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.

Pictures of Finished Works from the Faux Cloisonne Class I Gave in Texas

I have to apologize...


These pictures of the beautiful Faux Cloisonné pendants made by the people who attended my class in Texas this Spring, were sent to me a while ago.

I should have posted them earlier...

These heart pendants were made by Sandy Williams.

The pendants with faces are by Mary Vanderwood, of cause.

A whole collection of Faux Cloisonne pendants with various shapes and designs by Sherri Sneed.

The necklace with a Faux Cloisonne face and Swarovski crystalls is by Babette Cox.

And these pendants (Faux Cloisonne and cane work, all with the resin finish demonstrated in class) are by Ruth Steiner.

Seeing what other people do with my technique is my favorite part of the whole process of teaching.  I am always learning something new from my students...

Thank you for sharing the pictures of your works, ladies!

Sorry again it took me so long to post them - I am in a rough spot in my life right now, and finding time and motivation for my art is not an easy thing to do at the moment....

Faux Cloisonne Class

in Dallas, TX

I just came back from Dallas, TX, where I taught my Faux Cloisonne class this Saturday at North Texas Polymer Clay Guild.

Below are a few pictures I took during the class.  The works shown in the last three pictures are not finished yet - there are a few more steps left, namely finishing the edges, pouring the resin, and incerting the bail.

My students usually do not finish their projects in class, because the resin takes so long to cure. They do get to practice how to mix the resin and how to pour it over a polymer clay pendant, but they use some mock plastic heart shapes I bring to class (not their freshly-made faux cloisonne pendants). I would love to see the pictures of the finished pendants, and hope to get them in a few days.

From what I am hearing, the class participants seem to have a really good time in my class. I certanly enjoed teaching it!

I want to thank Babette Cox, who did so much work to organize my class for the guild, and Mary Vanderwood, who was my warm and gracious hostess. I enjoyed staying at Mary's house so much! The night before the class, we stayed up until 2 or 3 am, talking, and not even realizing what time it was. Mary is a beautiful woman with a beautiful soul and many amazing stories. Her house is full of character, with an astonishing collection of polymer clay works – both by her and by other artists...
...I am getting too tired to write this post properly, so I will probably have to edit it later. I just wanted to say thanks to all my students from Texas for a wonderful time at their guild.

My Faux Cloisonne Class

in Dallas, TX

I will be teaching a class on my  Faux Cloisonne technique next Saturday, April 2, in
North Texas Polymer Clay Guild.

There is still room in the class.  If you would like to join us, please contact Babette Cox.

My Donations

Orlando Area Polymer Clay Guild in Central Florida, is holding the Sixth Annual Fandango Polymer Clay Retreat at the end of May this year.  Charline Ahlgreen, OAPC Guild President and Donations Chairwoman, asked me to donate a few of my works to be used in teh auctions and "goody bags" for participants.  Charline says, that the proceeds from the auctions are used to fund their polymer clay community outreach programs (Central Florida Fair demonstrations, public library classes, Bottles of Hope for cancer patients and Beautiful Baubles for hospice patients). The guild also provides two internal scholarships annually that enable their members to take master classes so that they can expand their polymer clay skills, which in turn benefits their more than 40-member organization.

I gladly doated a few of my works for this even, and here are the pictures of my donations.

Indian, Faux cloisonne polymer clay pendant

Red Hat, carved and back-filled polymer clay pendant on a black organza necklace

Yellow Swirls, carved and back-filled polymer clay pendant with an antiqued sterling silver frame

                                                                                                 Sculpted Lily, a polymer clay pendant with genuine Baltic amber, fresh-water pearl, and amazonite beads

Pink Beauty, hand-sculpted orchid over a polymer clay base

Ivy Leaves, Faux Art Glass polymer clay pendant

Work In Progress

Butterfly Necklace

My butterfly necklace is starting to take shape. 

See the sketch for this necklace in one of my older posts.

I decided to make this focal piece two-sided, which quite a challenge, I have to admit. 

The picture above shows the faux cloisonne black side of the butterfly, and there will be a red and orange side created with foil and inks like in these pendants.

I still need to shape all the connections and put the wings and the body of the butterfly together.  It all looks good so far, but there are too many points at which things can go wrong.  I think, this is the most challenging piece I ever made. 

My Faux Cloisonne Heart in a Treasury

Helen of dalmmar.etsy.com included one of my heart pendants in her beautiful treasury:

etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=112146

I am especially flattered by her choice, because the works that Helen offers in her shop are AMAZING. She works mostly with felt and a little bit with polymer clay, and every one of her designs is elegant and romantic. Visiting her shop, make sure to look through Helen's gallery of SOLD items. I just love her felted necklaces in there!

Student Work:

Faux Cloisonne

I received an e-mail today from Sabine Spiesser, who bought my Faux Cloisonne tutorial some time ago and wanted to share the results of her experiments with this technique. She wrote: "...Here are my first rather chunky attempts at the process. I absolutely love it and am totally addicted to nursing these pieces along. I've only photographed a few."

I think her pieces are beautiful. I love everything about them: the designs, the colors, and especially the texture.

I always enjoy seeing the works of people who follow my tutorials. Thank you for sharing!

Student Work

Faux Cloisonne

I received an e-mail from Dora Kollar, who shared with me the results of her first attempt of my Faux Cloisonne technique.

Dora created her own original design, with a graceful shape and beautiful color gradation from purple to black. She has a couple more pictures of this work in progress in her Flickr photo album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bydk/, as well as pictures of her other polymer clay and beaded jewelry.

Thank you for sharing, Dora!

My Faux Cloisonne Workshop

in Baltimore

November 14, 2009

I have finally received a confirmation of my hands-on class scheduled at Baltimore Clayworks studio on November 14, 10am-4pm.

