Making An Impression

Lately I've been experimenting with different ways to make impressions in polymer clay.  Let me show you what I've been up to.

 

I've been going through my collection of stamps to see which ones could be useful with polymer clay.  Originally I'd put that Christmas ornament stamp (top, left) with the "not useful" stamps. The ornament was too large for a pendant and besides, I didn't really care for it either. When I took a second look at the stamp this week, it occurred to me that its not necessary to use the whole stamp. I realized that parts of the stamp could make very attractive components. See the checkerboard pattern at the top and bottom of the stamp?  I made an earring pair with that pattern, (top right). Next winter, I'll use the snowflake in the center for earring charms.

I had 2 rectangular stamps, one of which made the pendant in the second picture and another which is shown in the bottom pair of pictures.  I didn't have any circle cutters that were small enough to make earring charms, so I used the cap from a highlighter pen.  It was a bit difficult to get the cap to release the clay, but I managed.

I've found that a cutting mat helps me to make nice straight cuts.  All I have to do is line up my tissue blade with the lines.  Sometimes a more organic shape is called for, in which case such precision is unnecessary.

When I was wandering around Michaels awhile ago, I came across these inexpensive textured foam squares in the children's craft section.  I haven't tried them yet, but I'm thinking that they will be a fun way to texture the polymer clay.

I didn't have any of the scratch foam that several of our AJE team have written about, so I tried using a foam meat tray.  I tried different tools for carving it and had the best luck using the tip of a pair of chopsticks (above, left).  It works, but is not easy to do. I found it worked best with simple designs.  It wasn't possible to do any detail work on the foam. I think I'll have to investigate the actual scratch board.  

The top right was just an experiment.  I cut out holes in the green clay using the end of a cut down straw.  Then I cut the same sized holes in purple polymer clay and inserted the purple into the green.  It wasn't difficult and although this pendant is not great looking, I can imagine possibilities for using this technique in more sophisticated ways.  I cut this piece out with the clear plastic lid that you see to the left of the pendant.  Somehow air got trapped inside the cap when I pressed it down into the clay.  As soon as I let go of it, it made a loud POP and it sprung up into the air!  Caught me by surprise for sure!!!

The bottom left picture shows all the items I made in this session, except the cut-out pendant.  

At the time of this writing, I haven't finished painting all the cured pieces.  However, I can give you a sneak peek of the rustic pendant I made with the meat tray foam. I'll be back here in 2 weeks to show how all components turned out after painting.

Linda
Linda Landig Jewelry – ArtFire 
Linda Landig Jewelry – Etsy

Bead Decoration

I've been making mini bisque stamps to decorate my ceramic beads with this week. I already have a large collection of textures and moulds that I use with metal clay but they tend to be on the large size or in a form that doesn't translate particularly well to small beads. I've been doing simple decorations like the dots and texture in the set above just by using my clay working tools to impress the designs but, I do like to do something more interesting sometimes so I've been accumulating bits and pieces that I think might create good original patterns.

On the bisque beads below I didn't use a stamp but simply pressed the edge of a tiny Ammonite into the clay in a random fashion which as well as leaving and imprint gives the bead a lovely nuggety shape.

 Some of my most popular beads are little rounds and squares with a tiny star impression which is made with one of those tiny stud earrings that they use to pierce your ears which I pushed into the end of a bamboo skewer to make it easier to use.

 I have as many odd earrings as I do socks so it's always worth having a look to see if there's anything with an interesting texture...earrings of course not socks!

Buttons of course are always a good source of material and I'm always on the lookout for something interesting. This piece was made by impressing a button with a butterfly motif into the clay...

 

But making stamps from the buttons means you can keep the design in the original relief style and you get two design options from each button.

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As with the earrings, old bits of jewellery  can produce interesting designs too...I'm keen to see how the tiny bee I've taken from this pewter brooch translates to clay...

And the same with this stamp from an old resin brooch that belonged to my mum.

And then there are just decorative objects that catch my eye like this little scent bottle...

Or a spiral shell bead...

Or something as mundane as a safety pin that you can use to make an abstract design...

I have a huge pot of things to try out in this way and then of course there are always free hand designs to try...plenty to keep me out of trouble then!

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess