Polymeri Online 9.5.12 | Polymer clay jewelry, Bracelet mold casting, Translucent experiments and sleepless nights pendants

After a short break, we are back to PolymeriOnline links for this week -

I found a nice polymer PR in Hacklock blog - "featuring polymer clay as art". I loved Heather's comparison of children drawings vs. professional drawing, it is obviously the same with polymer clay, the more people realize this, the more our material upgrade it's position as an art medium and not a children material. http://hacklock.net/category/polymer-clay-artists/

Heather Blacklock Camera Pendants

You can see more of this Australian artist (Heather Blacklock) in her Etsy site
http://www.etsy.com/shop/hacklock

Del Moro Polymer Clay Jewelry

Among Meredith Dittmar, Shay Aaron miniatures and Pier Voulkus, she featured Del Moro which was featured here 4 years ago, He is a polymer clay designer, chemicist and technologist who works in various techniques and produce interesting designs you'd find yourself taking a 2nd look at. I specifically liked his polymer clay guitar collection.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30251473@N05/
You can find one of his tutorials in 2008's PolymeriOnline post -
http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/42/wrb.6/0_1d4d6_d0a7dcd1_orig

Polymer Clay - Mold Casting

Sweet Willow Designs's blog is full of useful tips and information.  She is creating mixed media jewelry and worked in many different mediums including paint, metal, fiber, fabric and what not. Her studio name, Sweet Willow Designs, is a nod to the many hours she spent under the willow tree in her grandparents' Haverhill, Massachusetts home.
I encourage you to take a look at her other posts, but chose this one to see her 2 steps bracelet mold making. I specifically liked her "saving material" tips on  placing a plug of scrap clay for the center of the bracelet to save on the amount of silicone rubber she'll need to use.
http://sweetwillowdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/01/experiment-resin-casting-part-1-making.html
http://sweetwillowdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/02/experiment-resin-casting-part-2-casting.html
And her Flickr gallery - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetwillowdesigns/

Garie Sim Transluecent Polymer Clay Experiments

Garie Sim shares with us his tips "how to improve the clarity of Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS)" adding unusual materials! clay softener?  Enamel Transparent Paints - Take a look.
http://www.garieinternational.com.sg/clay/shop/clear_tls.htm

Marjana Polymer Clay Pendant

Last one for today is Marjana from Slovenia, her pendants caught my eye and when visiting her blog she tells us that they were a result of 3 sleepless nights (sick child) and when she decided to stay home (like a zombie), these were her new creations using paints, wood and fimo. I hope her child is feeling better :) I'd be happy to see more of her creations when everyone is healthy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48194773@N05/

http://vilinskisvet.blogspot.com/2012/04/prazniki.html

Speaking of health, not polymer clay related - after getting the beautiful Blurb photo album from our USA trip by the post messenger, (Blurb are great, b.t.w!), I was so busy looking at the photos while walking down the stairs that I.... fell. 

Lesson to be learned, don't look at photo albums when you go down your stairs.
Lucky me, I didn't break anything but now I am walking like a duck.

Polymeri Online 26.2.2012 | Play-Doh take 2, Figures late at night, Mokume wonder & The great jewelry display

Once again, Yondat Dascalu and Idit fischer-Katz (Zoota) made a collaboration to think of new ideas to use play-doh and natural clay. Two years ago they figured out a way to create canes using Play-Doh and now came up with a new idea to use natural clay as a mold for polymer clay. Since natural clay curing temperature is much higher then polymer clay curing temperature you can use it as a "shape holder" to create many shapes of polymer. Give it a try!

When I was reading blog posts in the Israeli Etsy group I found an artist called Charles Chetrit. Since he was a child he was sculpturing figures from olive tree branches. 4 years ago he was injured at work and found himself at home for a long period of time. That was the perfect time to go back to his artistic roots when he found out about polymer clay. To create his large sculptures he is using a metal bases and bringing his figures to life. Today he is the manager of the filming department on an Israeli tv channel and find the late night hours the best time to create. Thank you Charles for sharing your story with me :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtOfFaces

Samantha Braund is a multi talent artist working with polymer clay as well. Her polymer gallery in flickr is full of wonderful mokume sheets, beautiful beads and lovely colors. She is a UK based jewelry designer and her other interests include digital art, water colour painting & sculpting in various medias.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amadoradesigns/sets/72157622663496753/

Although not polymer, this jewelry display is to die for! How I wish I had one like this!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/83464177/jewelry-display-by-blackforestcottage

I recently joined Cynthia Tinnaple StudioMojo's newsletter and it's wonderful! Seeing Cynthia's daily links are a great inspiration and getting her weekend emails are even greater! Check it out, she is offering a free sneak-peek in her website.

Clay away!