Student's Work, Openwork

Received this lovely email and a picture yesterday:

Hi there
Here is a pendant made based on your tutorial. I filled the cells with liquid clay and ink.
The reverse is in clear colours. I joined two spheres together.
Thanks so much. I am going to try one with the new flexible soufflé clay.
Kind regards
Sue


Thank you, Sue! I really appreciate when other artist share with me pictures of their creations made based on my tutorials. Love the idea with the liquid polymer clay inside the open-work cells.  Looks cool!

Find the tutorial that Sue followed to make this beautiful pendant in my: Etsy shop

Future Tutorial: Controlled Mokume Gane and Faux Carving with Wonder Stamps

The latest among my two-sided polymer clay creations, this necklace was made using my hand-made Wander Stamps for polymer clay. 

I am in the process of writing a step-by-step tutorial that will explain how to use Wonder Stamps in Controlled Mokume Gane technique and in Faux Carving technique.  

Polymer Clay Pendant: Textures and Steampunk

Here is another two-sided polymer clay necklace.  

The pendant for this one has watch parts and resin on one side and various textures on another. 

If you want to make something similar for yourself, let me recommend my tutorials:

polymerclaytutorials.etsy.com

Two-Sided Polymer Clay Necklace

I want to show the necklace I just made for myself.  It has design on both sides – one of those ideas that make you wonder why you have not thought of it before.  It makes perfect sense, right?  Shaping and stringing each component takes a lot of time and effort, so why not double the return by making both sides of the necklace work. 

For this particular piece, I made one side with crackle technique and another with my Fantastic Filigree technique. 

To make the crackled surface, I rolled a very thin layer of polymer clay on a ceramic tile and briefly heated it with a heat gun.  As a result, the very top layer of the clay was cured, leaving the rest of it still in its raw form.  When the raw clay was expended by rolling my heat-treated polymer sheet through a pasta machine, the crackles appeared.  I cut out the parts for my two-sided necklace elements, baked them, and treated the crackled surface with some white acrylic paint to make the texture more visible. 

These necklace elements were finished with hand-made antique bronze frames and covered with two-part epoxy resin to give them nice and smooth finish.  The frames were made in the same way as described in my tutorial “Polymer Clay Pendants with Sterling Silver Frames”.  The tips and tricks for using epoxy resin for polymer clay jewelry are explained in my other tutorial, “How to Work with Two-Part Epoxy Resin”. 

Fantastic Filigree technique (used for the other side of the necklace) is described in a tutorial with the same name.  Al three of these tutorials can be found on my website, polymerclaytutorials.etsy.com.

Super-Duper Tools

Happy New Year!  Wishing all my friends lots of creative energy in 2016!

Here is my first finished project for this year: a set of custom-made super-duper tools for polymer clay. 

People who buy my tutorials know that I love using knitting needles for sculpting.  I had a set of very short knitting needles in three sizes.  Finally, I made handles for them.  The handles are triangular in cross-section, so they are extremely comfortable to hold.  An added bonus: they do not roll on an uneven working surface.  I could not possibly leave the handles of new tools plain, so I decided to decorate them using my Wonder Stamps (I am supposed to be working on a tutorial for a project with these stamps, by the way).

And the other two tools are an X-acto knife and a needle tool.  For these, I covered their existing handles with polymer clay and finished them in the same style as the knitting needles.  Their handles are much thicker than those of the knitting needles, but still are very comfortable.

REGISTER FOR MY CLASS

Give yourself the gift of learning and come to the annual Cabin Fever Creative Arts Festival in Laurel, MD, this February. 

The list of instructors includes Lisa Pavelka, Maureen Carlson, Dayle Doroshow, Nancy Ennis, Natalia Garcia de Leinez and Daniel Torres, Lisa Haney, Lindly Haunani, Anke Humpert, Doreen Kassel, Robert Liu, Jana Lehmann, Ann and Karen Mitchell, Nan Roche, Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg, and me.

