Few flower canes

I've finished these canes last night or early morning if you prefer. It was past 1 AM and I couldn't stop until they were finished and reduced.

I love them!

It’s been a while since I made flower canes with transparent background. It was a “Great flower cane virus” last year and I remember making about dozen of such canes. It seems like they last forever and I easily get bored with combining all the same canes.

Quick fix is to switch to some other polymer clay technique.

This year flowers seem to follow me from everyday life through dreams to my creations. I try not to think about it too much, just relax and go with the flow.

I’ve been enjoying and having so much fun with layering cane work technique lately. To extend the fun I’ve decided to update my flower cane collection.

The result of time spent at claying table (afternoon and evening) can be seen in the photo.

I am really happy how they turned out.

Layering cane work

I was always fascinated with this technique. I love the glassy finish that can be achieved.

When I begun my polymer clay journey , about two and a half years ago, pieces made with this technique seemed surreal and almost impossible to make.

It took me some time and a lot of reading to realize how it works. Wow! I was thrilled.
Naturally as time passed I’ve learned a lot about polymer clay by working with it. I gained some experience and my routine improved and decided to try layering cane work myself. I've immediately fell love with it.

Layering cane work is very interesting technique with lot of possibilities. It gives a chance to mix and match, combine, to add colors, glitter, foil etc. I really enjoy its versatility.

There is a catch though: if you want to achieve glassy look – you have to sand. If well sanded and buffed beads often does not need glazing.

Pictures in this post show few favorite work of mine made with this technique.
I can honestly recommend everyone to try layering cane work because it is pure fun.

New space

I have some thrilling news regarding my work space.
These photos show a current situation which you will probably consider as a complete mess.
However, I find it adorable. All I can see is my new beautiful spacious studio. This is a 24 sq meter (258 sq feet) single room irregular shaped provided with ventilation system, air conditioning, and phone, ADSL and heating appliance. It is about 4 times larger than the space I’m working in right now.
It needs some paint, new furniture and flooring to give it a nice shine. I have planned to divide it in few areas: claying, beading, buffing, photographing and jewelry display.
I am very excited and can not wait to start repairing. Since I plan to do the most things by myself I hope it will take just a month.
I’ll keep you posted.

Adorable creatures

These lovely earrings were born few days ago while having fun with mokume gane technique.

I was shaving a sheet of mokume gane and spotted two cute shapes. It crossed my mind how gorgeous faces they are.

I’ve cut them out of the sheet and placed on a sheet of black polymer clay to give them thickness. I added blue and rose Swarovski flat back crystals for eyes and rushed them into oven.

A half an hour later adorable little boy and cutest little girl were smiling on me. I am completely in loved with them.

I’ve used few grits of dry/wet sandpaper for sanding by hand. I’ve also buffed them and covered with two protective layers of gloss glaze.


Beautiful sterling silver ear wires, a gift from a friend, made them look even better and really special to me.

I am keeping these adorable creatures for sure.

Faux ivory/bone

This is fascinating technique which I discovered browsing through Jael’s Jewels Flickr gallery. Amazing pieces caught my attention and I simply had to learn this technique.
That is really my approach: I spot something I like, then read about topic and after thorough research try myself.
During my research I found Desired Creations – stunning work of Desiree McCrorey. So many wonderful pieces of jewelry are shown there and plenty of tutorials and advices. I admire her for sharing information about material, tools and techniques, offering them for free.
Desiree wrote two well explained easy to follow tutorials for Faux Ivory/Bone Horn ad Faux Ivory/Bone Pendant. Determined to try this technique myself I still worried a bit.
You should know another thing about me: when it comes to use of material I am very practical (some people call it stingy). I like to use every little piece of polymer clay. I try to carefully think about project and decide what I am going to make before I even start. That really saves me time and material.

Finally, I’ve decided to use faux ivory/bone technique to make few pendants using some pearly sheets and complex cane slices for embellishment. I’ve just followed Desiree’s tutorial step by step and had no problems at all. Every piece of polymer clay is used, some for making small beads and some for brooch so there was no scrap left.
I’ve aged some pieces adding a patina. All pieces were sanded by hand, buffed and glazed.
Pictures in this post show how my first attempt turned out using faux ivory/bone technique.
I am really happy for trying this technique because it is pure fun and I recommend it from the bottom of my heart.

Published!

I have to report that one of my jewelry sets is published in a summer issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry. I am over the moon about this and can not believe that it came true.

This actually was quite a project: it has been over a year that managing editor Christen, found my work on Flickr and asked if I was interested in publishing some of it. I was thrilled and I seriously doubted that anybody ever got such an awesome e-mail unexpectedly.

When she reviewed my website and decided that she wanted to see Rhea jewelry set, I received another awesome e-mail. So I sent my jewelry over the ocean hoping for the best.

The third awesome e-mail said: Congratulations! My work was chosen to be presented as technique based article.

