Cheeky Bead Gallery 3 - Tattoo beads

Firstly a quick shout out for Craft Pimp.....Do you create with polymer clay? Why not enter our *all about FIMO® Competition* on Craft Pimp Forum with monthly prizes donated by STAEDTLER (UK) Ltd.

And now a quick cheeky gallery of some of my latest inspiration and beads. This gorgeous pram blanket was a gift to my son Ethan from my good mate Tam. It is the jumping off point for my first bead series, Tattoo Beads. These beads use three intricate canes based on the butterfly, scarab and bird that you can see in my son’s baby blanket.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures.

Jolene x
Kitzbitz

Artists spotlight - Smitten Kitten

Nicola describes herself as a devoted hobbyist, keen crafter, passionate about making clean cut simple stylish jewellery.

I love this Fiery Dragonfly, it is part of a  hugely successful series of stunning cluster pendants that Nicola has a talent for creating.



Aside from pure eye candy, Nicola also shows off the funky fun side to her designs. These tweety bird earrings inspired by the popular "Angry Birds" game are so cute.

I'm also loving Nicola's more serious side. Glam Rock in Schwartz is a tasteful little number which would be equally at home with a flirty little black dress or looking cute and moody next to jet black painted finger nails.

To see more from Smitten Kitten check Nicola out on Facebook and on her beautiful and interesting blog and on her own website SmittenKitten.de too.

Jolene x

WIN! WIN! WIN! with Brand New *All about FIMO® Competition* on Craft Pimp with monthly prizes donated by STAEDTLER (UK) Ltd

I am so thrilled to be able to share the news that I have just launched an Brand New *all about FIMO® Competition* on Craft Pimp Forum with monthly prizes donated by STAEDTLER (UK) Ltd.

I am a huge FIMO fan as you may have gathered from my blog and can't believe how excited I am to be able to share this news and project, there will be a prize up for grabs every month now up until Christmas 2011!

Come and join the fun!

Jo xx


Please obtain full instructions/safety leaflet and stockists from STAEDTLER (UK) Ltd.
marketing@uk.staedtler.com

For more information and project sheets:
www.fimo.com
T: 0845 600 5930

Artists Spotlight - Dizzy Kitten

Dizzy Kitten, otherwise known as Kayleigh is a fellow polymer clay addict. She has a real knack for combining zingy colours to create bold and vibrant jewelery designs. You can find out more about Dizzy Kitten by following her fan page, Kayleigh's Craftyness on Facebook.

This picture below shows a range of Kayleigh's whimsical toadstool necklaces which are very cute indeed!




And these pirate cats really capture the sense of fun that Kayleigh brings to her creations which brings her critters to life.

To see more visit Flickr and Dizzy Kitten's Arty Farty Stuff.

Jolene x

Craft Pimp

Two weeks ago I started a new forum called Craft Pimp and I'm thrilled at how things are going, more than 100 members already and growing fast! It is a gallery based forum where members are actively encouraged to showcase their work and talent. Why not stop by and say hi and show us what you have got!

Jolene xx

Cheeky FIMO Bead Gallery 2

This is my second cheeky gallery post showing my progress with using polymer clay an a medium.This selection of images are all beads that I made in February 2011.

 

I hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures.

Jolene x
Kitzbitz

Girls only. Do not enter.

Girls only. Do not enter. by moncy3

I am absolutely thrilled and stunned to find my Stonewashed Candy beads featured in this beautiful collection today. Girls only. Do not enter. is a corker of a treasury, such a pretty and girly collection, curated by Claudia of moncy3. Look at those colours! Denim and bubblegum - delicious!



Claudia uses paper in all sorts of magnificent ways (her byline is - Pretty mail is my business) recycling children's books, upcycling junk mail, combining all sorts of graphic images with fabric, felt, beads and ribbons. The results are utterly appealing! This pink candylicious friendship stationary set gives you a bit of an idea what Claudia's shop is all about - hand crafted envelopes with gorgeous matchy matchy cutie stickers and paper wrapped tiny pencils. Gorgeous!

