Skeleton Hand Choker and Hair Clip

Merry Christmas to all and I hope Santa delivered all the presents you wished for :)   

As you can tell by my other blogs I tend to make skull pendants and other strange jewellery, so I thought why not make some creepy skeleton hand jewellery?

These where rather difficult to make. Trying to get the fingers to look as skeletal as possible was the hard part, that and bonding them to the metacarpal bones. I hand sculpted every part of these skeletal hand. I don't use moulds unless I really have to.  Each to their own as they say. 

Skeleton Hand Hair Clip and choker

These are fun to make, even if the process is a pain in the backside! 

To make these I started with the metacarpal bones first. I just formed a oval shape from a blob of polymer clay and flattened the back of it. With the back now flattened, the top was left oval and domed. Before I made the fingers I sculpted

the metacarpal bones. I use stylus tools but you can use a tooth pick if you don't have a stylus tool. Taking my time I outlined the basic shape of the hand. After I mapped out where I should start shape and characterise the detail. Once this part of the skeleton hand was done I then moved on to the disturbing and eerily long bony fingers. 

I rolled out the polymer clay in to long strips then cut them to size. Once cut I then attached then to the metacarpal bones. I used liquid fimo when attaching the fingers as it bonds during baking. Convenient and practical yay! :) 

Back to the making of the bony fingers, so after I rolled out the polymer clay ad attached the bony fingers. I then added in the finger joint detail. After all this shaping and detail, I then added shading with a grey pigment powder. After all this, which took me two days to make, off to the oven they went. Once they had cooled I then glued a blank hair clip to the larger skeleton hand....., and yes I glazed it :)  

For the choker I drilled a hole at the bottom of the hand so I could put a jump ring on it. As you can see it's attached to a black velvet ribbon which was measured, cut and made in to the choker. I will be making more of these as I just love them. I'm afraid the photographs of these aren't very good as someone asked me to make the choker for someone's Christmas, so I didn't have time to take very good photographs of them. However! When I make more I shall take much better pictures of them :)  

Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!

 

Jewellery Displays And Photography

Using a white backdrop with Christmas flower decorations.
Also two glass faux crystals
Photograph taken today

Jewellery displays take a lot of work! Sometimes your looking at your jewellery and thinking how am I going to set this up so that it looks inviting and some what professional. My personal experience is that it can be tiring mentally, not only do you have to position it perfectly, but you also need the perfect lighting to bring out the best

Black felt background

 in your jewellery, especially if you have multi-faceted gem stones, cubic zirconias or glass beads.

 Whether it's pendants, bracelets, earrings or rings, having the best lighting just adds that extra special something to them. Just trying to get the light to hit them in just the right place can be frustrating however...maybe an investment in some pro lighting would make even more of a difference! :)  

Using a red rose wreath for a backgroud

So today I was just playing around with displays just to see what works and what doesn't. I would like to work with more coloured backgrounds as I'm limited to either black and white which isn't bad, but I just want to use more eye catching colours. 

I also use fake flowers, skulls and anything else I can get my paws on. I tend to use things that don't take to much away from the jewellery. It's always good to have something in the background just to give the photograph some added depth :)

Using a black felt background

Next year I'm looking to get my jewellery modelled meaning I should be able to add a more diverse range of photographs of my jewellery, and I'll get to practise some photography skills. So I get to level up both my skills at the same time, yay! :)  

I will hopefully be getting a better camera next year, and even though the one I have now is good at getting the job done, I want to get the best out of my jewellery. So people can see the jewellery in greater detail and colour. 

Well that's me done for today. I hope you enjoyed having a read of my blog.

Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!  

Halloween jewellery display photograph

Craft Fair In Dingwall

I have been looking around the highlands for craft fairs and my lovely soon to be mother in law found one in Dingwall. So this morning I was up at 6.30. I woke up with the thought so what do people do at this time in the morning? I've never seen 6.30 in the morning! Just kidding :) 

So after my (it's to early in the damn morning) coffee, I check everything such as jewellery displays, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings so they are priced and ready to survive the trip to Dingwall hehe. 

