Friday 31 August 2012

New ideas and old ideas

The other day I sat down with a colour palette created by Jeannie K Dukic for the Polymer Clay Collective Color Challenge.  Have you heard of the Polymer Clay Collective?  It’s a Facebook group for those who like to work with polymer and well anyone who enjoys polymer and wants to join in the exchange of ideas.  Jeannie started this group and it’s growing strong, won’t you come join us?


I thought I’d start with the greys. To my eye, or at least on my monitor, I can’t rightly distinguish Black Swan from Tricorn Black.  Take your pick I guess, it was my ground, my start I decided.  Looking at the blue of Distance, along with  Fun Yellow I thought of the polymer canes I had made previously for another challenge.  I was thinking I’d pull in the Jute Brown next, but I needed a bit more contrast so I moved to a lighter, sandier brown. 

But what to make, what to make… at a loss I just started creating colour in sheets and while I was mixing I decided I’d play around with an abstract landscape design.  At one point I ran out of horizontal space and had a thin long sheet of polymer in my hands with no where to put it down. So I stole the vase off my bookshelf! That reminds me, I should go pick up the artificial blue sweet peas I threw aside.

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It’s a bud vase, pretending to hold a flower from my curtain here, and let me spin it around a bit for ya.

distant poppies vase

I was going for a mountain scape and playing with that middle ground and what I could create. I liked where this was going, this was the new idea, but what I had so far was too large for jewelry. I went ahead and cured the ones below before really knowing what I would do with them. But I think I have and idea.

mountain ranges

You’re going to have to use your imagination a bit.  I’m thinking the vase will hold a pen and the other polymer sheets I may curve and add to to hold business cards and maybe house a email sign-up or some such for my next show.

vase as pen holder

Now for the old idea. I love the idea of “best friends” type jewelry but I rarely enjoy the execution. I don’t want to walk around with what looks like half my pendant is missing.  I prefer an idea that is complete but part of a larger whole.  This is my take:

mountain range pendents

They match up precisely at the edges, but if you weren’t the owner of the other half, or a very observant third party, you likely wouldn’t know it was a “best friend” type of thing.  Friends are pretty great at sharing secrets and I think this one makes for a fun one to keep or share.  Now, here’s where I get into trouble. I have three lifelong friends, so I usually make things in sets of four without even thinking about it. I suppose this could easily be two sets but for now, I like how it looks as four.

I confess, I may not have lived up to the challenge entirely since I didn’t use any actual beads and my pendants don’t even have holes yet.  I did intend to make a necklace but I couldn’t find a thing in my stash to go.  But hey, close enough.  Are you interested in seeing what everyone else made? Please come check it out here.

Oh and please come back tomorrow and see the reveal of the Challenge of Travel!

8 comments:

  1. Emma! This is GORGEOUS!!!!! Completely OUT of this world! Pure genius!

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  2. The challenge was open to anything not just jewerly and you more than "lived up to the challenge." These are magnificently refreshing and I just love your take on best friends jewelry. I absolutely love the vase and the picture pretending to hold the flower. So happy you did this challenge.

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  3. WOW! I'm speechless & envious ~ that is just lovely :-)

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  4. Still challenging enough and very lovely outcome. Love and hugs Tanya

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  5. Your work is beautiful Emma! I love the vase you made and absolutely adore the idea of "best friends" jewelry. Amazing!

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  6. I love what you did with the challenge! I haven't tried much other than jewelry but you have given me inspiration! Love the bud vase! I think your best friend jewelry will be stunning!

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  7. That bud vase is awesome.. I'm been trying to make them out of glass this week! But I like yours a whole lot better than mine!

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I'd love to hear what you think, thanks for taking the time to join in the conversation