Another Student's Work


Kem from kemskreations1.etsy.com shared these two pictures with me a while ago. This is what she wrote:

“Here's a picture of one of the beads on my first attempt using your tutorial... I love the beads, made them into a necklace and have already had lots of compliments (even from several vendors at a craft show in Gainsville this weekend). Thanks again, Kem”

I am posting Kem's pictures and e-mail with her permission.

Starting a New Blog
PolymerClayChameleon.blogspot.com

I am about to start a project I wanted to do for a long time. The idea is simple – I want to blog about polymer clay artists on Etsy.com. One artist a day.

Read more...

Adventures of an On-Line Seller

I've been experimenting with a few on-line tools recently trying to increase my sales, and this made me reflect on all kinds of different venues I've tried over the years. I think it could be an interesting read not only for fellow artists and crafters, but also for people who buy our products on-line. Just like with almost everything in this life, there is more to selling on-line then meets the eye.

I think I will do one post a week on this topic.

So, here is about my first on-line sale. I think it happened in early 2004. I've been working with polymer clay for a few years by then, but never sold anything. I was making things for myself, and it was a nice creative outlet for me. At that time I was working in pharmaceutical industry, in the area that is strictly regulated (for a number of good reasons), so being able to do something the way I want it was a well-desired change for me.

In 2003 we moved to Maryland, and I met many new people, who noticed my polymer clay jewelry, complemented it, and made me want to do more. I started experimenting with caning. Those who've done it, know that making canes produces a huge number of similar things, which beg to be sold (otherwise what are you going to do with them?). And so finally I've got enough courage and listed my first set (necklace and earrings) for $20 on e-Bay. It received exactly one bid, which was enough to sell the set. I was so happy! I could not believe somebody liked my work enough to pay money for it. Looking back at this set (see the picture below), I realize that my craftsmanship could still use some improvement, and the money I've got for this set did not cover the time I spent making it, but back then I was proud and happy...

More about my on-line adventures next Thursday.

Ice Storm

I am originally from Russia, and when people hear about it, they often assume that I like when it is cold. Or at least that I am used to REAL cold. The truth is... not every Russian is from Siberia, just like not every American is from Alaska. I am NOT from Siberia. Besides, living in this climate for almost 13 years, I think I've got spoiled and can hardly tolerate any cold weather at all... After just a few days of snow and ice I am wishing for spring...

Here is a couple of pictures from my backyard.

The trees look pitiful, yet pretty with every branch in its own ice glove.

Tutorial,

Steampunk Heart Pendants

New tutorial, just in time for Valentine's Day!

I am very glad I finished this new tutorial in time, just as I planned.

List of materials: polymer clay, resin, watch parts, metal leaf, love.


Find it here: http://www.eugenascreations.com/tutorial-steampunk-heart.html

New Steampunk

Butterfly Necklace

Here is my new steampunk butterfly necklace in Dwellers of a Mechanical Garden series. Very appropriately for upcoming Valentine's Day, it is made in red and burgundy colors.


The necklace is listed in my Etsy shop.

More Steampunk

This is how my desk looks like right now.

I am working on a few new polymer clay and resin steampunk heart pendants, a tutorial for them, and a complementary video, all at the same time.

The tutorial is already available for pre-order from my web site.

The video is for youtube.com. You may see my previous one here. The new video will be in a similar style.

The pendants will go to my Etsy.com shop when they are ready.

Resin, Safety

On one of the forums I visit, there was a discussion yesterday about safety of resin, two-part epoxy resin EnviroTex Lite, in particular.

I was surprised to see that a few people were very worried about working with the resin. They advised each other to always work in a well-ventilated area (namely, outside or by an open window with a fan next to it), to wear a mask, to not be fooled by a low odor of the resin, etc.
I do respect people's concerns about their own health, and especially about the health of their children. However, it always irritates me very much when people are scared of something for no particular reason, simply because they do not understand it well enough.

I am a chemist with 20 years of laboratory experience, and I've worked with many hazardous chemicals, I also worked with highly-radioactive compounds. I know what danger these compounds can represent to a human. Let me assure you that there are many more things in our daily activities that are much more dangerous than covering a few small pendants with some resin.

When considering health risks from any particular substance, we have to consider not just what it can do to a living organism, but also in what amount shall it be present in order to do it, and how easy can it enter the body.

I said that before, and I will say it again: strictly speaking, any compound is a poison when the doze is right. Even our table salt is capable of killing a man, if he manages to eat a bucket of it. A pinch of salt is a totally different story.

