This blog is dedicated to polymer clay millefiori canes and the beads that are created from them.

Did you know that there is a whole froudian world out there, full of fairies, trolls, dragons, and other creatures? It sprouts out from an amazing web site, worldoffroud.com, featuring works of Brian and Wendy Froud, and uniting all kinds of artists fascinated by these creatures. One of such froudians, Amber Matthies, runs a troll adoption center through her shop, Trollflings.etsy.com. Just look at her cute polymer clay creations! Can you resist those smiles?! Again, a perfect example of how nicely polymer clay can be combined with other materials. Find more of these little guys on Amber's web site trollfings.com.

Explore PIG MAMA's 152 photos on Flickr!

PROJECT TITLE: MOKUME GANE Skill Level: Basic Knowledge of Polymer Clay Minimum Supplies Needed: Basic Supplies & 1 Cup of Coffee Time to make 1 Mokume Gane Loaf: Approximately 45 minutes from start until ready to use on your own creation Purchase some of our Mokume Gane items here These are the basic supplies you will need: Blades, needle tools, ball tipped tools, and other tools to indent your clay, as well as a piece of cardstock or other paper to work on, and a pasta machine. And don't forget the most important: a cup of coffee. Next choose 4 colors of clay. You will need 1/4 a block of each color you choose. Make sure at least ONE is a metallic clay. You will be adding glitter, embossing powders, and metallic leaf to some of the clays. Also grab ONE full block of translucent clay. Next condition all your clay and keep them separate. You can do this however you like, with your hands, cutting it into pieces, running through a pasta machine, banging on it with your roller...whatever works for you. If you are using a pasta machine, run it through the pasta machine on the largest setting. Next, pick what you're going to use to accent your clay. This will give to mokume gane a nice texture and a surprise with every slice! (For the block you'll see me make here, I used copper leaf, and 2 different glitters.) Next put your leafing on your Transparent clay only. You'll notice the pieces on the right hand side are almost completely covered with foil. These two pieces are covered front AND back. The two pieces on the left are covered (lightly) on one side only. Next choose 2 of your clays to add glitters to. For this I chose pink & orange. I added regular sparkle glitter to the orange clay and pink glitter to the pink clay. Your conditioned clays with their inclusions and additives are now ready. Run them through the pasta machine at the 5th largest setting. Now stack your clays in any pattern you wish. I usually stack one sided leafed transparent, color, 2 sided leafed transparent, color, 2 sided leafed transparent, color, & one sided transparent. This will make the beginning of your loaf. This is an 8 layered loaf. Now use your roller and flatten the loaf. You're going to put it through your pasta machine at the largest setting, so flatten it by hand as much as you can. It will be really long and flat after running it through the pasta machine. Now cut the loaf in half (just eyeball it, no need to be exact). Here's the important part....stack it the EXACT same way! Do NOT turn the loaf over. Now you have a 16 layer loaf. Continue to roll our your new loaf of clay. Cut in half and stack the SAME WAY again. Now you have 32 layers! Now repeat! Roll the 32 layers again to flatten.... Then cute in half again & restack. Now you have 64 layers of clay! Again, roll the clay. This constant rolling locks the layers together and gets the air bubbles out. Check out your hard work! 64 layers of colorful, wonderful, yumminess! Now squish and mold into a block with your hands. Constant pressure and rolling to create a thick block, or loaf. Your loaf should now be seamless with no funny ends sticking out. Now take that loaf, pick a side, and poke it! Use whatever you have. Do some things deeply and some things only part way, while others should remain shallow. Here's what I did to my loaf. But...you're not finished yet. Now slice through it! Do it shallow, halfway, deep, whatever! Use whatever blades you have, crinkle, flexible, straight, whatever. Now you're going to push it back into a "healed" loaf. Use your hands and push, push, push. The clay should be very soft by the point and push easily. Remember you can't mess this up, so just push! Here's what my loaf looked like after I "healed" the impressions that I made on it. Now roll over it again to seal it and take out the majority of the air bubbles. Here's my healed and rolled loaf. NOW TURN THE BLOCK OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE & DO THE WHOLE THING AGAIN! Poke your holes and get some stress relief... Use your blades to relieve even more stress... Now push it all back together and heal the loaf! Push until it won't heal any longer. Now roll over the top to flatten the loaf, continuing to heal it and get out any extraneous air bubbles. This is VERY important, Turn the clay so that you can see the "grain" of the loaf you've created. Use your flexible blade and slice the same direction as the "grain" of the clay. Slice as thin a sheet as possible. Here's the first pattern that was revealed in our loaf. As you cut, you will reveal new treasures, hidden secrets, and really cool designs in your loaf. Now what?! Use your Mokume Gane to decorate pens, your tools, make jewelry and beads, whatever your heart desires. Here's some of the recent Mokume Gane loafs that we have made. Notice how each and every block is different?! This is the really neat part to Mokume Gane. I've really fallen in love with Mokume Gane and can't wait to explore all of its possibilities! Here's one of the items we created with the Mokume Gane loaf we showed you how to make above: ***Please know that there are MANY ways to make Mokume Gane from polymer clay. This is the method that I prefer and that works best for me.***