Each instructor offers full-day and 4-hour workshops. All workshops will be held in a comfortable Double Tree by Hilton Hotel. Please refer to the Creative Arts Fest's Blog for more information, class descriptions, registration forms, and hotel reservations: https://polymerclayfests.wordpress.com 

I am very excited to offer you two classes during this event. 

The whole-day class will be on Wednesday, February 17, 2016. It is called Organic Pendants From the Sea and is actually an expansion of my step-by-step tutorial Sea Creatures Polymer Clay Cabochons. In this class, I will demonstrate many additional textures inspired by corals, shells, sea urchins, starfish, and other aquatic creatures. We will explore various forms for polymer clay pendants, beads, and brooches that can be decorated with these textures. Then, we will color them with acrylic paints and alcohol inks - I want to show you how to combine these materials to obtain deep and dramatic colors such as those seen in my examples above. I will bring colorful ribbons and cords to this class and show you how to make striking multi-string necklaces with our organic pendants. By the ends of the class you will have an amazing finished necklace to wow your friends.

My 4-hour class, called Odds and Ends from your Craft Room will be on Tuesday, February 16, 2016. In this class, you will learn how to use buttons, ribbons, old zippers and other similar items in combination with polymer clay. It will be fun! 

YOUR ONLINE REGISTRATION CAN BE SUBMITTED BY CLICKING HERE.  

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS ARE HERE. 

INSTRUCTORS' SCHEDULES CAN BE FOUND HERE.  

ONLINE HOTEL RESERVATIONS CAN BE MADE HERE.

New Tutorial: Wonder Stamps for Polymer Clay

When my class Handmade Stamps for Polymer Clay at Master Class Camp was advertised this summer, quite a few people contacting me asking whether I have a tutorial for this technique.  I promised to have the this tutorial ready a few months after the class.

 The wait is over!  This long-anticipated tutorial is finished and available from my etsy shop.

The tutorial is currently being offered for a 20% off introductory price until until 9 pm (EDT) on Monday, November 23, 2015.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make your own Wonder Stamps with very thin and tall walls. Not only will you have your own unique stamps, but you will be able to use them for countless different polymer clay techniques and variations of them: mokume gane, back-filling, cutting, carving, raised design, and more.

This tutorial explains how to make a Wonder Stamp based on ANY design. It does NOT explain how to use the stamps. I am sure you will be able to come up with many applications on your own, but I am also going to prepare a few project-based tutorials for these stamps in the nearest future.

Polymer Clay Lentil Beads

Fantastic Filigree beads

Just want to show a set of lentil beads made in my Fantastic Filigree technique.  These beads are hollow, framed with antique brass round links, about 1.5" in diameter.

Making convex framed necklace parts is described in my tutorial  Faux Metal Necklace.  Creation of a pattern similar to the one on these beads is covered in my Fantastic Filigree tutorial.

Fantastic Filigree beads

Fantastic Filigree beads, fragment

Organic Swirl Pendants Class for Cabin Fever 2016

It is already confirmed that I will be able to offer my Organic Swirl Pendants Class during Cabin Fever Creative Arts Fest in Laurel, MD in February, 2016.  So, here is some more information about this class.

EUGENA TOPINA: ORGANIC SWIRL PENDANTS


1-day workshop
Skill Level = all levels, confident beginner to advanced


In this class you will learn how to make eye-catching polymer clay pendants with organic designs inspired by corals, shells, sea urchins, starfish, and other aquatic creatures.


Eugena will guide you through nearly thirty different shapes and textures that can be combined in endless ways to create beautiful pendants. She will also share with you her unique approach to using acrylic paints and alcohol inks for creating deeply colored and distressed polymer clay surfaces. Eugena will provide an array of colorful silk ribbons, suede cords, and wax lines so that by the end of the day you will be able to walk out if this class with an amazing necklace to wow your friends. Kit fee applies.

If you would like to take this class, please keep an eye on the official Creative Arts Fest blog. All details about this event will be published in that blog as soon as they are available.

