Carved jade!

No I haven't branched out into semi precious stones - I've been playing with polymer clay!

This pendant resulted from stewing ideas from several sources. I've been reading Donna Kato's beautiful book The Art of Polymer Clay - Creative Surface Effects. The shape of the clay piece is influenced by some of Donna's pieces.

Desiree McCrorey makes beautiful faux ivory pieces and I wondered whether it would be possible to use the technique with other colours of clay to create different effects.

Finally, Julie Picarello does amazing things to turn polymer clay into gorgeous jewellery. I was particularly taken with her curved brass tube bails and wanted to try something similar.

I used green, translucent and a pinch of pearl clay to mimic a jade or malachite look. I think it worked although I'd probably use a higher proportion of translucent clay next time. I found that placing a piece of conditioned clay onto my stamp and rolling across the back firmly with an acrylic rod gave me a deeper impression than just stamping down onto the clay would have done.

Buffing the clay piece once baked gives you more textural contrast between the high spots which take on a sheen with the buffing and the low spots that are out of reach.

The copper tubing came from a model shop that sells supplies to miniature railway enthusiasts and special thanks go to my dad for hints and tips on tube bending!

Supplies:
Sculpey Premo polymer clay (green, translucent, pearl)
Tiled Scallops backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Copper tube
Copper Wire
Copper findings
Rubber cord

Thanks for stopping by, hope you get your week off to a great start!