Tuesday, February 7, 2012

February’s New Blooms! Raw Polymer Clay Cane Flowers Popping Up

I had extra polymer clay laying around and since I do not believe in scrap clay, everything was sorted and prepared for the latest blooms.

After finishing The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough for the second time in 30 plus years, I kept seeing reference to Ashes of Roses, which the heroine, Meghann Cleary wore to compliment her red hair. Ashes of Roses actually was a Pantone color of 2008 and was part of this blog post on a Bill Blass creation.

image

The image will take you to the post.

I liked the idea of Ashes of Roses and when I was working with my leftover scraps, I came as close to this color as possible. I am thinking spring already and this color is subtle and inviting and not just for redheads!

I created two different flowers from this color, along with several other canes.

Here are my blends that I was working with:

 

todaysclay

There is one other Ashes of Roses blend off to the side on my blue acrylic work surface.

Here are today’s canes ready for their covering of translucent clay and then reduced down for bead making.

TodaysCanes

There is a nod to Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs with the Miami Dolphins colored flower. She noted that there were a lot of collections on Artfire that were sporting these colors. My original blend was slated for a crimson red dot accent and a crimson red outer wrap until I saw a post from Catherine noting that she was seeing a lot of orange and turquoise in jewelry combinations. That was before I finished working with that slab of clay. As soon as she posted it, I decided to scrap the red and opt for Mandarin orange. I know that Tangerine is the 2012 Pantone choice, but I went straight to Mandarin.

I am very happy that I did and thanks to Catherine of Shadow Dog Designs for putting my on the Miami Dolphins path! Here is a link to her post: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2885211041832&set=a.1311123210620.2041975.1006802531&type=1&theater 

Stop by Catherine’s Facebook page or her Artfire shop and tell her Blu sent you. She has beautiful jewelry and she is looking through her stash to see what she has in turquoise and tangerine.

Watch for the latest canes to become the latest beads!

Julie and Blu

1 comment:

Shadow Dog Designs said...

Hey, what a nice surprise to be mentioned here! Funny how you just never know when an inspiration is going to pop up. Turquoise and orange - have used that color combo before; feel the need to do that now :). Many ear scritches to Blu! Thanks again!