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.

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

Happy Valentine's Day!

This polymer clay heart and orchids necklace and a step-by-step tutorial explaing how to make it are available in my Etsy shop.

Lariat Necklace with White Sculpted Orchids,

Wedding Edition

I finished a white version of my polymer clay orchid lariat necklace originally made for the Fire Mountain Gems contest in 2008.  This is something I wanted to do for a long time, and I am very pleased with the result.

This particular necklace is sold, but I can make a new one like this for anybody interested.  Find all the details at my Etsy shop.

My Wedding Orchids are in a Beautiful Treasury

My Elegant Wedding Lariat Necklace with Hand-Sculpted Orchids and Leaves is currently featured in a dreamy Fashion Orchid Etsy Treasury put together by BloomCreations.etsy.com.

You can see the treasury and every item in it by following this link:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=97063

My Necklace in Fire Mountain Catalog

My orchid lariat necklace was published in the new FMG catalog. It took the third place in the polymer clay category of their beading contest - 2009 (although physically the work submission and all judging was done last year) .

The necklace features three hand-sculpted polymer clay orchids on one side of the lariat balanced off with a half of a dozen sculpted leaves on the other side. There are six strings of seed beads and Swarovski pearls in various sizes that hold the orchids in place and split on the other end of the lariat in a tassel-like fashion. This design could have been executed in other colors, but for some reason I wanted it in gray (or silver and steel if you prefer). I think in person it looks great this way, although for a beading catalog pictures I am sure a brighter version would have been better.

Earlier this year, when this design was appeared on FMG web site, I was commissioned for a bridal version of this necklace (all white, with white pearls mica powders on the flowers and interference green on the leaves).

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.

Etsy Treasury

My Amber Orchid polymer clay sculpted pendant was featured in Etsy treasury!

Annual Inspiration Trip

This one of the pictures I took this weekend at the orchid exhibition in Washington, DC. Smithsonian Institution organizes these exhibitions every year, usually in February – April. They alternate between the Botanical Garden and the Museum of Natural History.

This year, there are some orchids in both places. The museum of Natural History tied their exhibition to Darvin's theory of evolution, while USBG's collection is simply pretty.

New Tutorial

The third tutorial in my Miniature Sculpted Orchids Series is finished and available through my Etsy shop. I will list it on my web site by the end of the day as well.

This tutorial explains how to sculpt tiny Lady's Slippers (or Paphiopedilum) orchids, how to make the leaves with different shades of polymer clay, how to apply these sculpted details to sea glass base, and how to do simple wire-wrapping of the sea glass pieces. Bonus material includes instructions for a faux sea glass (made from polymer clay, of course!).

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!

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

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

Fire Mountain Catalog

A picture of my necklace with sculpted polymer clay orchids had been published in the recent edition of Fire Mountain Gems Catalog. I participated in their beading contest last year, and this necklace was a finalist. My other necklace, "Wild Rose", won the first place in the polymer clay category, but I have not seen its picture anywhere yet. I told my kids, the picture may appear either in one of the FMG catalogs, or on the back of beading- and jewelry-related magazines. Every time we come to a book or a craft store, the kids had been checking the backs of all these magazines for a few months now. It became a treasure hunt of sorts... They are still looking...

A bigger picture and description of the necklace is here: www.eugenascreations.com.

Lack of self-discipline or a creativity spike?


I have so many things I should have been working on – my website, new article, tutorials, entries for a couple of contests, my class this weekend… Yet I sat down this Sunday and started sculpting these orchids. I just could not stop!