Once we had arrived we got everything out the boot and made our way to the building where the craft fair was being held. It was such a lovely place, there where other ladies there who had lovely pieces of jewellery and clothing which are all handmade. It was rather quiet but with most craft fairs it's rather hit and miss with people but this doesn't faze me people either love hand crafted stuff or they stick to the chains of jewellery stores, each to their own. I would love to see more people buying hand crafted because some of the things that I saw just made me drool. If had taken some spending money I would have bought myself a wee present! But I didn't and that was poopy (sad face). Ahem! moving on. I did however enjoy the day it was great and the other women where just fun and talented. It was rather short day but I really enjoyed it! Here is a photograph of my table in all its glory. Even though this blog was rather short I hope you enjoyed it.

My jewellery displayed for all to see.

Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!

New Tools and Jewellery

I recently bought some new jewellery tools, these tools took me a little while to find as some jewellery web sites didn't sell them. I bought some new stylus ball tools that where of different sizes as I want to make smaller detailed jewellery. I also bought a new saw which I really needed! So I can cut sheets of metal or wire. You maybe wondering "so Raven what was wrong with your old tools, did you make so much jewellery you wore them down?" Well no I

My basic stylus ball tools

didn't I was making do with what I had in my jewellers tool box, as it was quite difficult to find the tools that I needed. You have to understand that sometimes it can be difficult to find professional tools that you need. I had the basic tools but even though they are basic they still did a good job. I just felt that I needed better tools. I have moved from basic tools to more professional tools. When you realise you make jewellery on a scale that is rather big and because it's so big it goes in to the category of statement jewellery because it's kinda large. Just an example when using the basic stylus ball

tools I only had three sizes to choose from which was large,

My new stylus tools, sorry about
the quality of the picture the tips
of the tools are quite small 

medium and small-ish. So the detail and things I was making I couldn't really scale them down, as you can see in the photograph just three sizes. Where as the other tools I have more of a variety of sizes so I can add smaller detail and make smaller pieces of jewellery. I'm not saying my older jewellery is huge! But the pendants where quite big so having a variety of different sized pendants is always better. Especially if I want to make pendants for Gothic chokers. I just think a smaller version takes a skill to the next level, I'll also be able to make earrings to match the pendants when making them on a smaller scale. 

Raven Skull Cameo

When I started to make the raven skull cameo I applied some black polymer clay to the cabochon setting. After smoothing out and making sure the black polymer clay was tidy and free from finger prints. I started on sculpting the ravens skull with my new stylus ball tools. This is the smallest raven skull I've made its about three and a half centimetres, so rather small. After sculpting and shading the raven skull I then attached it to the black polymer clay background. I felt that the raven skull on it's own was a little plain so I decided to add a black rose and a swirly vine going around the raven and rose. I then baked the clay and the cabochon setting, if you do bake polymer clay on a setting please be mindful of the heated metal.

Vampire Fang Cameo

Vampire cameo

I did the same background on the cabochon setting I did with the raven skull cameo. I made each tooth on this cameo individually and then put them on the black polymer clay background. after I put the teeth on I baked the pendant. After it had cooled completely I applied some dark red craft paint for the blood on the fangs. I then put it on a black chord. Quite a simple pendant but effective :)

I hope you enjoyed reading this as I had writing it.

Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night :)

Happy Halloween to you all, I hope you have a fang-tastic and spook-tacular day! I can't help it cliché puns are a guilty pleasure :) I have had fun making some spooky Halloween jewellery. I've also been busy with other projects and not just Gothic or Halloween jewellery, I'm also awaiting word on a course I took I have my fingers and toes crossed for that! Now lets get to the jewellery :)

Vampire Fang Necklace.

I must say that I did make myself one of these because I loved it so much. Here is how I made the fangs. I first got a sizeable piece of night glow polymer clay, I then put the clay through the conditioning machine. I used the thickest setting, Once it had been rolled out I cut out the basic vampire fang

shape. I then added the detail of the teeth with a stylus ball tool. taking care not to make the detail to deep, as the clay may have broke. After adding the detail I then baked the clay and let it dry. Once cooled the fangs where then dipped in a rich red crafting paint so the fangs looked like they where dripping blood. Once the paint had dried I drilled two holes and inserted eye pins so I could hang it from a necklace; here is the finished necklace :)

Cut Throat Necklace!