That was the moment my thrill started to fade making room for some serious panic attack. I have never written an article for a magazine and now I have to do it in a foreign language? Can I do that? Is that a bit over my head? – I wondered.

Another problem was to make a step by step tutorial. With my original artwork being at that moment in America, I had to make it by memory and by photo. However, detailed description that I write about each item on my website really saved me a lot of time. I’ve made 2 pieces in different colors just to be sure I got it right. That is how Rhea Blue and Rhea Red were born.

I had managed to finish everything in time and send it to Christen. Well, there were some lost e-mails, resending photos etc. just to prove Murphy’s law once again that nothing can ever go perfectly smooth. I am really grateful to Christen for being such sport and having so incredible patients with me.

My article was scheduled to be published in March, but then it was moved for June. At some point I really thought nothing is going to come out of this. But suddenly my jewelry set arrived from its’ journey and I was really glad to see it a year later. It felt like an old friend came to visit.

Then just days ago a copy of a magazine arrived. I was so happy and proud to see my artwork there. It’s not the first time that my work was published, but Belle Armoire Jewelry is something special. So many wonderful artists with magical project in one place, including some that I’ve already met on internet and some of them that I saw for the first time. There are wireworks, polymer clay pieces, beaded jewelry, mixed media projects etc. Everything a creative person would like to see and enjoy.

And yet one thing (again Mr. Murphy playing his game on me!) had to make things not so very perfect: they have misspelled my last name. Since that it is my husband’s last name I started to tease him how it clearly was not exotic enough so they had to change it. I realized then that my name can actually be completely translated in English. It would be Marigold Tailor - my name comes from a flower and last name stands for profession - tailor. Amusing, isn't it? :)
As you see I am not upset, those typos happen, but I have to admit that it has just dashed a shadow over a really important moment of my life. I am grateful; I really am, only somehow feeling a little bit sorry that it isn't a completely perfect moment.

Oh my, there were days I thought that this will never happen. I kept my mouth shut in case that they in Belle Armoire Jewelry change their mind or something. And I have to tell you the most difficult thing for me is to keep quiet!!! I kept it a secret for a year. Can you imagine my misery?

Now I am still happy above words floating somewhere in the sky, chasing clouds. I am trying to comprehend influence that this experience made on my life and to recognize all the things I’ve learned.

After that I plan to rest for a day or two, just to recharge batteries and start working again. I have a million ideas waiting to be materialized in polymer clay. Maybe Belle Armoire Jewelry or someone else will want to publish them when finished.

Who knows?

How Salty is the Sea?

Sometimes a piece of jewelry gives me a headache. This necklace produced a major one.

I planned everything as always: made a sketch, completed a mokume gane, prepared some pearl shaded polymer clay and then made three focal beads. I was satisfied how beads turned out, but just couldn’t come up with the final look.

Sadly, those beautiful beads were put aside waiting for their moment. Isn’t that frustrating?

Then in March, with a first signs of sun and warm weather, the idea was born. I looked up for that playful, two sided beads sanded by hand, buffed and glazed to give them a proper shine. Those beads reminded me of sun, summer, fun and vacation.

I’ve decided to spice things up with some simple polymer clay beads in different shade of blue. Those were just buffed a bit to oppose shiny focal beads.

After that everything fit together just perfectly: wax cord as a base of necklace and small glass beads in various shades of blue. Cute silver plated toggle clasp in shape of heart finishes necklace beautifully.

This necklace can dress you up in two ways: one playful and fun showing one of a kind mokume gane embellishment and other more subtle and romantic that can be worn with most of colors. Besides that it is really practical to have two-in-one necklace like this.

Following my initial idea I named it How Salty is the Sea?.

What do you think?

Welcome

Hello to all of my new friends.

My name is Nena. I live and work in Subotica, which is a lovely small town on North-West of Serbia, just 25 km from Serbian-Hungarian border.

I've been claying for more than two years now. My first contact with polymer clay was in March 2007 and I just can't get enough of clay ever since. I am completely in love with this material and I love to play and experiment always making something new. I've tried a lot of techniques but not as much as I would love to.

Lots of you might know me as 'Katherine Jewelry'. Since childhood my favorite name was Katherine so when I started my jewelry line that was an obvious choice. You might have seen my work on Flickr or Facebook or some other online gallery. I'm running a website and few online shops.

I'm also running a blog about polymer clay in Serbian language for more than a year now. My goal is to introduce enchanting world of polymer clay to people who doesn't speak foreign languages. I write about polymer clay in general, tools, tutorials, I'm introducing other artists and their work as well as my own stuff.

I don't have a clear idea about this blog though but I've decided to start and see where it will take me. My idea is to write mostly about my work, inspiration and progress - my way to clay. Also I might add few things about me in order for you to know me better.

It is always fun to start something new and I am really excited about this blog. I'm completely new to Blogger though and I'm hoping to come up with final look of this blog soon.

Hope you'll find it interesting ..

I'll see you around..:))