Behind the Scenes

At the end of May on Bank Holiday Monday, I gave my new business its first outing. Olive & Edna Jewellery had launched on line a few weeks previously and although I was used to selling my vintage clothes and accessories at other fairs, this was the first time I had only hand made jewellery.

I am very pleased to say that it was really well received by the people of Grantham and the show was a resounding success. Of course the weather was completely on our side for once and this brought out the crowds.

I was also pleased with the reaction to the pieces I had made and several people asked me how I created some of the polymer clay beads, so I thought I would give a brief insight into my process.

All my pieces start by conditioning the clay to make it much easier to work with and to eliminate bubbles within the clay. Sometimes I create a custom colour or as for these beads I create a blend of two or three colours to make a more interesting background to the design.

I then decide how I want to decorate the beads. I use all sorts of mediums, alcohol inks, paints, mica powders and many others and sometimes create patterns by using a patchwork effect with different colour clays.

For this example I have used permanent ink and a stamp to decorate the clay slabs with a tree design.

I then cut out the shapes I want, cure them in the oven and when 'cooked' they are backed and sanded with up to ten different grits of sandpaper and finally buffed to a beautiful sheen.