Colourful Beads for our Long Statement Necklaces

It's been a busy day making up these colourful beads for my Long statement necklaces, now it's time for some buffing and polishing

Playing with Polymer Clay this Weekend! Ring Dishes, Beads and More

This weekend I spent it entirely playing with the clay, weekends like this are so few and far between!

I created some new Ring Dishes, as seen above to replace my collection as they are proving very popular, I really enjoy experimenting with the inks to create different effects. 

Turquoise Ring Dish at Lottie Of London Jewellery

I also created some new beads for a new Chunky Statement Necklace here

New Polymer clay beads for Autumn

The colours are created from another colour mixing adventure, this time in more muted Autumn tones for the coming season.

I also had an order to complete for despatch my Leopard Print Statement Ring and created some new studs with a new cane I created recently.

Leopard Print Rings and Stud Earrings with my new cane

Klimt Polymer Clay Canes - Weekend Catch Up

Here is a new cane I created playing around with an idea in my head, this is actually the first cane I've ever made myself from my own idea, I've used the skills I've learnt from previous caning techniques to combine this one.

Polymer Clay Canes by Lottie Of London Jewellery

Its very simple but I really like it it reminds me of a fish tank looking through at all the tiny orange fishes.

Polymer Clay Beads with Big Bead Little Bead

Well December's here and now the mad rush has started not only to get all your own pressies in but also for me to get all my incoming orders out.

But in between this mad rush I just wanted to let you know about my new partnership with Big Bead Little Bead.  I am very happy to announce that they are now stocking a selection of my handmade polymer clay beads.

Here are a selection of my filigree swirl polymer clay beads in black and white.

My Black & White Filigree Polymer Clay Beads

 And my traditional millefiori and klimt polymer clay beads in tones of bronze and beige.

My Bronze Millefiori & Klimt Polymer Clay Beads

Big Bead Little Bead is an online bead shop that sells a great selection of beads and findings for jewellery making but especially unique in that they stock a beautiful selection of handmade artisan beads ranging from ceramic, polymer clay, lamp work, paper beads and more.

White of Black Filigree Polymer Clay Beads Available now from Big Bead Little Bead

Offering a great opportunity to artisan bead makers to be able to show and sell there designs to a wider audience but also for jewellery maker/designer it is wonderful to be able to include some really unique pieces to your designs.

Black on White Filigree Polymer Clay Beads Available now from Big Bead Little Bead

I am really excited with this new venture and am looking forward to sharing my bead designs and working with Big Bead Little Bead in the coming new year.

 Have a great Monday Everyone and don't forget to check out more great crafter's over on Handmade Harbours Handmade Monday

Sea Urchin & Seashell Summer Beads & Jewellery

As we are enjoying our moment of sun over here in the UK, I haven't been doing much this weekend apart from trying to tan my legs, unfortunately without much success.

My Etsy shop has been doing very well since the beginning of July which has prompted me to get my clay out and make a couple of new pieces for the summer.

One of my favourite peices I made last year was my urchin themed necklaces, but this time I've decided to go a little bolder with the colour scheme.

 

Sea urchin beaded necklace handmade from polymer clay by Lottie Of London

As you can see from one of last years pieces, I kept to quite natural tones for my colour palette with white, mint green and a soft beige.

Urchin colour palette from Design Seeds

This time I've decided to go a little bolder with the colour theme.  I've used a palette created by Design Seeds, its a fabulous website offering a vast collection of beautiful colour palettes created from themes, nature and seasons and is definitely worth a look and its perfect for colour inspirations.




So here's my seashell cane using an assortment of the colours mixed and combined a create a cane that will provide the main theme for my beads.

Polymer clay seashell cane by Lottie Of London

Unfortunately I didn't quite mix up enough of the colours for the palette and so I will only be able to create a few pieces, but here's a selection of the beads made with plans to create a chunky urchin necklace, beaded thong necklace and bracelet.  As mentioned due the enjoying the weather the necklaces have yet to be put together.

Seahell & urchin themed beads by Lottie Of London

As I also recently started a collection of polymer clay rings and studs I decided to create some seashell themes for a summer collection.

Seashell ring and stud beads by Lottie Of London

I predict not much claying this week will be done, its quite diffucult claying in this heat as the clay can become quite soft and sticky if over worked, so I guess I'll have a little more time to tan my pasty legs.

This post is part of Handmade Monday don't forget to check out more great crafter's over on Handmade Harbours Handmade Monday

Polymer Clay Lava Beads Tutorial

Here's a simple tutorial for Polymer Clay Lava Beads, perfect if your new to polymer clay and finding your feet with new techniques.

Lava beads are created using polymer clay and sea/rock salt to create a wonderful effect all over the beads resembling lava.

To start all you need is some sea or rock salt, scrap clay and some clay in the chosen colour for your beads.

