Members of the Philippine Polymer Clay Guild agreed for a Bead Swap Challenge.
The challenge: We have to make 17 pcs. beads using only black and white clays…
Sounds easy? Oh Yes!!! So I signed up!
But I was wrong! lol
I am a bead maker, I enjoy making beads… but I hate working with black and white combination…
It’s really hard to keep the white clean!
I was thinking of beads made of jelly roll cane.. The easiest I guess..
But the goal in having a swap is to challenge ourselves..
I have to make something new… something different…
So I tried different techniques…
I made canes using clay extruder.. and worked on my cane covered beads….
I sanded them but was not happy with the result.
Failure!
(lesson learned: when working with small beads, just try hard to hide the finger prints while they are still raw.. and keep your hands clean!)
Well I had the technique already so I thought I could do it again.
Then I had a FUN FUN FUN clay bonding with my clay friends and taught them how to make black and white petal canes using clay extruder…
With that, I assumed that we would have look-a-like beads.
And since I wanted something different, I tried other technique.
The photo transfer technique.
I transferred the image into the clay and added some black & white flowers… It looked good,
But when I added Kato clay and baked them…
the output? :Failure!
(lesson learned – it isn’t true that KCM bakes @ 160 degrees, 140 degrees would be fine. well in my oven i guess)
Here are the other beads I made with the photo transfer technique.
They looked good.. but I was not happy…
Ahhhh… I was cramming… what should I do? This challenge is super challenging indeed!
Then I remember my flat beads, it would be nice to have flat beads with flowers on top of it...
It would look good in my little finger..
So I decided to make the flat beads. My clay friends know I love making flowers anyway…
Using the same canes, (I noticed that new kato clays are softer now… Out of topic! Lol!)
Anyway, using the same canes, I was able to make diff petal canes.
The output?:
I didn’t like the plain backing so I decided to put a little life to it by adding texture. I was happy with it though I left some signature stamps in there (that’s how Che calls the finger prints). Sigh!
I turned Jen’s extra bead and Ling’s into a ring using brass wire.
a closer look of my ring... i love it!
I was not happy with some of my beads, and wanted to make new ones, but I had a hand injury while working with my wired ring, so I just left it that way.. I hope you guys will love it!
The challenge was super stressful; some of the participants (including me) showed disappointments with their beads. Still I had FUN. I learned a lot! And I was able to get some more free stuff from the participants. Yeheyy!!
I wish others will join the next challenge. It’s a fun! fun! fun! learning experience.
Want to see what I am going to receive in return soon?
Ahhhhh ! They are sooooo adorable.. Can’t wait to hold them J and I keep reminding myself that I will only get one each!
Anyway… as I’ve said, I had a hand injury while working with the wired ring… this is it… the cute little thing in my finger...
My hand is ok now... ready to wire again!
Note: im a just a crafter not a writer... ;)