Yes, resin fumes are volatile for the first few hours while it settles. Inhaling those fumes is not a good idea, especially in significant quantities and for a long time. Therefore, if you are planning to cover a big surface with resin, such as your dining room table, or a kitchen counter-top, then by all means, take all the precautions. By the way, a regular mask is not going to help here – it only protects against particles, not vapors. So if you want to use a mask, use a special one. However, the amount of fumes generated when you mix two teaspoons of the resin to cover a few small pendants is simply not enough to cause any health concerns.

EnviroTex Lite resin does have a little odor. I would say, it is comparable to the level of odor of un-covered polymer clay during baking. Some people are more sensitive to these odors than others. When I say “sensitive”, I mean that they find the odor unpleasant, not that it causes any headaches or anything like that. My husband is one of these people – he simply does not like the smell (he is a chemist as well, in case you wonder). To avoid making him uncomfortable in our own house, I usually bake my polymer clay beads, pendants, and vases loosely covered with some foil and do not unwrap them until they cool down. As for the resin, I usually apply it in the evening, then shut the door to my studio, and by the morning the odor is gone. If you do not have a separate room for a studio, the resin-covered project may be left to dry in any place isolated from the rest of the house – such as a utility room or even a closet. In this case, it is a good idea to protect your project from dust. Depending on the size of the project, you can use anything from a paper cup to a shoe box to put over your project while it dries.

Isis with Wings – Faux Cloisonne Creation by a Student

The picture above shows recent work of Andy Pan from Rhode Island. Andy learned faux cloisonne technique through my tutorial, and I am extremely proud to see how far he went with it. The amount of work required to create something like this is enormous, and his precision is unbelievable. Each line in the design is formed with a separate piece of wire, and each piece has to be formed, cut, and secured in its place. Such an advanced design definitely requires lots of patience, but the result worth every minute spent on it. I cannot wait to see the finished necklace that Andy is going to make with these three focal beads.

History of Polymer Clay

Going through my old files, I found this short article I compiled for my beginners class a while ago:

"History of polymer clay begins in Germany, in the late 1930s, when an enterprising woman named Fifi Rehbinder developed and marketed a clay product, which she called Fifi Mosaik, to use for doll heads. In 1964 she sold the formula to Eberhard Faber who developed it into the Fimo we know today.

At the same time, other manufacturers were making products similar to Fimo. Monica Resta from Italy used a form of the clay called LIMMO in Argentina in the late 1950s. It was also manufactured by a German company, but not Eberhard Faber. The manufacturer could have been Rudolf Reiser, who makes Formello and Modello, but there is no clear trail.

In those early days the clay was used for dolls, modelling and miniatures for doll houses. As it gained a wider audience, it was sold in toy stores. Pier Voulkos, for one, purchased Fimo from a toy store in Germany in 1970. Tory Hughes, who lived in Europe as a child, also discovered Fimo there, and Kathleen Dustin was introduced to Fimo while she was attending college overseas..." Read More

My Gallery Page Is Done!

I finished updating the gallery page on my web site and very proud of it! This is something I wanted to do for a long time. I decided to keep my web site as an on-line portfolio and a tutorial shop. There is a link on my site to my shop on Etsy.com for people who want to buy my jewelry, but I do not want to maintain a separate on-line shop through my web site anymore. In line with this idea, I removed the page with my sold items from the web site and replaced it with a portfolio (or gallery) page. Some of the items on this page had been sold or given as gifts to my friends and relatives, and some are still available. I just wanted to show all my favorite creations in one place, no matter who owns them right now. In the process of up-dating this page, I placed all my pictures in a uniform format – they are all the same size now and have a watermark with my company name. I am very pleased with the result. To finish this round of my web site update, I am now going to fix all pictures, including those on my free tutorial pages and in the polymer clay gallery. This is a smaller task than updating the gallery and should take that much of my time.

New Steampunk Heart

I started listing my new heart pendants in my shop on Etsy.com. This is one of them. I am experimenting with the backgrounds, too.

This is the new pendant in my Heart of the Mechanical Doll series.

The base of the pendant is polymer clay. One side is made with crackled silver leaf, the other with watch parts, and then everything is covered with clear resin. The pendant has a smooth glass-like surface, which I really like.

