New Books!

New Books for Polymer Clay and Jewelery Design!

Oh you have no idea how excited I was when the Purolator man came by and dropped off my books!  I got them on Friday and I ripped open the boxes I received (thank you Amazon.ca!!!).  I am so excited to get into more Jewelery making with Polymer Clay... learning a few things from Donna Kato and her Polymer Clay book and some Sherri Haab jewelery techniques.  I have to say that the little sea urchin rings sold me on the book!

I'm hoping to get a few projects up and running and hey, maybe even completed while I have a few days off work.  I really like the colourful beads that Donna makes and I'm always wondering about different techniques to make the clay look the way it does when so many talented people make their beads and I'm left going... how??? So I figure once I've got a few new techniques under my belt (hey, even figure out how to make a few polymer clay canes.... without them getting warped when I make them smaller..) I would be so stoked.  Maybe get a few more items into my online store... and finally get my Etsy store up and running.

I'm excited to get started and I'm really going to try to make some time to get creative and get the crazy work life out of the way... because that does nothing but make me mad.  So out with the negative and in with the good vibes.... seriously.

The Books are here... The Books are here

This week has been pleasantly awesome... I got the books I ordered through Amazon and flipped through them to see what little wonders I can create and bake and show you.  Ummm... well.  I don't really think my first attempt at what appears to be rather simple turned out all that well. 

Huzzah... my Miniature Food book arrived and I'm so excited
to get started on learning the tips and tricks to making realistic food!

I really love how Angie Scarr documents her books.  Makes it very
easy to understand and gives really good pictures on how to make
each and every piece.  It even has layouts to make the small
stands and boxes. 

So I thought I'd try my hand a miniature bread.

Hello... bread.  Sigh... in the Angie Scarr book it was to be a caramel on the top, but when I put it together, it just ended up being rather dark looking in comparison to her's.

Miniature Bread... first attempt

I'm not really loving the french loaves, loaves of bread, bagles and buns

Of course I realize that this is my FIRST attempt at miniature food and following what Angie laid out in her book.  I have to say I really like how she's decribed everything step by step and has really good pictures for us to follow.  I'm thinking when she mentioned caramel... I think I might whiten it up... or even make it thinner.  Maybe my interpretation of wafer thin caramel... wasn't her take on wafer thin, as you can see - I think it's a bit too dark and my french bread got a bit out of control, portion-wise.

My version of "fruit cake"... ummm... minus the fruit :-)

Yes, this is another attempt out of Angie Scarr's book, she made a very beautiful fruit cake, which had poppy seeds in it and some real seeds on the top.  Since I had neither of those types of seeds in my kitchen, I went without the poppy seeds and made some polymer clay looking seeds for the top.  I'm not hating this one... in fact I kind of like how it turned out.  I have come to realize I need to get myself a course sandpaper to help me with my texturing, in this case I used one of my pins to make the little holes.



I'm actually pretty happy with the way this turned out

My attempt at miniature breads

So I've got this book and 3 other books to go through for my polymer clay adventure that this is going to be.  I'm excited.  Lots on miniatures, not so real miniatures for jewelery and a bead book.  I don't know how I'm going to put it all into my extra time (... and where I'm going to find the spare time?!?!) to get things going again as I'm very aware it's been very quite here on the blog!

Spending a Gift Certificate

Yes, I did it.  I received an awesome Amazon.ca gift certificate for Christmas from my brother and decided to spend it on some books about making jewelery and food with polymer clay. 

The first one that caught my eye was Making Polymer Clay Beads by Carol Blackburn.  I am looking at trying out making some beads and using them in my jewelery designs, because as of yet I've not used it.  So I'm pretty stoked to learn something new and it looks like there are many designs available to learn.

I'm hoping it won't take too many tools and instruments to make those beads, I do have some on hand but I'm hoping they keep it as simple as possible to pull off some really pretty designs.  It will be interesting to see how bead making goes, because it would be fun to add them to my occassional spurts of jewelery design that doesn't look bad... heh.

