Thursday, September 19, 2013

Polymeri Ooooooonline | Polymer clay projects to get you into the spooky Halloween spirit

Although Halloween is more then 1 month away, I have gathered some of my favorite Halloween polymer clay projects and inspiration designs to get you into the spooky Halloween spirit.

Free projects from PolyPediaOnline -

How to create a creepy polymer clay eyeball ring, magnet, pendant or treat bowl
http://www.youtube.com/user/polypediaonlineTV#p/a/u/1/VO56w3eLLQU

Polymer clay tutorial - spider magnet or a 5 minutes ring
PDF file, you'll have to enter your email address to download the file
http://www.polypediaonline.com/133688/FREE-PolyPediaOnline-Tutorials

How to create a spooky-cute polymer clay millefiori mummy face cane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8fks0RdCAg

How to create a creepy chopped polymer clay witch finger to use as a barrette, bookmark etc...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuvTascaIZ0
You can see a similar project on this site, only created with a material called model magic, idea is the same and you can use polymer clay.
http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/best-halloween-crafts-ever#slide-6
55 projects for Halloween (non polymer) are included in the link above.

A collection of polymer clay Halloween idea projects by FamilyHoliday.net
http://www.familyholiday.net/easy-halloween-polymer-clay-ornament-projects

And for inspiration -
Cool zombie stitch markers by Lady Rando
Cool zombie stitch markers by Lady Rando
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=304244.0#axzz2fKd1nnT7

How to make Halloween pumpkin beads from polymer clay
here - http://theconstantcrafter.blogspot.co.il/2009/10/halloween-polymer-clay-projects.html
and here - http://www.cookonstrike.com/how-to-make-halloween-pumpkin-beads-from-polymer-clay/

Ann Klocko's pictures
Ann Klocko is a long time polymer clay artist I remember from the day I started doing polymer work. Here are several of her polymer clay picture frames, Halloween themed, to inspire you
http://www.anneklocko.com/pix/halloween.htm

Amy's sculpted polymer clay zombie jewelry
Rapscallion (Amy) brings you hand sculpted polymer clay zombie jewelry, psychobilly jewelry, horror jewelry and a variety of accessories.
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/rapscalliondesign

There are many ideas & projects to choose from, endless links online.
Just Google for your favorite and you're ready for the holiday...

"and yes, there will be blood..."
{Liquid clay?)
;)

Monday, September 16, 2013

Polymeri Online 16.9.13 | Winning Mokume-Utensils, Horses-acrylic-polymer Trio, Pressed flower beads tutorial, Shiny vessels and Crazy clown earrings

First batch of September's holidays is over, second is still ahead, so between family gatherings, traditional feasts and other activities I am finding some time for PolymeriOnline posts.



Check out Rebekah Payne's tutorial for antiqued pressed flower beads. Rebekah is using polymer clay and molds to create these beautiful beads, her molds seem to be handmade but I am not 100% sure about that, I think you can create similar molds by using leaves from your back yard and embed them inside Mold maker, silicon base or even scrap clay.
Rebekah was mentioned in PolymeriOnline blog in April 2011, then, with her lovely heart pendant.
The Art Jewelry Elements blog is written by several contributors so you may want to look around to find more treasures.
http://artjewelryelements.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/how-to-two-more-pressed-flower-bead.html
This is a previous version of her beads -
http://artjewelryelements.blogspot.co.il/2013/08/how-to-inside-outside-pressed-flower.html


Caren's TRIO - polymer-horses-acrylic
Caren Goodrich is a lifelong artist. She paints horses in acrylic and also work in metal clay and polymer clay. These beauties are her horses meeting polymer clay, she did these with a very thin, watercolor-like application of acrylic paint and used a coat of liquid polymer as a sealer. According to her this kind of work is much more time consuming than her paper canvas painting....
https://www.facebook.com/caren.goodrich
http://beadbunny.blogspot.co.il/2010/04/painting-meets-polymer.html


Helen's Utensiles

Helen Hughes posted a beautiful set of utensils made of translucent mokume gane stack. She won Polyform's August Make-It-Your-Own contest.
Helen is enjoying her time in sculpturing as well and her Etsy store is all ready for Halloween!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HelensClayArt?ref=l2-shopheader-name



Beefball Bowls
Beefball Papa's work looks and feels like glass & polymer clay all together.
In her perfect finish she creates a smooth and shiny piece which makes you wonder what these bowls are made of or if she places her canes are on the inside of outside....
Her mixed canes and patterns, looks wonderful.
She is from China, Beijing and I hope we will see more of her art.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37203469@N02/

Crazy Clown earrings by Maddalena
Last is a colorful example of a very easy technique for mixing straps of clay to achieve a happy design.
Maddalena Gianni posted these earrings in her flickr and she calls them "crazy clown" design. She is from Piza Italy (Yay! been there!) and it seems that at the moment millefiori canes are her passion.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maddalena_g/8672184262/

See you soon with more news and posts!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Ahoy Czech Republic! | Building Skyscrapers and seeing the INKredible; 2 days of polymer clay goodness!