My sister modelled this necklace and she also gave me the idea of putting it on a ribbon, as I usually use chain or leather chord. So thanks to her! So here is how this gruesome choker came into being! I rolled out a large piece of polymer clay, as with the vampire fangs I cut out the basic blood dripping

shape, smoothed out the edges so that it didn't look so ridged and rough. I also made some little droplets to make it look like it was dripping. I baked all these and let them cool. after they cooled I literally poured the red paint onto the polymer clay to make it look like the blood was dripping heavily. After a day of waiting for the paint to dry, I then drilled several holes so I could attach jump rings and add the chain for the blood droplets and the red ribbon. And ta-da! done :)

Cute Fat Bat Pendant

This little guy was fun to make, because I usually just roll out the polymer clay and cut out a basic bat shape. This guy I formed him by hand. I rolled the clay in my hand and formed it into an oval shape for it's body. For his wings I formed the clay into diamond shapes and with a stylus ball tool added in the wing detail as you can see, For the ears I moulded the clay into cone shapes and again used my stylus tool to flatten the cone shape and add the

detail of the ear. Take time when adding detail, after making the wings and ears I then blended them on to the body making sure they where are attached securely. I then made some eyes for the little chap which where just rolled little balls then flattened. Once the eyes had been put on I then baked him and let him cool. Again I drilled a hole on top of his head and inserted an eye pin, keeping it in place with epoxy glue. I will later put him on a black ribbon. 

Red And Black Twisted Witches Hat

I have written about the witches hats before but I just wanted to show off the latest one. This one is much bigger than the other

two, they were about one inch in height, this one is about four inches, so quite a lot of polymer clay was used for this one! I decided to lavishly decorate this witches hat just to see how it would look. I personally think it looks awesome. I also gave the point of the hat an eccentric curl because I was inspired by the style of the Tim Burton movie 'Nightmare Before Christmas'.

Hope you enjoyed reading Halloween Jewellery part three. It's a day late but due to being busy it got posted today.

Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!!!!

Halloween Jewellery - Part two

It's time for part two of my Halloween jewellery blog! And man have I been busy this month! I mean busier than usual!. Apart from making Halloween jewellery I've been making some other jewellery that is being sent to Ireland to be sold.  So! I'm very excited about that :) I'm also awaiting word back from the course in silver jewellery I took, as I've sent it away to get graded and the waiting is killing me!. Now back to all things spooky. I had been wondering what to make as I had some creative block, and that sound ridiculous because it's near Halloween how can I get creative block with all this inspiration around me!. But after all that, I settled on what I wanted to make. So lets get to the good stuff., the jewellery! :)

Cute cauldron

Lets start with this cute little cauldron I will be making this in to a pendant, I haven't put it on a chain yet as I've got other projects to make that are of a higher priority than the cauldron. This was my first attempt at making a cauldron and I will say it's rather easy to make. It's made from polymer clay. I made this first by

making the round shape of the cauldron I then carefully cut a bit of the top of the round shape so that it was flat, I then put the round shape of the cauldron to the side, I then got some more black polymer clay and conditioned it through the sculpty conditioning machine, which also has a thickness gauge so you can choose how thick you want your sheet of rolled out clay to be. I then got a craft knife and cut two strips, one strip was for the rim of the cauldron and the other was for the decoration round the middle as you can see in the picture. I also blended the rim into the cauldron so nothing looked half done or messy. The foamy effect from the witches brew again is polymer clay, I used glow in the dark polymer clay for that spooky glow when it's dark. The frothy effect is easy enough to do. I just use a sculpting tool to make little imprints and I just hung some over the side to make it look like the brew is boiling over. The handles I just rolled out small strips and blended them in to the side of the cauldron.

