Monday, May 30, 2016

Art Jewelry Elements: May Component of the Month Reveal

Hello all! I am so excited to share with you my trials and tribulations for this month's AJE CoM.

I was picked as a special guest this month and I received in the mail the most adorable hand blown miniature glass cabochons. They were made by Sue Kennedy of SueBeads. My 3 pieces are: 2 hearts and one star.

I was sooo excited to get started! I Googled and Pinned some ideas and narrowed down the medium I would use to polymer clay. I have worked with polymer half a dozen times... Luckily for me, once was with Heather Powers of Humblebeads and another time was with Andrew Thornton. So, I had a basic idea what I was doing. In my mind I wanted to combine these elements ...

So I headed to Allegory Gallery and had a Clay Date with Laurel. I made a Skinner Blend with one part transparent clay (I did not think this through). Transparent clay is not the same consistency as other polymer clay colors. So this did not work out as well as planned, but I kept going, made a cane, sliced away and covered a heart shape.

I did a little tweaking and fixing then I baked it. And baked it, and baked it, and baked it. It never seemed to get hard and the transparency never seemed to be transparent!!! Well, I got frustrated, and forgot about it, and it overcooked.

Here's my sad example of overcooked polymer clay with transparent in the mix which turns to blaa.

Well, I couldn't very well turn this in as a project! My two teachers for this medium would be appalled, I would be ousted from the blogosphere, and never asked to play again at AJE! So I popped the hearts off and threw the clay away.

Time For A Do Over!

The 'Polymer Clay Incident' all took place two days after getting the cabs, so I knew I had enough time to rethink my project. That's when I started carrying the cutie cabs around with me, I would put them in my pockets for inspiration... until I almost fed them to my dogs! (They got mixed up with treats in my pocket!)

Then I put them in a safe place, out of harms way, and promptly forgot where I put them. Fast forward to two days till due date...

I have now decided I would try Soutache! I have never tried this medium before. I don't seed bead let alone bead embroidery, I'm afraid of it. But this didn't look too hard! (Hahaha!) I picked an inspiration photo and set to work...

How fun does that look! Awesome right? I could do this! Off to Joann Fabrics! Thank goodness the clerk knew what I was looking for, because the soutache was in the last row in the bottom shelf in a random stuff box! And all they had was yellow and silver. Oh well, I could work with that, I grabbed some cuplink chain and was outta there!

Everything started out fine, although I got too impatient and didn't let the glue dry long enough and had to re-glue cabs twice.
Then I showed Andrew Thornton my project and he laughed and laughed (because he knows me and my 'craftitude' so well)! ;-) He said I was nuts because "soutache takes so long to finish" (and I am not known for my patience)! He said why would I use invisible thread, I would "surely get it stuck in a loop/knot and never realize until the end"!! And his famous last words to me "be careful". I said, "Hush, silly Andrew! I Googled this, and I am perfectly capable of using a needle and thread!" I did not tell him I already was too impatient to wait for glue to dry. ;-)

And In case you can't tell from the above picture, there are glue strings mixed with invisible thread all over the front of my pendant. Because, yes, I did get the thread stuck in a loop and I'm afraid to cut any strings for fear the whole thing falls apart. Also, there may be blood drops from me stabbing myself in the finger 17 thousand times. Damn, Andrew is always right!

But it worked out in the end! I had fun! I learned a new skill!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my adventures! Stay tuned for more, or look back to previous blog posts!

Please visit everyone from Art Jewelry Elements and comment on their blogs! We all love to hear from people!

Guests:

Allison Herrington

Lola Surwillo

AJE Team Members:

Susan Kennedy - host

Diana Ptaszynski

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Caroline Dewison

Lindsay Starr

Lesley Watt

Jennifer Cameron

Niky Sayers

 

21 comments:

  1. What an adventure! It sounds like you had fun for the challenge and the end result turned out beautifully!

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  2. A for effort! You sure stuck with it and it turned out great in the end.

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  3. LOL! I love that you shared your adventures with us! I would not have tried Soutache with so little time left, so props to you for going for it and doing it! Great job!

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  4. I feel like you and I are kindred spirits, Alison! I can so relate to your creative process, especially the blood loss part when needles are involved! I love the way your soutache pendant turned out ... a perfect summer accessory!

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    1. Thanks Lola! What fun it is to always try new things, right!?!

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  5. Goodness you did put yourself through the ringer on this one! I admire your tenacity and persistence and you obviously enjoyed yourself so well done you. The end result looks pretty good to me.

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    1. I'm glad it looks ok and you can't see all the strings! Thanks for saying that, even if you can! ;-)

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  6. Allison, you are hilarious! I love what you made, it is really awesome, and how you learned new things and had so much fun doing it! I'm so glad Andrew and Laurel were there, you did an awesome job. Thank you so much for playing and having such fun!

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    1. I love my hobby and I love the people I meet doing it! Thanks so much!

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  7. You crack me up! I so love that you shared your adventures and I totally give you props for using soutache. I have yet to explore that medium. This is a beautiful necklace!

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    1. Thank you Kristen, I will definately try soutache again, probably another SMALL piece, maybe. ;-)

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  8. HAHAHAHA! This: "I Googled this..."
    Great blog post, and I love the commentary. And the design turned out fantastic. A little bit of blood never hurt anyone.... Thanks for participating in the design challenge and not giving up.

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    1. Thank you Jennifer! I am sooo glad I got it finished in time!

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  9. Hehehehe Your post really did make me giggle! I love that you took us on your adventure and really enjoyed reading your post, I have never attempted Soutache but it looks fun!

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    1. Thanks Niky! It was actually very fun! But I try to have fun no matter what medium I'm playing with:-)

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  10. Heavens you are too funny. Im glad I have met you and Laurel - it adds a personal touch to the story! I am very impressed with your first go at soutache! Well done! Glad you had fun - and learned so much!

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    1. Thank you Jenny! It was wonderful to meet you as well! I love my hobby and all the great people I meet!

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  11. What an adventure you had. A true learning experience. The end result is beautiful but the main point is you didn't give up. Congrats

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