When my son was young, he used to play tennis.
He was sitting next to the TV screen and updated me on any new rising star in the world, winning tennis awards.
One of these stars was Martina Navratilova from Czech Republic. She was statistically the second best female player of the 20th century behind Steffi Graf. My son knew it all. "Mom", he said, "Czech Republic is somewhere where champions come from, we must see it".

When I met the beautiful Czech Eva Susanska in Frankfurt, while demonstrating in the Creative World fair for Staedtler and later we met on Nuremberg when I gave the Brocade purses class in Staedtler's factory, we agreed that Czech Republic should be one of my future destinations.

The Czech Republic artists are slowly discovering polymer clay as a crafting medium and artists begin to emerge, seeking for advanced knowledge and higher education in polymer clay. It was the perfect timing.

Eva immediately scheduled a master class and the last weekend was the finale of those plans, 2 handsome hostesses (Eva and her husband), 2 days of wonderful weather, a beautiful country, intelligent and super professional students, good food, beer(!) and...of course, polymer clay.

After hearing so many good things about Czech Republic in general and Prague in particular, I had to visit and see all.
My other half joined me for a short 3 days trip and we toured the city left to right, top to bottom, on Segway, on foot, it was wonderful.

Polymer clay millefiori canes?

Million Babushka dolls! So colorful! 
Trdlnik delights - Sweet bread/cake

Me on Segway  (for the 1st time in my life) next to John Lennon wall

With my other half on Prague top view

Second stop was Pilsen with Eva, her husband, Ladislav, as a devoted assistant and the lovely students.

I know I am repeating myself a bit, I taught the same subjects in Switzerland (INKredible and Skyscraper techniques) but for me, every teaching experience feels like a new baby being born, the discovering of new ways to use polymer (I always learn something new from my students!), the birth of a new bead, the happiness on a student's face revealing a secret, it is all so exciting even after 1000 classes.
Amazing how each and every student takes a technique to his own colors, design and style and create a completely different piece than mine.

You can see below some of the wonderful creations made by Czech Republic ladies, including some nice tricks to use on your Pearlex jars - they used a round baked clay sample (half white half black) to tell which Pearlex color is inside the jar and how it looks on the baked clay.
Why didn't I think of that?

Selection of final beads created by the Czech Republic ladies

Demonstrating...

Skyscraper beads (before resin)

Skyscraper beads (before resin)

INKredible beads

Class is ready...

Skyscraper beads (before resin)

Students certificates!

INKredible Sheets
 They also use a bakes clay sheet as a guide to alcohol inks - Adirondack and Pinata.

Alcohol inks samples - how convinient!
Original sample by Ludmila Štěpánková FranStudio

INKredible beads - (based on Melanie's Muir shapelets)

INKredible beads

INKredible beads

INKredible beads - Faux silk screen sheets beads

INKredible beads

INKredible beads - Faux silk screen sheets beads

Pearlex jars with baked samples on it

Pearlex jars with baked samples on it

Skyscraper beads

INKredible beads

Skyscraper beads
Skyscraper beads

INKredible beads

INKredible beads

INKredible beads - pendant by student

Eva and myself (Eva is posing her new earrings)

INKredible beads - cracked

Last day was dedicated to tourists attractions - underground historical medieval tunnels, (an amazing experience), a visit in Pilsner Urqell beer brewery and a visit in the Jewish Synagogue.

underground historical medieval tunnels

Yummy goulash soup inside a bread!

Pilsner Urqell brewery tour

I want to send a HUGE thank you to Eva Susanska and her husband Ladislav for such a warm and pleasant welcome and stay, it was a pleasure to stay, teach, chat and hang out with you two and our wonderful students, I feel so blessed to have these opportunities - thank you!
I had a fantastic time and will definitely come to Czech Republic for more!
Another thank you for Monika Tyna Brydova for taking some of the photos posted above :)

Additional pictures (98 to be exact) are published in my Facebook account, you are welcome to drop by.
https://www.facebook.com/iris.mishly/media_set?set=a.10151689752617968.1073741831.608452967&type=1

Jewish new year holiday is ending today so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends a sweet as honey year, full of joyous events and million happy moments!
I will be back for a regular PolymeriOnline post as soon as everyone is back to school and I'll have a bit of peace and quiet around... ;)
Take care and enjoy your weekend!