Friendship Stationery Set

You can also more treasures from Claudia's in her hand crafted fabric and crochet Etsy store at moncy's cottage

Jolene
Kitzbitz

Delicate

Delicate by Rachel Heath

This treasury is a total delight, utterly feminine, utterly gorgeous, and absolutely delicate. I am pleased as punch to have my Honey Dew bead selected for this stunning treasury by Rachel of rachelheath.

Rachel is a self-taught fine artist who works predominantly in acrylics.





Given my current fascination with creating polymer clay butterfly canes and beads I just can't help myself but to select this piece of her work to share with you with its delightful muted colour pallet and subject matter.

Great Escape

I am a smitten kitten with this next painting too........

Buttontree Lane

Jolene
Kitzbitz

My first FIMO butterfly canes

Again just another quickie gallery, rather than a proper show and tell type post - other than to say that these are my first few attempts at making butterfly canes - left to right in the order they were made. The first was a very sharp learning curve, I made half, reduced, cut and joined it together and the body just doesn't line up, shame because I am really happy with the wings on it.

I think that I may well put a butterfly cane tutorial up here on my blog at some point.
Jolene x
Kitzbitz

Bold, Bright, Blue

Bold, Bright, Blue by radiance boutique.

I have just listed a few polymer clay beads for sale for the first time this week and am so thrilled to find my Marine Checkerboard beads featured in this beautiful bright, bold, blue treasury by Jen of radiance boutique. Blue has been my favourite colour since I was very young and I have simply fallen for the raincloud earrings that Jen has also featured.


Jen is a fellow U.K. Etsian and she specialises creating wedding jewellery and bridal hair accessories. Here is a little teaser of her stylish bridal collection.

Romantic Pearl Wedding Hair Comb

Jen also has an Etsy store for children's jewellery under the name Jewellery For Girls and I just couldn't resist showing this, as my daughters name is Ruby.

Romantic Pearl Wedding Hair Comb

Jolene
Kitzbitz

A Cheeky FIMO Bead Gallery........

Just a quick cheeky gallery post to show my progress so far with polymer clay bead making, earliest beads at the top to newest beads at the bottom x











I'm so happy with how things are going although I have only been claying for about a month, hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures.

Jolene x
Kitzbitz

FIMO Classic Colour Mixing Resource

I just found this on the STAEDTLER FIMO website and it is too useful to keep to myself so thought I would post up a quick link here on my blog. Click the image to go to the webpage where you can download this colour mixing chart pdf.



Jolene x

Glitter on New Years Eve

Glitter on New Years Eve by Aimee.

It was lovely to log in to Etsy today and see a message there to let me know my work had been featured. It is such a thrill when that happens. A big thank you to Aimee of Aimees Rock Works for putting my Sleeping Beauty beads in her glittery, girly, magpie’s dream of a gallery.





Aimee's shop is a Mecca for those of us who love rocks. She has a degree in Geological Sciences and a wonderful knack of creating quirky objects from the innocent pebble that are both useful and that will make you smile like these lovely beach pebble place card holders. She also uses rocks to create door knobs, curtain hooks and bottle openers which make excellent man gifts!

Beach Rock and Wire Place Card Holders

Jolene
Kitzbitz

My first FIMO beads

FIMO beads with flower and leaf cane

Here are my first beads with polymer clay, I am pleased with them, they are very flawed but also very pretty.

 

I threw myself in at the deep end, picking a truck load of tricky techniques for my first time out because I love making murrini beads with glass - so it is only natural to want to go to that idea first with a new medium.

I am going to break down for this blog post all the things that I found tricky, what went wrong, what further research I have done and how to best avoid similar problems in the future.

