A Perfect Spring Day

What a fantastic start to the weekend, especially after such a huge work week!  Heath and I started off the day running a few errands and having a wander around our local market, finishing off with a yummy lunch.  As it was so beautiful today, it was also perfect weather to seal some polymer clay pendants I had finished painting about two weeks prior to the market prep, which I had hoped (time permitting) to have available also for sale.  I had another batch of what I call my "nude" (ie just baked polymer clay blanks) beads so I combined a couple from my newest batch and finally gave them a lick of colour.

Here's an example of some nude beads (excuse the lint ;) : 

Polymer clay is such a versatile medium and I love experimenting with different applications to achieve different textures and depths of colour.  I seem to naturally lean towards the old, ancient and organic vibe with chocolate brown, bronze, ecru, terracotta and olive green being my go-to colours.  Despite my love for this colour palette that I could repeat over and over, I really try to push myself to try out different colour combinations.  I love using www.design-seeds.com for inspiration as the many available palettes are fabulous.  I highly recommend this site if you struggle with colour combos like me!

Here are the ones now finished:

Here, my inspiration source for these beads was nature and ancient things.  I always like to depict nature in a different way whether it be abstract styled flowers or imitations of seeds, nuts, pods, wood textures etc.  Also, with ancient things, my muse pulls me to try and imitate items that may have been unearthed from times of Druids, Vikings and Celts.  Perhaps it's my English heritage :)

I've used a combination of mediums (alcohol ink, acrylic paint, chalk ink and embossing powder) and techniques (using my hand-carved stamps to create the impressions and carving directly into both the unbaked and baked clay) to achieve the above.  Most of the beads are pendant sized with a couple made for dangles.  They've all been sealed using PYMII for longevity of the mediums.

Have a great rest of your weekend and enjoy the week ahead ☺️