Twisted Witches Hats

These are one of my favourite makes this month. They are just so unique and cute!. Witches hats are always an easy thing to make with polymer clay, Just roll out a long cone shape and flat base

for the rim of the hat, that's it!! I hear you "surely it's not that easy raven!?" well yes it is., but, and this is a big but! if you are wanting to make polymer clay ribbons be aware of the thickness and that they don't brake or rip while your adding them. It's happened to me many times. After adding the ribbons I then made a little square buckle for added decoration :)

Braaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiins

Well brain in this case haha!. I was going to make a bog standard pink brain but then I thought black and green would look much more effective and different, again the basic shape of the brain is simple enough once I got that I made a line down the middle of

the brain shape. I then rolled out strips of green clay for the., well squiggle texture of the brain, "Raven that's not medically accurate!!" I know but lets pretend it is hehe,  which is fiddly to do! And my eye sight isn't what it use to be add arthritis in to that mix it was a slow process making this., well actually in making anything!    

Severed Zombie Fingers

These where fun to make as I have not made zombie severed fingers before. I rolled these in to well finger shapes, I then cut into the top of the finger. I then smoothed out the part I cut and blended some red polymer clay into the green to give it that bloody look. I then partially closed up the top of the finger. I then pushed jump rings in to the clay to look like it had been stitch up. I then added the creases on the finger and some black polymer clay for the horrible decaying nails. 

Zoiks  It's a G-g-g-g-gost!!!

Yes it is but who could be scared of these two little guys :) I made these two a few days ago, they where some what difficult to make but that was more how to get the look of the cute bed sheet ghost look. I made these by rolling two small balls of white polymer clay. I then got more polymer clay which I put though the

conditioning machine and set it for quite a thin thickness as it where. I then cut two square shapes from the thin sheet of polymer clay. Remember the two balls I made?. I then draped the rolled out sheets on to the ball and adjusted the clay to make it look like they billowing. I then rolled out some small bits of black clay to make their eyes :).

I hope you enjoyed reading the second part of my Halloween blog, I may write a third if I have time but in the mean time Keep It Spooky Children Of The Night!!

This is my Facebook page if the link isn't working then I will try and fix it :)

https://www.facebook.com/Ravenjewellery?ref=hl

All Hallows Eve Jewellery - Part One

Ah! Halloween will soon be upon us! And I for one can not wait! :) The spooky atmosphere that descends on the night of Halloween, you can dress up as the silliest or the most evil thing you can think of.  The shops are full of fun treats to buy and fun ornaments and wine glasses which can be used even when its not Halloween!. I have made some fun and spooky Halloween jewellery. Things like bats, skulls, pumpkins, tombstones, eyeballs, coffins and lots more.

Pumpkin Earrings 

Cute pumpkin earrings Glaze wasn't added yet

These pumpkins earrings are made from polymer clay. First I just made the simple ball shape, then I used a needle tool to make the lines in the pumpkin. After the lines where mane I used a polymer clay ball tool to sculpt the fun face that the pumpkins have. I then rolled out some green polymer clay to make the vine like stalks of the pumpkin, when making the leafs I did not cut out the leafs from polymer clay (which is my own technique I'm keeping quiet on that one for now however you could use a leaf mould) once I had the leaf shape I used the needle tool the make the leaf vein detail. I then used some pigment to shade the pumpkins lines and face so that it just has that bit more depth. After all that I then baked them, when they cooled down I then glazed them for a lovely shine and the glaze protects the polymer clay vines and leafs from braking as they can be rather delicate.

Bat Pendant

Spooky bat pendant

Now this cute little bat wasn't hard to make as I drew out bat shape and made a template from it. I warmed up the polymer clay in my hands by rolling into a ball, After kneading the polymer clay I then put it through the sculpty roller to condition the clay. When I had rolled it out I laid the bat template on the rolled out clay and carefully cut out the bat shape with a very sharp craft knife. I then added detail to the bat wings with a stylus ball tool and just made little balls of polymer clay for the red eyes. I then smoothed out the shape of the bat as some of the edges where a bit rough after cutting the clay. When I was done smoothing out the bat I made a small hole at the bottom of the bat so I could put some red beads for some decoration. I will say that I DID NOT put the beads on before I put the pedant in the oven I did that after. After I baked I let it cool then I glazed it as usual! I never go without my glaze I love it! :) Then I added the beads.

