Thursday 13 October 2011

My Latest Commission Pieces

Yet again I have been very busy in September I took part and completed our Three Peaks Charity Walk over three days climbing and helped to raise lots of money for Cancer Research.

I have also been very busy making here's some pictures of my latest bespoke commissions which I have just been completed.

Pink Floral Themed Polymer Clay Charm Bracelet

Pink Floral Themed Polymer Clay Charm Bracelet

Pink Floral Themed Polymer Clay Charm Bracelet

Pink Floral Themed Polymer Clay Charm Bracelet
Purple Floral Themed Charm Bracelet

Purple Floral Themed Charm Bracelet

Purple Floral Themed Charm Bracelet

Purple Floral Themed Charm Bracelet

 If you have any questions with regards to my work or are looking for something special as a gift or a treat for yourself please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss your requirements.

Saturday 20 August 2011

Busy Busy Busy

Well I have been away for a while ;) but I've been very busy working on some commission pieces so here is the first of my finished item

Gold & Amber Toned Charm Necklace

Gold & Amber Toned Charm Necklace

Gold & Amber Toned Charm Necklace

Thursday 28 July 2011

The premo test

And here is the offending bead, it only reminds me why I was happy with Kato I was so familiar with it and it worked well with fimo classic that it wouldn't burn hmmm

Testing out premo

I recently ran out of transparent kato, despite using fimo classic for my work I was looking to change over to kato for my cane work after reading some blogs on how much better it is for caning.
Well it would seem that over here in the UK there seems to be a shortage of kato at the moment something to do with supplier issues. So putting aside my wish to convert to Kato till a later date I need to find an alternative transparent clay for my current canon work.
Fimo transparent is now only supplied in small blocks, bit of a pain so I decided to try premo accents and while I was at ordered some premo small packs to see what it was like to cane with.
I hate it, to start it smells weird to me, quite a strong smell I felt, 2nd I can't run it through my pasta machine on setting 5 even 4 on occasions it kept sticking to my machine and lastly I didn't feel it was firm enough on forming the shape of my cane and on reduction some parts totally twisted. See below

Saturday 2 July 2011

New millefiori canes

Here's some new millefiori canes in yellow I'm working on expanding my floral canes in a wider variety of colours for both jewellery and beads.

Thursday 30 June 2011

My New Additions to My Etsy Store

Heres some new polymer clay pendants I have crafted recently, I have been trying to use my exsisting canes and make some space so I can make new canes

Millefiori Elephant Pendant

Millefiori Tree Pendant

Millefiori Heart Pendant

Millefiori Pendants
All these pendants have now been added to my Etsy Store Lottie Of London Handcrafted Jewellery

Etsy Treasury Feature

I've been added to another Etsy Treasury, my Strawberry Twist Wrap Bracelet was kindly added by cardsbyjane



Tuesday 21 June 2011

"Brownies promise" from Etsy Lovers

My daughter went on her first trip with the brownies last weekend and she made her brownie promise.

So in honour of all brownies here's an etsy gallery I made.


I wanted to share this gallery with you.

Brownies promise



I found this with Etsy Lovers for iPhone.


Lottie of London  iPhone

Thursday 16 June 2011

A Mini Tribute to Springwatch

This is the first time I have ever sat and watched Springwatch, on previous seasons I always flicked past without another thought.  But this time I have really got into it and tonight is the last episode of the Springwatch season and I'm sad to see it go. 

So in tribute to to Springwatch here are two little treasures I made up today.


Blue Tits Nest Necklace

Blue Tits Nest Necklace

Hedge Sparrows Nest Necklace

Hedge Sparrows Nest Necklace
Both have been listed in my Etsy store and can be found here

Lottie of London on Etsy

And with that I'm off to catch the last episode of Springwatch

Thursday 2 June 2011

Etsy Updates

Just added the following bead sets to my Etsy Store

Lottie Of London Handcrafted Bespoke Jewellery

Cosmic Cluster Lentil Bead Set

Turquoise Silver Foil Bead Set


Cerise Klimet Coin Bead Set
Also I am on Facebook Here, so please stop by and Like my page Lottie of London Handcrafted Jewellery

Till next time

Saturday 28 May 2011

Updates on previous Posts

Here's an update on my previous posts where pieces where not finished or complete.

Firstly my necklace to go with my new Irregular Choice Shoes here it is





I was thinking of making some floral beads with some polymer millefiori canes but I decided to go with keeping it simple in the end.


Another catch up was on the tutorial I had tried by River Valley Design, here are the sanded, buffed and polished finial pieces.


Well I still don't like the pieces and they will have to go into my bin of rejects, the reason I don't like it though is not because I have the wrong type of texture mould but because I don't like the colours from the alcohol inks.  The Blue/Yellow (the first pendant) is probably the better of the three, I'm afraid this may fall into my failed alcohol inks pile, I think I went over the top with the inks and used every colour I had, a lesson to be learnt.

