Claychicks Weekly – March 29

Posted on March 29, 2007 by Elaine

I get to plug our first sale. Beginning April 1st and ending April 8th we will have our April Fool slash Spring Break sale. Customers who mail us chicken jokes will get free shipping on their Etsy and Ebay purchases! And that’s pretty cool because Carolyn has a bunch of new stuff going up in our Etsy shop over this week and next. We also have a couple set on Ebay this week.

Mine is here. Gratuitous eye candy follows:

morpho cane set

If you send us chicken jokes we haven’t heard not only will you earn our undying approval, you’ll probably get extra goodies tossed in.

Year of Clay – Bumpy Beads Bracelet

Posted on March 27, 2007 by Elaine

This week I am using some of my flexible work schedule to be class mom. The kiddo’s class needed warm bodies to walk the couple of blocks to the swimming pool and back with them. There’s only so much time I can spend admiring 3 dozen 8 & 9 year olds cheerfully ignoring their instructors so today I brought a baggie of old beads, wire and the basic tools. I figured I’d be productive.

Lo and behold I wired up a bracelet from existing supplies! My thrifty heart rejoices.

polymer clay beads

What adventures and excitement tomorrow? Stay tuned!

Year of Clay – Beads on a Stick

Posted on March 21, 2007 by Elaine

This week past was spent doing some of my favourite clay stuff – beads and beads with canes!

polymer clay beads

So we have some accent beads, little slice beads and caned ones. I’m hoping to get some strung pieces and sets out of these considering as I made more than a hundred of each type!

Claychicks Weekly – March 15

Posted on March 15, 2007 by Elaine

I got brave and listed one of my little face canes in this weeks Claychicks Ebay Listing. They tend to elicit a Thats So Cool or Thats Really Weird Elaine reaction.

The Claychicks Etsy shop has some pretty great stuff too – a lot of canes including combined work from Carolyn and I and quite a few of Carolyn’s super beads.

5 More Uses for Scrap Clay

Posted on March 13, 2007 by Elaine

Because the stuff keeps on piling up… Here’s 5 more uses for scrap clay to build on my first 5 Uses for Scrap Clay:

Molds – made a face cab you like? a heart? mold it and be able to repeat the pretty! Or make texture plates / shallow molds like Ponsawan did here and then use those to make some of her bubble beads!
Larger projects – sometimes a piece needs a little more to it than beads. Scrap makes excellent bulk, especially when you’re unsure of how well your bulky project will go. Paint or cover it with pretty colours like scrap dragons or my orangina vase.
Prototypes – before commiting the time and resources to a new line, prototype it. This is a good place for whatever scrap you’ve got that is single colour. Good to use for prototype, fewer tears if it craters, not too hideous if it works.
Reducing canes – instead of letting your cane ends distort crazily, add a plug of scrap to each end of the cane and reduce as you normally would. The distortion will be most concentrated in your scrap clay and you can cut that off without pain.
Tools – form your clay into small tools. One friend made herself a small ‘holder’ to hold her lentil beads upright for photographs. Desiree (the queen of clay experimentation) built her own bead roller from scrap clay.