Eerie Eyeball Pendant

Raven why would you make such a creepy looking thing?! I hear some of you cry. Well because it gives that reaction it's something you look at and go wow at! Either in awe or disgust either way it gets a reaction :) Now as you can see its a round shape and that's how I started it, once I got a good round shape I then put some red and black clay through the sculpty machine to condition the clay. The thickness setting for these was on seven, so quite thin. Once the clay had been rolled out flat by the machine I then cut out two circles one from the black clay for the pupil and red for the iris. Once they where in place I then rolled out some strips of polymer clay for the veins on the eyeball. After all this fun I then baked it, when I did put it on the tray I placed it so the pupil was facing up. Yep you guessed it after all that I glazed it :)  

Stitched Up Heart

Now hearts are a bugger to make!. Why is that raven? you ask, it's just a heart!. That's is why "it's" just a heart, the simplest designs are the ones that I personally have trouble with because they are so simple, so when I make a mistake I just sigh and start again. But! however once I do get the shape I'm happy with I get to work decorating it as hearts can be quite plain. I then knead the clay in to a triangle shape. I then face the point of the triangle down, then I make a cut in to the flat surface of the shape in the middle. This would make more sense in a diagram or a video!. After that I then smoothed out the edges in to a softer heart shape. As you can see I've made veins these are made in the same way as the eyeball pendant but I did however make a trench in the heart for the veins so I could add the stitch detail. Which is just small jump rings pushed into the clay before baking. You know the drill after baking and cooling I add the glaze. :)

I will be continuing this Blog soon as I'm currently in the middle of making more Halloween jewellery. So keep those eyes peeled and keep it spooky children of the night!! 

Coffins With A Twist.

Coffins. Usually in design quite strait forward,  the typical coffin shape with R.I.P written on it. I sometimes make little items of jewellery like this but I tend to make more decorated coffins, something outside the norm (even for a coffin). When making coffins I focus more on the shape and what I can incorporate on to it, like roses, skulls, swirls, bats, sparkly glass crystals, and much more. The design of a coffin shape for me to cut free hand on the polymer clay is rather difficult because it's such a simple shape that the mistakes I make (before I get it right!) are quite a lot. So I drew up some templates so I could just cut out the shape from polymer clay without mistake after mistake.

I also use a polymer clay conditioning machine to, well condition the clay!. After I've conditioned it and have the thickness I desire I set about cutting out the coffin shape. When the basic shape is done I start thinking about what I could put on to the coffin. I put a very simple rose and leafs on a coffin I made yesterday, I also rolled out some small bits of polymer clay into long strips. Once they where rolled out I carefully made swirl designs on the surface of the pendant, I also made an oval shape from some effects polymer clay and put a Czech drop bead in the centre of the effects polymer clay (pearl white clay). I then baked the coffin and put a very thin glaze over it ready for the resin glaze I will put on it later on in the month. I also made coffin earrings which are made in the

same basic way the pendant was made, except that I mixed red and black clay along with blue and green on the other set of earrings to give a marbled effect

On another note I made a skull with some sparkly glass crystals into the forehead of the skull, I also set some in to the eyes for effect.

People often ask are skulls easy to make?. Well what's your definition of easy?. So I'll answer that question this way, baby skulls are very easy to make, baby skulls just refer to cute skulls, you may see them in cute Gothic jewellery. Often worn by lolita Goths or perky Goths. You can see my version of baby skulls on my blog about skulls. They are the cute ones with either flowers or swirls or maybe even both!. The more realistic skulls. Well they are much harder to make, but once you master them they become easier. Don't let making a skull that has gone wrong or looks a bit off deter you. We all make mistakes in the beginning  On one note I will say don't make them to rigid or without character. The skulls I make don't tend to be to realistic even though I can make realistic looking skulls. I personally love that bit of fun and it being slightly quirky and different. If your having trouble making skulls just by looking at a picture, I would suggest you find out if someone in your area is a jewellery artist and works with polymer clay. It's always easier to watch how someone else makes something as it gives you some new skills. Which can be invaluable.  Also ask what styles they can do as most people who work with polymer clay don't always make Gothic jewellery. A Gothic jewellery artist is hard to find especially in rural areas or small towns/city's. So those in the highlands of Scotland know they have one nearly on their door step hehe!.  

I hope you guys and gals enjoyed reading this as I enjoyed talking about what I love. 

KEEP IT SPOOKY CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT!!

