New Blog

From polymer clay jewelry - to polymer clay tutorials.  I am switching my focus and decided to switch to a new blog as well.

This is the last entry in this blog.

I will continue in my new blog, polymertutorials.blogspot.com.  Please follow me there!


polymertutorials.blogspot.com

Student's Work Faux Cloisonne

"I purchased your tutorial and wanted to tell you how much fun I have had doing this technique. I absolutely love it.....I have attached a picture of one of my creations using this technique for you to see some of my work. Thank you so much, I am always looking for new things to try and this one is great!!!"


I received this lovely e-mail from Deb a couple of days ago. The e-mail was accompanied by a picture of Deb's faux cloisonne pendant. Isn't it beautiful?!


I was very excited. I love receiving feedback from the people who use my polymer clay tutorials, and seeing their works is the best part. It is always interesting to see where the other people are taking this technique.


Deb's design is amazing. Creating faces in faux cloisonne technique is a challenge, because the tiniest shift in any of the lines can easily turn a beautiful face into an ugly one or completely change the facial expression.


We exchanged a few e-mails since the first one, and I learned that Deb already made a few pieces in faux cloisonne technique. She has a website (a very new one, and a work-in-progress, she says), where more of her works could be seen.

Changes to my Etsy shop

I now accept Direct Checkout in my Etsy shop in addition to PayPal.  All major credit cardt may be used with any of these two systems.  Direct Checkout seem to be quite popular with the Etsy customers and gives them a way to pay for their purchase without PayPal, if they prefer to do so.

As a result of this change, I had to expand the delivery time for my pdf polymer clay tutorials.  All tutorials purchased with PayPal through my etsy shop will continue to be e-mailed to my customers within minuted from the purchase.  I am using an automatic pdf file delivery system connected to PayPal.  The tutorials purchased with Etsy's Direct Checkout payment option will be e-mailed within 24 hours of purchase.  I will have to do it manually.

And the last change...  I decided to rename my Etsy shop from EugenasCreations.Etsy.com to PolymerClayTutorials.Etsy.com to better reflect the main focus of my shop.  All existing links are still working, and any of the two adderesses will take you to my shop.

My new About page

Yesterday I finally filled out my About page on Etsy.com.

Here are the pictures I used to create this page.

The first picture is a panaramic shot of my studio.  I am lucky to have a lot of space for my studio.  My husband helped me to set it up in our basement, and we installed kitchen cabinets in there as working benches.  That gave me plenty of storage space and working surface.  Being busy with my full-time job (I am a lab manager at a company that analyzes chemical standards for pharmaceutical companies), I cannot use my studio often.  Sometimes, I have to leave my started projects for days in a row.  However, when I do have a free minute to work there, I want to be able to start working on my polymer clay projects right away. That is why slosed storage space protecting my projects from dust and distortion is crucial for me.

A photocube is a central piece of equipment in my studio. This is a collapsable model, but I leave it set up permanently on my bench.  Most of my time in studio is spent taking photos for my step-by-step polymer clay tutorials.  Each tutorial has from 20 to 90 pictures, and every picture is taken at least three times.

An oven with tight temperature control is another important tool in a studio of any polymer clay artist.  I am happy with my Amaco oven.  

Here are some more of my tools.  In fact, this is the most of my tools, because you do not need too much to work with polymer clay.  

This picture shows my stash of polymer clay, tesin, and some other stuff.  To be honest, I usually do not keep my clay in the open like this - I decided to rearrange this area a little bit just for the picture so that I could show my materials.  I mostly use Kato clay in black (lots of black), white, translucent, and metallics.  Most of other colors I create by mixing translucent clay with Kato color concentrates.  

To save space on my About page, I compined the last four pictures into a collage.  I hope it is not too confusing.

Here are two more pictures I used.

This one shows my publications (magazines and books in which either my tutorials or pictures of my polymer clay jewelry weer published).

And the last picture shows a few close-up shots from my various polymer clay tutorials.  I thought my Etsy visitors would be interested to see how someone works with polymer clay.

I still have one slot left for one more picture, but I cannot think of another good one to place there yet.

Student's Work Sculpted Orchids

These lovely and delicate orchids were sculpted by Aga (Beaded Keepsakes) following my Polymer Clay Orchids Tutorial.

Aga is planning to use these focal beads for some very special necklaces, and I hope that she will share more pictures with me once those necklaces are finished.

Meanwhile, take a look at this video featuring her other works.

New Focal Polymer Clay Bead

I want to show my recent polymer clay creation.  Exploring some new areas for me - aiming for organic and rustic look.  I 've been working with antique brass a lot recently, and here I tried to mimic that material in polymer clay...

New Polymer Clay Tutorial Faceted Beads

I have a new step-by-step polymer clay tutorial on my site, PolymerClayTutorials.etsy.com.

This project is super easy and fun. It also helps to solve a problem of what to do with an old stock of hard to condition polymer clay.

Enjoy!

Blog and Web Site Updates

I'd like to point out a few changes I just made on my blog and both websites:

Blog (eugenascreations.blogspot.com): added three new pages to showcase my tutorials and polymer clay works, removed dead links and elements that were loading up too slow.

PolymerTutorials.com: added pictures to my list of publications, added more thumbnails and links to the step-by-step tutorials to the side bars of each page.

EugenasCreations.com: updated lists of publications and rewards, added pictures to my list of publications, corrected a few pages to improve their appearance.

I am very proud of myself. The feeling is similar to what I would experience after cleaning up my house. Everything is nice and tidy! Love it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So, the cat sculpture in my previous post is based on this old drawing of mine. The cat here is cute, but sad, right?

That is why I decided to post another drawing that would be more appropriate for Valentine's day. Here you go!

Call Me!

Polymer Clay Sculpture

Cat with a Phone

 

Scrap polymer clay, acrylic paint, telephone wire.  Approximately 3"x3".  One of my rare sculpted works, done a few years ago.  I wish neither one of my readers would look like this poor cat on Vilentine's Day.