Boho or not?

Hello.

I was very eager to show you these pieces of which I am very proud. I’m not always happy with the result of my work, but this time I surely am. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I was away for 10 days and that I didn’t have any polymer clay or colorful beads around me (and I missed them…). I have been Godmother for the second time in my life (this time for the Christening of a lovely baby boy) and I was very proud that our friends have chosen me and my husband to be part of their spiritual family. It was an honor. Furthermore this happened in England and even though I’ve already visited London and other parts of UK, this is my first encounter with the English countryside. And…it was love at first sight.

Furthermore I got to strike out an item from my bucket list: I have always wanted to see Stonehenge with my own eyes and I finally did it. 

I think that my choice for a Bohemian inspired piece of jewelry has to do with my Bohemian heart (I would love to live in different countries, to discover other cultures, places, people – I’d move to England on the spot, to be closer to our friends and to begin another journey – for me, every time that I travel or that I settle in a new place, is like entering a candy shop – everything is new and interesting and full of colors). 

The interest in this tutorial goes beyond the materials and tools that I use in the sense that I want to incite you to look with different eyes at all the broken brooches or flee market broken jewelry pieces that have interesting patterns and that can be used for molding and thus as a starting point for a new piece of jewelry. 

I am using two old brooches (that I never wear and that I saved for polymer clay moulding purposes), metallic copper polymer clay, blue polymer clay, light pink polymer clay, mica powders, cutters, a round ball tool, a pasta machine, a pan coaster, Oyumaru moulding compound, micro-billes, a Lisa Pavelka’s texture plate, a silver -plated bracelet blank (frame) and copper findings. 

I use Oyumaru because when you don’t need a mould anymore, you put it in hot water and you can reuse the Uyumaru compound to make other moulds (in a word it is reusable).

I will present to you the way in which I have made the pendant and the space beads attached to the chain. 

I prepared the metallic copper polymer clay. 

I made the mould using Oyumaru (Oyumaru is a reusable putty, which is softened by heat (put it in a mug of hot water). Once shaped it cools and hardens in just minutes into a hard, slightly rubbery, plastic. It does not stick to Art Clay, PMC, polymer clay, Green Stuff, Kneadatite, Epoxy Putty, Stick Putty and other common sculpting putties

Read more: http://www.metalclay.co.uk/oyumaru-instant-mold-moulding-compound/#ixzz3gddQ4CU2
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I put the polymer clay into the mould and pressed slightly on the mould to get the pattern on the clay.

I used a round cutter to cut my center piece.

Now the playful part: I started to add mica powders. 

Then I used the second brooch to make a pattern into clay (I just pressed it into clay).

I sandwiched the clay between the pan coaster (to get a pattern for the back of the bead) and the brooch (to imprint the pattern of the front of the bead).

I used a wavy cookie cutter to cut the shape of the focal bead.

I added some liquid Polymer clay over the center of the larger piece and then put the smaller piece on top of it. 

I colored the margins of the focal.

I removed some of the excess powder using baby wipes, thus bringing up the initial metallic copper look of the polymer clay. 

I poured some liquid Fimo in the places where I wanted to add the micro-billes. 

I doodled a little bit on the sides and then added some blue mica powder.

I made a hole to be able to attach it later to a chain.

Then I made the two spacer beads.

I used the tear-shaped cutter to cut two pieces. I imprinted a pattern on the back of the bead using the pan coaster.

I used a Lisa Pavelka’s texture sheet to get the Paisley look. 

I played a little with the pattern and then added mica powders.

And micro-billes

I made holes up and down to attach the beads to the chain (after baking them).

The bracelet is a slightly variation of the same techniques (I imprinted the pattern into polymer clay from the two brooches, put the pieces one on top of the other in the same way – using some Liquid Fimo – and added a rhinestone in the middle, mica powders and small polymer clay balls – blue and pink that I rolled with my hand). I have used a bracelet blank and pushed a little bit the piece into the blank (I did not use Liquid Clay, but it’s not a bad idea to do so). I have made two more pieces (like the center piece from the necklace, except I pushed the brooch into clay) and added a rhinestone in the center of each piece. I put the two pieces next to the focal piece (on each side), underneath the focal. I made two tear-shape beads (like the one from the spacer beads) and colored them with mica powders (I used a different Paisley design from the same Lisa Pavelka’s texture plate). I put them on the side, underneath the previous round pieces. I pressed them slightly into the bracelet frame (again you can use some Liquid Fimo to make sure they will stick together).

You can take a closer look at the bracelet:

Then I baked everything. 

Well, it looks more difficult than it really is. You can say that about working with polymer clay:)

Thank you for reading me!

Mihaela 

P.S. When I was in front of the Stonehenge monument I realized that dreams do come true (in high school I used to spend a lot of time studying in the Alliance Francaise and when I wanted to take a break, I would browse through an album with the Stonehenge stones – that I loved – and ask myself if I would ever stand in front of it)…