A couple of years ago when I was running my Etsy shop I used to make these polymer clay embellishments for scrap pages. I thought I'd take today to show you all how to make these unique little embellishments, they work beautifully with the Bo Bunny Metal Trinkets! The assignment today was to create a Signs of Spring layout with the new Alora collection. I used a photo I took a couple of years ago in the spring of Meagan on the monkey bars at the park....to me, a sign that Spring is in the air is when the kiddies can go without coats, hat, mitts... Although I have to say we are having crazy warm weather here for Spring, it's almost unheard of to have the kids going to school in shorts in March! Today is another balmy 85 degrees! crazy for this time of year here in Ontario! Okay so for the tutorial.....You will need.... ~Polymer Clay, Sculpy, Fimo or Store Brand (I used black) ~Pearlex or Perfect Pearls (Mica Powder...I bought the Pearlex Series2 12 pack ages ago and still have loads of it left....The colors I used were Turquois, Aztec Gold and Spring Green) ~Bo Bunny Metal Trinkets and Jewels ~Blade knife for trimming Step #1: Soften and roll out a 1" piece of black polymer clay (I used black because I feel like the colors of Pearlex show up nicely against it). Cut a heart shape out with a blade knife. Now take a small piece of the black clay and roll out into a thin strip, and roll out a number of small ball shapes. Apply to the piece with gentle pressure (when it bakes it adheres well to the base piece) Step #2: Using a paint brush apply the Turquoise Pearlex (Mica Powder) to the base of the piece (I used two colours....see below). Be sure to get the Pearlex right to the edges. Step #3: You can add an additional color in and just softly blend them . Step #4: Using your finger, dab it in the Pearlex and just run it along the raised design you created, this is my favourite part, the contrast of the metalic colors is just magical! ....You can add your metal accents now if you wish but don't add your jewels to it unless they are glass because they will melt in the oven when you bake off the piece. Bake in a 275 F oven for 15 minutes (use a disposable foil tray for this, you don't want to use something that you will later cook with) Step #5: Once my piece has cooled I spray it with a protective clear coat (I couldn't find old clear coat spray so I used some hairspray and it worked well!) Now you can add any pearl or gem accents and glue on your metal accents if you didn't bake them with the piece. I recomment that you spray the back of the piece with a protective coat in order to protect the scrap paper incase any residual oils come off of the polymer clay. Experiment with different shapes, try using stamps and small and large glass beads. Here are just a few of the designs I created using just some clay, Pearlex, stamps and glass beads. TIP: (the trick to making a straight line with the glass beads is to string them on a piece of wire, push them into the clay and then pull out the wire strand leaving the beads behind in the clay) I hope I've inspired you to give it a go! Have a fun scrappy week! xx

Currently, I'm working on designing some pendant settings, to use with small cabochons. I'm making my own molds with Premo clay, by impressing found objects, then cutting them out with metal shape cutters. I used a mix of Premo metallic clays to make the pendant setting above. After I baked it I applied some Burnt Umber to give it an antique look. A few dabs of Treasure Gold added the highlights. Now, I'm trying to decide what color cabochons to make as the insert. Here is a Turquiose, Metallic Tan, & White abstract cab. Whatever cabochon I use, I'll put a thick coat of resin on it to give it a fabulous shine. Silver clay with black accents, cabochon added

If you haven’t gotten your hands on the latest issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, you really should. Not just because we put it together but because the contributors and artists in this issue bring…

Free jewelry making tutorials, craft ideas, design inspirations, DIY, projects, tips and tricks and trends

Tiny micro gnome. Perfect for a fairy garden or Terrarium. Handmade from polymer clay and oh so tiny! These little gnomes are approximately 5/16 inch to the tip of their hats.

I decided to make some research work on the polymer clay notebook cover ideas. A birthday gift should feel personal and what's more personal than a handmade gift?

Explore Elena Kalashnikov (Lenfima)'s 405 photos on Flickr!

polymer clay

Skulptur auf dem Balkon 2011, Modelliermasse

I needed a quick and easy St. Patrick's Day project for tomorrow, so I compiled this four leaf clover box. Print it out and it's ready to color, cut and fold up into a envelope-box.