Faux Cloisonne Tutorial – Tips from a Student

Christine from Chicago, IL, bought one of my tutorials, Faux Clisonne, just before Christmas. She liked is so much that we exchanged a few E-mails over the holidays. I am publishing this E-mail with her permission:

"...I'd like to share with you a couple of things I did which may or many not help others: As a sugar artist - I fall back to what I know or the discipline I came from which is architecture and then food styling/cake design.

Often I have to roll out fondant -the same consistency as clay in perfect 36" circles - about 1/8 to 1/4" thick as well as smaller decoration all needing to be the same thickness. Not much fits in a pasta maker. I use two long dowels - the thickness I need, place them on either side of my fondant, My rolling pin glides over the dowels - the entire piece is the same thickness. I have cut dowels in increments of 6" long for smaller decorations and use a miniature rolling pin or my roller.

Shading elaborate flowers requires a lot of color and have always used food grade "Luster Dust" from CK - Country Kitchens. Beside the "mica" look it also comes in rich matte colors which I blended with the mica. Not a speck came off. The reds are richer, the plums are deeper.
Another tip - I use a lot of cookie cutters to cut or trace multiple same size basic shapes. I've found wonderful tiny shaped flower cutters in Chinatown, i.e., a 1" detailed seahorse. They use them for dikon.

www.foosecookiecutters.com out of PA has a large selection of miniature cutters, acorns, tiny leaves, bees, dragonflies etc. All sold individually so you can purchase just the shapes you really want. Clay and fondant are similar, the more you work it the more tired it gets and needs to be chilled. Shapes pop out with minimal distress marks.

I would like to say the tutorial I used today was so well thought-out with excellent direction.

Christine"

Quick Preview

I am re-working the gallery pages on my web site and want to show how the new ones will look like. Here is the link to the first page:

http://www.eugenascreations.com/n-orchid-necklace-4.html

I am on page 8 right now and have about three times as many to go.

Wish me patience!

My First Etsy Treasury

Last night I was lucky to get a spot in Etsy Treasury list.


This is my first treasury ever! I called it "Chameleon" for polymer clay, that is indeed a chameleon material. All things I listed in this treasury are made of polymer clay. I tried to show different objects that can be made, and different techniques. I am always amazed by the possibilities of this material!


Here is the link to the treasury page:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=31422

It will stay up for three days.

Faux Cloisonne Tutorial,

3-d Edition

This tutorial was the first one I wrote, and it remains one of my most popular tutorials. Originally, I developed this technique for a combination of polymer clay and glaze, and that is how the the first version of this tutorial was written.

Later the glaze was recalled for re-formulation, and I had to search for an alternative material – both for my own art and to include it in the tutorial. The second version of this tutorial had step-by-step instructions for the glaze and a separate section (no pictures) explaining how to substitute it with resin.

Now I am happy to announce that I rewrote my Faux Cloisonne Tutorial one more time, and now it includes both sets of instructions in a step-by-step format, with corresponding pictures.

So, if you ever bought this tutorial either through my web-site or through my Etsy store, and would like to have the new version of it now, just E-mail me, and I will send it to you for free. Please use the same E-mail address as in your PayPal account, OK?

Smeshariki

I am still in a holiday spirit and would like to share my recent discovery. Just before Christmas, my friend told me about a very popular series of Russian cartoons, and my kids and I have been watching them all holidays. These cartoons are very funny, yet philosophical. Here are two of my favorite ones:

Mountains and Candies


The Run of Bad Luck

Apparently, they have been around since 2003, and there are more than 150 episodes by now. Here is more about the series:

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.

Recent Publications

Couple of my works have been recently published in beading/crafting magazines. I had these magazines around for a few weeks now and finally found some time to scan them and post pictures.

One picture shows my miniature hand-sculpted polymer clay orchid beads. I sent it to Polymer Cafe a a few months ago, right when I was working on my first tutorial in the miniature orchids series. I now have two of them available and about to finish the third one.

The other publication is a picture of my faux cloisonne set of beads. I wrote about these beads in my blog earlier this year.

There should be another publication, I think, in December issue of Polymer Cafe. For some reason, I cannot catch this magazine in stores (and they do not send a contributor's copy to people who's work is in the reader's gallery)...

Big Sculpted Orchids Tutorial

A new tutorial for sculpting polymer clay orchids is now available on my site. The tutorial shows how to make three different types of orchids and contains nearly fifty color full-size pictures.