Custom Made Jewellery - Second Part

As I said in the first part of custom made jewellery I made a silver pendant for someone's mum's birthday, I made two pendants so she could choose between them. Making these pendants was so much fun but also it was tense, because I wanted these to look as beautiful as I could. I made a little lilly type of pendant with an amethyst dangling in the middle of the pendant. The second was a simple square pendant with a little swirl design in the middle for decoration, it also has a small amethyst drop gemstone.

Lilly style necklace

 When I went to make these I made sure the mat and my tools where clean. When making the lilly shaped pendant I used a drinking straw to make the tubular part of the lilly so I could put a head pin through it so I could then put the amethyst in the middle. When making the tubular part I made sure that the straw had badger balm on it so the clay didn't stick to the straw, (which if you don't do it could stick and the silver could crack when removing it) I added some slip to the clay that I was going to join together, I then pinched the silver clay around the straw then fanned out the bottom of the lilly, then shaped it so that it came in to a soft point. After the silver clay dried I then carefully sanded the clay so that the shape was smoother and also to stop it from catching on cloths or scratching the skin. The little rectangle shaped pendant is the most simple design when working with silver clay,

Rectangle pendant

 I cut the metal into a small rectangle shape, then waited for it to dry. After it had dried I applied some slip, which is just silver clay in a single cream consistency, I then used the silver clay syringe to add the fine swirl detail (I also did this with the lilly).  The slip is just so the syringe clay can stick to the silver clay without the slip your more likely to make a mistake and the metal may move around and smudge. After filing, sanding, adding syringe detail then waiting for it to dry I then got it kiln fired. The best part of making silver jewellery is when it comes out of the kiln!. The metal is an off white colour when removed from the kiln, when removed I put it into the a jug of cold water, to cool it obviously. (I will say that I did not put the amethysts in the kiln they where put on to the silver later). The silver cools instantly after being in the cold water, I then dried the silver with a soft cloth. The best bit! using a brass brush I then began brushing off the white layer to reveal the beautiful silver. Even better part! I then used a burnisher to shine up the silver, I just love seeing the shine of the silver after it has been burnished. After all that fun I added the amethysts and put them on a silver snake chain. I'm hoping that the person really likes them, because I have just loved making them.

Keep it spooky children of the night!!.

Custom Made Jewellery.

I have been getting a few requests for personalised jewellery. A friend of my friend asked if I could make their daughter a wire necklace, in the style of written script so that it spelt out her name. I was also asked if I could make someone a polymer clay coffin pendant, so I made two for choice so the person could pick between them. Both seemed to really like what I made them. I have had another request for a silver pendant with an amethyst to set off the piece, I feel honoured that they asked me to make something for them. When someone requests me to make them a piece of jewellery my initial thought is "oh crap" because it's you're responsibility to ensure its their vision comes to life and so you just hope you can capture what they want. I will show one of the custom designs the others I will put up when they are done. 

The person who asked for the silver pendants I'm more nervous of making something with silver than I am with polymer clay, mostly because silver is very expensive and do not want to waste silver by churning out piece after piece.  I tend to take my time when working with wire or silver because I don't want to waste silver by making a mistake so I ensure that it is made to the best of my ability. I tend to experiment more with polymer clay because the price is more affordable and it comes in big packs which is more affordable when I want to stock up. The coffins aren't quite finished. I need to glaze them and put them on a necklace chord. So I'm hoping the person will love them when they are finished. And I'm really hoping that my friend loves the silver pendant with amethyst gemstone. 

This was a rather short post but I hope you enjoyed it all the same. Keep it spooky children of the night.

   

A Trip To The Perth Bead Fair

This month I went to the Scottish bead fair in Perth. The fair doesn't have to much in the way of Gothic jewellery items to purchase, but there is enough to make unique Gothic jewellery. So just because there is nothing blatantly Goth that stands out I did  find skull beads, teeth beads (in the shape of fangs) also drop beads in red, black or purple, red drop beads are great for making vampire bitten necklaces with the drop beads dangling, to represent the blood dripping down. There was also a stall that sold polymer clay. I bought all the black polymer clay. I have a lot of jewellery projects that require the black polymer clay. Whilst wondering around the stalls much like any other woman I was looking at all the sparkly beads and bought a few. Also while wondering around I went to a glass work stall, I stopped to have a look and I saw how much fun it looked, the person making a glass pendant and just how they made it look so easy. I will say that it is harder than it looks, the person who was making the glass pendant has been doing it for about 20 years. It's a skill I'm also looking to acquire a few years down the line, I will be experimenting with glass clay to make pendants hopefully next year. I just love the effect glass can give a Gothic piece of jewellery especially reds, blues, greens and purples even some pinks!. I say it like that because I'm not to keen on pink (not that I hate it). Me and my soon to be mother in law caught up with the silver clay jewellery teacher that taught me so much two years ago, I talk about this experience in my very first blog. 

