Friday, September 17, 2010

Oooo - That Liquid Polymer!

You may have figured out by now that I like to experiment. I've really been enjoying the liquid polymer and then had a thought - what would happen if I mixed in some powders? How would it change the look? Sooo...I mixed in some glittery embossing powders from Judikins and I love the results! Here are examples of my first efforts.

Oh - you'll also notice I had to try gold, too, so got my hands on some gold-filled bezel wire for the edgings. The gold is quite elegant. Here's a close-up. Hope you can see the glitz and some of the depth these pieces have.

Of course, since I like to experiment, and I love the mica shift technique, I decided to combine the two. Here's my first piece.
Since the liquid polymer piece is different on both sides, I had to make the main piece reversible, too. What do you think?

Friday, September 10, 2010

Torn Paper Watercolor Technique

Here is a great technique - easy to do, and so variable! I love making the sheets, tearing them up, and combining the pieces to create color-collages. When the torn sections are rolled smooth, the look is really wonderful. You can use the sheets and torn bits to decorate almost anything - jewelry, as I have here - or objects such as boxes, or bowls, or tool handles, or whatever you wish. Here are some of my latest pieces. The pink pendant below is reversible to a blue torn paper collage on the other side.
These earrings show two different color
paths for fall foliage collages.
This pendant has larger pieces of the sheets on one side, torn bits on the other. Not only is the whole piece reversible, but each section can be rotated separately so that colors from both sides show.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Exploring Liquid Polymer

This is such fun! I like trying new processes, and I've just started exploring liquid polymer. I decided to try an idea that comes from Bettina Welker of Germany. I wanted different colors, so experimented with mixing my own colors using alcohol inks - also a first time venture for me. I think the colors came out beautifully.

These pendants are incredibly light weight - you don't even know they're around your neck. I love the way the translucent base makes the colors almost glow. Here's a close up - hope you can see what I mean. I textured the fine silver edging strips for contrast. The strips add some structure and support to the liquid polymer, as well as some interest.

Another feature is the process makes each strip 2-sided so you have the option of using a more detailed, matte side or a more blended and shinier side. On top of that, even the finished pendants have 2 sides, making them reversible!

Here are two photos of the same pendants - side A and side B.