Here is my latest vase I created from polymer clay. The clay was put on top of a glass vase. I used polyurethane vanish to seal the clay.
Polymer Clay
Polymer Clay Vases
Here are my latest vases done with polymer clay. I took some blue and mixed in a little black to get the dark blue color. I wrapped the glass vases with the dark blue and added the flowers. I wanted the vases to have an oriental feel to them.
More Polymer Clay Roses
Below are batches 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of my polymer clay roses with leaves and stems.
Batch 2:
I took some white clay and blended one edge with some pink clay. The leaves and stems contains three shades of green and gold clay.
Batch 3:
The center of the roses were made from the clay left over from Batch 2. However, there wasn’t enough for three flowers, so I mix a little red with the pink and white for the outer petals.
Batch 4:
I wanted some flowers that glowed in the dark. I mixed bright pink, yellow, and orange clay with some florescent clay.
Batch 5:
These red roses were also mixed with some florescent clay, but they do not shine as well as the pink roses in Batch 4.
Batch 6:
I had just finished the yellow sunflower vase and wanted some yellow roses to put in the vase. But, yellow roses would just be too plain. The rose color from stem to the petal tips are hot pink, orange, yellow, and lemon yellow.
Batch 7:
Some more vase inspired flowers. I used the leftover clay from the vase. I gently it mixed together to make the roses.
Vases with Polymer Clay
I wanted to see if I could put some polymer clay on a vase, bake it in the oven, and have the clay stick to the vase. Below is my first vase experiment. I had a bottle, shape like a light bulb, that was just sitting in a cabinet.
I figured the best way to get it to stick to the vase, was to put a thin layer of polymer clay around the vase and then put the design on it. Since it was an experiment, I didn’t want to waste a lot of time with the design. However, it does glow in the dark.
Since it was a success, I did four other vases.
The Sunflower Vase: I wanted the top and bottom of the vase to look like the petals were coming from the center of a sunflower.
The Gold Flowery Vase: From the beginning I wanted a gold lattice work around the vase. The flower idea come later. After it was baked, I applied paint to give it an antique look.
The Shades of Red Vase: The original intent was to cover the vase in black, then give it a stain glass appearance. That idea change when I saw how nice the reds and pinks looked against the black.
The Flower Vase: I extrudes some blue/purple clay that was left over from other projects. The intent for this vase was to have a delicate flowery pattern.
After the vases were baked in the oven and cooled, I applied polyurentane to seal the clay. Since the clay is not permanently stuck to the vase, I could probably take a sharp Exacto Knife to any vase that turns out poorly to remove the clay.
Polymer Clay Crosses
I spent some time creating crosses from polymer clay, which was left over from all of the other polymer clay projects.
First the pretty crosses:
The difficult cross:
Folding clay and braiding clay is a little bit challenging.
Interesting Crosses:
The weird ones:
Do You See the Butterflies?
Acrylic Pour Coaster
I been wanting to create some Acrylic Pour Coasters for a while. I purchased 4″ wood tiles from Michael’s and they traveled with me in my car for several months before a was able to work on them.
First, I applied white Gesso to both sides of the wood tile. I mixed the paint in squeeze bottles. The colors I used were pink, purple, grayish blue, light pink, light purple, green and white. I love pinks and blues.
I let the tiles cure for about a month while I was out of town again. I cleaned the tiles with a mixture of Dawn and water, which I keep in a spray bottle. A few weeks later when I got up the courage to apply resin, I poured resin over the coasters.
The tiles did not come out perfect, but it wasn’t a failure either. The tray to hold the tiles was purchased from Hobby Lobby. I stained the inside of the box and two sides. The other two sides I applied Gesso and did a pour on the sides.
I did not pour the inside of the tray, instead I cut out some white polymer clay and did a pour on top of the clay when I poured the tray sides. After I cleaned the tray, I glued the clay to the bottom and applied several coats of varnish.
I glued cork to the back of each coaster using wood glue. Below are the results.
Piano Jewelry Box
It appears I forget to share my Piano Jewelry Box. Since, I give away most of the items I finish as gifts, I normally have to wait until after their birthday blog about it.
The piano box was ordered from Amazon in November with an expect delivery date in December. It was delayed so many times, Amazon threaten the supplier with cancellation if they did not ship it. It finally arrive in early January 2017, which left me with only two weeks to finish the box and ship it out.
The box was finished with ebony stain. I wanted to get it dark, really dark, like a grand piano. The box appeared to have the keyboard cover down, so I did not have to paint keys on the piano. The name plate was made with polymer clay. The balls on the legs were painted with silver acrylic paint and numerous coats of polyurethane to give it a high gloss shine.
I thought about putting music notes inside the jewelry box, but after some thought and test runs, I decided the space inside was small and it would not hold much. So, I made polymer clay roses and put them inside the box. The leafs were left overs from other projects. The roses were glued down and coated with several layers of polyurethane.
Maybe I should write a blog about how I make roses from clay. I make them differently than what I have seen on other websites. And, I have been making the same way since the Play-doh days.
Boxes
Here are the boxes I did as Christmas presents for my nieces and nephew. I decided I could not leave my “superhero fan” nephew out, especially since his sister were getting boxes.
For Kegan’s box: I used an acrylic type pour for the letters and loved to design, but it got lost on the blue stained wooden background. Since he loves superheroes, I used metallic paint to do a geometric design. Inside the box, I made crosses from polymer clay and silver puff paint as the grout.
The pastel box: The top of the box was painted in glow in the dark paint. (Yes, I used a lot of glow in the dark and neon glow paint this Christmas season.) The outside of the box was done in chalk paint base and a sponge technique to get the different colors.
I put polymer clay crosses inside the box to resemble the top of the box. Both boxes was sealed with high gloss polyurethane.
Jewelry Box
In August 2016, my parents house flooded. They had 44 inches of water in their home and they lost most of their belonging. For Christmas I stained and put mosaic on a jewelry box for my mother.
The box was purchased from Hobby Lobby. The mosaics was done with polymer clay, and for the grout I used glue and micro beads.
Several coats of polyurethane was placed over every surface, including the mosaic.
The Box Project
I found this box at Hobby Lobby and I had to finish it. I decided to stain and varnish the box and for the cut out, to use chalk paint. Since I never used chalk paint, I decided I needed a test piece to determine if I wanted an antique finished.
This is the test piece with the same chalk color and an antique finished.
Needless to say, I did not go with an antique finish.
The box frame was stain in dark walnut and varnish with a clear gloss. The cutout was stained in ebony.
I painted the inside of the lid to match the outside.
To finish off the box, I decide to put a mosaic pattern on the inside of the box that match, not exactly, the cover of the box. The mosaic tiles were made from polymer clay. For the grout I used gold puff paint, a.k.a. fabric paint.
The filler mosaic is a black, brown, turquoise, gold combination. Since I had a lot of extra clay, I decide to use them on the test cross piece. This is the final result.
