Polymeri Online 29.8.12 | My personal celebration, Never judge a book by it's movie pin, Milk gallon photo studio, Leaves tutorial, Polymer zombie locket

Amit's BarMitzva

Some of you probably follow me on FB so please forgive me if I am repeating myself :)
That's it, my sweet son's BarMitzva (triple package - ceremony in the western wall, party and groom's Sabbath) are over now, it was an adventure, emotional experience for me as a mother but all the same exciting and thrilling, not everyday my little baby turns 13 and now considered an adult! (a small one, but still an adult).
As you can guess I spent endless hours, days and weeks of planning but I enjoyed every minute! :)
Happy Birthday my sweet Amit! I wish you all the best and may god bless you :)

Family photos are a must - right?
If you look closely you can see my inked necklace

Amit & Dad in the western wall ceremony

Now I can go back to work on new ideas, new classes and new weekly posts.

Polymer clay bubble pin

Roberta from Verona, Italy creates these super cute and clever polymer clay speech bubbles with a funny smart quote - "never judge a book by it's movie", or "I'm not weird. I'm limited edition" :) made me smile!
She used to work in the human resources field but almost one year ago decided to turn her great passion for creativity into a real job.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/madamaRobe

Your new polymer clay photo studio
Milk Gallon!

Have you ever thought about taking your jewelry pictures inside a milk gallon? Tanya Roy Veit, an artist working with Dichroic Glass posted a very original idea for taking pictures - she said she tried everything she can think of to improve her pictures, taken thousands of them over the years and spent hundreds of dollars on photo domes, photo cubes, cloud domes. This tip came from a family friend - She is using a 2.99$ milk gallon as her "photo studio!"
http://fusedglassdecals.blogspot.co.il/2011/06/photographing-dichroic-glass-jewelry.html

Polymer clay leaves tutorial

Here is a simple and cool tutorial by muxa_art (taken from the Russian blog) for making polymer clay leaves using real leaves as an impression along with metallic powders.
http://polymerclayfimo.livejournal.com/1382963.html

Polymer clay zombie locket

Getting ready for Halloween? here is a zombie eyeball heart locket necklace made of polymer.
If you look up in the dictionary what a "rapscallion" is, it's a youngster, brat, little terror. If you ask the people from "rapscallion", it's just a word that they thought sounded interesting when started their business on 2003. In addition to polymer clay work you will find footwear, clothing and more on their website.
http://rapscallion.storenvy.com/collections/6026-jewelry

http://www.etsy.com/shop/rapscalliondesign

Polymeri Online 19.8.12 | Polymer windup toys, Marine & Zippered jeans bracelets, 3D avocado cane and Cute cake toppers

Polymer clay toys

Sswoss is a Singapore artist who specialize in design, illustration and both integrated into clay illustration designs.
If I am correct, she takes windup toys, add polymer clay figures, details and decorations, and you have a whole new different super special toy.
She is also using paper and scissors to create her unique designs, in this photo with a cute rocking giraffe toy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sswoss/
Click on the right column to see more of her work, and her blog here

Marine polymer clay wavy bracelet

Dina Kovalkina's Marine bracelet reminded me that I haven't been in the beach this summer. This is especially ridiculous because I live 10 minutes of the nearest beach...
The jellyfish and the extreme heat kept me in the air condition but thanks to my daily walks to the post office I got a nice tan on my arms (with sunscreen!) :)
Her bracelet is all wavy on the sides, this feature will work great with the super soft clay these days.
She is from Russia and uses polymer clay with semi-precious stones, glasses and Czech crystal stones .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinslava/4964577792/
Here is another coily earring set to think about.

Polymer clay zippered bracelet

Zippered jeans bracelet? Spanish Miryam Garcia made this one for a swap in the spanish association, The swap was to make a trade for a bracelet or bangle with another member.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinkyta/7543760108/
Don't miss her brush beads - metal base beads with millefiori canes as brush hair!

Avocado millefiori cane

I found Elizabeth West avocado cane in her flickr gallery a long time ago, I really liked the center part of it - made of shaded brown which seems almost 3D.
I wish she had more of her polymer work in her flickr/etsy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/caneme/4417793240/

Polymer clay cake toppers

I couldn't resist Maria's cake toppers, They are so cute! Maria finished tourist & business administration Studies in Greece, She opened up her Etsy shop after being motivated to do so by friends and family. It was so hard to choose which one to show in the enclosed photo, finally I chose a bride penguin and a groom piggy :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeartshapedCreations

Polymeri Online 11.8.12 | Polymer and mosaics, Silver and polymer, Incense stick holder and Child head tutorial

This week I decided to dig into my list and feature some of the older fav I've bookmarked myself to post here, this list contains all my future posts and is being collected slowly with every polymer piece I see online -

Polymer Clay and Mosaic

Nataly is a mosaic artist born in Russia but currently lives in Israel.
All crafts and mosaics helps her unwind from her work as a neuroscientist in the hospital research laboratory. She started to create as a way to lose weight, because she wasn't able eat in evening as part of her diet. Mosaic helped her.
As a neuroscientist she knows that creating has so many good health effects and this is also part of the reasons to keep doing it.
Nataly's work is usually created using small stones, mosaic/glass tiles but occasionally she uses polymer clay as a free form decoration along with all other tiles.
In this piece - a tree in bloom, she used mosaic tiles, small stones, glass beads and polymer clay. It was made as a 72 birthday present for her mother.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45526512@N07/4376852162/
Check out her fish clock using organic glass base, decorated with mosaic and air-dry clay.

