New Polymer Clay Beads and Other Stuff

Once again I have been so bad keeping this blog updated. I have been really busy though and every time I think to post something has come up, and to be honest, I forget a lot too!

I've been busy making new polymer clay beads. An example of one is on the left. I used translucent colors and parts of old canes and I think they turned out pretty good! I love the combination of pink and orange, so you will see a lot of that in these beads.

I sanded each of them with wet/dry sandpaper in 400,600,800 and 1000 grit sandpaper, then buffed them. I have been experimenting with that using my new Lortone tumbler. Instead of adding stainless steel shot, water and my metal jewelry, I run it dry with cut up pieces of cotton cloth. I am not sure if there is better material to use, or if I should have larger pieces of the cotton/flannel, but so far the results are pretty good. I run the tumbler though for at least 12 hours or more and because I get impatient, I then end up finishing with my dremel and a buffing wheel. Here's a few more:




I also took a basic chainmaille class last week at a local bead store. I love the look of chainmaille and really respect those who do it and produce beautiful chain work. I was sure that this was not something for me to try and tackle, it just seemed like the perfect thing to drive me crazy, trying to work with small jump rings. We were taught a basic Byzantine pattern for a bracelet and surprisingly, I was not climbing the walls when we finished! Actually, I had to finish it at home, and I did. My pictures turned out blurry, this is the only one that came out:

Kinda hard to make it out, but I really want to make a few more and maybe try some other, albeit simple, patterns as well. Thanks to Nina for being such a patient teacher!