New Designs Added This Week

Another busy week making new designs. Here are the latest additions to my Etsy shop. Click on the individual titles for full descriptions.

English Rose Locket

Topaz Twist Earrings

Smoke Earrings

Starry Night Necklace

Heart of Steel Earrings

Caviar Necklace

Festive Banner

The snow has put me in a festive mood, so I've designed a new banner for my Etsy shop.


I started by creating a pale grey marbled background and added snowy dots all over it. I didn't want it to be too Christmassy being mindful that not everyone celebrates Christmas, but I couldn't resist topping the C of Chameleonite with Santa's hat. I was quite pleased with how restrained I managed to be because my original design had a couple of Christmas trees and sprig of holly. But it didn't reflect my shop or say anything about what I sold, so I finally decided on one of my scarlet polymer clay roses placed at either end. Not very Christmassy, but such lovely festive colours!

You can see the scarlet rose incorporated into my designs in the side bar on the right. Details of the necklace can be found here, and matching earrings here.

Beautiful Memory

Decided to introduce a few memory bracelets to my shop this week. I like the simplicity of them, the fact they are easy to wear with no fiddly clasps, and one size fits all. But I absolutely hate the way they devour all my lovely beads!

I'm a typical magpie, I hoard my little beauties, take them out, play with them, gaze at them lovingly, then put them all away again. Well that's not strictly true, of course I do use them in my designs, but I'm not used to depleting my entire stock of my absolute favourites all in one sitting!

Simple to make they may be, but it's definitely not a case of less is more where the memory bracelet is concerned, in fact the more the merrier! I adore the deeper cuff style of at least 3 or 4 wraps or more, so looks like I'm going to have to go on a bead buying binge... again!

Mulberry:



Cool Water:



Autumn Berries:



Misty Ocean:


But I haven't given up on my polymer clay roses, and here is my latest....

Purple Passion:

Cold Porcelain

I've just discovered Cold Porcelain and a recipe for making it at home ... there are loads of recipes on the Internet, many which vary slightly in the ingredients, so I chose one and couldn't wait to get started.

After reading reports of some people's disappointment with their numerous attempts at perfecting the clay, I was a little apprehensive, thinking that I would either end up with a gooey mess, or something that was dry, difficult to work with and cracked whilst drying.

But I'm delighted to say that my fears were unfounded!

The clay appears to have turned out beautifully. I must say after previously working with Polymer Clay, the texture and light perfume from the Nivea cream in the Cold Porcelain is quite pleasant. Added to that, the low cost, natural appearance, low toxicity and no need to fire, and I can definitely say I am now a convert!

Yesterday I made my very first attempt at making a white rose and was amazed how easy it was. It isn't perfect and I will need more practice but I'm enjoying the learning process.

White Rose:


I had a little piece of clay left over from that rose, so I added a tiny dab of acrylic paint to make a pink rose. I'm not sure if the acrylic paint made the texture a little drier, or if it was drying out through use, or possibly a combination of the two, but it didn't seem quite as supple as when I made the white rose. As you can see from the photo, it has formed tiny cracks along the edge of the thinnest petals... which is no bad thing and I actually think it looks quite realistic.

Pink Rose:


Primarily I'd like to use my flowers in my jewellery designs, so I'm a little disappointed that I will probably have to varnish them to protect from moisture. I love the natural matte porcelain look as it is, so will have to try a varnish with a very matte look to try to retain the appearance of porcelain.

I'm going to experiment using various additions to colour the clay and want to try adding Mica Pigment powder for a subtle pearly, shimmery effect too.

So my conclusion is that it is a wonderful clay and one that I will enjoy experimenting with.