Back to Clay

I finally had some time to work in my studio with polymer clay.  I enjoy doing detail work and I did some muse following... just worked with some colors to make striped beads to start with.  I like these.  They look so crsip to me. You can find instructions in Donna Kato's book "The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques".

You make a long snake and twist the clay to make the diagonal stripe.  After you cut equal sized beads you always have some left over clay.  This is where I follow my muse.  I made a curlyl bead from one end of the snake.  I will use this bead in a scarf or fibula pin.

Ahh but there is some clay left that still has visible stripes.  I rolled some smaller beads from that clay.

First one side...

Then the other side...

The colors really blend together and you can't see any of the black at all. 

There are still some pieces of clay left that will turn into something pretty or be used as scrap clay.  I made a swirl bead out of the colors first then ran it through the pasta machine.  It wasn't too exciting so I added some pearlex powder to it to add some sparkle.  I also added some gold leaf.  It still needed something so I started doing a zentangle kind of drawing in the clay.  It is relaxing to do and kind of like doodling.  I did a bird with a big fancy tail.  I also added a back piece which framed the bird.

After I baked it I used some antique paint to bring out the details of the carving.  This is the focal bead that I ended up creating by following my muse!

Looks quite different from the striped bead but it was from the same mixture of clay.  That is what I love about polymer clay!  The possibilites are endless.  If you mix the colors to the point of  a muddy mess you can always use it as scrap clay...

Looking forward to the Bead Soup Blog Party!  Coming up soon!