Paisleys and dots

Applying color theory to creating a colorful paisley and dot pendant.

This pendant takes approximately 1/4 of a standard sized block of polymer clay. Using a neutral color, condition and roll out a section of clay. Roll your section on the second or third to largest setting of your pasta machine. (The largest for my machine is a 7-I rolled my clay at 5).

Fold the clay over on itself and lightly press together--doubling the thickness, and removing any air bubbles.

Place a sandwich baggie smooth over the surface of the clay. Press into the clay, through the baggie, with a round cookie cutter-about 2 inches in diameter. The sandwich baggie makes a nice beveled edge to the cut shape.

Roll the remaining clay back thru the pasta machine, at the same setting. The remainder of the shapes will be cut from a single layer of the clay.

Using a small round Kemper punch cut out several small dots. Roll these into small balls. Using the small round punch, cut a hole into the top of the pendant base. Approximately 1/4 inch from the edge.

Using a small tear drop shape cookie cutter, cut 3 shapes. Use your fingers to gently curve the tear drops into paisleys.

Arrange the paisley shapes and dot balls in a pleasing arrangement. For smaller dots cut the  punched dots in half.

Place a hot set crystal on one of the larger dots as accent bling. Use the tip of a knitting needle to push accent dots into the centers of the clay dots, and along edges of shapes.

Use color theory principles to help select pigment powder colors. Apply colors loosely with soft brush. Do not inhale the pigment particles, cover your mouth and nose, and use in a well ventilated area.

Cure following the polymer clay brand's instructions. When cool brush off any excess pigment powders and coat with Varathane, or your polymerclay coating of choice to protect the mica pigment colors on your design.

Color theory with mica pigment powders

Color theory is the study of mixing color and the visual impact of certain color combinations. There are many aspects to be taken into consideration when studying color. The form of the color —opaque pigment, translucent inks, transparent light—impact how colors interact and mix.

Mica pigment powders are ground natural mineral (mica) flakes coated with and oxide, usually titanium or iron. The granules of the flakes are solid and reflect light; therefore they are discussed in terms of opaque pigments.




There are three primary colors when dealing with opaque pigments: red, yellow, and blue. These are base, or pure colors. These colors, or hues, cannot be achieved through mixing.



Hue is the name of a color (red, purple). It's easy to remember: Hue and Hugh are both names. Hue is a color’s name, just as Hugh is a man’s name.


The three primary hues are the basis of the color wheel. Think of a rainbow in a circle, showing the range of hues that can be created when the primary colors are mixed. A basic color wheel shows primary and secondary hues. Secondary colors are achieved by mixing two primary colors.




























Yellow+ red= orange
Red+ blue=violet
Blue+yellow=green





Tertiary, or intermediate, hues are the next level of color blends.



Green+blue=aquamarine



Analogous colors are hues that are next to each other along one side of the color wheel. Think of the colors as being in “rainbow order.”








Complementary colors are in opposite positions on a color wheel.




























Blue-orange

Yellow-violet

Red-green


Split complementary hues are colors that are in opposite position on a color wheel, with one of the colors of the pair, shifted to the left or right



Aquamarine-orange

Indigo-yellow























Tints and shades are achieved by mixing a pure hue with white or black. Tints are lighter, and shades are darker. Tints can be achieved with mica pigments on clay by varying the quantity used. Both tints and shades can be achieved through blending pigments together.

There are many ways to help with the selection of color combinations. Magazines frequently will publish color pallets (a selection of hues) that they predict will be the season's popular colors, or are currently the popular colors. Keeping notes in your sketch book of color combinations you have seen and like, will help on future projects. Color choice is always going to be subjective, simply because different people favor certain hues over others.

Analogous colors are always pleasing combinations. An analogous range can be created with a “jump” or skip over a single color in the range.

To “jazz-up” a selection of analogous hues, add an accent color – such as in the example:

Yellow-aquamarine-blue (green was skipped)



Accent colors work well when they add contrast. A good way to achieve this is to select a complementary color.

Pure complementary colors can be a bit jarring—think of bright red and green together. A modified complementary combination can be quite pleasing. Using a combination of split complementary with tints of the hues create very successful combinations. Copper and turquoise are a good example of this: copper represents the orange hue and turquoise is a tint of the aquamarine hue.



















When planning on using mica pigments, the clay body color needs to be taken into consideration. The hue of the clay body will impact the tint and intensity of the applied mica pigments. Colors will not appear as bright on white as they will on black. Using a neutral base will give a more subtle effect.



When using colored clay make pigment selections based on analogous hues. Using complementary hued pigments on colored clay will dull down the overall appearance. Interference, or color shift, pigments incorporate a bright accent hue- so the pigment seems to shimmer in a different color. Frequently the shift is to a complementary hue, or using a bright color on a colorless base. These are great for adding “jazz.” You need to pay attention to the shift color when using interference pigments. You don’t want to lose an exciting color shift by applying the pigment to a base clay the same color as the interference shift. Applying a color-less interference powder with a complementary color to a colored clay base will not dull the overall appearance but add the “oohhh aahh" effect.

Pigments can be blended to achieve almost any hue on the color wheel. Warning: when blending colors limit how many you use. Too many colors mixed together tend to end in a muddy color. Blending of complementary colors will also result in a mud color. Mica pigments are available commercially for the arts and crafts industry. Mica pigments make-up is also available, and can be used on polymer clay. Expanding into the world of powder and pressed powder eye shadow expands the range of hues and tints available. There are so many hues available it's almost not necessary to every need to blend pigments.