Now I'm sure your wondering after your little trip to the fair Raven did you make anything with your goodies!. Well yes I did!. Now I said I saw lots of sparkly things well one of those sparkly objects was a rivolos. Its a very sparkly bead that you can use in bead weaving or in polymer clay. Well I used it in the polymer clay I purchased.

      I also made some earrings with grinning skull beads with amethyst drop beads. Also some grinning skull beads with glass crystal style drop beads 

 

I also made some teeth necklaces they are fun and funky especially because there are different colours. I also wire wrapped the beads for that bit of added decoration.

Thank you very much for reading my blog I hope you enjoyed it.

Keep it spooky children of the night.

Handmade bird and raven skulls

As the title suggests this blog is about bird skulls. They seem to be big in Gothic and alternative fashion at the moment and that's what caught my attention. When ever I looked at Gothic fashion these skulls kept showing up. So I decided to give some a go from polymer clay. Now you must remember these are the first two I've ever made within this month. So since I made human skulls from polymer clay I thought I'd give bird skulls a go to. The first one I made was rather difficult but I managed to get the basic shape of a birds skull. The raven skull. WOW!! was that difficult!. As ravens have a longer beak and the detail is a bit harder to map out.

When I started making the bird skull I will admit that I was staring at my lump of polymer clay thinking where do I start?!. So I made a basic cone shape then put it on my work surface and shaped out the cone so the back was flat but still retained the cone shape. Then I sculpted the tip of the cone into more of a bird shaped beak. I then proceeded on to the eyes now that the beak shape was formed. I added shading to bring out the shape of the bird skull more, I sometimes feel that with polymer clay that if shading isn't added the shape of any skull really isn't pronounced, that it is missing a certain bit of ooomf.

Now on to the raven skull. Again I made the cone shape, but as you can see the detail on the skulls are completely different to one another. The ordinary bird skull is much more squat and raven skull is more elongated. Also the detail is very different, as you can see on the basic bird skull the nostrils are much further apart and aren't that pronounced.

The raven on the other hand as you can see is much more pronounced, the eyes sockets are larger and the nostrils are more pronounced, the contours stand out more and are much more defined. When I made the raven skull I just had a picture of a skull to copy. So I could grasp how to form the skull shape and from there went on to make the pendant. Now with the raven skull the detail I had to sculpt was much more in depth so I had to be much more aware of what I was doing. I managed to get the detail required to make it. I then shaded and defined the skull. I then made a background to put the skull on, I made a basic oval shape and sculpted swirls on the sides for decoration, I then dusted it with silver pigment. After I baked the pendant I used a high shine glaze just to magnify the skull in the middle of the pendant. For further decoration I used a black glass bead just for some added sparkle. 

before adding the glaze

After adding the glaze

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, I'm not an expert just love what I do. 

 Keep it spooky children of the night!!

Tombstone Pendants

When you say tombstone the person next to you (if freaked out easily) will usually turn pail at the very word or may just think your bonkers. Who talks of such things? Really!!. Well I do and love the macabre and spooky. I love Halloween and the grave yard settings. That's is what influenced these necklaces. Tombstones give that haunting feeling and that thought of what's on the other side,  I've tried to capture that feeling but encapsulate it in to something fun that every woman or teen girl would like (that's if they love the spooky side of life that is!) 

I grew up loving hammer horror films, Vincent Price films, a great love of Halloween, I was always drawn to rock bands who had that spooky feel to them example Alice Cooper, Gary Numan and good old ozzy, I'm not going to write every band or thing I like because I'd be typing until next year. Worlds longest blog haha!!.