Sculpting Orchids
Video on http://www.youtube.com/

A couple of weeks ago I had this wonderful (or so I thought!) idea. I decided to make a short video that would work both as a tutorial and an ad for my new line of orchids and then post it on youtube.com. I also wanted this tutorial to be quite original and artsy. I did not want to sit down in front of the camera, recite all the tools and materials, and then demonstrate every step with my comments and explanations. It was supposed to be different...

So, after 2.5 hours of videotaping and two weeks of clipping and editing, I am happy to report that the video is ready and it was uploaded to be seen by everybody interested in polymer clay, sculpting, and/or orchids (in any order).

It is still not ideal in my view, and I would really like to work on its sound track some more, but I simply cannot take it any more right now and need to step away from this project for a while. I may polish it some more later.

While I am waiting to hear people's comments, I shall say that I had lots of fun and have tons of ideas for the new films.

If you cannot see the embedded video, here is the link: Sculpting Polymer Clay Orchids

EnviroTex Lite, Two-Part Epoxy Resin

I was repeatedly asked by people who like my polymer clay tutorials whether they can buy any of the resin I recommend in some small containers. I understand that some people would like to do the project described in the tutorial only ones or twice. They do not intend using this technique often enough to justify the purchase of a quarter gallon of the resin.

To answer these inquiries, I decided to list a trial-size resin kit in my Etsy shop. To try things out, I have only one set in my shop for now, but I can always add more if there is enough interest. Here is the link: my Etsy store

Fire Mountain Gems Contest Results

I've got my necklace with sculpted orchids "Les Fleurs des Fer" back from Fire Mountain. It took the third place in the polymer clay category!

The necklace is in my Etsy shop now.

I realized recently that I am drawn to the Etsy shops that show their jewelry on models. I think it is a good idea, since it is so difficult sometimes to imagine how a necklace would look like on a person. So, here is the result of my experiments in this direction.

Catching Up

So, I've neglected to write in my blog for a long while, and now have too many news for one post. Blogger's wisdom tells me I shall spread my news over a few posts...

The last two weeks of summer I spent in Washington and Oregon. I have not been to these states before, although I've seen lots of pictures and wanted to go there for a long time.

I brought back tons of pictures myself, and eager to share them, but no picture can reflect what I felt standing behind a 170' waterfall in Oregon or wondering through the mist at Artist Point in Washington.



We drove from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR, then Corvallis, New Port, Florence, Eugene, Bent (all in Oregon), back to Portland, through Seattle, up north to Bellingham and Mt.Baker, and back to Seattle. Every day was absolutely different from the day before and from everything else we ever saw before.



In Portland, my 10-year old daughter was enchanted by some particularly friendly squirrels (never mind the hordes of them in our backyard in Maryland). The Portland squirrels were readily eating from her hands, and one even chewed on the edge of her pants.



In Yachats, OR, we dined in a local restaurant with an amazing coastline view, and the gulls were walking outside on the windowsills begging to share our lunch with them.



But my favorite images were the many waterfalls we saw during this trip. I do not want to use any cliches about rugged beauty and such, but they were widely beautiful indeed...



I guess this experience and these images shall influence me as an artist in some way. I cannot report any connections yet, but I am sure I will be able to draw them in time.

Meanwhile (a note to myself) I shall post more often. Check back in a day or two - I have more interesting pictures to share.

...See more pictures from the Washington and Oregon trip in my photo album.

New Tutorial!

I just finished writing this new tutorial, Easy Faux Enamel.

This one is really easy, honestly, it cannot get any easier than this. Designed for people who is looking for their first polymer clay or resin project, this tutorial has ten pages of extremely detailed step by step instructions and sixteen full-size photos.

Here is the link: http://www.eugenascreations.com/t-fimo-resin-tutorial.html

Custom Order

Sandy's Orchid Necklace

I am very pleased with this necklace. Sandy saw a picture of two miniature orchids in one of my previous posts. The orchids were white with gold highlights. She asked me to make her a necklace with a similar orchid, and this is what I came up with.

The orchid was hand-sculpted from a mixture of white and translucent Kato polymer clay. This brand works great for the applications like this with lots of small details and protruding parts. The golden highlights were made with Perfect Pearls mica powder.

I suspended the orchid from a chain of mother-of-pearl chips and seed beads. Sandy had a choice between two gold-plated toggle clasps, and she picked the one with antique finish and granulation.

Thank you, Sandy. Enjoy your necklace.