Then I picked out Tasty Trinkets: Polymer Clay Food Jewellery by Charlotte Stowell.  This is really what started it all for me.  Learning to make little food charms to add to bracelets, earrings, and necklaces.  I have been getting away from this and I thought it would be fun to learn a few more techniques and try it again, since the fun of it hasn't gone away but I've just got caught up in making characters and flowers and jewelery... aahhhh!  So much to do and I'm looking forward to trying to get back into the little charms and maybe try miniture foods.

Which then leads me to my next two book finds.  Sooo exciting!!

Miniature Food Masterclass: Materials and Techniques for Model-Makers by Angie Scarr.  The cover on this book gets me itching to start creating.  From the reviews the book should be good as well I've picked up Making Miniature Food and Market Stalls by Angie Scarr as well and I'm looking hoping to gleen a bit from them to learn just how those miniatures are made and maybe start making them.  I wonder if there's a market for miniatures... are they for Barbies or other small dolls?  I've seen some of those dolls, but I don't know if it's a universal love of small foods or if it's a niche?  Well, it doesn't really matter, because I plan on trying to make them and enjoy doing it first and foremost.

Other than taking a peek through Amazon.ca for some books to pick up with my gift certificate I've been trying to make some small birds, plants and some beads... (the beads I've had some success, but I ended up smooshing the end of the bead I'd tried making and didn't really like the outcome.  So I think it will be back to the drawing board and maybe pick up some thinner metal knitting needles so I can make smaller holes in the beads I make, the one metal dowel I have is just a tad too big for making the holes I'd like... maybe I'm looking for the word "delicate" so the beads can be smaller instead of large and incharge.  Maybe I just need to switch it up a little... lol.

Once I've baked my little odds and ends I've been messing around with I'll take some pictures and show you the results... should be in the next day or so I should hope.  Looking forward to the new year... and I can't believe it's almost the end of 2010.  Where did the time go???

Bought a Book Today

You see this is where it all started.  I saw someone who had made some little faces and pink ribbion magnets for the Breast Cancer awareness and I asked her how she had made them... hello Fimo clay.   So I decided ot look it up on the Internet as I'd never even heard of it before, and there they were.  Pages and pages and pages of little foods.

This is where I started my adventure.  Some of it was slightly embarrassing as I look at them now and they're a bit big.  What I got from it though was that I really enjoyed it... happy accidents and all.  So yesterday I stopped into Chapters and picked up this book.  I was stoked!

Here are few things I made last night... (I will be the first to admit... perfection isn't a word I would use for these little designs... handcrafted goodness... you bet!)

The first one I made from the Polymer Clay Cookbook.... APPLES!

Getting the shapes right and making sure they were
approximately the same size... which is suprisingly a bit
of a challenge for me.

Now they look about right!

After shaping them, I stuck in a pin and then placed some
brown Fimo clay on the pin and rolled it down to the
apple to make the stem.

Added some finishing touches... leaves!

Voila!  Apples :)

But it didn't end there... those pictures in the book were too tempting and I wanted to know how to accomplish the look and figure out how other people make bends that stick, things that won't fall off... basically I wanted to know if I was doing it right.

Next step... BANANAS!

Balls of Fimo clay are ready!

Add a bent pin... then mold the Fimo Clay around it.
Seems simple once you know the "secret"

Yummy Bananas!

I was happy to find that there was a method on how to create coffee cups... as I'd been making tea cups and they were the bane of my existance!  Now that I know how to make cups, it will be SO MUCH EASIER!

Mmmm... Hot Cup of Java!

It didn't stop there, I ended up making some Hamburgers and Tacos too...

I have to say this is one of the more fun little charms that I have
made... yummy tacos, with mutliple layers of meat, cheese, lettuce,
tomato, sour cream and green garnish.

These hamburgers are stacked pretty high, I wanted the
layers to be a bit thicker so that people could see them.  I'm
thinking if I make them again... thinner tomatos and cheese!

I am totally enjoying the Polymer Clay Cookbook and when I get a bit more time I'm going to show you more.  I'm thinking ice cream, waffles, bacon and eggs and maybe try my hand at a lemon cane.