Feature #2 for an Artfire Collection!!

I was featured in another Artfire Collection ya'll!!

Psychedelic Yellow and Blue Lampwork Glass Bead Pendant Drop

This is a flameworked bead I made with yellow glass and then did some light blue and dark blue layered dots, then let the whole thing drip down a little to make a drop pendant bead! Pretty bright colors, yeah?

Craft ya laters!!

Clay techniques - rolled cane and faux woodgrain

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 09-11-2012 

I was reading through one of my clay bead making books and finally got some inspiration after not having any for so long!! Look what I made!!!



These are my faux woodgrain with brown, metallic gold and gold.


This is my new purple, blue, pink and black cane!!

Wheeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First Attempt At Faux Blue Opal

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 07-16-2012


Thanks to Carmi over at resincrafts.blogspot.com and the referral back to Marie Browning's idea for Faux Opal Using Easy Cast Resin, I have been able to make these awesome pendants!!





**Please excuse the bad pictures, I'm still figuring out how to get the best shots but the first one really is how these guys look!!*

The instructions called for mylar flakes for the opal shine so I set out on a mission to find this stuff locally.

I had looked at about 4 craft stores one day, looked in the resin, clay, craft sections... I even asked a couple employees at the stores if they had any mylar flakes I could use as was recommended by these ladies but noone had the foggiest what I was talking about!!

I thought I couldn't have gotten THIS unlucky, could I?? At the HobbyLobby checkout, I saw this stuff though so I decided to get it to see if it'd do about the right thing, until I could find the real stuff online:



Only in looking up what they called this stuff to give it a name here did I find that apparently, this stuff IS mylar!! YAYY!!! Also, they seem to have about 10 different colors!! WOW!!

After these pendants turned out so great, I might just try to get my hands on some more of this stuff!, in different colors!! Such a great price for a material like this when it's US $2.00 a bag and there's SOO much in there!

Only catch though guys, this stuff is extremely, HORRIBLY staticky!! I got the strips out and was just cutting bits off but it kept sticking to my hands, the table, my legs, etc. The only way I could get it in the mold on the first layer of resin so I could pour the second layer on top to seal it in was to use a paintbrush, put a layer of glue on the resin and then dob it on the pieces of mylar to stick to the brush and then apply to the glue on the jewelry piece in the mold!! Yikes!! Needless to say, it made a decent mess, but since glue dries clear, you can't even tell I had to do those extra steps!

Does anyone have any idea how I could de-static this stuff and make it easier to use next time?!

Skinner Blend Method - Pink, white, blue and silver

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 07-16-2012

I have had my pasta machine for playing with clay for about as long as I've had all my clay but had yet to properly do the Skinner Blend method to get a really good color shift going...until yesterday!


Colors used : pink, blue and white


This is after about 7 or 8 runs through the pasta machine.


This is after about 15 or so runs through the pasta machine.


All done!!!

I brought out all my cutters and wanted to do a good variety of shapes:





The 2 ovals missing were pieces that stuck in the cutter at first so I set them aside on my silicone baking mat.

As you can see, I did a good deal of cutting, as well as using my zig-zag blade and getting a few strips in the middle.



Look at all the awesome pieces I got!!! Most were from the original strip of blended clay, but a few I got from using silver with glitter as a base (for the broken hearts and the circles with swapped flower inserts) and then I used the silver for its own pieces bc it got a little blue and pink on the edges and when I ran through the pasta machine to ready for more backs, I saw the pink and blue stripes in there and couldn't resist them being their own pieces!

The butterflies on the bottom left as well as the squares were used with the silver base and broken pieces from the original rollout and pieces of the zig-zag cuts I'd made and then rolled into the silver using the pasta machine.

The top left section has a few free-form cuts I made just to see what they'd look like.


Junk pieces on silver.

Swapped flower inserts.

Friendship heart necklace pendants.
Ice cream cones and free-form.
More free-form.
Totally outrageous Jem earring pieces? ;)


Regular cuttings.
Kind of weathered looking pieces I might put floating sand/beach related floaters in under resin coating?

I can't wait to get some of these framed/sealed in resin, some maybe with a layer of filler as if they were in a bezel!!