Spaced Out on Rondelles

My new tutorial, Sculpted Flowers, is now finished and available in our Art Fire Studio.

Included in this tutorial are instructions on how to make three different types of flower petals and two types of flower centers with several variations.  I also show you how to turn your flowers into jewelry pieces like beads, a pendant, earrings and a brooch pin.  I've also included my Kato polyclay color recipes to make all the pieces in this lesson.

These flowers can also be used to embellish items like switch plate covers, picture frames, boxes and even drawer pulls.

I am happy to announce that my Color Tutorial, "Carolyn's Clay Color System" is now available!  It is for sale in our  ArtFire Studio and our Etsy Shop.

In this tutorial you will learn:
* how to mix clay color recipes and organize them with your own "color library system"
* how to mix up new colors by making your own "Custom Color Wheel Charts"
* how to make a Six-Step Color Blend
* a fun technique for testing color combinations I call my "Mini-Mokume"
* how to make some beads from your "mokume"

Through this lesson you will:
* have more confidence in mixing and combining colors
* have a more organized clay area
* have more time and clay to get right into your projects

Included with this lesson are:
* cards to print out with more than 50 of my favorite color recipes using Kato polyclay to get you started.
   (Note: some of these recipes can be adapted to other clay brands and separate cards are provided.)
* some of the recipes are my own "base mixes" used to create various tints, shades or hues.
* printable worksheets for mixing clay blends and your own "custom color wheels"
* printable cards to record and save your own color blends and mixes.
* 23 pages of instruction and photos
* 38 pages of printable worksheets, charts and recipe cards

I've had many requests on how to make our textured tube beads and pens and my new tutorial is now available for sale on ArtFire and in our Etsy shop.

In this tutorial you will learn to make tube beads with rich textures that are totally seamless!  I will also show you how to make larger focal beads (including the end caps) as well as covering pens and other tube shaped objects with this same technique.  The nice thing is that there is no sanding involved yet your pieces will have a silky smooth finish.

I've included a color guide and tips for using mica powders as well as texture ideas to use for your new creations.  As a bonus, I have added a color recipe sheet where I share with you how I achieve some of my favorite designs.

This tutorial consists of 18 pages broken down into 49 steps and includes more than 50 photos for easy and clear instruction.

 

You can read a review on this tutorial at Clay Lessons.

Ever since I discovered polymer clay, friends from my local clay guild started asking me to share with them some of the new things I was discovering.  I've since been sharing a variety of tips and techniques on our blog which have been very well received.  As an experienced teacher and author of two books (on nutrition), I finally decided to put some of these things into written tutorials to share with other polymer clay enthusiasts.  My first one was just published on Clay Lessons and a PDF version can be downloaded for free.

 

I've since created another tutorial for a type of bead that is not only textured with the same pattern on both sides but is totally seamless.  It is now available for sale at Clay Lessons as well as in our Etsy Shop and Art Fire Studio.

 

I'm working on a few more which should be published over the summer.