Polymer Clay Lava Beads Tutorial - Prepare all your items ready to start

My polymer clay beads ready for salt application

 Once you've created your beads using your scrap clay and outer colour layer (above), start applying the sea salt to your beads by either rolling and squishing the salt into your clay or applying the salt to the beads by hand, you will probably find that your beads will lose there desired shape as you apply the salt into the clay as seen below.

 

My Polymer Clay Lava Beads with sea salt applied loses its shape

 Because I want my beads to be round I gently re-rolled them between my palms this helped to embed the sea salt deeper into the beads which creates a deeper effect, it also give you the opportunity to see if you want to apply more salt to any large gaps on the beads.

 

My polymer clay lava beads have been re rolled, embedding the sea salt

Once your happy with your beads its time to create your bead holes and cook them.  Once they are cooked and cooled simply place the beads into a glass of water and leave them to allow the sea salt to dissolve.

My polymer clay lava beads placed in water to dissolve the salt

It does'nt take long for the salt to dissolve so dry your beads off and they will be ready to use, here's how mine turned out below.

My Polymer Clay Lava Beads

This is quite a nice and simple technique which I plan to use for some future designs.

I would also like to take the opportunity to apologise for my photo quality here, unfortunately my camera decided to die on me and I had to use my phone, sorry.

This post is part of Handmade Monday don't forget to check out more great crafter's over on Handmade Harbours Handmade Monday

Weekend Catch Up with Polymer Clay

Well I had planned to do a post on Faux Jade with polymer clay, but life always has other plans, well actually it was my hubby as he arranged a much needed night out the good old fashioned way of a meal and a film, which was wonderful.  He had bought tickets to see Les Miserable but the geek in me persuaded him that we should see the Hobbit as it won't be showing much longer, very enjoyable and 3D is highly recommended and enchanced by a good half bottle of wine.

Still I do have some polymer clay makes that I had have been creating over the last week, following my Polymer Clay Millefiori Rose Canes.

Millefiori Rose Cane Creations from Polymer Clay

Here are some pendants created from my red rose cane and I've incorporated a Zipper Cane as an edging.  The largest will be a brooch, but I'm still undecided on what I will do with the other pieces.

Millefiori Rose Cane Beads from Polymer Clay

This is a collection of beads I've created with the burgundy rose cane, I have plans for these to be teamed with some deep red Swarovski crystals I have in my bead box to create a bracelet.








I've also been working some colour mixing for the new Pantone Spring/Summer 2013 colour predictions, if you haven't seen the colours yet here they are.

Pantone Spring/Summer 2013 Colours

Source: pantone.co.uk via Clare on Pinterest

Below are my colour samples, not a bad match I think although you may notice Greyed Jade is missing, I must of got distracted.

Colouring Mixing Pantone Spring/Summer 2013 Colours from Polymer Clay

So what do you think of the colour predictions?  Emerald has been named as Pantones colour of the year for 2013, so expect to see a lot of it.  I don't have a lot of green in my wardrobe but I might just find a way to incorporate it into my accessories.  Do you love Emerald?

This post is part of Handmade Monday with Handmade Harbour why not pop on over for more crafty goodness.

Cupcake Charm Bracelet Commissions in Polymer Clay

I do love commissions, I recently got a commission for my Cupcakes and Tea Charm Bracelet previously made this summer.  My customer was searching for a cupcake bracelet as a gift and found a feature of my bracelet on the blog All Things Cupcake, the perfect place for cupcake lovers.

Here is the finished bracelet

Cupcakes & Tea Charm Bracelet Commission, handmade from polymer clay

Cupcakes & Tea Charm Bracelet Commission, handmade from polymer clay

 As you can see the charm bracelet also features a little penguin handmade also from polymer clay, as requested by my customer it adds a beautiful personal touch to his gift.

I think maybe a charm bracelet with more of these little penguins will be quite cute with a black and white theme.  Also making the cupcakes for this bracelet reminded me that I made quite a few different styles over the summer.

Polymer clay cupcake beads & charms

I have already put together a fuller style of charm bracelet, but I plan to make some more using up my cupcake stash, but also I will be selling some of the cupcakes as beads in my Etsy store.

Cupcake & Tea Charm Bracelet, handmade from polymer clay

Mint Choc Chip Cupcake Bead, handmade from polymer clay

I have now added my orignal Cupcake & Tea Charm Bracelet to my Etsy Store available as made to order you can find out more information here Lottie Of London Etsy Store.  If you would like the charm bracelet made in another colour please contact me via my Etsy store or through my blog and we can discuss you preferneces.

Cupcake Charm Bracelet - Pink Cupcakes & Tea Charm Bracelet Made to Order

This post is part of Handmade Monday with Handmade Harbour

What to do with Alcohol Inked polymer clay scraps

Using Up Scraps of Inked Polymer Clay

Following my recent post on  Polymer Clay Swirl Beads in which I created a necklace using swirl lentil beads, I have been left with some left over scraps of inked clay.

