Stripes, Dots, Mangoes

This is the part I love...getting something new on the design board, pulling out drawers and drawers of stones and beads, trying to decide how to put everything together. I made these giant drum beads and their mates yesterday...and they have yet to be sanded and polished, but I couldn't resist playing. I got an interesting effect on the upper set by brushing alcohol over the base bead, then applying Precious Pearl Powder. The powder clumped and dotted...which gave the beads an aged look. When they dried, I brushed them with alcohol ink to bump the color up.

The accompanying stones are (pale green) Serpentine, Onyx and at the top, I'm considering using Turquoise and Carnelian with the blue-green set. Maybe throw a little Bali Silver in there too.

Contrary to popular belief, I'm still here!

There are new beads. At the top "Ragtime" a set of ten beads down with layered translucent canes. And below, "Opa!" A set of five, texturized, with applied cane work.




Wow. It's been an age since I posted! Above is the Spirit Woman series, which is ongoing. None of these are transfers. The faces are rendered in colored pencil, ink and/or paint, directly on a cured polymer form. The surface is then painstakingly covered with translucent clay, some of it with inclusions of metal leaf or metallic powders and with partly transparent cane work. Each one is cured in stages, wet-sanded and buffed. Depending on how much glittery stuff is included or how little I trust the ink to be durable, I coat with liquid polymer clay at various stages.
From top to bottom: Dreamer Spirit, Mountain Spirit, Gentle Spirit, Vigilant Spirit.