Saturday, July 02, 2011

Black & White Challege is Challenging Indeed :)

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... ;)

2 comments:

The Cabby Crafter said...

very nice blog and beautiful beads! i recently studied polymer clay with Donna in Angelie's store and I am starting to get hooked. wish I can make up something like this someday. blessings!

Ms. Crafty said...

Hello Cabby Crafter!

been trying to reply on your comment but blogger wont allow me. haiist!i hope its fixed now...

we are just polishing the P3 Guild (Phil Polymer Clay Guid), and we will be accepting new members soon! isnt that exciting?
Please join us ah!

im soo excited to see you there... :)

please check my page.. :
https://www.facebook.com/Craftingtime

Thank you!

Melody