Mini Screws..

Finally, I found mini screws at our local hobby shop. I was really so happy to see the sizes that I need.  I have so much filigree that I can mix and match and put together  with these screws instead of polymer clay. Here are some of the pieces I made using the filigrees and screws. 

My next plan is to use these screws and filigrees with polymer clay.  Pls. do watch out for it in my next post! Have a fantastic weekend everyone! 

Seahorse Pendant Tutorial...

 I've been designing lockets for years now. Sometimes I break a locket because of too much experimenting haha! But the broken ones are too precious for me to just throw in the bin. So I just kept them in my stash of recyclable materials. Now, I found a way to use them again. For this tutorial, I just used one half of the broken locket and I'm still thinking of another design for the other half. I treated it like a bezel and thought of pouring resin inside. So here's how I made the seahorse pendant..

You will be needing the following materials...

half of a broken locket (for this one I used a 2 inch oval locket)

Polymer clay (shades of blue, brown and green) 

push mold (for this project I used a Lisa Pavelka border mold) 

Lisa Pavelka Magic-Gloss

UV lamp (optional) 

Pearl-ex pigment powder Gold 

Seahorse Charm

Pasta machine

some of the broken lockets I kept in my stash of recyclable materials

Condition the clays. Run all of your clays through the #3 setting of the pasta machine. 

Get your brown clay and then cut it following the shape of the locket (use the locket as your template). Place the cut clay on the bezel side of the locket. Smoothen the sides. Cut the middle part leaving a bit of clay to cover the sides  of the inside part. (as shown in photo A) 

Get your blue clay and cut a small oval shape that will fit inside the locket. Smoothen the sides. (photo B) 

Photo A

photo B

Press the seahorse metal charm into the blue clay. You can use any charms you have, just make sure that they are metal and can be baked together with the clay. (photo c)

Photo C

 Now time to make the border. I just used a push mold (photo D) to make it. I just cut the molded clay a bit at the sides so that it will fit the border of the locket. (as shown in photo E) 

Fill up the border with the molded clay (photo F). It's up to you what border design you would want to do. You can simply add rolled balls of clay as the border or just add texture to it using stamps/texture tools! :)

photo D

Photo E

Photo F

To add more fun to the border design, let's put small gold balls in the middle of the flowers. (photo G) Made a big difference right? ;) I used balls that are metal also that I can bake with the clay. 

photo G

 Let's make the border glimmer and shine! Apply pearlEx pigment powder (photo H)  to the raised parts of the border (photo I). 

To finish the design, let's add some green seaweeds!  Get a pinch of your green clay and then flatten it. Add texture to it with your needle tool. Place the seaweeds just like in Photo I. 

Photo H

Photo I

Bake your piece in the oven at 275F for 30-40 mins. 

After it cools down, it's now time to add the magic-glos. (photo J) I do two applications to prevent bubbles. I use a UV lamp to cure the piece but you can also just leave it under direct sunlight until the gloss hardens. 

Make sure that you pop out the gold steel balls and then glue them back again. 

photo J

Here's the finished piece! :)

front 

back

 Have a good claying week everyone! 

Red Flowers..

It's the month of love! So I thought of making something romantic and very...RED! I finished the necklace that I started last week. I like how it turned out. Perfect "date" necklace this coming Valentine's...don't you think? 

I will be listing it this week in my Etsy shop. 

My plans for this week are the ff: 

Make a face cane for my doll lockets

Finish a tutorial for Digital Beading ( I will be upcycling!!) 

Handmade gifts 

Hopefully, come up with a free tutorial ;)

I have to write them down and see to it that I will stick to the plan! haha I'm hoping to make this week a very productive one! 

Hello 2013!!

I know it's going to be February soon and it's only now that I had the drive to write something in my blog..tsk tsk tsk. What a way to start 2013 right? haha But one of my resolutions is to update my blog more often! I plan to share more free tutorials and details about my projects here rather than on Facebook alone. I promise you that! :)

So what have I been up to for the past weeks? Let the pictures do the talking..

I made some custom orders...

I made a bag tag for my niece in the Philippines...

Made this new two-faced russian doll with a 3 fold locket..

Made these new lockets! These lockets have two designs--front and back! So it's like having two necklaces in one! :) The sun and moon one is already sold but the other two are still available in my etsy shop...

Lastly, if you still don't have a copy of Digital Beading Magazine pls buy your copy now! Lots of lovely tutorials and inspiration inside!

Here's the tutorial I wrote the first issue:) 

I will be making a free tutorial for you in the days to come! So pls. visit my blog again! 

Happy weekend!!

What I've been up to..

Christmas is fast approaching. I've been busy making custom orders and some new designs for my Etsy shop. Here's what I've been up to last month..

Doll lockets 

 Custom order lockets

a set for my etsy shop

another custom order

New dome pendants!!

here's how it looks like when you remove the cover 

glass domes! Fun materials to play with:) 

and a custom black cat christmas ornament! 

Still have lots of things to finish before Christmas comes. This would be our third Christmas here in Oz.  Missing my folks back home! 

How about you? What have you been up to? :) 

Happy weekend!

Wedding and a Surprise..

For the past 3 weeks, I was busy making stuff for an upcoming wedding. It was my first time to make a ring plate and a wedding cake topper! Making the topper was really a challenge but I had fun. As for the ring plate, I followed a tutorial that my brother sent to me and just added my own touch to it. I also made a brooch for the bride that she will pair with her faux fur shawl. Here are the things I made...

A lovely SURPRISE came in the mail!!! Look at these cuties!! A clayist friend from the Philippines sent this to me. Thank you so much Rochelle Diccion! She make lovely clay dolls that we call Osheekoshee dolls. I will treasure them forever! I hope that the next time you'll be here in Oz, we'll get to see each other already. 

What a good way to end a very tiring week! Happy weekend everyone! 

Taking a break..

Funny but when I say I'm taking a break from making a project..it means I'm stopping that certain project to make another one! haha So while I'm "taking a break" from making the doll lockets, tutorial and a gift..I made two new pieces. I planned on making new clay canes so I used up all of my old canes and made these..

More pics in my   FB page 

So now back to regular programming ;p

I hope you are having a good week!