Always use mica powders safely. Use in a well ventilated area, and protect your lungs by wearing a face mask. Mica pigments are made from minerals and oxides, not something you want to inhale.

Its time to prepare for the holidays!

So were were at dinner the other night and the restaurant has a gift shop attached and...
I am amazed at all the Christmas and Halloeewn and Thanksgiving stuff already out. I mean it is only the first week of August.
Then again as a kid my crafty aunt always had X-mas gifts made, done and wrapped before September.
And now here I am thinking gee should I make some holoiday appropriate items?
Im not in a halloween mood and yet it probably is halloween product time.
And I should probably be thinking about X-mas products and presents as well.
Im not too good about this being ahead of the craft market for product, but I guess its time I did some preplanning.
I wonder what I should do?
I know I have a slew of Day-of-the-Dead items I want to make
and I should start planning out some potential Christmas craft classes, as well as make some ornaments.
I dont want to be the Christmas shop, as I am a die-hard 12 days of X-mas fan, and I dont like seeing all the lights go up before Thanksgiving. by the time the day comes around Im ready to be done, and Id rather be ready to get started, with the end party on twelfth night, but thats just me. Maybe a few Santa pins wont be too horrible.
Now as far as the halloween stuff....
I want my stuff to be seasonally appropriate, but not limited to the season
Valentines day is good for that, I mean hearts are good all the time, they dont have to be red and rosey to be a heart
ooh maybe I could that, holiday hearts...
ooh idea is a brewing.....

Paisley bubbles and dots pendants class

paisley bubbles and dots pendants
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

May 4, Sunday: Polymer Clay Paisley Pendants (1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.)

Great Paisly Pendants you can wear with panache! Learn how to cut, layer, and texture with this fun project. Polymer clay is an affordable and fun medium to dabble in. Join instructor Laura Medeiros in all the fun. Cost: $40; supplies additional cost and purchased from instructor. Note: 2-student minimum required for this class, please call and reserve your space!

Class location:

Stardust Designs Bead Shoppe
43 Brookwood Terrace
Nashville, TN 37205
Phone: 615-352-5355

Across from Target on Whitebridge Rd.
Behind Mr. Whiskers

I WON I WON I WON!!!!!

The Creators and Entrepreneurial Mavens over at Crafted Online had a little contest.
There were in need of a tag line.

I submitted the following for consideration, my focus was about emphasizing the comfort of being at home:

Learn from the comfort of your home

learn while in your jammies!

Learn while surrounded by your own tools

come learn with us, you dont even have to shower or wear make up

(ok these are just getting silly)

from the comfort of you own home, and bunny slippers

we dont require you brush your teeth, but your dentist might

learned online, crafted by you

they went with:
Live Teachers, in the comfort of your home!

I won a copy of Make It Mine magazine.

So if you are looking to learn some crafting thingy go check them out!

CRAYONS!

A few weeks ago a friend and I saw these nifty heart shaped ice cube trays at Target. They were cute and pink and I really had no use for them what so ever. Well the other day she says she has been thinking about making heart shaped crayons using those ice cube molds. I thought that was brilliant. Im so tired of all the candy gifts at school, why not give something else. And I really do want my kids to learn that spending money isnt the answer when it comes to gift giving.
So I said, oooh lets do that. She agreed and went in search of the mold. I say search because the ice cube molds were no longer at Target. She found some Wilton metal mini muffin molds, and thats what we used.
Crayons are a way of life at my house. We have not one, but two huge crayon buckets, so finding bits of crayons to use was not a problem.
The crayons turned out fabulous, the kids loved each crayon better than the one before.

This is what we did:

We started with all the broken crayon bits, making sure all the paper was taken off.

We broke the crayons into little bits, if the bits weren't little enought, we put the color combination into a baggie and smashed them with a small hammer.

We piled the crayon bits into the mold tray.

We melted the crayons bits into one heart shaped crayon, the melting was done in the oven at 220 degrees and took about 10 to 15 minutes

We then froze the trays to get the crayons out.


J-man and me filling the mold tray.

This is what we learned:

Different brands of crayons melt at different rates, and the cheaper crayons have more parafin in them, the parafin separates and rises, giving you a layer of solid pale color at what becomes the bottom of the crayon

If you dont want the separation, use the more expensive crayons, but hey, this is a project that uses what you have--if you dont want the parafin layer you can skim it off with a paper towel while the crayons are still melted CAREFUL its lava hot, or you can sand the layer off after everthing has cooled down.

Don't put the liquid melted crayons into the freezer to cool, they will crack and break when you remove them from the mold. Let the crayons naturally cool to room tempurature, then put the pan in the freezer so the crayons will pop out of the pan (BTW this is specific to the metal pan).

Put the glitter in when you are smashing the crayons, it then gets all over and will be spread through out the crayon.

Pile the crayons high. There is a lot of air space they need to melt into, if you make enough bits to fill the mold level you will end up with about half of the mold being filled with melted crayon.

Bake the mold on a cookie sheet with an edge to catch the spills. They wont spill going in, but if your mold is full to the top, it will spill on the way out.

The kids had enough attention span for 1 dozen crayons each.