Idea for covering beads

As I've already mentioned, my latest problem has been deciding how to get the cane designs onto the finished beads. Aside from this I still have a lot of scrap clay and that in itself has been troubling me. Am I merely wasting all this clay and not producing anything to be proud of?

So a revelation came to me while having a surf on the internet, when I found Ponsawan Sila's blog post about making square flower beads and I couldn't quite believe what a great idea it was. It basically involves using scrap clay and marbling it. (Great, this I can handle!) Form a long log with the scrap clay. Then use your flower cane slices and place them on the log and slice into equal pieces. Then shape the sliced logs into square beads.

I was stunned by how something so simple can create something so effective and professional. I am so glad I found because it has raised renewed inspiration and that is definitely most needed.

The blog post includes a slideshow which is very handy too.

Chats with a close friend

Today I have been chatting with my friend Pat about my progress in polymer clay-land. He is always very keen to see my latest creations. I admitted that I have felt quite frustrated by my lack of skills, because although I am only just learning, I can't help wanting to run before I can walk.

I am still finding the basics quite difficult, and when I do successfully complete a cane, I sit there wondering what on earth to do with it. The best part is cutting through the finished cane and seeing the resulting design and there is a certain sense of achievement in that. However once I have moved on and want to take the next step I hit a brick wall. I am never quite happy with the finished beads and certainly need to concentrate more on getting the finish the best it can be.

Pat has being trying to motivate my creativity, but I have to admit that at the moment I don't feel very creative. He suggested I could use the mosaic idea to create something unusual, maybe a mosaic mirror, something like that. It's certainly an interesting idea, although where I would begin I do not know!

Leftovers

Over the past few months I've been experimenting with various colours and have ended up with a lot of waste. Bits off the ends of canes, old stacks and so forth. Not wanting to throw good clay away I have just dropped them into my storage boxes and left them. I picked up a few bits the other day and they've gone dry over time, but it did make me wonder if I could put any use to them.

A colleague I work with, (who is much more skillful then me) dropped her latest creation on my desk this morning. She had created a number of cylindrical beads which had simply been rolled from multiple colours of clay scraps. and created a rather lovely multicoloured necklace.

So I had a look on the web again for some ideas on what to do with some of these old scraps (assuming that they are still usable) and found this really useful page on Polymerclayweb which gives lots of options for how to use them, including mixing new colours, marbling and my favourite: creating swirled lentil beads. It's good to know that no clay has to go to waste, and maybe even with the scraps I could possibly create something useful.

Revelations

Nothing profound but...I made some discoveries today. Going back to my teenage years (many moons ago now) I remember working with slips, glazes and clays to sculpt all kinds of wierd creations, in particular a huge male head which unfortunately met its demise during the firing process when it exploded. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I've suddenly realised how much I miss it. It was dirty, messy and the clay ended up everywhere, but I enjoyed it, and to some extent a part of me has been missing throughout these years of dull office life.

Discovering polymer clay has opened up that world of possibility to me again. It's highly unlikely I will ever have the space, time and expensive kiln to create earthenware, so for me polymer clay is a revelation. For one it doesn't require any water, it can be fired or baked in a normal oven, and the choice of coloured clay replaces the difficult task of using coloured slips and glazes.

I've also started to see how the fundamental process of building canes can be used to create endless designs, so now I'm inspired to try something of my own using the basic techniques of the skinner blend and flower cane.