I
remember the joy and excitement of the fiestas that I experienced as a
child and wanted to capture that feeling in a high gloss faux glazed pottery necklace.
Though difficult to capture the "glassy"shine in a photo, these beads are sometimes mistaken for Italian glass when I wear
them. Actually, the beads and all the tiny, intricate designs are painstakingly
handmade from artist-quality polymer clay.
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| The necklace features tiny appliqued butterflies, hearts, |
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| bright flowers, |
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| Dragonflies, |
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| and Ladybugs. |
To keep the weight of the necklace as light as possible the beads were constructed on a bead core base of Sculpey "Ultralight". Once cured, a veneer of PREMO polymer clay run through an Atlas Pasta Machine set on #3 (medium thickness setting) was applied using 2 circle cutter cutouts per bead and the bead was re-cured.
Various appliques of canes and tiny pieces of clay were added using "Kato Liquid Polyclay" as "glue" and the appliques were lightly cured to keep them in place with a crafter's heat gun. The entire bead and appliques was then coated with a thin layer of "Kato Liquid Polyclay" applied with a small paintbrush to mimic ceramic glaze and then cured. Six coats of Varathane polyacrylic varnish were applied with a slightly moist makeup sponge, each coat briefly heat set. Then a mixture of Varathane and Mona Lisa pale gold metal powder was applied with a "used up" ball point pen refill to make the gold dots.
The spacer beads are PC tube beads formed around a narrow copper welding rod used as a mandrel, cured, sanded, buffed and varnished with Varathane, and cut apart using a heavy duty craft knife. My wonderful husband Sy, who has a great eye, is responsible for the eventual stringing design using the matching spacer beads. Feliz Cinco de Mayo! This necklace was featured at "Polymer Clay Daily".
http://polymerclaydaily.com/2010/05/21/brandons-faux-mexican-pottery/
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Cinco de Mayo fiesta necklace shown being worn.
This Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Necklace is currently available for
sale at: MelodyODesigns at Etsy |
