This month’s design challenge from the Art Elements team is brought to you by the color white. White: the color you perceive when an object reflects all light in the visible spectrum equally. White: the color of snow, clouds, and quartz or limestone sand. White: the color of polymer clay most likely to attract every last particle of lint, dust, and cat hair in your workspace.
When I signed up for this month’s theme I knew my biggest challenge would not be ideas for interpreting the theme, but keeping my white polymer clay clean. I am convinced the only way to keep white polymer clay from picking up bits of lint, dust, and cat hairs is to wear head-to-toe white lint-free clothing while working in one of those “clean rooms” where the air is filtered of all particulates. Well, I don’t have a clean room. Heck, since I’ve been spending all my non-work hours playing with polymer clay this year, I don’t even have a room you could call “clean.” (I regret nothing! Bahahahaha!!!!)
This snowy owl feather necklace and earrings were not made for this design challenge. I made them over a year ago. I just wanted to share them because they fit the theme and I needed a photo here to break up some of the text before I get to the part where I reveal what I made this month.
The solution, of course, is not to attempt perfectly white creations. I almost always add a hint of ecru to white clay because pure white is too stark for my taste. Even then, some of the lint and whatnot that floats on the air currents in my home and finds its way onto my clay shows. Therefore, in addition to not working with purely white clay, I need to use texture to disguise the errant bits of flotsam that attach to my work. And lastly, I need to distress or antique my finished pieces, not just to enhance the details, but to disguise the inevitable unintended inclusions.
And yet, despite knowing all of this, I did try to make some perfectly white pieces at first. I carefully wiped every surface of my workspace …twice. I cleaned my hands and dried them with lint-free cloth. I wore a white top. I peered through my magnifying glass to scrutinize the clay and ruthlessly wielded tweezers to pick out any non-white bits during conditioning. I diligently inspected my work at every stage, looking for and removing every last bit of contamination before curing. Or so I thought.
This winged pendant was made with Premo! Accents Pearl polymer clay. It’s white clay with white mica. The sparkle and shimmer is difficult to capture in a static image, but trust me, it’s pearly. It’s also contaminated by a fleck of blue lint. Where did the blue fiber come from? Hell. It came from Hell.
After failing to achieve a perfectly white creation, I moved on to a different shade of white. Last month I made some “icicle” headpins. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to use them and they’ve been sitting in a bead tray with prospective accent beads for weeks. Why? Using decorative headpins is tricky because once you manipulate the wire for a design, there’s almost no going back if you change your mind. It can be creatively paralyzing, almost like writer’s block. (If you want to stress out a jewelry designer, gift them with some really pretty artisan beaded headpins and tell them you can’t wait to see what they make.) The point is, the icicles are white-ish. They’re off-white clay coated in sparkle dust, aka iridescent embossing powder and micro-glitter.
These earrings are slightly asymmetric because no two icicle headpins are exactly the same. To make both earrings the same length, I added an extra bead and spacer to the shorter headpin. The photos do not do them justice because the holographic glitter coating is causing them to appear more ivory than the shimmery white that they are in person. Alternatively, they could be white carrots, which is what I see when I look at this photo.
Also made last month when I was on a “must fill etsy shop with winter-themed jewelry” mission were some arctic fox and hare beads. They’ve been keeping the icicle headpins company in the bead tray. I love it when I make components that I have no idea how I plan to use them, which would be most of the time. Because I put a hole in the top of most of the fox beads, they were destined to become pendants in some necklace design or other. And it was almost inevitable that the hare beads would become earring focals because I made them in mirrored pairs. Can’t orphan a bunny by breaking up a matched set, right?.
The arctic fox bead needed a frame to become a pendant. I wrapped a thousand white AB seed beads onto a wire circle (or maybe it was only a few dozen, but it felt like a thousand) and wrapped the fox in the center. I like to think of her as surrounded by the Northern Lights, aka the Aurora Borealis. The bead has a shimmery finish that, like all the other shimmery things in this post, does not photograph well. The pendant is on a beaded chain with sparkling faceted glass beads and antiqued brass chain.
These earrings feature a pair of arctic hares on a frosty winter background. The hand-painted beads have a pearl finish and are accented with Czech glass melon and faceted rondelle beads on antiqued brass wire.
The second hardest part of this month’s challenge, after trying to keep my white clay clean, was photographing the shimmery finishes on my beads. I contemplated inserting a short video or GIF of them moving to capture the shimmer. I was too lazy to research how to do that. So, you’ll have to take my word for it that they are all kinds of glittery, shimmery, and pearlescent. And why would I lie to you about that?