1. Slicing Cane - The images on my flower canes were getting squashed and distorted as I cut slices. I made them from FIMO soft which I found out later was not an ideal clay for picture cane. I found a great article which said to put your canes in the fridge or even your freezer before slicing and also to rotate your cane slightly before each cut. I have also been using an ordinary craft blade and a thinner sharper blade such as a tissue blade would give less distortion.
2. Equal Sizing - I rolled a ball of FIMO and sliced it in half, then sliced each half in two again and so on until I had 8 pieces. When I rolled these pieces in to balls they varied in proportion much more than I thought they would. A better method would have been to roll the base clay in it a tube of the desired diameter of your finished bead size and then to measure and cut off at lengths of the desired diameter to make your blanks.
3. Scale - I made base beads the size I had wanted for my finished bead not taking in to account that I would be adding significantly more clay with my cane decoration - my finished beads were all huge (20-25mm in diameter). Cutting thinner slices of cane to apply would help me maintain scale along with starting with a smaller blank.
4. Discoloration Whilst Cooking - I found that the transparent FIMO was starting to “toast” on the top – I am using a mini oven which radiates heat down from a filament at the top. I think that this may mean that my oven is too hot or having temperature spikes so I need to get my hands on a thermometer to check out exactly what is going on there. Top tips that I have found for another time are to protect the clay from radiant heat with a parchment tent or to immerse my work in cornflower before baking – a technique used by doll makers in particular. I also found out that some white and translucent clay are prone to a bit of yellowing upon baking and so I will need to experiment a bit.
5. Translucent does not mean Transparent – With a background in crafting with glass – I read translucent and imagined transparent. Not so! The slices of cane that I cut were way too thick so once baked it is possible to see the impression of colour underneath but none of the actual detail of jelly roll cane or leaf cane.
6. Painting on Glaze – I used Sculpy sating glaze on these beads, applied quite thickly with a thin soft brush. It worked quite well but there are lines where I apply the glaze evenly enough and it was too viscose to *smooth out* by itself before setting. It is possible to lightly sand and buff polymer clay to a gloss by hand – this will help too in removing some of the tell tale fingerprints marks in the clay which are a dead giveaway sign that I am a PC newbie.

FIMO beads with flower and leaf cane

Many thanks to Cindy Lietz and Sue Heaser for publishing the invaluble articles on line for the newbiw PC crafter that I have linked to from this post.

Jolene x
Kitzbitz

My first FIMO flower canes

It is too cold to venture out in to my unheated studio in the evenings at the moment and my hands are too full during the day with my beautiful 2 year old daughter and gorgeous newborn baby boy.... in a way I have been going a little stir crazy lately without my usual creative outlet at my finger tips.

I saw a second hand starter set  for polymer clay advertised and thought I would give it a whirl, head filled with fanciful ideas of miniature food and kitsch earrings.

Flower Cane

It turns out that what I love about glass, making canes and intricate preparatory work, is absolutely mirrored in the skill set for working with clay - only it is possible to create much more intricate detail.

I have been searching around on the web this for resources and free tutorials and have found a lot of great information. Anyway enough chattering on - here are my first ever polymer clay canes, based loosely on (but nothing near as good as) free tutorials on flickr.

Slices of rose cane

My 5 petal flower cane uses ideas about cutting and fusing for repetition of fine detail that I saw in this fabulous tutorial by ayeletbeads

My rose cane is a much simplified version of the 3D rose cane that I saw created in this wonderful tutorial by Sigal Simovitch

They are by no means perfect, but I am so happy with them as first attempts with a new medium.

Jolene x
Kitzbitz

Terracotta button necklace

Tan button necklace, originally uploaded by kitzbitz art glass by Jolene.

Just a quickie post to show off this beautiful necklace featuring a stunning terracotta flower button by Tan Gray of tanofcourse with a gorgeous hand dyed silk ribbon by Diane Turton
sowzeredesigns - I think they are utterly gorgeous together.


Jolene x
Kitzbitz