Year of Clay - A Rose (bead) by Any Other Name
Last year I made several sets of rose beads using canes I’d put together at the time. This Easter break I had the luck to go and craft with a good friend and we ended up using some of my rose beads.
I made up a pair of earrings and she whipped up a set of wine charms.
The differences in even these simple projects goes to show what two interpretations of similar materials can result in.
Year of Clay - Earring Stand
OK, so this one isn’t really clay but I had to scramble a bit because all I’ve made from clay this week are stacks of Natasha beads. I leave for a couple days of Easter break tomorrow and I had gotten the studio cleaned up.
The stand is based off a design in a sweet book called Beader’s Stash: Designs from America’s Favorite Bead Shops by Laura Levaas. I took the book out of the library in this weeks stack of books and it has other interesting, contemporary designs as well.
My stand is made from simpler stuff than the one in the book - plain black plastic coated copper wire. It currently sports my favourite pair of citrus slice earrings and a pair made by the amazing Sarah Shriver. I will probably make a few more of these in colours that match my booth setup better but this time, I found the 16 gauge black first!
Mapping Canes: a Puppy
Last year I wrote about using a photograph to inspire a cane and how to map the cane out from the photograph. This time, I’m using a swatch of fabric a friend showed me on webcam to make a cane. She’d like something to use in favours for her daughters upcoming baby shower but she isn’t a caner. She made the cutest little sculpts and I offered to whip up a cane to make magnets, charms or pins with.
Safety Tips for Polymer Clay Use
On the Etsy forums there was a thread about studio safety inviting people to post their tips or hints for their medium. It was mostly amusing but it got me thinking. I posted some there, all ones I’ve learned from experience. There are more I’m sure!
- Put your sharps away
- Use sharp items carefully, not while distracted
- Make sure you have a first aid kit on site, always
- Hair up, glasses and particle mask on when working with power tools or powders
- Oven mitts. Use them.
- Slice down or away if possible
- Glues should also be put away
- Nail polish on hand for removal of superglue from self
- Do not waste good clay by letting it get dusty, melted to surfaces or semi-baked on your desk / containers. Keep baggies on hand.
- Accurate oven thermometers are very useful. You’ll still burn clay eventually. Be ready to open windows fast
And all these assume you’re fine with cooking clay in your regular oven, as I do, and just giving it a bit of an extra scrub occasionally. Otherwise, you want to add:
- Use a dedicated oven or a sealed baking tin to cook your creations in
Year of Clay - A Slice of Spring
Unlike my neighbours to the south east, it’s been lovely here for weeks. The weather has been mild and springlike. After finishing off most of the stacks of canes for my spring stock I made mini canes up from the ends and pieces and turned those into my favourite slice beads!
So here’s what a slice of spring (canes) looks like:
You have to pretend the bits of drill dust are pollen k?
Making Lilac Canes
After my mad cane making rush I have a little lilac blend left. I also have a Lilac Festival in May. So, a little foolin’ around made a not bad lilac cane.
This is the end slice after I started reducing the cane. The slice is about 2.75″ with the original cane being about 3.5″ tall. I took some of the picture notes from the process to make a sort of mini-tutorial on the cane!
Year of Clay - Spring 2008 Canes
Phew! I decided this was a good spot to stop and take pictures of the growing stack of Spring canes.
This was the first real production run I’ve done with a pasta machine that has a motor attachment. Some kind friends sent me an Atlas 150 with motor last year to save the wear and tear.
I have to say that the spare hand you get from the motor rocks but that the noise is seriously harsh to the point where I avoid quick work on the machine. I have good earplugs but it’s still a jarring noise and limits the times I can use it to when my daughter is not around.
Craft Selling Books
I’m lucky. Where I live there is an excellent library system. I’m also a voracious reader and I often take out all the books on a specific subject. This makes for a tough load to lug back home sometimes.
Over the years since I’ve started selling my crafts at fairs and online, I’ve taken out all the books that my system has to offer. I’ve bought a few along the way as well. My favourite is still Barbara Brabec’s Handmade Money , a classic book on selling your work. She has several other publications, geared to all stages of people’s development in selling and her site is chock full of good info. Her writing style makes it all easy take in.
I used a bit of a bookstore gift card on Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco. Our own Lisa of Polkadot Creations sells this in her store. The book is attractive and hip with some good sections in it. A lot of it is intended for people who plan to make the making and selling of their handmade work into a fair sized business rather than a sideline one. There are a lot of interviews with professional artists and that’s probably the strength of the book. The checklists and bullet formats throughout help with scanning the book for information.
My library find this week - what made me think to post - was Making a Living in Crafts by Donald A. Clark. A lot of the library’s books on selling your crafts are a little dated and I was happy to see this one on the shelf with a publication date of 2006 by Lark. Lark is the publisher for quite a variety of art and craft books. I did a quick flip through to see if there were were any polymer artists in the book but no clayer interviews. There were a few artist pieces shown - Louise Fischer Cozzi and Irene Semanchuk Dean among others - and Luann Udell’s printed business materials were used as an example.
The book has a ton of pictures, is modern and has some great info all the way from how to pick a studio location, to picking your production routine, to pricing work, packaging and marketing your art, networking, attending fairs and customer relations. There are a variety of interviews throughout with artists and other professionals from the whole craft industry. One interview with Wendy Rosen, a show organizer, has very good and specific information on design theft and copyright infringement issues in the real world.
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