These tombstone necklaces where easy as in making the basic shape of the tombstone, the rose and vines where the tricky bit. I used a powerful magnifying glass that I can attach to my work bench, If you ever want to make small detail in your jewellery and are just starting out get one it will be of benefit to your delicate work. When I'm making tombstones from polymer clay I like to add detail, such as cracks or shadows to the pedant it just gives a bit of character which adds more to the design than just a plain tombstone with R.I.P written onto it. Even using a small amount of cotton wool to make cobwebs on the tombstone is very effective, but don't bake the polymer clay with wool or the wool will burn!. I also use a glaze to toughen the polymer clay so that delicate pieces such as roses and vines don't brake when being worn. Another thing I try to make sure of when making jewellery from polymer clay, I make sure there are no finger prints in the piece of jewellery. No body wants to buy jewellery with a great big finger print on it!. If its not meant to be there get rid of it. I use a delicate cloth to smooth away finger prints and smooth out an uneven surface. 

Handmade tombstone made
from polymer clay

Handmade tombstone  from polymer clay

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this, you can follow or leave a comment, If you have any questions I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Keep it spooky children of the night!

 

Handamde from polymer clay
this one has a cool spooky skull

New Skulls New Style

I have been working very hard on trying to perfect skulls, coffins, Gothic black roses, spiders, bats and so on. So most of the cliché Gothic things I love. Over the period of four weeks I've been working on realistic skulls as I wrote in my previous blog, since then I have realised  where I was going wrong. I wasn't to great at sculpting the detail around the eye socket, So just by studying  pictures of the human skull and its contours, I  was able to see what I was missing out detail wise. When making skulls if your a beginner I would suggest that you look at pictures of the human skull so that you know the detail well and it will be easier when sculpting them from polymer clay. When you know the how something looks with detail in your head after studying it you are able to know what you should include in to what you are creating.

When I first started making jewellery I didn't realise how impact full fine detail was, but when first starting on a jewellery artists path you just love the fun of doing something new, as you get more experienced you start to realise how detail can make pretty jewellery in to beautiful jewellery. As I say I'm not an expert in jewellery making nor I'm a novice, I'm hovering somewhere in the middle. I would also say say to beginners don't rush in and try and make something off the top of your head. Draw out what you want to make first so that you know where to put the details and colours in the place you want them. Once to often when I began to make something I just horsed in there and tried to make what was in head instead of mapping out what I wanted to create. So having a few artists sketch pads in your work place is always good. Make sure you have good sculpting tools and also keep textures such as leaf skeletons, textured rubber sheets and lots of other textures that you can find around your home or work place. So have fun experimenting and coming up with new ideas.      

These are two of the newer skulls, the one on the right has a detailed background as I mentioned above textures and detail just add to the design. Thanks for reading and I hope some of the advise has been helpful

Shaded with pigments to give a spooky
old feel

Made from white polymer clay
but shaded and aged with pigments

 

Skulls skulls and more skulls!!!!

Skulls some people love them, some people hate them. Love them or hate them you have one. They conjure up so many images of death, Halloween, fantasy warriors (like in Jason and the Argonauts) and much more. You can put skulls in to any kind of art form and they just look fantastic.

I'm going to show some of the skulls I've been making from the first skull I ever made to the most recent which was made today. The skull pendant I made today is more realistic than my other polymer clay skull pendants. Which tended be rather cute and playful without any real detail except maybe a flower on the skull or a few swirls around the jaw and eye sockets, So I always wondered how do I add shading to the polymer clay to add that extra bit of depth . Then I learned a fantastic shading technique today. Which is just using charcoal to shade the eye sockets, nasal area and jaw line. Something so simple yet very effective. So I'll be using this technique more often when making skull jewellery. This technique is much easier than mixing two colours of polymer clay as it can be unpredictable when colours get mixed. Once colours once mixed in to each other you can't salvage it, because if I could I would. So its easier to use charcoal and paints to add to any effect I want to create.

  

The pictures I've put where not made one after the other in a short period of time but over two years. I've numbered them so you know which order I made them, Thank you for taking the time to reading my blog. It's rather short but I hope you liked it all the same.

 

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8

Made yesterday, this is the most recent