"Dreaming of colour" - Polymer clay leaf pendants

Sometimes a theme seems to be simple, a theme like wood. There is so much one could create, forest silhouettes, actual trees, leaves and flowers, small and big animals, insects, overgrown stones and moos, hidden meadows...

But nothing hit me. It seems that the more limited a challenge is (okay this was just a theme but I do love to use it like a personal challenge ;) ) the better my brain actually is able to think beyond my usual ideas. So.... not with wood... too many great and nice options... *sighs*

It took several days until I was on my balcony, getting some fresh herbs... that I thought of texture and pattern. I made some years ago lovely black and white leaves from polymer clay using (not innovative but always lovely!) some real leaf imprints. An idea I wanted to go back to but maybe with different shapes.

So there we go... not all finished because the gloss caught a brush hair (have to remove the surface and gloss and then add gloss again), not sure whether I want to add more colour to some and of course still have to add the ear pins for the little round ones.

But here are some closer images of the ones who are finished. I like this drop with two different leaf vein structures: Fine lines at the front (or back if preferred)...

...and rather bold lines with a more rustic appeal on the back (or rather front?). Just seeing the pendant now: It could be a tree silhouette, nai? And little holes to add dangle just because I love dangles!

Like the earring pair at the top of the blog entry just really tiny! Love the hint of blue at the top...

The long and round shape is covered all over with the leaf vein structures. I took care to have the middle line go directly down at the front and the rest of the structures are going all around. It gives a stylized and still very natural and organic look.

I also made a simple leaf pendant with a more gentle colour scheme, not so contrasting like black and white. The hints of blue and green are lovely but I have to say, I personally prefer the stark contrast.

  Or maybe the combination with a hint of colour somewhere :)

You can find some of them at my etsy shop here but not all right now. Some need more gloss and the ear studs still need to be finished. But if you would like to get something I didn't list on etsy, just write me :)

ATC - "I see you"

Paper collage from magazines and printes, combined with stencils and texture paste. She looks more beautiful in person than here on my blog but just let me tell you: I love my little warrior! 

A warrior not because of actual fighting with aggression but rather by not turning around, by not being blind. To be seen and recognized as human beings is often more important than a lot of people realize.

"Penumbra" - Romantic and rustic earrings

After all the paintings some earrings again! I love the colour combination, bold and bright and still... with a dark gothic feeling :)

The czech glass beads and the tiny metal spacer are from Rebeccas "The Curious Bead Shop" and the lampwork beads are handmade by Sue Robinson.

They dangle of course! Earrings have to have some movement for me! ^^

You can find them in my etsy shop here :)

"Alive" - Earrings

  

Sometimes I am struggling to come up with a name for my pieces. Or rather the right name... a name that somehow reflects the impression and feelings I have seeing the piece. There are pieces that don't have their own name because they just don't have their own story or they just don't speak to me. But here it was different. I love the earrings. I just love them! They have such a fresh, lush, natural feeling to them...

...the best I can describe it is the fragrance of a wood. Just this moment, in summertime, shortly after a rain when the sun comes out again, and you smell the earth, the plants, the flowers, the grass... You take a deep breath, getting it all inside of you even if you seem to be too small to hold this powerful feeling. 

The moment where everything is okay, where you are just here and now, where the world around us, nature shows it's most beautiful and yet so powerful side. 

Alive.

The lampwork beads are made by Sue Reynolds and the tinnes headpins by Sasha Crow. I have listed the earrings in my shop here.

"Remembrance" - Earrings

The little headpins remind me of flower petals, the subtle translucent colour like the first blush of roses in spring. The vine leaves wrapping around the purple and blue lampwork beads strengthen this image in my mind. 

 The dark oxidated metal sets a beautiful contrast to the colour.

The lampworkbeads are made by Sue Reynolds and the headpins by Sasha Crow. Seeing them together, they just seemed to be made for each other. The earrings move beautifully!

They are all in all surprisingly romantic for me, a kind of dark romantic, but still, who would have thought that this part can also be found inside of me? ;)

I have listed them in my etsy shop here.

Scarabs, bird skulls, beads and more

Since we were on Formentera for holiday I got into my mind that I want to create some scarabs. These are the first two finished ones! I have some more waiting to be glazed as well as waiting that I have time to start a new firing (will not be before next week *sniff*).

