Turquoise Disc Necklace

Turquoise Disc Necklace, originally uploaded by MillerPorcelain.

made by miller porcelain - so simple yet so elegant and eye catching

you are my Star

CatTherien had uploaded to her Etsy shop some really nice focal beads in star shpaes. there is something very cute about his face don't you think?
while you are looking at this guy you can also see the wonderful canes that she has for sale on her shop. a really talented caner she is!!

Clay Rattle

Larry Halvorsen was born in the small Eastern Washington farming town of Ellensburg, WA in 1948. He moved to the Seattle area in 1959 and eventually attended the University of Washington receiving a Degree in Fisheries Science in 1973. During his last year of college he learned to throw pottery from a friend. It was love at first touch. After graduation he took a job managing the pottery department at the Kirkland Art Center.
despite the fact that these rattles are made from clay I still find it very inspiring and they can definately be made with Polymer Clay

Masks

my favorite mask maker is Linda Weeks from It's jester Clay. i already posted about her clowns but her masks deserve a separate post - what a talented lady she is.

Mask challenges

in February 2006 the PCC organized a challenge themed "MASKS" http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/chall_feb06.html

on October 2007 the PCAGOE organised a mask Challenge you can see the finalists here http://pollyhyper-etsy.blogspot.com/2007/10/pcagoe-october-challenge-masks.html

Polymer clay mask tutorial

i was first introduced to this technique by watching Sarajane Helm's masks. I wrote this tutorial a few years ago and was is a better time to take off the dust than Purim? :-)


http://www.finger-tips.co.il/projects/fimo/fimomask.asp

here is another tutorial written by Israela Angel for makink a polymer clay mask on a plaster armature http://www.art1.co.il/instructionsteps.aspx?wid=78a873b1-e734-4cf0-b608-9430722e849d

my friend Maskit uploaded to her blog some links for mask tutorials - if you read hebrew check this post too.

Barbara McGuire shows how to make this mask on HGTV

here is another leaf mask by Anne Igou for HGTV if you want to see more of Ann's masks please visit her website

x


Online Videos by Veoh.com

a polymer clay mask tutorial by the polymerclayproduction girls.

the craftgossip showcased a mask gallery which is very inspiring.

did all these tutorials made you want to make masks? do you already make pretty masks? Sarajane is seeking for masks for a potentail new book she is working on. click here for more details.

Venetian masks for inspiration

these design can easily be adapted to polymer clay don't you think?

Polymer clay masks

the mask in the picture was made by Robert Houghtaling

Sarajane Helm organizes a yearly mask SWAP and what is a better time to talk about this wonderful swap but before Purim?

The carnival-like atmosphere of Purim, wearing of costumes, and bringing gifts of food door-to-door sometimes leads to it being referred to as the "Jewish Mardi Gras" or "Jewish Halloween" by non-Jews.

2002 swap

2003 swap

and if I already got you tickled to look for more masks don't miss the PCC claypen project organized weekly by Jackie Sieben http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/claypen_masks2.html

and some more here http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/claypen_masks.html

my favorite mask maker in polymer clay is Linda Weeks. I am fortunate enough to own one of her wonderful mask. she combines plaster of paris a s a mold and polymer clay embalishments on it and comes out with these wonderful designs.

Shady Flower cane tutorial

A tutorial I wrote a while back for the PCC is now uploaded to thier site.
enjoy! http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/shady_flower.html

Big Ladies

you know how obssessed I am with sculpting big ladies (and if you don't it's time for you to meet:-)) so you can understand how thrilled I was to discover the clay work by Alice Simpson who makes wonderful sculptures of big ladies.

thanks to the polymer clay notes in which i first discovered this site

Nature's beauty

Sony has organized a photografy contest called Nature best Photography. the winners photos are features on the web site http://www.naturesbestphotography.com/pages/home.html

what catched my eye is this photo of a lizard - can you see the skinner blends? color combintions? can you see the INSPIRATION???

Felt Brooch

pins 095, originally uploaded by woolly fabulous.

this brooch catched my eyes with it's vibrant colors. it is made by Canadian Wolly fabulous, a mother of two who specializes in felt.

her work reminds me the work of Camille Young with all the colors and layers that are used

Porcelain earings

Cranberry Peapod Earrings - Design-a-day, originally uploaded by RoundRabbit.

these lovely earings by Nancy E. Schindler are made from Porcelain but the design looks fairly easy to be made with Polymer Clay isn't it?

Nancy is a full time artist and she is also an historian who works on a documentary film.

smoking guy not

This cute little guy was made by Pat Graham who makes wonderful little creatures from different kind of mediums, including Polymer clay. I love the stories that she adds to each charechtar that she makes.

you can also visit her web site for more inspiration and fun

2007 bead art award

Lynn Ann Shwarzenberg won first prize in the 2007 bead art award that was organized by Step By Step magazine - few months ago Lynn visited Israel and I was lucky enough to attend her workshop - she is doing such a great job working with Polymer clay and she is a true ispiration for me.