But I now finally have some new texture plates by Walnut Hollow which seem more suited to the tutorial and I will putting to the test very soon.

Finally I have been teaching my daughter Amelie (age 8) a few clay techniques and here is what she has made









Her millefiroi cane is still sitting in the fridge waiting to be used on some beads :)

Thursday 19 May 2011

Polymer Clay Bird Beads

Polymer clay birds hand painted by Lottie Of London
Polymer clay birds hand painted by Lottie Of London


Another idea I have been playing with, following on from my floral birds I made up some bird blanks. As you can see here I had the idea to paint them using acrylic paints.

The blue tit is my favourite and the other two are finches which I'm not sure about. My paints are not the best of quality.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Thursdays are now Clay days

As I haven't been able to clay much recently I have now decided to dedicate Thursdays solely to claying.  So Thursday I finally got around to trying out my new Rocky Path tutorial purchased from River Valley Design.

Now I have to say firstly I do not have a stamp like the one suggested for the tutorial so I tried using the one I thought would be best.  Here are my cooked pieces






They are as yet to be sanded, buffed and varnished, Its hard to compare to be fair as I mentioned I did not have a stamp similar to that used in the tutorial, mine was a bit more busy.  It is a wonderful tutorial with a great technique worth learning and I would defiantly recommend it.  I will post the finished pieces once they are ready.
 
Some more bits I got to clay on Thursday are here
 

 
Spring Floral Birds



Here are my spring floral birds I have a lot of canes which need using up and I plan to make many birds in many colours, some will be used for some charm bracelets I hope to make and some will be available for sale with my other collections at The Beady Shop.


Newest makes
Here are some more of my owls following on from my brown owls I thought some brighter owls would look good.  Also a new idea I have been playing with is my tree pendant, initially I wasn't sure how I wanted this one to turn out but after playing around I am happy with the results and it has sparked some new ideas and variations I would like to try.

Saturday 9 April 2011

The Perils of Bangles

I have only ever made two polymer clay bangles both very thick and chunky of which I was very pleased with the results and the floral ghost cane bangle is regularly adorned on my wrists.

Well whilst I was catching up on my RSS feeds & Flickr I came across Di's Bangles, she was having problems with her bangles breaking and was asking for tips on how to stop this, of which a few ideas can be found here and I must say her second set are lovely.

But it got me thinking I always presumed bangles would be easy, I even thought you could possibly form them round memory wire or insert it in some way, now this was one of those theory's where in your head it works brilliantly but in reality it just wasn't going to happen and so the perils of bangle making for me begun.

Firstly i just rolled scrap clay sausage like, but i couldn't get it even and the same thickness all the way across, on a couple of occasions that I did, I lost its shape on forming it round my can for cooking and securing the joins to the bangle only caused more distortion.  So I decided to try extruding the clay.  I extruded three rolls of clay using three different shapes, formed and secured the joins around a can for cooking.  The flat and semi circle bangles came out good, the round bangle did have some slight cracks in places, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the round bangle showing the cracks.



Extruded shapes used for my bangles
Now I had no real plans for the bangles so decided to experiment and use up some canes I have had stashed away for a while now.  I decided to add a layer of black to the inside of the semi circle and flat form bangles as shown below, I used a thickness of 3 on my pasta machine but I think in future it would have to be thinner as I have small wrists myself and they just slipped onto my wrist, a 5 or 6 thickness would be a more suitable size for an average I feel.

Trimming the black inner lining of the flat extruded bangle


Flat extruded bangle with black clay inner lining to be trimmed





Inner lining to be trimmed for the extruded semi circle bracelet

Here are my finished experimental bangles, of which I am not keen on, due mostly to and this is my second peril of bangles the finish, I just seem to struggle with the finish, it could be that I had no real definite plan for them or that more time should have been given to each one.


Decorated extruded bangles

Round extruded bangle
Another example of theory not quite working, this bangle was decorated with a sheet covered in my abalone cane, this is the bangle i am most unhappy with i struggled with the finish on this bracelet, on wrapping the sheet around the bangle and then making the joins neat, this i feel could be where i would need the most practice.


Semi circle extruded bracelet
This bangle was created with micro fine powders, I do like this one and although not perfect I now know where I went wrong.  On this style the black inner lining should have been placed after the the outer decoration as the edges where not of a smooth finish.



Flat extruded bangle
Decorated using one of my favourite kaleidoscope floral canes, unfortunately I have not done it justice, again the edges are not neat and needs more attention and work.















Still not to be deterred I will carry on and practice, Ketztx4me's on Flickr has some fantastic bangles and this will serve as inspiration to getting mine right.

My first successful bangles, a reminder that when time is given to each piece you can achieve wonderful results.

My Floral Scene Cuff Bracelet a reminder that when I take my time what can be achieved


My Floral Ghost Cane Chunky Bangle