In this class, I will demonstrate my faux cloisonne technique. The picture on the left is the one that was chosen by the studio to represent the possibilities of this style, although I usually advise my students to start with a simpler design.

Cloisonne is an ancient metal-working technique that involves soldering pieces of wire to the metal base and filling them up with glass enamels in various colors.

My faux cloisonne technique allows to get a very similar effect using polymer clay, wire, and resin.

In this workshop, I will demonstrate and then let the participants do the polymer clay part. At the end of the day we will cure all projects in an oven so that they could be easily transported home and finished there later.

In the second part of the class, I will demonstrate how to work with the resin and let everybody practice on some scrap pieces, which I will provide. With this training, the class participants will be able to finish their projects at home. The projects cannot be finished in class, because the resin takes at least a day to cure, and it shall not be disturbed during this time.

I will also provide a detailed review of resins and glazes available on the market, discuss possible errors and ways to prevent or correct them, and demonstrate variations of this technique, including the use of beads, crystals, and metal leaf.

You may find more details about this class and register at http://www.baltimoreclayworks.org/class/mtclasses/fall09/workshops/WS7_workshop.html

Another Student Work

Zuleykha, who bought my Faux Cloisonne tutorial, responded to my yesterday's post with a link to a picture of her creation. I decided to post her picture here.

Zuleykha used my technique to make her own design, which is very beautiful and received many compliments both in her photo album and in her blog.

Zuleykha is an anthusiastic polymer clayer, and has a shop on Etsy, Zuleykha.etsy.com, where she sells her pretty beads covered with millefiori cane slices.

Recent Publication

A picture of one of my necklaces was published in the last issue of Polymer Cafe.

This is Synergy, a style that combines my faux cloisonne techinque, sculpted orchids, and wire-wrapping.

Click on the picture for its larger version.

Scarlet Sails
Finished!

I am done! The Scarlet Sails faux cloisonne wall piece is finished, framed, and shipped to the customer. I think it was my biggest, most challenging, and probably the best piece so far.

See my previous posts for work-in-progress pictures. Here is the finished piece (click on the picture for a larger version):

The faux cloisonne part is 4 1/2” by 6 ½ “, the size of the the whole picture with frame is 11 1/4” by 13 1/4”. The faux cloisonne part has domed edges showcased by mounting the piece on top of the two mats within the frame, not behind them, as it is usually done for flat artwork.

Taking a photograph of this piece turned out to be an extremely daunting task. Due to its size, I could not fit it in my light box and tried to photograph it by simply hanging on the wall in my studio. I immediately realized that due to its shiny surface (two layers of clear resin), the piece works as a mirror. Well, not a perfect mirror, but a good one enough to reflect me and my camera when I tried to photograph it. Yes, and also all my windows... When placed away from the windows, it did not have enough light, but still acted as a mirror. After a number of unsuccessful shots, I was finally able to capture the one you see here. The trick? I had my kids hold a solid-colored piece of fabric in front of the camera. I made a hole in the middle of this screen just big enough to point my camera through it. I also used two of my OttLite lamps on both sides of the picture, but not in front of it.

I am ready for a new challenge!

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 6

Final version of the wire work:



And now with color:

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 5

The wire work on my commissioned wall piece is almost done. I need to decide whether to have the sun behind the ship or not. I had it on my sketch, but then my customer said that it may interfere with the ship, which is the most important element of the composition. He left the final decision up to me.

Right now I stopped at the moment when everything is done, except the sun. I formed the wire pieces for it and took a picture with them in place, but they are not attached. I can still remove the sun without any trace.

Note to Alan: Alan, I still cannot contact you by e-mail, but I've got your message. No sun.

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 4

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 3

Work in Progress
Scarlet Sails, Day 2

Here is my progress so far. I am happy with how my Assol turned out, and so the most difficult part of this project is over.

When working on a multi-object composition, like this one, I prefer to start with one of the main figures. The biggest challenge in this technique is to accurately transfer the drawing into the wire lines. For simple designs, such as abstract swirls, it is quite easy, but human faces are among the most difficult transfers to do, because the slightest shift of line may sometimes significantly change the face expression...

Work In Progress
Scarlet Sails

I am starting to work on a commissioned piece based on an old Russian movie, Scarlet Sails.

I am very excited about this project. The movie is an adaptation of a very romantic and beautiful story by Alexander Grin. It is about a poor peasant girl Assol (pronounced ah-SO-lee), who was told by a traveling storyteller that one day a prince on a ship under scarlet sails would come for her. She kept dreaming about this beautiful ship despite being constantly laughed at and teased by everybody in her village. One day Captain Grey saw her sleeping by the sea shore and learned about her story. Taken by the girl's beauty and her kind and romantic character, he ordered to make sails for his ship out of the brightest red silk he could find, and then he came for her, just as it was predicted.

This is going to be a framed wall piece, about 5” by 7”, in my faux cloisonne technique. The person, who asked me to make this piece, saw my Scarlet Sails necklace made about two years ago. The necklace was inspired by the book, so my Assol looked different. This time I am trying to actually portray the actress who played Assol in the movie, and I am using the ship and scenery from the movie as well.

Below is the sketch I prepared already, and I will post pictures of my work in progress from time to time. I think it is interesting to see how such an elaborate piece is developing.

Wish me luck and lots of patience.

Student's Work

This amazing faux cloisonne interpretation of one of Mucha's Art Nouveau pieces was done by Andy Pan, who learned this technique from my tutorial. The finished piece is 6” by 8” and the wire work alone took at least 10 or 12 hours. I am extremely proud and amazed by Andy's patience and precision. Just beautiful!

Click on the picture to see its biger version.