Suzanne's Polymer Clay Blog

My father in law died. He was a great man, and a wonderful patriarch of a huge family. His wife asked me to make earrings for her to wear at the memorial service, the night before we were getting in the car to drive to California. I have no time, I thought to myself. But the idea that she asked me to make them for her was enough for me to make the fastest pair of earrings I've ever made. Formed and baked that night, and finished the next morning. They came together perfectly, with no problems. I barely had time to photograph them before I put them in the bag for her. This blurry shot is all I have, unless I drive back to California and do a retake, lol. Made with complete love for her. It's been a very sad time, but also a joyous time. We celebrated a great man, a throw back to the old days when a man's word was good enough and church was where you spent every Sunday morning.  When we got home from California, I used the leftover clay and made some more earrings that I real

  I adore sparkles. I adore the color purple. Therefore, I adore these sparkly purple earrings. Sometimes you just need to make something that makes you feel happy, when happy times are scarce. Fini.

💍I have a love for sparkles, especially on my earlobes. I think that must be why I prefer to wear sterling silver instead gold, rose gold, stainless steel. For the below earrings, I used the most perfect Sculpey Premo clay called "white gold glitter" and then used alcohol ink pens to add color and abstract designs to the slab before I used my flower cutter. I adore these so much that I made duplicates, something I rarely do. All told I think I made 6 pairs.  When I wear the flower shape I get the most compliments. It doesn't matter what color they are or what design is on them. 🌺 I’ve also been working very hard on learning to make fabulous post earrings. Here are some black post earrings, in honor of my friend Amy, who dearly loves the color black, but who never, ever wears jewelry! Maybe this jewelry line can be called "Amy's Black". ❤       My black cats are lucky, despite what you might think! A little bit of mica powder on the hearts on the right gi

  This post is a continuation of a previous post where I talked about how sometimes things do not go smoothly, and you learn from your mistakes, etc. Well. What you see below are two shapes. Backstory: I bought a left and right cutter...keep this in mind. I took a slab of pearl clay and shaved tiny pieces of five different clay colors onto the slab to create a speckled effect. It took a long time to do the front and back of the slab and then smooth it out. Then I used the cutter to cut out my shapes. When I used the cutter, apparently, I only used the LEFT cutter and cut out 6 left earrings. After I baked them and sealed them, and prepared to attach jump rings and hooks, I realized I had made 6 left earrings and 0 right earrings. I was pretty pissed.  Undaunted, I went through the whole process again using up a whole bar of pearl clay and re-shaving these tiny speckles of different colored clay, front and back, etc.. Then I cut out the other 6 earring shapes so they'd match and be

 More hearts. My favorite shape. Something is very satisfying about the shape of a heart. I think of hearts as being very feminine. Let me tell you, I am so grateful that I have a creative outlet. It sure helps me to take my mind off the stuff that bothers me.  Lately I have decided to try to tackle something that I do not do well, and that is making post earrings. I am challenged by post earrings. You have to put the post in the exact, right spot so it hugs the ear correctly. It's pretty difficult to practice on myself because the woman who pierced my ears did not do them perfectly! They are crooked. Therefore, I rarely wear posts because one earring is always higher than the other. 😣 These pairs came out great! The blue ones have a shimmer of mica powder.      Just a polish on these pink posts. No sealing coat. Work in progress, as always. Fini.

  What you see here is an oopsie. Clearly I bought a left/right pair of cutters, and somehow ended up making 12 single earrings instead of 6 pairs of earrings. I didn’t even realize it until I was about to start putting them together after I baked, sanded, and buffed them. I picked up the first “pair” and realized I had two left earrings, not a left and right earring. I feel like that’s what this blog is. A running list of oopsies and a hooray or two, depending on how the week went.   I do make a lot of mistakes that frustrate me. The mistake above. Or trying to mix some clays together and finding that it just makes a turd color. Using inferior quality ear hooks that tarnish. Having posts fall off the back of an earring. Seeing light-colored clay turn dark during a bake. It’s a lot to learn and I am teaching myself. I wish there was a class I could take but there isn’t. Mistakes are part of life, but I get very frustrated at times and have to remind myself that I cannot be an