The Dawn of a New Craft

For the past few months I've been hankering for a new craft. Don't get me wrong I still love to make cards and color with my copics. But I inherited the "craftaholic" gene from my mother and in a moment of weakness I caved to the urge.

What new craft you ask??  Polymer Clay!  Several years ago (aka BTF - before the flood) I played around with polymer clay and made a few figures. I had a few tools and some clay but put it aside for awhile. In September 2009 we experienced a pretty bad flood that resulted in 5 ft of water in our garage and my husband's workshop. All my crafts except my scrapbooking stuff were a total loss. I can't begin to think of the monetary value - we're talking tons of stuff from sewing patterns, material, decorative paintings supplies, clays, cross stitich, needlework, etc. My husband loss more - all his power and woodworking tools. We even lost our boat and SUV.  So now any craft results in a trip to Michael's or ordering online to replace all the things I once had.

For the past few weeks I've been playing around with PC (polymer clay) and rather than making figurines I wanted to learn how to make beads for jewelry. Now this is a fabulous craft - I just love it!!  Each week I buy more clay, more jewelry findings, more tools, more wire - it's endless. I so enjoy making the beads and then stringing them into a necklace and earrings. I've even begun to play around with wire wrapping to add a more decorative touch.

Below are two sets I made and sent to my sister in NJ. She was supposed to pick one for herself and give the other as a gift. I just learned she kept both but then mom stole one. Now she's telling me she wants something "lime green".  I would like to hear your thoughts on these creations. My photography isn't the best but I hope you can see that the set in the first photo is bronze/gold mokume gane beads. I learned this technique from Cindy Leitz's Polymer Clay Tutor website.  The second set happens to be a favorite of mine. It's supposed to replicate onyx. While I would like to take credit - I actually got the step by step instructions from Carol Blackburn's "Making Polymer Clay Beads" book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning this craft. I'm a beginner but there are so many techniques that I'm sure advanced clayers would find it useful as well. 

I have another set ready for the camera but I want to work on building a photo tent so my pictures come out better. All comments are greatly appreciated!