New Tutorial, Sculpted Orchids, Polymer Clay

The second tutorial in series "Miniature Sculpted Orchids" is available now. Here is the link:

www.eugenascreations.com/t-polymer-clay-orchids-tutorial-2.html

Second Place, Art Bead Awards

My set of faux cloisonne beads, Conchita, the Beauty of California, took the second place in polymer Clay Beads Category, Art bead Awards 2008. Works of all winners will be featured in November/December issue of issue of Step by Step Beads and on the Step by Step Beads website.

I love using my faux cloisonne beads as little canvas for wearable art. This set of beads was inspired by an unbelievable story of love between a Russian explorer, Nicholay Rezanov, and a daughter of the San-Francisco Governor, Maria de la Concepcion Marcella Arguello (Conchita, as she was called in the family), at the beginning of 19-th century. Coming from the opposite ends of the globe and from such different cultures, they found each other and fell in love. Being a Russian noble, Rezanov could not marry without the Russian Emperor's permission, for which he had to travel back to St.-Petersburg. Conchita promised to wait for him. She did not know that on his way through Siberia Rezanov fell terribly ill and died. Only many years later did she learned of his fate, but refused to believe it. She received many proposals from many admirers, but turned all of them down. Conchita had been waiting for Rezanov for three decades... When the news of his death were finally confirmed, she devoted herself to charity and teaching Indians.

This bead set is done using my faux cloisonne technique, with all details formed out of pieces of wire. The red swirl details were formed with wire as well; the wire was removed after baking the beads and the obtained impressions were back-filled with red polymer clay. This clay contained some glitter, hence the sparks you can see in the picture. After applying two layers of the resin, the beads were adorned with siam flat-back Swarovski crystals.

Web Site Update

I am very excited to finally unveil a new version of my web site. I had been working on it for a while, writing all the codes form a scratch, so I am very proud of the result. Please check it out:
www.eugenascreations.com.

I changed the appearance of the pages to hopefully make them look more professional. The swirls on both sides of each page are actual wire details from some of my faux cloisonne pendants and earrings. I also made all pages exactly the size of the screen, with a scroll bar added within some of the pages. I really like this lay out, because it keeps all the other elements of the page – all the buttons, the site title, some pictures, etc. - right in front of the viewer, making “scrollable” (is that even a word?) only the text on the page.

I suspect there may be some bugs that I will still need to work out with this version and will really appreciate if my visitors point them out to me.

This is a limited version for now. The visitors have access only to the main pages and all tutorials, but cannot buy my jewelry from the web site. I will add all the individual product pages in the future. For now, my necklaces, earrings, pendants, and beads can only be purchased through my Etsy store. All four of my project tutorials are available both from the web site and from my store on Etsy.com.

New Tutorial

I just finished the first tutorial in my new series “Miniature Sculpted Orchids”. I am planning to eventually have four tutorials, each for a different type of orchids. In this series, I will explain not only how to sculpt all these flowers, but also how to make different millefiori canes for leaves and different shapes of leaves, how to apply these sculpted details to different bases, such as polymer clay, shells, sea glass, and gems. I will also show you how to incorporate various embellishments in your designs, including beads, pearls, and semi-precious stones.

As always, this tutorial is very detailed and has lots of big full-color pictures showing every step (almost fifty in this one).

I am currently working on a thorough up-date of my web site (it's gonna be beautiful!), so I listed this tutorial in my Etsy shop only.

I am a Fire Mountain Gems Finalist!

My necklace, Les Fleurs De Fer (Iron Flowers), was chosen as one of the finalists in this year beading contest sponsored by Fire Mountain Gems. I received the notification yesterday. I am so excited!

This necklace is deliciously mono-chromatic, with lots of details in silver and gun metal tones. I sculpted the orchids and the leaves from black and silver polymer clays and enhanced the veins with silver acrylic paint. The necklace itself is constructed as a multi-string lariat, with flowers on one side, and the leaves serving as a counter-weight.

I now need to send the necklace to FMG for the final stage of the contest. Wish me luck!

Pictures From My Garden

It is the time for irises. I love these flowers as much as I like orchids. Irises have one definite advantage over orchids in my eyes – I can grow them!

Polymer Clay Vase with Sculpted Orchids

I just finished the vase that I had been working on for the last two weeks. It is 10” tall and 2.5” in diameter at the top and the bottom. I like its form – it is very gracious yet sturdy. I have it covered with polymer clay in copper and bronze colors, with lots of fresh-water pearls and textured details at the bottom and hand-sculpted milefiori leaves and orchids at the top.

I like this combination of a rough textured base with leaves and orchids. I am already working on a step-by-step tutorial for a pendant/focal bead in a similar style.

