up clay, so I grabbed some white clay and built a bead to fit the bracelet. I then added thin slices of leaves and bright colored flowers.
After I baked them, I hand sanded them and added a slight coat of varnish to the beads.
I finished stringing the bracelet and took lots of photos of it.  It does have a little weight to it and it is a large bracelet.
But it's pretty and it is a definate one of a kind bracelet.
Just in time for spring.
Julie and Blu