Incase you have'nt seen my post, I created sheets of clay using metal leafing and alcohol inks which was used to create my beads for my necklace below.

Polymer Clay Necklace with swirled lentil beads

 I was left with with a few random scraps , as you can see, now more often than not my scraps would go into my scrap pile for forming the base of my beads, but with these inked scraps they are still usable, heres what I done with them...

 As you can see the scraps of clay are in many shapes, the larger sheet I tore into strips also.  I used the strip scraps to cover base beads totally and then rolled them out so they blended in.

This is pretty much the same as the watercolour torn paper effect used by  Maggie Maggio.

Here's some more examples of what I made using my scraps ...

 

Some simple round beads with torn strips applied

Some swirled lentil beads

Swirled heart charms created from lentil beads, and two pendants using various scraps of inked clay

So why not have some fun with your scrap clay and see what you can make...

Part of Handmade Monday with Handmade Harbour

Polymer Clay Swirl Beads

 Creating Polymer Clay Swirl Beads

I have a wedding to attend tomorrow and I have been playing with the idea of creating a necklace/pendant to go with a new dress I am keen wear.  Below is a close up shot showing the print and colour my dress.

Print of my party dress with colours on red/orange, black, mauve and hints of white and green

The print of the dress is very bold as you an see and is almost animal like, but rather than replicate the print and colours I have decided to take some of the elements of colour in the dress and create some polymer clay swirl beads.

Polymer clay with gold metal leafing applied

To create my beads I have decided to use alcohol inks for my colour which will be applied over gold metal leafing on two sheets of black clay.



 

Polymer clay applied with metal leafing and alcohol inks

 
Here I have applied alcohol inks over each sheet of clay.

My first sheet has been applied with alcohol inks in  Wild Plum with hints of Stream and Pearl.

The second sheet has been applied with Stream and Buttercream.

My polymer clay sheets are covered with a thin translucent clay sheet

The clay sheets are allowed to dry and once ready I apply a thin sheet of translucent clay over each cover.  I do this as I have often found that it protects the colour and leafing from rubbing off when applied to beads.

Polymer clay lentil swirl beads prior to cooking

Here are my swirled lentil beads prior to cooking, these are two test beads to test two types of application styles for swirling but also to test the colour once cooked. 

Polymer clay lentil swirl beads after cooking

Now the beads have been cooked, some of the translucent still remains and unfortunately the Wild Plum colour has become more pink after cooking,







So after some more experimentation with swirling here are my final swirled lentil beads... as you can see I have included a red and gold bullseye cane into the swirl to give the bead more depth in colour as the wild plum colour was not strong enough. 

My Polymer clay lentil swirled beads, my final design

They now need a good sanding, buffing and polishing before I decide on my final necklace design.

Updated sometime later that evening ....

Here it is my finished necklace and I'm delighted with how its turned out, initially I was worried that the beads would look slightly dull but after a good polishing, buffing and varnishing they are perfect and the Fire Opal Swarovski Crystals I have teamed them with give the necklace that extra sparkle, I can't wait to wear the necklace tomorow.

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Necklace

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Necklace combined with fire opal swarovski crystals

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Bead (largest bead)

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Necklace wire wrapped in gold with swarovski crystals

Creating a Handcrafted Item of Jewellery Part Two

Catch up on Part One of Creating a Handcrafted Item Of Jewellery

Following on from last weeks post ... Here is Part Two of creating and finishing my handcrafted Ribbon Necklace

12.00pm Its time to sand and buff my beads, I use three grades of sandpaper and warm water with a tiny amount of washing up liquid, to give each bead a good sanding

three grades of sandpaper are used on my beads

12.35pm Once the beads have been sanded they need to be buffed firstly with denim as this helps to remove any remaining dust and residue from the bead and lastly with my hobby tool to create a beautiful matte shine ready for varnishing.

Buffing my beads with my hobby tool

1.0pm Once varnished the beads must be given time to dry.


6.20pm Back again ! The beads are now dry and are ready to be assembled to create the finished necklace.

Everything I need ready for finishing my necklace

 The necklace is carefully strung together with ribbon with each bead secured into place

Curling the ribbon and securing each bead

7.45pm And here it is my completed handcrafted necklace, in all to create this piece it took me a total of 2 days to complete allowing for breaks in between when the beads needed cooling or drying.

Lilac Ribbon Rose Necklace

Lilac Ribbon Rose Necklace

Lilac Ribbon Rose Necklace

 KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED.....  Over the next coming weeks I will be entering my Ribbon Necklace into a free promotional draw both on Here and my Facebook page.

To view more of my Ribbon Necklaces and Bespoke Jewellery Here

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