Publication Update

Exciting news! Shirley Rufener, who wrote a new book on polymer clay "Polymer Clay Mixed Media Jewelry: Fresh Techniques, Projects and Inspiration", sent me a link to the book's cover on amazon.com.

Shirley accepted pictures of two of my faux cloisonne necklaces to be published in this book, so I am officially a contributor.

She says that release date is in the Fall although Amazon lists December 16. The book is set up with a short gallery of projects at the end of each chapter that will enhance and supply inspiration for that chapter (based on the media or material added to the clay) such as pastel chalks, transfers, metal clay, inks/powders, etc...

Faux Cloisonne Class in Kansas City

This Saturday I did my faux cloisonne class in Kansas City. There were nineteen people in the room and lots of enthusiasm. As always, I offered a dozen of different heart design sketches to get people started but encouraged them to experiment with their own designs. My goal for this class is to teach the technique, and not just one or two projects. I was very excited to see people coming up with all these different ideas. Too bad I did not have enough time to take more pictures. The few I took are below:

If you want to see more pictures from this class, follow this link to the page that Lynette Fisk, the Kansas City Polymer Clay Guild Volunteer Webmaster, have already put together after the class.

Special thanks to Debbie Updegraff, Vice President of the Guild, and Teri Stettnisch, the President, for organizing this class.

The Polymer Clay Guild in Kansas City is only two-years old, but they already have a very admirable group atmosphere, a really nice place for the meetings, and a good number of talented and generous people. I hope this guild will continue growing and proving a wonderful creativity outlet for all polymer clay enthusiasts in the area.

New Tutorial Is Ready

The faux lampwork tutorial is now available from my site.

Here is the link: http://www.eugenascreations.com/t-tutorial-lampwork.html

Faux Lampwork Beads

I have some cool beads to show. They are a result of my recent experiments. For a long time I wanted to re-create the look of lampwork glass beads in clay. I tried it a couple of times in the past, but never liked the results. This time I am finally happy about the design.

There will be a new tutorial for this technique. I am almost done writing it and shall have it on my site in a couple of days.

Added on May 2, 2008:

I now have these beads listed in two separate auctions at Just Beads. Please take a look. (And yes, I know I messed up the thumbnail photos for those listings, but they cannot be fixed unfortunately...)

An Honorable Mention at Rings and Things Contest, 2008

My necklace Wild Fire won an honorable mention at the Rings and Things contest this year.

I am thrilled!

New Free Tutorial, Simple Canes

A new tutorial for polymer clay is finished as promised. It is available on my web site.

http://www.eugenascreations.com/tutorial-polymer-clay-leaf-cane.html

This tutorial shows how to make bull's eye cane and how to turn it into a leaf cane. There are lots of pictures and the explanations are very detailed, as always.

A One-Time Offer, Polymer Clay Class

I would like to offer one of my one-day classes at a reduced rate. Please find short descriptions of the classes here:

http://www.eugenascreations.com/eugenasclasses.html

Here is the small print:

- The class has to be organized before May 23, 2008;
- USA only;
- I must use Southwest Airlines;
- There should be a direct flight from Baltimore, MD or Washington, DC to your city (or a city nearby);
- I would like to have at least seven people in the class.

Please E-mail me if you are interested to discuss the details. You may find my E-mail address in my profile (on the right).

... And in case you are curious, this offer was made possible thanks to the promotion I received from Southwest Airlines.

New Free Tutorial, Skinner Blend

I have a new free tutorial for polymer clay on my site. The tutorial explains how to obtain smooth color gradient. This technique is known as two-color Skinner blend. Stay tuned – the next tutorial will be for making a bull’s eye cane and a leaf cane. I already have it in a draft form and shall be able to post it on my web site by the end of the week.

Here is the link to the Skinner blend tutorial:

http://www.eugenascreations.com/tutorial-polymer-clay-color-blending.html

New faux Cloisonne Necklace and Earrings

When it comes to naming my jewelry... I can use some help (to say it politely). I made this set of earrings and a necklace a while ago. Beautiful colors, nice olivine Swarovski crystals... I love this set. Trouble is, I just could not give it a name. I got stuck on “Olive Garden” (yeah, go ahead, laugh!), but without a name I could not list this set. Desperate, I was about to call it “Green Necklace and Earrings” or something like that. Finally after brainstorming it with my kids, we came up with a reasonable version: “Enchanted Forest”...

http://www.rubylane.com/shops/eugenascreations