The Blu Print: Building the Bangle – Part Two

I am sharing this blog post because it features my polymer clay canes.

The Blu Print: Building the Bangle – Part Two: The last post showed the roughly formed and shaped bangle bracelet blanks using my old worn out scrap clay. After all the sanding and formin...

Crazy Daisy Striped Cane

 

 

I was fiddling with stripes and patchwork and decided to add stripes into some of my flowers. Here is a quickie tutorial for creating a striped cane.

Take any blend for your petal – for this one, I used a pale coral to a dark coral with a stripe of white within. It was a bit of an experiment that went sideways. :)

Slice the cane into parts from the top down.

Select a contrasting color for your stripes and outer wrap.

Lay each piece of the sliced cane down on the contrast and cut the piece to fit, so you have a filler between each slice of the cane.  I set the thickness on my contrast sheet fairly thin since you want to create thin stripes for your finished cane after you reduce it down.

 

After you have put the cane back together and firmed it up, cut  diagonally from the other stripes to add your checker board. Repeat the step where you lay the slices on the contrasting clay.

 

After you have all the slices back together, add a thin wrap around the petal with the remaining contrasting clay.

I rolled this out 12 inches and cut the petals into two inch segments for a six petal flower.

I reassembled the cane with a spiral white and matching contrasting center.

 

Here is an example of my cane in a teal blue flower.

Have fun!

Julie and Blu

Tutorial property of Blue Morning Expressions ©2013 jcleveland

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Pens for Charity – Flowers are Blooming Everywhere

 

I wanted to show you how one of my cane buyers has creatively used my flower canes to design pens for charity.

While not bearing my canes, these lovely pens will make great gifts for that someone special.

The following charities have been helped through PensForCharityLLC :

The Breast Cancer Society Inc.

Bodine School

Humane Society of Pulaski County

St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital

Wounded Warriors

… and more

If you are interested in purchasing any of these pens, or you would like more information, contact PensForCharityLLC Bryan Maxwell through http://www.pensforcharityllc.com/contact-info.html

These pens will make an awesome graduation gift for the recent MBA recipient, or mom would love one for Mother’s Day. Father’s Day is coming up in June and they make a great gift just for yourself. These are one of a kind pens, so if you like one, you better grab it now!

Enjoy all of the pens and the pretty flowers :)

Julie and Blu

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Spring Bracelets and New Flowers

It is a simple show and tell today:

These bracelets are all available at Simply Montana in the Gallatin Valley Mall in Bozeman, Montana.

I have plans to start doing regular cane posts, but until I can get myself organized, here are some pretty beads and flowers. :)

Julie and Blu

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Everything’s Coming Up Roses

 

I have not made a lot of handmade rose polymer clay canes over the last few years. I usually do not have a call for roses in my designs, or I just never think about adding any roses. Either way, I have not created a lot and have fiddled with different tutorials over the years on how to create a rose. I think the first rose cane tutorial I saw was Donna Kato’s in her first big Polymer Clay Book. At least, I think that is where I saw it….

This is a wonderful book to help you to develop the techniques necessary to start with polymer clay, but advanced enough that you can go from the beginning to intermediate in a short time.

Anyway, whether I saw the first rose there or not, the book is great.

Now, on to the roses.

I have been scouring the web and pinterest and other sites for rose tutorials. I have found a few that I may pick up later, such as Marcia’s amazing rose tutorial:

All of Marcia’s tutorials are on this page and you can buy it through her website or on etsy. Her roses are gorgeous and in order for me to get the amazing detail that she gets, I will need her tutorial.

Here are my little roses that are better than usual, but nothing like Marcia’s.

 

 

 

 

 

Not all color combinations a good rose will make :)

Enjoy these and I will keep working at creating them.

Julie and Blu

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Handcrafted With Love Auctions: Polymer Clay Beads

Handcrafted With Love Auctions: Polymer Clay Beads: (click on banner to enter shop) Pink Flower Polymer Clay Coin Beads Set of 8 STARTING BID: $2 (Retail Value: $8)...

ThaddeusRose: Countdown to Christmas - Week 5

ThaddeusRose: Countdown to Christmas - Week 5: Week 5 of the Countdown to Christmas , hosted by Julie and Blu of BlueMorningExpressions , has just begun and already there are some awesome....

Pink Polymer Clay Flowers for October

For all those who have survived or lost someone to breast cancer, I picked these beautiful polymer pink flowers for you and for my friends who are no longer with me.
Enjoy these talented polymer artists from both Artfire and Etsy.
- Julie and Blu

Countdown to Christmas Blog Hop

Playing with Petals – New Polymer Clay Raw Flower Canes for Spring

I get in a rut. I find a style that I like and I do not deviate from it when I am creating my flower canes. I really, really wanted to try some different things with my petals and colors for this batch of new canes.

This desire came from revisiting all my old flower canes that other artists had so skillfully done. I looked at my flowers and felt very defeated. Mine would never be so intricate or delicate.

So, I went looking for flower cane tutorials. There are many good ones out there on places like Etsy and Artfire, but none of them really were exciting me. I know, the thing that one has to do to get excited about anything is to throw all you know out and start fresh.

I decided to just try different ways to blend, cut and fold my blends. I added layers of color and then did it different the next time I created some.

I did not get a lot of new canes finished, but I did do some different things and by doing different things, I see some new petal ideas for my next batch.

Without further ado, here are the spring canes from Blue Morning Expressions.

 

 

My favorite are the navy blue flower canes and I used them in a new set of beads.

 

Not deterred by my feeble attempts at a better flower, I have more clay ready to go and my next flowers will be better.

Enjoy

Julie and Blu

Revisiting Beloved Canes

Time goes by too fast.
Evidently, many years ago, I bought a lot of canes from some very talented cane artists. Cat Therien, being one of them, as well as Candace Mathewson. I never got around to using all these canes, so they have been sitting in a sealed container being shuffled about the house, and then, between states.
Now, I have the time and have grabbed a couple minutes to create some more beads, I thought, I really need to see what is in this box that I guard like the crown jewels. I was so excited when I opened it back up and took them all out and lined them up. They were still in their own wrappers and some were even still in bubblewrap. I made beads. I only got five set done yesterday, but I have seven more lined up to go and will work on those tomorrow.
Without further ado, here are the newest beads. See if you can recognize your favorite cane artist’s canes in these beads. Some of these canes have been gone from their stores a long time.

Now that my love affair with my beads and my stash of canes has been renewed, I think I will be creating many more beads in the near future.
Julie and Blu

The Blu Print: I Believe in Pink

The Blu Print: I Believe in Pink:   “I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe ...

Bracelet Give Away

I want to post this so anyone who would like a chance to win my Ashes of Roses bangle bracelet gets a chance to get in on the give away. Jacki, of Christie Cottage, holds a weekly give away and this week it is a bracelet that I specifically designed for her give away.

Here is the bracelet:

 

This bracelet will make a lovely Mother's Day gift and comes with a felt drawstring navy blue pouch for gift giving.
Sign up to win here http://etsygiveaways.blogspot.com/2012/03/bangle-bracelet-giveaway-ends-0314.html