An idea for how to use the GROOVY texture sheet.

                                            Here is an idea for using the "Groovy" texture sheet.

I used my pasta machine to get a deep impression. Of course if you don't have a pasta machine you can always put the clay on top of a pieca of paper and place it down on the floor with the texture sheet on top and use your foot to get a deep impression.  Don't forget to mist the texture sheet with water.
There are 2 colors of clay here.  A thin layer of light blue on top of a thick layer of orange. (complimentary colors are a great choice for this)

Once you have conditioned your clays leave the base color on the thickest setting and the top layer on about the 3rd thinnest setting on your PM. Now run the 2 layers together on the thickest setting.

Now, run the clay through your PM on a med-thin setting.  Turn the dial back to the thickest setting and run the clay and the "groovy" texture through. The clay will probably curl as it comes through, so make little slits on the long sides to make the clay lay flat again.

Using a soft paintbrush with  Pearlex powders and maybe even Guilder's paste, start tracing around the outside edge of circles with a mid-tone color, then, use a darker color between the large circles and then apply a very light color (i've used yellow here) to the centre of the circles.  What were doing here is playing up the "op art" illusion.

Now for the fun part.  The clay must be stuck down to your work surface before you begin.
Using your sharpest and thinnest flexible blade start shaving off the top surface a little bit at a time to reveal the orange layer of clay below.  The use of complimentary colors  also helps with the "op art" illusion. The shaving may take awhile because you don't want to go too deep.  I obviously need to practice a bit more!!!

 All of my texture sheets are available here.

Dragon's Breath texture sheet

I've been playing around a bit with the Dragon's Breath texture sheet.
It has a delicate texture for sure,  I seem to have a bit of a creative block these days! If anyone out there has been working with this texture, I'd love to see some of YOUR results!  You can send them here and I'll post them on this blog.

This is "Groovy"
I love this new texture stamp but .......no time to play with it!
If anyone out there has been inspired by this texture and has something to show for it, please send me a pic here to post on my blog! I'd be so grateful!!!
Both texture sheets are available at Shades of Clay .

A really sweet email

Have you ever had one of those days when you open your email and find something warm and wonderful.  
It turns out that I actually inspired someone else to start  a blog of her own because she thinks some of my stuff is amazing! So sweet isn't it (especially when I have days where I wonder if anyone is paying attention!)
Her name is Kelly and although she's not new to the jewelry scene she is new to polymer clay.  You can take a look at her blog here. She created the pieces pictured above using the "Mini" CaBezel mold.


You may have seen this tutorial before.  It's an old one and pretty basic but it will give you an idea of how Kelly made her pieces.

Awwwww. Truly, a wonderful world

A new way to use the All-In-One molds!!



For all of the samples above I have used the "Circle" All-In-One CaBezel mold
I gently stretched each one differently
The centre of the orange one is just a thin piece of clay stretched through the opening to make a hollow cabochon.
My new "Groovy" texture stamp was used on the black example.

For this example the new "Dragon's breath" texture sheet was used with the "Circle"all-in-one CaBezel mold.
After you condition and sheet your clay on the thickest setting, place it on a piece of paper.
(You may notice that i have just used a very thin layer of colored clay on top of scrap clay)
Place the A-I-O mold on top.
With your acrylic roller (held in your fist) press JUST the raised circle portion into the clay.
After lifting the mold use a 1 1/8" cookie cutter to cut out the centre.  Now use a 2 1/2" cutter to cut around the outside.  You can choose to centre it or not.  In the image here I have left more clay at the bottom.
Now gently stretch the clay to the desired shape.