Polymer Clay and Silver Brooch

Krista Breckman works with silver, copper, metals and.. polymer clay.
Her work with polymer includes techniques like mokume gane and  metal leaf and the addition of silver bordering makes it so elegant.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristakile/3044266127/

Polymer Clay Incense Stick Holder - Prince Frog

Italian Leila Bidler made a super cuter incense stick holder for a swap back in 2009, the swap theme was fairy tales and she decided to create a frog prince with a golden ball.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gom6699/4183808471/
A incense burner is super easy to make, all you have to do is find your main piece and pierce a hole for the stick (make sure it is far enough from the clay to avoid polymer burning).

Glow in the dark Incense Holder

Here is another example by RedPebbleArt (Valerie Marousek) - A lotus burner made with glow in the dark fimo which is great for the total atmosphere.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/80077300/glowing-water-and-lotus-incense-burner

Polymer Clay Tutorial -
Sculpting a Child Head

Sculpturing was never my strong point, therefore I admire every person who has a talent for this part of art, Lewis Goldstein posted a tutorial for sculpturing a polymer clay child head. After taking a look at the photos, I think I can do it too. Looks so easy when you see all the steps - right?
More of his(her?) work and gallery - here
http://www.lewisgoldsteinartanddesign.com/DollTutorial.htm

Have a great weekend! 

Join my classes on CFCF Conference | Feb 2013, Maryland USA

One of my favorite ways to kick start my creativity is by meeting people. 

There’s nothing like the power and support of a group and fellow artists to enhance creativity, tips sharing, revealing new secrets and brain storming about polymer clay crafting.

Cabin Fever Clay Festival 2013 will be our special opportunity to meet.

I'm coming all the way from Israel to Maryland, on February 2013 to teach 2 special classes and share my knowledge with you.
I would love to meet you there!
We may have a chance to share a cup of coffee!

What is "Cabin Fever Clay Festival"?
Cabin Fever Clay Festival (in short, CFCF) is the most comprehensive hands on conference for polymer clay in the US east coast, takes place annually in Laurel, MD.
This is it's 6th year and the conference is one of the biggest seen!

CFCF 2013 will take place on Feb 15th - PreConference workshops and Feb 17th-20th Main Conference - This event hosts a great selection of polymer clay artists offering intriguing classes in many fields.

Following by the increasing demand for unique hands on technique classes, I am exited to offer CFCF students a fresh breeze of workshops with new, original, popular and exciting projects & designs - The Skyscraper Technique in a 8 hours master-class and The Brocade Hemisphere Purses in a 4 hours class.

These leading projects were featured at Staedtler's FIMO "CreativeWorld" trade show in Germany; on "ThePolymerArts" magazine cover and on various books and websites, based on my top sellers tutorials and brought especially to you for CFCF.

My workshops on CFCF 2013 will feature learning and implementation, knowledge and creation of a final product - Brocade Hemisphere purse, Skyscraper pendants and DiscChic earrings, a real treat and an amazing project to brag about once you return home!

So - Clean up your pasta machine, sharp your blades and get ready for 5 amazing days of learning, improving, enhancing, refining and elevating your polymer skills! 

In my classes, each student will receive a special BONUS CD as handsouts portraying these techniques, including PDF files and videos to watch again any time in the future.

So, what will you get when you come to CFCF 2013?
You'll ask your questions, directly;
You'll learn all the little (and big) secrets & details to create a professional piece;
You'll enhance your techniques & abilities;
You'll go through all the steps in a super detailed process;
You'll experiment with new materials you haven't used before;
You'll create mixed media designs;
You'll review alternative variations for each design;
You'll finish your workshop with a finalized project;
AND you'll be able to brag to your friends when you return home!

Enroll now!
Give yourself a gift of creativity, boost your polymer clay skills with innovative techniques to create endless variations, meet new friends and colleagues, discuss polymer clay 24/7 -

Join CFCF conference by clicking the following link -
http://polymerclayfests.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/cfcf-2013-planning-for-another-year-of-talent-and-fun/

Places are limited and filling up quickly!

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My classes schedule on CFCF 2013

On Sunday, Feb 17th 8:00AM
Pre-conference 8 hour class - The Skyscraper technique and Flakes Technique;
Students will create a Skyscraper pendant and use my popular DiscChic blanks to create an earring set.


On Monday Feb 18th 1:00PM
or
On Wednesday Feb 20th 8:00AM
Conference 4 hour class - The Brocade Hemisphere purses;
Students will create a Brocade Hemisphere purse from start to finish.

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All the details, registration forms, classes description and general information can be found at the event website - http://polymerclayfests.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/cfcf-2013-planning-for-another-year-of-talent-and-fun/
You can join the blog mailing list to be informed of our special announcements, gifts and prizes for the attendees.

Feel free to email me with any question, thought or comment to imishly{at}gmail.com

Hope to see you there!
Iris :)