They turned out in all these lovely hues of blue and turquoise with a hint of green! I need to make more and also have to play with glaze and colour effects! I actually used underglazes like washes comparable with polymer clay and acrylic paint. 

You can see it maybe a little bit better at the backside It enhances the colours of the transparent glazes on top!

A lot of pendants. On some of them the glaze dropped more than I wanted to (I like a little dropping). But the kiln had started and stopped in the middle. The glaze just started to melt down. The kiln was started again but it had an effect on some pieces. Some glazes also reacted strangely... 

I played around mostly with "bottle green" but had to include "orient blue" as well. 

You can see the difference better at the backside.

Of course I also had to try to make a bird skull like I made so often with polymer clay. Love him! What else can I say? It is a different effect from polymer clay. I will definitely make more from ceramic clay as well as from polymer clay since both materials create different and unique effects. But I was honestly surprised how much easier it was to create the skull from ceramic clay compared to polymer clay.

The skull is just really, really difficult to capture with the camera!

Some more favorites (yes, I have also non favorites... but in the end it divides in "love it!" to "love it not" ^^). I like the organic shape reminding me of either sea shells or flower petals.

 I also love how this tiny leaf tuned out that had a kind of frame around. I used a polymer clay mold I made years ago.

Using the "hand ruler" you can see that is rather on the small side.

Now to the ones that went wrong. *sighs* Yes, the upper two also have a beautiful side shown in the image above. But the glaze dropped a little bit too much. The same amount like the last time but I think it behaved different due to the kiln problems. 

Maybe the same reason there was a piece gone from one of the beads.Only problem is: All of the broken ones were so beautiful on the other side.

But all in all: I am happy! Off to the next round! ;)

"Frozen time" - Earrings

This is glass. But if you would have told me that this is frozen water, I would have believed you. 

Just a moment frozen in time. The light breaking through the glass. Caught inside. They seem to glow.

Like vines are the copper headpins growing around the glass headpins. 

How can something so hard, just pure glass and metall, look so organic and alive?

They are also in my etsy shop here :)

...also the double lampwork headpins are numi-baubles made by Kimberly Rogers from numinosity beads (I need more!). 

"Fire inside" - Earrings

They glow with an inner fire just as the light is caught inside the glass. 

The dark copper seems to grow and entwine around like it was alive. 

There is movement inside the hard metal.

It is hard at this moment to find the right words. But there is something inside, growing, alive, intense, that speaks to me.

The lampwork headpins are numi-baubles made by Kimberly Rogers from Numinosity Beads. I just have one pair (the have the beads on both sides) left and two single ones. I hope she will make more in the future! I wrapped copper headpins I made around.

Also to be found here ;)

"Fallen leaves" - Earrings

Maybe not the best time for fallen leaves since summer just tries to start but...

The folded and formed copper pieces remind me of the beauty of fallen leaves, Fragile and crumbling but with gorgeous shapes and colour.

These are my first copper folded pieces. I am surprised why I never used this technique before because it creates so wonderful organic shapes!

Why did nobody ever tell me how much fun this is? And how lightweight pieces can be made from thin copper sheets but still stable and robust?

They needed some movement so I added some copper headpins. Just getting the idea of the barren woods and maybe even the last stems from flowers after the bloom. 

You can also get them here :)

"Winter leaves" - earrings

The leaves are made with polymer clay (fimo classic, white) and I made them already a long time ago. Long as in 2012 before Rumpel and I moved together. I have to admit I also already made these earrings some time ago (but far away from the creation date of the leaves ^^) and the only part missing was to work harden the ear wires. Such a simple and small step and it took forever... the liver of sulphur bath was quite fast done, as well as the light polishing (I didn't want a too shiny look) and the protective coat with renaissance wax.

There are two pairs. The beads are all czech glass beads I got from Rebeccas "The Curious Bead Shop". I am especially dran to the clear facetted beads. They look like drops of frozen waters, small pieces of ice above the winter leaves glazed with frost.

For one earring pair I used the combination with these tiny dark red beads with a picasso finish. They remind me of the last berries in winter time, even being so tiny they add the last bit of colour in a landscape only consisting of white, grey and black.

The same idea I had with the green facetted beads: Hints of moos growing on the trunk and branches of the tree.

Okay, in the end they are just earrings. I know. Even quite simple ones. But sometimes it doens't need a lot to tell a story :)