Enamel

the work of Amy Roper Lyons is very inspring in colors and design.
she uses high-karat gold, sometimes combined with sterling silver. the vibrant effest is acheived by Enamel fused to the metal in a kiln
the process is called cloisonné .

A polymer clay artist that uses the cloisonne and enamel technique is Eugena Topina, Former scientist, that decided to become a full-time artist. you can purchase her on-line tutorial for creating faux cloisonne heart pendant

other on-line tutorial for this technique can be found here

and also - Judy Belcher teached the Cloisonne technique on HGTV

Home alone

2 years ago the Israeli polymer clay guild was created by Sharon Amir and me. it started as an online guild but since Israel is such a small place it soon became a place to meet other people that live near me and a lot of friendships were created.

time past, the guild is growing each day and the great relationship between Sharon and me led to a wonderful atmosphare in the guild.

About 8 months ago Sharon gave birth to an adorable little girl name Eden and last week she has decided to step down from running the Israeli guild so she can have more time with Eden. what can I say - how can i compete with this cute little baby? but yet, I feel very sad with Sharon's departure and I decided to dedicate this post to her so that everyone could see her talent and so that it will cheer me up a bit :-)

Experimenting with the painting technique

Lately I am very facinated by the painting technique in POlymer clay. actually what it means is that you use the clay to paint.

this is my first try on a amedium siza vase - you can see here both sides of the vase which are a bit different - on the left you see that besides "sketching" on the clay i added polymer brush strokes inside the face to serve as shadows. on the right i only used the sketch and left it as is - what do you think? which side looks better?

the sketch is done with a thin rope of extruded clay- my 10 year old daughter came back for school the other day after art lesson in which the students had to paint whatever they like without raising the pencil from the paper. it turned out great and it got me inspired to try this with polymer clay.

your comments here are very welcome since it is a technique i am still learninginvestigating.

Faces

Vogon Jeltz, originally uploaded by TheoJunior.

Theo Junior makes people from polymer clay for fun.he also tells their stories at hiddenmissives.blogspot.com
this is how Theo describes his work:
"Most of the faces are remixes of other faces. Toys and figurines in thrift stores and antique malls provide the originals. I press molds whenever I find faces. The faces are quite small, varying in size from about a half an inch to one and half inches. Each polymer clay face I make is pressed partially into several molds. In addition to molds of faces, I also use molds of stones, wood, shell, bone, nuts, and manmade objects of every sort.
Faces are painted with acrylics and scanned. The images are then enhanced and tweaked on the computer."

personally I find these faces a bit intimidating and scary but yet admire the art and the process of making them.

you can see more of Theo's work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theojunior/

Plastic tube

9884, originally uploaded by mariesel.

I always have a hard time trying to decide about the right way for hanging pendants- Mariesel came up with a wonderful and original idea- she uses plastic tubes as the hanger - since these plastic tubes come in so many vibrant colors the possibilities are endless.

Salad Bowl

Yesterday I finished this colorful salad bowl in green purple and blue.
today it is already filled with healthy vegtable salad, seasoned with olive oil, lemon, S&P - yummy...

Celebrity Red Lentils

Celebrity Red Lentils, originally uploaded by rubytwoshoes.

these lentiles are glass beads made by rubytwoshoes.
maybe because of their shape, they remind me of Mentos - can you imagine how fun could it be if the mentos actually had this kind of design on them?

THE CLOWN

THE CLOWN, originally uploaded by MIRA KRISPIL - COLORS OF LIFE.

MIra Krispil of colors of life.
Working with polymer clay returned to Mira the use of her hands. In return, Mira has taken the art of polymer clay to a new level. A true triumph of the human spirit!
Mira’s creations are unique and one of a kind. They are imbued with joy and optimism, mischievousness and humor.

you can see more of her clowns here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mirakris/sets/72157600237636668/

Purim

jesterinbox, originally uploaded by It's Jest 'er Clay.

Purim is a Jewish holiday in which children and adults dress up in costumes and have a lot of fun.
these clowns made by It's Jest'er clay are so pretty in their colors and details.

Life like Sculptures

Recently I went to a workshop at Idit Zoota's studio. she is the most amazing sculptor. her figurines has so much charechter - there is something even kreepy about them but yet they atract you to look at them more and more.

Lorell is another artist who makes unique dolls. Iespecially liked the fairie godmother. thank you

Mira Krispil for pointing this site to me.