Eventually, I made the kind of beads I should have begun with: off white, textured, and distressed with acrylic paint. That’s them up at the top of this post. There are no doubt bits of lint in every one of them, but you’ll need a strong magnifier and good eyes to find it. These beads are my interpretation of faux antiqued ivory, using acrylic paint to add the aged distressed finish. I used a few to make a bracelet.
This is a rare bracelet design. As in, I rarely make bracelets. But when I took a photo of the assorted ivory beads, I saw this bracelet design. Which is weird because I definitely had no design in mind when I was making the beads. The polymer clay beads are on antiqued brass wire and accented with an assortment of Czech glass dangles.
Among the beads I made for this challenge that didn’t make their way into a finished jewelry design in time for the reveal are some antique ivory owls. I decided at the last minute that I need more/different shapes of beads to go with them so they will rest in my bead tray until I get around to that.
These faux carved ivory owls were based on a doodle in my sketch book. They look a little startled, I think. “Who, me?!”
That’s it for me for this challenge but there’s lots more original art to be seen because this is also a blog hop. Visit the other participants to see how they interpreted this theme.
Guest Artists
Alysen
Anita
Beth
Cat
Divya
Elaine
Hope
Jill
Karin
Kathy
Rozantia
Sarajo
Susan
Tammy <–You are here!
Art Elements Team
Caroline
Cathy
Claire
Laney
Lesley
Marsha
Susan
Dirt free? Lint free? what on Earth is that? I was laughing when I read your post. I live in a dusty commercial area and every bit of my house is perpetually covered in dust. I have great trouble keeping it out of my pieces so I really get what you are saying. Your pieces are fabulous. Since more people will compliment them for sure, I want to share how I photograph sparkly stuff. I shoot sparkly stuff on a darker background, preferably in sunlight (a terrace, front porch or a balcony.) Even mild cloudy light with do (change your white balance to match the light condition). Keep your ISO and exposure at the min possible and your shutter speed at 125. Use a slightly tilted over head shot or mid angle to show depth. Shooting straight like you have done here makes the pieces look flat and thereby less shiny. You should be able to change these settings on a DSLR and a phone camera in pro mode. Infact phones are better to shoot glitter. I hope this helps.
Thanks so much, Divya. I truly appreciate the photo tips. I will give it a try as soon as I find my camera’s manual and learn how to set shutter speed. 🙂
Thank you for making me laugh out loud!
This reminded me so much of the time when I worked with polymer clay, only my pieces were by FAR not as gorgeous as yours. Nowadays I have “only” cat hair and blanket fluff in my wire and beads 😉
I think the owls are my favorites although I also love the hares.
Thanks so much, Cat. I have seen perfectly white polymer clay pieces and I have to assume the people who make them have much more patience than I.
Looks like you really enjoyed this challenge despite the lint problems. I love that bracelet and the owls
Thanks so much, Jill. I always enjoy these challenges, even when I am also at war with lint.
Oh my gosh, I love your posts! You are hilarious and you are so right about white polymer, which I do really like, but always paint or alcohol ink or antique, as well! BUT WOW, glad you decided to use your sitting in a dish beads, they are great! And YES about the headpins – I can use them because then THAT’S IT!!!! Love the owls, great post, thank you!
Thanks so much, Susan. I’m glad you enjoy my sarcastic humor. 😉
heheeh I was giggling at your post, lint and hair free… LOL Love those owls, they made me smile, but mostly I enjoyed reading what you wrote, you have a very amusing way of writing, thank you for brightening up my grey afternoon 😀 dust and lint free…. CHORTLE….
Thanks so much, Laney. I am so glad my post was a bright spot in your afternoon. 🙂
AHA Tammy, we weren’t thinking alike for this Challenge after all! But those Angel Wings are beautiful and so finely detailed. As are the Snowy Owl feathers. Your varied beads fashioned into a bracelet was a great idea too. And … Those two little owl beads make me smile, their eyes are so expressive!!
Thanks so much, Alysen. I can’t take credit for the detail in the wings. I used a silicone mold. I will take credit for knowing how to properly use a mold though. LOL.
I love everything about this post: your tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic writing, your amazing designs, the ease and flow of it. Every single piece for this challenge (even the set included to just break up the text, and the blue lint wings) is awesome. You have such a way with polymer clay. I do love the (almost) pure white wings, but the aged pieces are definitely more my style too. The bracelet and the bats are my favorites, and don’t make me choose between them – I won’t do it. 😉
Thanks so much, Hope. It is so great to know there are people who enjoy my sarcasm as much as I do. 😉
Tammy, thanks for sharing all your work – so much fun hearing how you get from ‘here’ to ‘there’. Your work is so creative and the results just make me smile. I deal with chocolate lab hair all the time, though because I have never tried polymer clay, my battle is with it getting caught under the tape I put on my mailing envelopes. The hair burden takes on many shapes!