... And More Pictures From Master Class Camp

It so happened that I've got to teach one more class for Master Class Camp 2015, Organic Swirl Pendants.  The class was offered on a very short notice as a substitute for a wonderful class by Doreen Gay-Kassel, which had to be canceled, unfortunately.

So, here are a few pictures from my ad hoc class.

Student Work in Organic Swirl Pendants Class

Student Work in Organic Swirl Pendants Class

Student Work in Organic Swirl Pendants Class

Here are my happy students, playing away with textures, shapes, and colors:

July 24, 2015.  Edited to add:  This class will be offered again during the Cabin Fever Festival in February, 2016.  For more information, please refer to my next post.

New Polymer Clay Necklace

Tide Pools, Statement Polymer Clay Necklace

Done! 

I am very happy with the way my new organic polymer clay necklace turned out.  Not only is it pretty (if I may say so myself), but it is also surprisingly comfortable to wear.  I will have to write a separate post to brag about the construction of this necklace.  For now, let's just admire my new creation.

Tide Pools, Statement Polymer Clay Necklace

The biggest polymer clay element is made using my openwork technique.  The flat green element is textured (stamped) with a round metal finding.  The brightest red one is a polymer clay disk with holes shaped over a domed form and backed with a flat disk. The remaining four are made using the techniques described in my Sea Creatures tutorial.  All elements were made out of yellow polymer clay and colored with acrylic paints and alcohol inks.  This process is also covered in my Sea Creatures tutorial.

Tide Pools, Statement Polymer Clay Necklace

New Necklace - Work In Progress

I am working on a new polymer clay necklace combining my Openwork Pendants and Sea Creatures techniques.

I think I will name it Tide Pools.

Here are a few (not all yet) elements for this future necklace.   I am so excited to see how it is turning out.  So many textures, patterns, colors, and yet it should all work together.

To give you an idea of the size of these elements, here is the biggest one in my hand:

I am a bit intimidated by the construction stage.  The design I have in mind is quite complex and unusual.  I hope I have enough engineering skills  to actually make it happen...

Hand-made Stamps for Polymer Clay, Workshop

I made a few more demo pieces for my class at Master Class Camp in July.

Here is my new stamp.

It started with this sketch.















...And here are a few designs made with this stamp.

Spaces are still available, and it is not too late to register if you are interested. 

Registration Form

Hand-Made Stamps: a Few More Projects

I want to show a few more pictures of pendants made with my metal stamps.  All of these were obtained with some of the stamps in the last picture.

I can teach you how to make and use these stamps in my class at Master Class Camp in Laurel, MD on July 8 and 9, 2015.  Spaces are still available, and it is not too late to register.  Here is the link to the registration form: https://creativeartsfests.wufoo.com/forms/znmjqnl176o6ft/

First Place in Bead Dreams Polymer Clay Category

My Openwork Necklace took the first place in Bead Dreams 2015, Polymer Clay Category!

Here is the link to the results page:
Bead Dreams 2015 Ribbon Winners.

I cannot wait to see the pictures of other winning pieces.  I bet they are going to be breath-taking!

Edited to add: Link to a few variations of the Openwork Pendants technique:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eugenascreations/

Openwork Tutorials, Revision 2

I am happy to report that after multiple experiments I was finally able to find a way to reduce the waiting step in my Openwork Pendants and Openwork Bracelets tutorials from up to a few days to a couple of hours.   The Openwork Pendants tutorial now also has a separate troubleshooting section with explanations about possible errors and how to avoid or correct them.

If you purchased any of these tutorials through my shop on etsy (etsy.com/shop/PolymerClayTutorials), please expect to see an email from me with the new file attached.  If you do not receive an email within the next two days, please contact me.

I demonstrated the new version of the Openwork Pendants technique at Philadelphia Polymer Clay Guild this Sunday.  The pendant I showed during this demo was ready in less than an hour.  Yay!

Register for my class!

