Hello again,

First of all, thank you so much for your very nice comments. I really appreciate it, and it truly encourages me to keep on creating content and tutorials for you. Peach is still here, still occupying my photo tent, so I have taken the photos for the tutorials without it. But with lots of light, the right camera and a white paper, they didn’t get so bad.

While we are now adjusted to have Peach (the cat) in the house, my dog Spike tore a ligament in her knee and have had an operation. She has to move as little as possible, and stay in her bed for two weeks, and that has made me housebound for a while, giving me plenty of time to write and create.

Many people send me questions about different aspects of jewelry making. There are a few questions that I have not been able to answer satisfactory, so I need a little bit of help. I’ll post them here and maybe you know the answer to some of them. You can find them here:

Poured glass beads and how they are made

Cracking Delicas

unique-thermoset-bondage-bracelets-by-pam

Pewter

I hope you will enjoy the new tutorials and that you can use them to create your own stunning pieces. If you feel like showing photos of your work on my site, you are most welcome, and I would be proud of presenting them on my visitors’ gallery. All you have to do is to fill in the form on this page:

Photos

Have a lovely day!

Anne Cecilie

In This Issue

• Mixing Colors With Polymer Clay
• Mother Of Pearl - Opal From The Sea

New tutorials

• Glamorous Crystal Cluster Earrings
• Floating Necklace With Pearls
• Have Fun Caning With A Clay Gun
• Make A Bangle With A Tin Can, Clay Gun And Faux Mother Of Pearl Inlay
• Make A Sunny And Funny Bracelet With The Simplest Of Canes
• Blue Breeze Bracelet
• Shaving Foam - Not Just For Shaving

Tip Of The Month

• Simple Way To Put On A Tricky Bracelet

News

Mixing Colors With Polymer clay:
The different polymer clay brands come in a huge amount of colors and effect clays like glitter, pearl, translucent and metallic. You can use the colors as they are, or you can mix them into beautiful color mixes. Mixing colors with polymer clay can be quite addictive, but a bit of a waste unless you write down how you did it. If you don't it is very difficult to reproduce that particular color if needed. read more

Mother Of Pearl - Opal From The Sea:
Mother of pearl, nicknamed the opal of the sea because of its iridescent luster and play of colors, comes in many variations. They are not just white, but have a range of beautiful colors and patterns, due to which mollusk they come from. Popular in many types of craft, it is often used as inlays in boxes, furniture and musical instruments and even for buttons. The Chinese have used mother of pearl as inlay in lacquer since 1600 BC, creating the most wonderful objects with intricate and beautiful mother of pearl patterns. But, what is most interesting for us: It is also highly usable for jewelry. read more

New Tutorials

Glamorous Crystal Cluster Earrings
Crystals are beautiful. Making these crystal cluster earrings was pure joy, and they sparkle like diamonds in your ears when you wear them. Unfortunately photos cannot give them enough justice, so they have to be seen (or made) for you to see them in all their sparkling glory. The concept is very easy, you just stitch them onto a mesh dome, attach an ear wire, and voilà, you have a pair of sparkling crystal earrings, fit for any party. If you want to express glamor to the full, combine them with the crystal necklace, that you find in this tutorial: Sparkling Crystal Feathers. see the rest of the tutorial

Floating Necklace With Pearls
Pearls are always beautiful with their radiant and glowing beauty. Making this necklace I wanted to create an illusion of pearls floating freely around the neck. Using a beading wire would not work, as it is too thick and would be very visible, so I went for Fireline. I also had the metal tubes, and thought they would give the necklace an even more elegant touch. The challenge in making it is to get the five strings the right length, but I will get to that later. see the rest of the tutorial

Have Fun Caning With A Clay Gun
Caning with a clay gun if fun. A clay gun can be used for many things, or rather what comes out of the it. You can extrude snakes in all kinds of shapes, depending on which disc you use. When you purchase a clay gun, You will get several discs included. Makin's ultimate clay extruder comes with 20 discs and Kempers clay gun comes with 19 discs, so both will give you a lot to choose from. In this tutorial however you will use a disc that makes square snakes. See the rest of the tutorial

Make A Bangle With A Tin Can, Clay Gun And Faux Mother Of Pearl Inlay Making a bangle with polymer clay has proved to be a challenging experience. To make them, you need something to wrap the clay around in order to get the inside of the bracelet round. Finding that thing has not been so easy. Someone suggested to use an egg ring. I bought one, but the result was not the best as the egg ring has slanting sides. It was too wide as well, so I had to cut the bracelet after curing and glue it back together. See the rest of the tutorial

Make A Sunny And Funny Bracelet With The Simplest Of Canes
Caning is a large part of the art of polymer clay. Canes are often fundamental in other and more advanced techniques, like Kaleidoscope and Millefiori, and it is amazing what you actually can create with the simplest of canes. It may sometimes be boring to make them, but when the result reveal itself along the line, it is totally worth it. See the rest of the tutorial

Blue Breeze Necklace
The pendants in this necklace are quite big, but it actually looks nice on, since it is not so long. The shapes and the colors used in both the pendants and the imitation suede make me think of a beautiful sunny summer day by the sea, with crystal clear blue water and a warm breeze. It simply makes me happy to look at.

see the rest of the tutorial

Shaving Foam - Not Just For Shaving
Did you know that you could use shaving foam with polymer clay? It sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it? You do of course not shave the beads, but you can use shaving foam to create some pretty nice effects. I have found that mixing several colors into the same foam, makes the colors look muddy, but if you mix each color separately, and add first one, heat the bead and then the other, the colors mix beautifully. The technique gives you a surface that looks like it is painted with water colors, with the colors floating into each other like on a true aquarelle. see the rest of the tutorial

Tip Of The Month

Elastic bracelets are bliss. You simply just slide them over your hand and they stay in place. So choosing that as an option when you make bracelets may be a good idea. But sometimes you create something that cannot be made elastic. Using a magnetic clasp takes care of the problem, but then you have the danger of losing it, if it is pulled. Adding a safety chain will keep it on your wrist, but then you have this small clasp again which is just impossible to handle with just one hand.

There is of course a solution. I read this in Bead & Button magazine, and found it so useful, that I want to bring it on to you. All you have to do is to string a piece of tread through the ring you shall fasten the clasp to. Hold the thread inside the hand on the arm you will wear the bracelet. This will keep that end of the bracelet in place, and you can easily fasten the clasp with your other hand. When done, just remove the thread.

So, dig out all those impossible bracelets, and start wearing them again.

Have a lovely month, and I will see you in May.