Guess who is back to Bangalore ?

Its been a long while since I last wrote. I have some news ! I am back to Bangalore !!! Yaay me !

It has been a hectic couple of months. In July, I had my first exhibition ever , and right as I was preparing for it we decided to relocate to Bangalore. For someone with such poor grasp of time & space management such as me , this was a HUGE thing.
I was pretty sure I would have dropped dead somewhere in between all the packing and making but , I am here, I survived !

Simple twisted beads : Tutorial : Beginners

Hi !

As a beginner clayer I was never sure what I wanted to do. I wanted to cane but very (very!) often I really screwed it up. The colour combinations would be terrible and since I never had the restraint to control the squishing, I would always end up getting mud colours.
And once I got mud colours, I just never took that chunk seriously and I just played with it (no worry of colour contamination). That's how the previous beads were made and that's how these came into being as well.

In many ways, these beads are even simpler than the beads previous turorial.

Materials Needed :

Polymer Clay
Roller / Pasta Machine
Clay Knife
Tooth pick

Clay Knife , Half a Bar of Premo Gold , Toothpick , Roller

Process :

1. I make 8 beads from one quarter of the 2 ounce Premo! bar. 

2. Condition the clay. I prefer cutting them , and then conditioning them. but this works only if you are using the colors straight out of the pack. 

Since I mostly mix colors, I would say get your clay conditioned well, use a pasta machine or a roller to get them evenly thick , the use a cutter to get equal sized portions of the clay. 

3. After conditioning the clay 

1. Make a small roll of it , a thick snake.
2. Use your hands to taper the end.
3. Then lightly press it , without losing a lot of thickness.
4. It will now look like a narrow diamond.
5. Now slowly twist the ends of the diamond , but in opposite directions.
6. Continue twisting gently , it will begin to have a screw like look.
7. Put the bead between your thumb & forefinger , and slowly the press the ends down onto the bead.
8. Press it down some more , so that it resembles a curvy barrel.
9. Let it rest for a few minutes , then use the tooth pick to pierce the bead.

Now bake them ! Refer to your clay packet for the temperature & time. I have used Premo! , so 130  degree Celsius and I baked them for an hour.

Tada ! You are done !

Thanks for reading ! Have a great day :) 

Tutorial : Super Simple Textured bead : Beginner level

Hi !

I was in a bit of rut for the past few months. Its still supremely hot here ( 42 degree Celsius) , and caning is impossible. Most of the premo I have is super soft , and I was very frustrated claying . I was watching TV and I randomly started making these. It felt so good , because it takes minimum effort & great results.
On thinking about it now , these are based on the paper bead making techniques , I just changed the medium & added texture for interest.
I have tried these with canes and I didn't enjoy them much asthe cane work just gets hidden in the spiral.


Materials needed :

1. Polymer clay 
2. Roller / Pasta machine
3. Texture implements 
4. Tooth pick
5. Cutter

In Anti-clockwise order : Roller,A jar cover with texture, Premo polymer clay , Cutters , hand made texture stamp, wooden texture stamp , toothpick

Process :

1. Condition your clay based on your need.You can make around 8 beads from .5 ounce of P.C or a quarter of the Premo! bar I have used for illustration here.

2. After conditioning your clay , roll it to out to an even thickness. In the pasta machine I used , the fourth thinnest setting is ideal or around 1.5 millimeters ( apprx). I found this was best , not too thick but thick enough to take the texture.

3. After that is done , use your stamp and gently impress the pattern onto the clay. Try using a bit of water or a bit of corn flour on the stamp if your stamp is sticking on the clay and/or tearing it.

Clay with the design stamped on it

4. Now get your cutters and cut them in such a way that they have the design on them. I prefer using the narrow cutter as its easier , but it can be easily substituted with round cutters or oval cutters
(Using an oval cutter or a circle  cutter : Cut out a circle / oval with the pattern on it and re-cut it using the same cutter again , making a crescent shape. Discard the crescent and use the other part.)

5. Take your toothpick , the lightly wrap around an edge over it . Then continue wrapping the bead.

6. Once it looks like as in the picture below , slowly ease it out of the tooth pick.Your bead is ready !

7.Alternatively ,use the toothpick to poke a hole into the bead if you are not interested in using the hole already made.If you do so , it becomes a junction bead. The secondary piercing with the toothpick is not mandatory.

8. Now bake your beads as per the temperature on your clay packet , and for the recommended time.

Here  are some baked beads !!!

Note : I had initially made these beads using cold porcelain , so that's a medium you can easily use.

Have fun making these super easy beads ! I would love you to see what you make if you use this tutorial .
Thanks for reading & have a great day !

Breaking out of a rut

Hi !

I haven't updated this blog for more than 7 months
 Did I have real reasons? Of course. Computer breakdowns , phone destruction and allergy attacks are  terrible reasons , but does this stop me from feeling terrible ? No.

I am still in Hyderabad , and all hopes that we would soon be back to Bangalore are (more or less) dashed. Today's temperature ( today) is 41 degree Celsius , or 106 degree Fahrenheit, and coupled with the lack of A/C and an inverter , I have entered into what I officially term as a rut .

I was creating actively through December , took a small break intentionally  in January and started back up in February. Not a terrible plan , My yearly challenges of making a bangle a week was kicked off and it was doing ok , then suddenly, the climate changed.
 Almost overnight , mildly cold (19-20 degree) suddenly amped up to 28-29 degrees, and before I knew it, it was in the late thirties. My body doesn't react well to sudden climate fluctuations.I started getting heat bubbles all over my palms which made it pretty much impossible to touch clay. I then decided to go home and annoy my parents for a bit.
Thankfully my heat bubbles reduced greatly once I got to Kochi and I started claying. I was eagerly looking forward to it , as I had not touched clay for quite a while by then and it was a lot of  fun getting back in . I made a a few bangles as my mother wanted and everything was well with the world.
Unfortunately the oven there ( a microwave with convection mode) , sucked big time and did not bake anything well and I broke a lot of fishies I had made . Realizing this , I was super careful with my bangles and I have got them home & re-baked them.

Somehow during this time , the rut had set in.I have quite a few bangles I need to sand and polish , but I really don't want to do it.The bubbles might be the cause , it was a terrible experience sanding with my palms like that. I cant touch bangles for now.
I set out a couple of pieces I was too lazy to finish ,so that I may be driven to complete it , but nope. They are still in a pile.
I am tired of not claying , but somehow I cannot do it.  I have a mental block of some kind.
I need to work around it.I need to have some daily goals.

I am going to publish two tiny tutorials in the next 2 days. Two incredibly easy ways to make some textured beads.
Fingers crossed , some camera action and the feeling of doing something, has got to break me out of it.

Maybe my bangle program failed miserably , but perhaps that doesn't mean my claying has to stop.

Thanks for reading :) Have a good day !