Folksy Friday - Jewelled Variety

After posting about branching out from silver the other day, I felt it was worth a look around Folksy to see what other jewellers are creating by not using silver. Mostly...

As you can imagine, it was pretty inspiring. So here's a Folksy Friday of jewelled variety.

1. Aqua floral fabric necklace by Jewels by Susan
2. Heart shaped pendant by Skylark Lane
3. Sea glass and copper earrings by Celtic Shore
4. Polymer clay and silver necklace by Clare Lloyd Jewellery
5. Daisy glass pendant by Elle & Pea
6. Wood pendant by wood-n
7. Copper flower pendant by LO Designz
8. Bird ceramic brooch by Little Brick House
9. Amethyst and grey felt necklace by Anna King Jewellery

Fabric, pewter, paper, resin, sea glass, copper, polymer clay, glass, flowers, wood, copper clay, ceramic, felt. And some silver, just for good measure. All beautiful. I call that very inspiring.

Yet more Polymer Clay . . .

Rather than just making round or disc beads, I've now had a go at making pebble beads too, which I love. I'm not sure how authentic many of these pictured here look (some of the colours are a little on the artificial side), apart from the grey ones perhaps, but I've enjoyed creating shapes that look pebbley and a little natural, rather than smooth and uniform.

I think this may well be the last big batch of photos for now. Not sure I can just keep making these beads and posting pictures of them. I must also make something with the beads themselves!

These have all been made from Fimo. I have a lot of Sculpey III but have found this very difficult to soften. I know you can get special softener, although I thought that was for age-hardened clay? Any ideas on how to soften fairly 'youthful', fresh clay? I would love to use it but it really does make my hands hurt! Pathetic, really . . . ;-) All comments gratefully received.

Forays into clay, part two

A few more polymer beads I've created.







I'm going to buy more clay soon, experimenting with different colours and brands. I'm also hoping to get some liquid clay, at some point. But am trying to stay with the basics for now.

Forays into clay, part one

I was given some polymer clay last year and have finally found some time to experiment a little with it. Okay, I was a bit nervous too. But I was surprised at how easy it is to get some rather impressive effects, even if I do say so myself. . .












More beads, and photos, to follow. I'm certainly not putting silver jewellery making aside (I have too many tools for a start!), but I'm enjoying exploring other fields a little. I plan to experiment some more with polymer clay and I also have some copper wire - I'm going to discover just how similar/dissimilar it is to silver.