Crystals too

 My polymer earrings for this week are made from a pair of Squish Beads.  I only had a few of this color combo and at the time, I did not like them as much as the other colors I had used.  I put them aside in the "not bad, but not what I was looking for" bin (totally different than the "what the heck was I thinking!" bin).  I had not even shined they up with LPC.  

After I made these, I found I was out of headpins. So, I  had to visit my local bead store for more head pins.  Ya, I could make them myself but was too lazy. Of course, as most of you know, visiting a bead store is dangerous.  Got distracted by shiny stuff.  I found these  hammered circles and had to get them.  Paired them with a red crystal.  I tried to find a PC bead that would work in my stash, but all of them were too big.

I also found these lovely crystals that work perfectly with the bails.  These are a lot smaller than I normally wear but the color was so wonderful, that I could not resist them.  I also made a pair of pink ones, along with a larger crystal for a necklace, as a gift.

A few days ago, I happened across a blog that had  a tut about a  free on line photo modification site (http://pixlr.com/editor/). So I used it to add the surrounding halo and remove the scratches from the window sill I shot the picture on.  Good effect.  Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the white "frame" that automatically appears when I save my writing.

Swellegant

I love Christi Friesen, so when she talked about a product that would help to simulate metal on polymer clay AND give it a real patina look, I was very curious.  Then I saw some lovely pieces on Flickr by various artists who were working with it  (esp Randee aka ketztx4me), and I knew I just had to try it.   A quick visit to CF Originals and several anxious days waiting by the mailbox ... and I was ready to play.

I sprung for the whole kit, as it would be cheaper in the long run.  Look how much came packed in the box. There are 5 metal coatings, 3 patinas, a TON of dyes, application material and a sealer. If I had one complaint, I wish that the bottle of sealer was bigger.  I can see me going through sealer quickly.

My first tests were to see how the patinas reacted with various metal coatings.  I started with Brass, Copper and Bronze.  Silver and Iron will have to wait a while.  I made them in duplicate so they would make good earrings if I liked how they looked.  Learned an important lesson here which I will pass on to you.  If you want to make two pieces look the same - when you are ready for the final coat and patina, do both pieces at the same time. Otherwise the timing will be off and the intensity of the patina will not be the same.  (See if you can find which pair I learned this lesson on)

LOVE THIS COMBO!

Some day I will figure out how to put two pictures side by side on blogger.  I am so excited about the possibilities and I haven't even tried the dyes yet!