Thanks so much, Barbara. I have definitely mailed my cats’s hair all over the place via package tape. I figure animal people will understand without explanation and that no explanation will suffice for people who are not owned by furkids. 🙂
I laughed out loud reading your post. I’m a magnet for bits whenever I try to do light colours. You did a fantastic job though. All your designs are wonderful!
Thanks so much, Caroline. I really have no idea where some of the contamination comes from because it doesn’t match the color of anything anywhere near my work area. I must be a magnet for it too.
Your pieces are all so beautiful! I love your owls!
Thanks so much, Karin.
Hehehe…I had some nice chuckles through this post! Love all of your pieces – I especially love the owls!
Thanks so much, Beth. 🙂
Oh you did make me chuckle your writings are fun to read and as for your creations they are awesome… I love the bracelet and the the feather fillins’ stunning and as for those wings they are fabulous…. Blue lint…. Nah can’t be…. When my hound was here if you were wearing white it would always be the black hairs on me or in my work but if working with black, yep you guessed it the white would be in it!!! Ha ha… Now just random colours… 😁😁 I enjoyed reading and as for the owls I think I need them in my life. ❤️
Thanks so much, Elaine. I have the same problem with animal hair. No matter what color I wear, someone’s hair in an opposite color will stick to it. If you really want an owl, something can probably be arranged. 😉
Great post! you definitely had me laughing about headpins … I never really thought about it, but it is soooo true! That must be why I find it so hard to use them, and have a pretty big stash of them at this point. I prefer the off white / distressed look and your feathers are the bomb! LOVE those
Thanks so much, Cynthia. I have a large collection of headpins. I don’t know why I keep buying/making them knowing how they stump me.
Another prolific offering Tammy! I love that first image…everything you made is lovely and the owls are adorable but I think that feather set is rather special.
Thanks so much, Lesley. I admit I am rather proud of those feathers.
As always, you make a lot of gorgeous beads. I love the fox and the bracelet. They are spectacular. I owls are pretty fabulous too.
Thanks so much, Kathy. I like how the fox turned out too. Even if it did take forever to wire all those little beads.
Lol at the lint problem – is there anyone that’s not lost that fight? If you’ve hidden the lint with your colors and techniques, you’ve done it really well, because all I can think of when I see your creations is how beautiful they are. (Totally love those startled owls!)
Thanks so much, Anita. I have lots of experience hiding lint and cat hairs in my polymer clay. It’s so much easier than trying to prevent it in the first place. 😀
Oh Tammy – I just love your designs! And I feel your pain with the colored clays and trying to get a white body without any contamination. 🙂
Thanks so much, Marsha. When I read that hairs and lint burn off in a kiln, well, I almost decided to sell my car to by one so I could switch to ceramic clay. 😉
You had me laughing about the clean room. I almost snorted my coffee. I love the last beads and owls the best. I am not drawn to stark white but the aged patina look is so delicious! Thank you for joining us!
Thanks so much, Jenny. Sorry I almost caused coffee snort. I definitely prefer the aged patina over stark white as well. And not just because I hate trying to tame the lint, dust, and cat hairs.
You had me with your first image! All those wonderful white organic looking and antiqued beads! Just love them all, laying there in a big gorgeous pile! I am not sure whether I would have managed starting using them ! 🙂
I know the lint problem all too well… Thankfully it is rare that I want to work with pure white clay but if I do, I also wash my hands, dry them with a paper towel really carefully…. and had my tables and tools cleaned up before the same way 😉
Still… there always was that leftover little rebellious lint!
It is still so ingrained in me, that every time I have a little bit of lint in ceramic clay… I smile and think: You will be burned away! 😉
Thank you so much for participating in the december theme challenge! I always so enjoy seeing what you create and am already curious days before when you post your sneak peaks! 🙂
Thanks so much, Claire. It didn’t occur to me that lint would burn off in the kiln, but of course it would. That is a definite selling point for ceramic over polymer.
I had a laughing fit, which is no surprise 🙂 I love the rustic vintage finish of the ivory beads and the the frosted background of the fox and rabbit beads. Love that bracelet, too! And I thought I was simply hoarding those art lampwork headpins! Hm!
Thanks so much, Rozantia. It seems this post was unusually sarcastic and made many laugh. I guess the more frustrated I am by something, like the lint/hair contamination, the greater my level of sarcasm. LOL
Lol! The struggle with white clay is real, y’all!! You crack me up. Lovely creations all around… I’m always so impressed with what you accomplish with polymer clay. Those icicle earrings are really fun, but my favorites are the rustic antiqued beads! Sorry to be hopping so late… life continues to be crazy!
Thanks so much, Sarajo. I am so happy you found time to stop by despite all the happenings.