The theme for July was seed pods, chosen by Jen. I made a Pinterest board for seed pods - I seem to be using Pinterest a little bit more lately, although it's such a time suck! Not sure how to get the image to appear, though, so you'll have to follow the link I guess!
https://www.pinterest.com/suebeads/seed-pods/
I have made many headpins that look like seed pods, and wanted to make more, but just didn't have time to do it in glass. Here are some photos of ones I have made in the past.
I really really wanted to get some done, but I didn't get to. What I did get to do was experiment a bit in polymer clay. These beads were made using the "salt method". You roll the polymer in salt (not the super fine salt but a little bit bigger grain) and then bake it. When they are done baking, you rinse them off and the salt melts, and you get this impression in the clay that makes them look like seed pods! The top bead is just a pretty orange/ochre color that I highlighted with bronze gilders paste. The bottom ones are made with a mica-y looking clay, and highlighted as well.
I made a pile of "pod" shaped beads, impressed them with a plastic knife, and baked them. Then I used Burnt Umber Genesis accent medium, and quickly baked them again!
I sanded the extra umber color off, then started experimenting with all my different coloring mediums. I used chalks, wax crayons, alcohol inks, acrylic paint, gilder's paste and a Martha Stewart Glaze I picked up a long time ago at Home Depot.
Here are some of the results!
In terms of the pods, this one above is my favorite! It reminds me of some sort of sea pod.
Then I made this pendant-style pod, literally using every single one of the above listed coloring elements!
As you can see, I favored a certain color scheme. My next polymer clay adventure will be to try different colors - I really enjoy mixing colors for a certain effect, so I think I'll continue to explore that!
One last "fantasy" pod that I tried to experiment with - I was going for a sort of magnolia type pod look, not sure that I nailed it, but I'll keep trying!
I hope you enjoyed our theme this month, and please check out what everyone else made. Thanks Jen for a great theme to work with this month!
https://www.pinterest.com/suebeads/seed-pods/
I have made many headpins that look like seed pods, and wanted to make more, but just didn't have time to do it in glass. Here are some photos of ones I have made in the past.
One last "fantasy" pod that I tried to experiment with - I was going for a sort of magnolia type pod look, not sure that I nailed it, but I'll keep trying!
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Alysen