Yellow flower cane

Yellow flower cane, originally uploaded by Marcia - Mars design.

my friend Mars is one of the most amazing caners i know. her canes are always so intricate and you can actually see how much fun she does making them by the different look that each one of them has.
you can purchase her canes on her Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5417557

Looking for some romance

Looking for some romance, originally uploaded by naamaza.

my handsome Joe won the February “Love” Challenge that was organized by PCAGOE http://pcagoe.com/2008/02/04/february-love-challenge-winners/
this is very exciting for me. usually I am the one who initiate the challenges in my guild and because of that i can't participate in them. just recently I started participating in the international challenges and it is so much fun.
THANK YOU PCAGOE for the opportunity.

Mini picture frame tutorial

So as described two days ago- in Israel we celebrate Family day much like Valentines day is celebrated in the rest of the world.

I found this pretty felt covered picture frame and decorated it with some polymer clay flowers - want to learn how?

מצאתי את מסגרת הלבד הזו והחלטתי לקשט אותה עם עיטורים פולימריים

first i extruded clay from pinkish leftovers and arranged it on a little glass tile in the shape of a butterflies. please make sure that the upper wings are bigger thank the lower ones.

bake according to manufacturer directions.

מכינים נחשים דקים בעובי אחיד ועל אריח זכוכית קטן מסדרים אותם בצורת כנפי פרפר (במידה ויש אקדח חימר ניתן להוציא ממנו נחשים בגודל אחיד בצורה קלה ומהיהרה). יש לשים לב שהכנף העליונה גדולה מהתחתונה.

אופים בחום של 130 מעלות למשך 30 דקות.

You know these colorful office clippers? Well there is a new use for them as butterfly bodies…
מכירים את האטבים הצבעוניים הללו? אז הנה לפניכם שימוש חדש בהם

For the body I used a small pin and twisted it with round nose pliers.

ליצירת הגוף לוקחים אטז קטן ומגלגלים אותו על אחת מהצבטות של כלי העבודה (ניתן גם לגלגל על כל דבר עגול אחר כמו עט, שיפוד וכו')

for the feeler (is that how it is called?) i bent a small clip and added a little bead at the end. after placing the little bead make another bend so it won't fall off.

ליצירת המחושים מכופפים אטב קטן ומוסיפים חרוזי בקצה. לאחר הכנסת החרוז יש ליצור כיפוף נוסף על מנת שהחרוז לא ייפול

With E6000 glue i attached it all to the frame.

מדביקים את החלקים למסגרת באמצעות דבק E6000

added some decoration with Tulip paint (the ones you sqeeze out the paint).

ניתן לקשט את השוליים באמצעות טוליפים

and there it is- something nice to make with your young ones or for them :-)

והנה העבודה הגמורה

aren't my little girls cute?

Feet Of Clay

thank you Crafty dez for sending me this link of the polymercafe challenge called "Feet of Clay" - there was a time when i couldn't stop browsing at this challenge admiring the amazing stuff that can be done with polymer clay and used shoes but then, when i was trying to log in to it again while posting few days ago i just couldn't find it any more..
the work above was the first prize winner, made by Lorie O. Follett - is'nt it amazing?
you can see all other finalists at the web PolymerCafe web site at http://www.polymercafe.com/feat_of_clay/feat_of_clay.html

Mold from Extruded Clay Pattern

Mold from Extruded Clay Pattern, originally uploaded by CraftyGoat.

The Crafty goat is playing around with Texture sheets and molds lately - I love what she came up with when using the clay gun.
sure looks like something that i want to try...
not only she included very inspiring photos but she also included a step by step video

Shoes

so many jokes and tails are told about women and their fetish for shoes.

here are some ispiring shoes made by Ndeur that paints with acrylics on shoes creating such beautiful shoes.






it reminds me the "Clay Feet" project that was initiated by the Polymer cafe magazine in 2004. i tries looking for the link in the PolymerCafe web site but it seems to be a broken link.... if you have a corrected link i would appreciate if you can send it to me so i can add it here.

Valentines Day is almost here

In Israel we celebrate "Family Day " next Wednesday in which we make nice things to our family members that reflects our LOVE to them – it can be anything from flowers,herats,picture frames and such.
Since Valentines day is pretty much around the same theme I feel comfortable enough to share

some nice things related to both.

the Polymer Clay Artists Guild On Etsy monthly challenge theme is Love and it is now open for your votes - I also entered something and you can vote for me at # 30 - Looking for romance

http://www.pcagoe.com/

want to make some hearts?

here is a stamped heart project by Sarajane Helm http://www.polyclay.com/heart.htm

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or maybe a heart cane?

here is one by the cane spinner http://www.canespinnerdesigns.com/tutorials/heartcane/page2/

and how about the classic Elissa heart? http://www.pcpolyzine.com/2000december/chrysanthemum.html

for ispiration - you can look at my friend's Iris Mishly wonderful heart beads.

and CCVALENZO dichronic glass pendants

Jumping in

Seems like everyone is joining the blog sphere and it seems only right for me to jump in too.
Here I will try to share my thoughts, new things that I am working on and interesting things from other clay artists that I have around me.
I would love to hear you thoughts about the things I write about.

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