Polymer Clay Lace Necklace

Here is one of the clay projects that I made. I found a video tutorial online for making clay lace. It looks more complicated than it really is. I don't have images of making it, but basically you take a tube of clay and wrap a flat piece of another color around it. Then you take that tube, cut it into smaller pieces and roll them together to form a larger tube. For a visual explanation, check out this video. It's not the one I learned with, but it's the same concept and I think I like it better.

For the actual pendant, I used slices from my clay lace cane and put them together side by side to make the size I wanted. I cut smaller pieces to fill the holes because since they were circles, they didn't fit together. I did it on top of another piece of clay so it would have a black backing. I cut everything out with a small round cookie cutter and baked it on a ceramic tile. Next time I'll try to remember to take more pictures.

The beads are also clay that I just moulded into oval shapes. I like the marble effect, but I'm not sure if they really blend well together with the lace pattern.

Have you experimented with polymer clay? I got my clay at Walmart for less than a dollar per color. You can also get color samples online. If you didn't know, Amazon is my favorite store!

Zipper Pouch

  Lately I've been playing with clay and practicing sewing with a few projects. I found this video by Melly Sews for creating a lined zipper pouch. She does a great job explaining everything. I made this pouch to hold all my new clay tools. I don't have that many, but I wanted to keep them all together. It would do no good to add more mess to my messy craft room, so a sewing project and a bit of organizing is great for me. I'll show off some of my clay creations in another post.

   I used one of those Single Fat Quarter cotton pieces that you can get at Walmart or you can get them in bulk online at Amazon. The one I used was 18 by 21 inches, and was more than enough fabric. For the lining, I used a piece of cotton from an old bed sheet. The corners next to the zipper are a little weird, but it looks like it was done on purpose, so no biggie.

   Speaking of that old bed sheet... It was a king sized sheet and gave me lots of fabric to practice on. I made a few of these aprons, and I still have more to play with. I used the scraps from my Fat Quarter to make a small pocket. The sheet was going to end up in the trash since it had a huge hole in it, so why not upcycle?