Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year,
my friends!

Steampunk Butterfly Tutorial

My new tutorial is now available! Find it on my web site: http://www.eugenascreations.com/

What's Steampunk? In short, it is a fiction genre that celebrates steam power and machines. Think of Jules Verne and James Blaylock. This style is continued in visual arts and even music. For more information - Google.

In this tutorial, I explain how to use polymer clay, resin, pre-fabricated filigree, and (the most fun!) parts from an old mechanical watch to create a unique pendant. As always, this tutorial teaches a technique using a project as an example. This means that if you follow the tutorial step by step exactly as it is written, you will end up with a pendant very similar to the one shown here, but you will also master a new technique that can be applied to many more projects of you own. That is when the true creativity begins.

Steampunk Twist

I am having so much fun playing with the old watches! It 's like a treasure hunt – all these little parts somehow have been put together in some complicated and beautiful pattern, and discovering them is amazingly exciting. I re-arrange them to make pendants like the one pictured here. I've seen quite a few necklaces, earrings, and rings with the whole watch movements. My pendants are different, because they show off separate parts and those parts are covered with multiple layers of resin to make the whole pendant smooth like glass.

I have a couple more pendants in my Etsy shop, and I am working on a tutorial, which I am hoping to finish within a week or two.

Filigree, Polymer Clay, and Resin

I added a few new items to my Etsy shop today - five sets of earrings and a pendant, all from my new faux enamel line. I tend to separate faux enamel from faux cloisonne (although, technically speaking, cloisonne is one of the types of enamel). While items in my faux cloisonne line are all one-of-a-kind, with lots of hours required to create each design using pieces of wire, the faux enamel line is made using commercially-evailable brass or silver filigree. This line is more affordable since it is so much easier for me to make. I can also make multiple copies of the same design, if needed, and explore different color combinations within the same or similar design.