Registration is now open for Master Camp 2015 (July 8-13, 2015 in Laurel, MD.) Instructors include: Jana Roberts Benzon, Dan Cormier, Jeffrey Lloyd Dever, Lindly Haunani, Tracy Holmes, Anke Humpert, Doreen-Gay-Kassel, Jana Lehmann and me.  The event is hosted by Kathryn Ottman.

In my 2-day class I will show how to build my wonder-stamps and how to use them with polymer clay.

For years, I’ve been searching for a way to turn my own designs into stamps. Sculpting or carving them out of polymer clay was an obvious first choice, but the stamps turned out too crude and small details were impossible to recreate.

Then, I tried ordering custom rubber stamps online. The cost was a bit too high for me and the turn-around time was way too long. As for the stamps, they were better than my first ones, but still not detailed enough. In my search for the perfect stamp, I even considered 3D-printing at some point (which did not work out either).

Finally, one day, I came up with an idea that produced stamps with thin, tall and strong walls. These could be created on my own time, and with no cost at all. With these, I was ready to conquer many different techniques. My own faux cloisonné – check! Back-filling – check! Sutton slice – have never been easier! Mokume-gane – any design is possible! But, making the stamps themselves was too cumbersome to explain to somebody else.

It took me another year to put the polishing touches on this technique. Finally, I am ready to present it!

Spaces are still available and it is time to register. Follow this link to the registration form:
 https://creativeartsfests.wufoo.com/forms/znmjqnl176o6ft/

The pictures in this post show the pendants made in a few of many polymer clay techniques using my wonder-stamps.

New Class: Multifunctional Hand-Made Stamps

 I am happy to unveil my new 2-day workshop that I will be teaching in Master Class Camp in Laurel, MD (July 9-12, 2015):

Multifunctional Hand-Made Stamps with Eugena Topina

I am sure a lot of fellow polymer clayers can relate to this story.

For years, I've been searching for a way to turn my own designs into stamps. Sculpting or carving them out of polymer clay was an obvious first choice, but the stamps turned out too crude and small details were impossible to recreate. Then, I tried ordering custom rubber stamps online. The cost was a bit too high for me and the turn-around time was way too long. As for the stamps, they were better than my first ones, but still not detailed enough. In my search for the perfect stamp, I even considered 3D-printing at some point (which did not work out either).

Finally, one day, I came up with an idea that produced stamps with thin, tall and strong walls. These could be created on my own time, and with no cost at all. With these, I was ready to conquer many different techniques. My own faux cloisonné – check! Back-filling – check! Sutton slice – have never been easier! Mokume-gane – any design is possible! But, making the stamps themselves was too cumbersome to explain to somebody else.

It took me another year to put the polishing touches on this technique. Finally, I am ready to present it!
I'm ready to teach, are you ready to learn? If yes, then come to my 2-day workshop. During the first day, you will discover how to build these stamps. And on the second day you will be able to explore their many possibilities. Let's stamp!

Work In Progress: Sea Creatures

I am working on a new series of polymer clay pendants - with a corresponding tutorial, of course.

Coral and sea urchin inspired pieces are very popular right now, especially in ceramics.  I did not want to copy anybody's work, even if it is in a different medium, technically speaking.  It took me a good number of hours in my studio to finally come up with something that I actually like.  My husband had to listen to a lot of my grumbling, but he is finally rewarded by seeing me happy and inspired.  I see so much potential for these designs!

In the tutorial, I will describe five pendants, each constructed from three parts with different designs (that is a total of fifteen different components that can be arranged in various ways).  Each pendant will be represented in three finishes: all white, white and black, and colored.

How an Artist's Mind Works

During our last trip to Florida, I gathered a bunch of coral pieces on the beach.  I thought I would use them as texture plates and make a necklace similar to one of my Faux Metal Necklaces.  I even came up with a name for this future necklace: Fort Lauderdale.

Here are a few pieces from my newly acquired collection:

Somehow in my design I progressed  towards Openwork (again!), and this is what I finally made based on those coral pieces:

And here is my question.  Would anybody ever suspect any connection between these two pictures if I did not point it out?