Sweet Willow Designs

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Travel Projects - Colored Pencil/Polymer Clay

What can you do with a package of white clay, no pasta machine, no roller, no other tools but colored pencils and a bit of burnt umber and gold metallic paint? I challenged myself to find out. I do have an oven but only the most basic of materials. I had been wanting to try colored pencils on polymer clay so while on travel I purchased a small set of Prismacolor pencils (small set, big price) and a package of white clay. For tools I used pens/pencils and my crochet hooks (see other travel projects, great reuse of tools). I sculpted a few pieces using the white clay, cured them and began to color with the pencils. I did use the burnt umber to darken the crevices before starting. The colors went on well with no other surface treatment necessary. I did use a light wash of gold paint to highlight the pieces. When I get home, I'll use a fixative and spray lacquer to finish the pieces. I love the depth of color achieved with the colored pencils and will use this technique over and over I'm sure. BTW I'm using Picasa 3 to make the picture collages.

Pulling Out Stuff FromThe Past - Rock Purse

Because I have time on my hands, I was going through some older photos of past projects and came across these for a rock purse swap I participated in. A rock purse is formed over well, you guessed it, a rock. I created this one with a Southwestern theme and used a silver button, leather and silver hollow beads as accents. I really like the way it turned out. Custom turquoise, blue and coral colors came together as well.

More Travel Projects

Being on extended travel means being away from the beloved studio. I miss it. To keep some creativity going, I've been re-exploring crafts from long ago. In the last post I showed picking up crochet from my childhood. Here's another take on crochet - felted crochet. I had never tried this but in my web surfing I came across felted crochet. I've tried it and loved it! So far I've made a couple of practice handbags (still need to work on this) and felted flowers. I thought, why not? How about a necklace. Here's my first attempt.

It's easy to do, use pure wool yarn, crochet a flower and rope vine, wash it in the washing machine with some detergent and hot water, shape, dry and embellish. I was going for a red poppy and used black seed beads to create the center of the poppy. I like the way it turned out and the felting was fun. Will have to put this away until winter when it's chilly. I think would look great with a sweater.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Travel Projects

I’ve been travelling quite a bit and have been away from my studio for extended periods of time. I needed portable projects and something to keep me busy and creative, so I’ve gone back to one of my childhood pursuits -- crochet. I haven’t crocheted since I was 12, but it seems, like riding a bicycle, you can pick up where you left off.

So, I’ve crocheted about six scarves and now two pieces of jewelry. These two necklaces were fun and easy weekend projects. Crochet up your motifs, put them together and you have an interesting necklace to wear. Here are two projects. More to come.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Bead Soup Blog Party - Reveal!

So, for the reveal. Let's start with what I received from by Bead Soup partner, Kathleen Lange Klik. Kathleen sent a great assortment of beads including a porcelain focal. While my photographs leave a lot to be desired, the focal is a deep brown with gold and cinnamon. The whole collection is very fall. Kathleen also included great jade beads, red and green glass beads, autumn jasper, a very textured copper clasp, copper jump rings and spacers, as well as bronze freshwater pearls and big, deep brown wood beads. I loved every one of the treasures Kathleen sent.

My head was swimming with ideas about how to put everything together.

I wanted to highlight
the porcelain focal
and jade beads so I added
copper chain from
my stash. I've also been
thinking about leather and
knot work so I wanted

to add that as well.

So, I tried my hand at two new techniques - an asymmetrical design and knot work. Using dark brown leather, I used a Chinese good luck knot and a basic slide knot to set off the focal. Then I used the red pressed glass and jade beads to create three groups that went together on one side. On the other side of the focal I used the root beer colored crystal bead, added some copper swirls from my stash and wired them together to fall at the base of the necklace. On the other side I used dark copper double link chain and added dangles of autumn jasper for a subtle bit of color. I like the way it all came together. I have some pieces Kathleen sent left over that I'll incorporate into more pieces. I hope Kathleen likes the design, it was a bit of a stretch for me to use some techniques I haven't used before.

The whole Bead Soup experience was great fun and getting to know a fellow jewelry designer was great. Thanks Kathleen.