Successful canes...Failed baking...

These past few days, I've been playing around with my clay...and I decided to make my own canes. I watched some free tutorials on youtube and played with one of the tutorials there, changing a bit here and there...i forgot to take initial pictures because i was too excited...

and another...

I love the idea that this big canes can be reduced into smaller logs and the design stays the same...they look so intricate and amazing when they're tiny...

Seems like a good clay day, right....

Unfortunately, when you're still learning, the good sometimes comes with the bad...

I also decided to try using one of my mokume gane blocks. I took a small clear glass i had tucked away in the cupboards and covered it with thin slices of my mokume gane block. Here it was all covered...nice and pretty... I tried putting a candle inside just to get an idea of what it would look like...

Oooh, I am liking that...

So, this morning I fired up the oven, popped in the glass (covered around with cardboard) and waited, carefully checking back every so often as not to to burn it (I was worried since the clay was quite thin)...

At the end of cooking time I took out the glass...not knowing i would find this...

Awww...my beautiful mokume gane..... 

Oh well, its a lesson learned...I forgot to  put the glass ON TOP of cardboard or something that would prevent the burn. I enclosed it around the sides and didn't even think of the ends of the glass. I'll have to read up more about covering glass items because I'm really planning to come out with a bunch of these glass covered items. I think they're quite lovely!

I wonder if i can still do something to salvage this beauty...

That's all for now..have a great day!

until I came up with a big log tbat seemed a bit distorted in the ends

A Challenge...and Ongoing Raffle Contest...

Come and check out our latest challenge at the Philippine Polymer Clay Guild Facebook Fan Page. Become a fan and get a chance to win some great handmade goodies made of polymer clay from some awesome polymer clay Filipino artists!!!

Just vote for your favorites by liking them on our facebook fanpage album here:

Philippine Polymer Clay Guild 

Trash to Treasure Challenge

Philippine Polymer Clay Guild 

Trash to Treasure Challenge

- CONTEST MECHANICS -

Voting is on-going from now until July 30. 

Join by liking one or more of the entries on the Trash to Treasure Album.

There is no limit to how many entries you vote for. However, all votes will just be considered as 1 raffle entry.

Winners will be announced on July 31 at the FB Fanpage as well as here on my blog.

Three winners will be picked randomly from all those that voted. 

All international voters are accepted and eligible for the prizes. 

Please leave a way to contact you.

I do have an entry there but all entries are to remain anonymous...so vote for your favorite :-)

Thanks and good luck!

Charm Necklaces for only $10

I decided to put all my charm necklaces on SALE!!! Any one of them now costs only $10!!!! Here are a few that I re-listed -

Check out my etsy shop - Earthly Jewels - for more!!!!

And here are my latest polymer clay creations...

These are just some samples of what I'll be putting up on my EarthlyJewelsBeads Etsy shop. These ones are going to some of my new-found buddies in our clay guild. I'm really loving the orchids and I'm planning to make more...lots and lots more!

That's all for now..Have a great week!

BTW...Florals

Happy Wednesday...sharing with you what I'm working on today...Thought I'd try making some floral pendants. Here's what I have so far...

To see what everyone else has on their bead table visit the flickr group by clicking the image below.

That's all for now...Happy Wednesday!

A World of Possibilities in Color

I love color...all shades...all tones....bright, muted, pastel, rainbow, earthy...love them all.... In polymer clay, however, I've been shying away. Don't get me wrong, my past works are loaded with color but, I never mix different colors of clay together. Instead, I take white clay and paint them with acrylics.

With that technique, though, there are still limitations. So, despite my fears of coming out with a muddy brown puke mix of clay, I decided to take a leap and try a new technique. Anyway, there is never any wasted clay....If worse comes to worst I can always paint any failed attempts...

So, I chose Mokume Gane (I thought it was pronounced as mo-koom gain...but I heard it pronounced as mo-ku-meh ga-neh and moe-koo-may gah-nay...which is right? i could not say...)....I watched a few youtube videos, scanned some tutorials online and within minutes pulled out my newly acquired clay (cutters and tissue blade) and got to work....

Here are the results to my experimentation with this new technique....

I'm in love....I really enjoy doing it since it's quite easy and fast. I didn't follow directions to the T... I'm a messy clayer and I just layered the clays any way sometimes with 2 colors or more in a layer. I wish I had taken pictures along the way. But, being so excited I forgot to pull out my camera. Anyway, it was my first time and I thought it wouldn't come out very nice.

Here's the final cube I made....top....

 and from the bottom...

In the top picture, I already have a few layers sliced off...I sliced off the top layer because I like the simple pattern...here's what it looked like....

I'm still thinking if I should make this into a pendant  as is. Although, I may cut it out into an oval...

This one will be used as a veneer...I made it from the thin slices I took from the block above...

And here are a few of the beads I have made so far...covering a black piece of clay with pieces from the veneer above...

The one above I also put a black frame around but I think I also wanted to make it a bit thicker so I'm thinking of adding another layer underneath...

For the bigger oval cabochon below, I made from scraps slightly kneaded together. I have yet to think of a use for the one I rolled up into a spiral...but, you can always find use for the scrap clays so, I am setting them aside...even that little round ball on the top left....

Now, that I am totally addicted, I wanna keep making these Mokume Gane blocks.... Next time, I'll have to take step by step photos. I think I need to add translucent clay as one of the layers and maybe incorporate more of the glitter while conditioning the clay so it really gets in there in different layers of the clay. 

My final goal here, actually is to try to get to that faux lampwork beads....I think with just the right polishing and gloss, I'm almost there...

That's all for now..have a good day!

BTW...a Day Late Again...

I wasn't home all day yesterday so instead of Bead Table Wednesday, I'm posting mine today... Here's what I'm working on today....

I found this stone that I really liked but it had a small crack on the side.... So, I decided to dress it up a bit with polymer clay.... now, it's all patched up...

Check out everybody else's bead table on the flickr group by clicking the picture below...

That's all for now...have a great day!

Getting Busy

I've been trying to get back into the groove lately and I'm slowly filling up the bead shop again.... Here are some of the latest Watercolor Impressions Handmade Focal Beads that I listed....

and some stamped art beads....

and some great stones....

Finally, I'd like to share our first event at our local Polymer clay guild...It was a bead swap with the theme of "Black and White"....here's a preview of the beautiful beads that were created.... click on the picture to bring you to the album on our guild page...

I initially signed up to join the swap (but later had to opt out due to unfortunate circumstances)...and had started to make a few beads...here is what I had so far....

I was liking how they were turning out but planned to use black for the background of the beads....come to think of it, now, I think I'll try giving them some color...time to buy more clay....Yehey!

Today, I'm waiting for the local courier to pick up my two packages which I packed this morning...at the same time looking in at our local guild's FB page because today we are voting for our heads of the committees for the guild...

Hubby's coming home early (on the way already) because he's not feeling too well...nothing in the ref (didn't do groceries yet) so, I'm thinking of ordering chinese food....

Been re-listing some items that have expired in my jewelry beads shop too....you can check that out here- 

Earthly Jewels Etsy Shop

All in all, its been a pretty busy day...

That's all for now... Have a great day!