Hi welcome to Polymer Clay TV I’m Ilysa Bierer. Today we’re going to do something a little different. We’re going to show some of the things that I’ve made over the last 18 years working with Polymer clay.
Polymer clay is really versatile. As you can see some of the things in front of me this is one of the button sets that I’ve made and it was made into a little purse. And they are just little buttons that I’ve colored with ink the pigment ink like we showed you in the past episode and then I’ve added little decorations to them. So that’s the little purse that we made.
And there are so many things like I said that you can make. This is a little box that I’ve made. And it’s just a paper mache box. As you can see on the bottom I left it unfinished to show you, but I’ve added some paper and this is the basic grey gypsy paper that I’ve just double stick taped or glued on there I’ve added a little ribbon and here is my little Polymer clay design on top. Now that adds a little Swarovski crystals as well.
So that’s a box and here’s a little vase that I’ve made. And what I did was I took a glass vase and it has a little bit of bubbles in there and I added the clay over it and fired it directly on the glass at 275 degrees which is for Primo brand. And that’s a little ball vibe these are really popular at the art shows that I did. I sold a lot of those.
Here’s a neat little thing I made which is to put cheese in. So this is the top of it and it comes often you can put your cheese in there and you can see the clay on the inside as well which is really cool. I also made a larger one of these, and it’s also a punch bowl so it turns upside down and you can put your punch in there. That’s a neat little thing and these are great to give as gifts too.
And another neat thing is jar pools, and I have to say I started doing them in my kitchen and never finish because I have a really big kitchen, but I will get to it one day. And basically it’s just to put on a bolt and I think Kira and I are going to show this project in a later episode. But these are just little drawers for one of those little display cases and I’m trying to get it of here to show you and all it is, is a bolt. And I embedded the bolt into the clay and here’s a little screw and you just screw it on to your cabinet. With the screw it will twist and you can screw it right on there, and here’s another one I made as well, where I stamped into the clay and added over some canes that I’ve put on there.
And you can do some really neat things just make something to match your kitchen or any drawers you have and you can come out with something really cool. And these here are some candlesticks that I’ve made and I have to say that these candle sticks were made many years ago back when the brand of clay called Promac was around. They don’t have that brand anymore, but that’s how old these candle sticks are. And they are just pieces that I pieced over a copper pipe and I used the copper pipe to make the base of it and then I used the copper coupling of top to make the part where you put the candle in. And I wanted to make the base heavier so that we wouldn’t tip over so I stuck a giant washer in the middle of the clay and I've added these pieces on the bottom as well so that it goves it’s actual weight and doesn’t fall over which is neat, and you can use this as candlesticks, they're fully functionable.
And I’ve also made vases here’s one of the vases I’ve made. I made a large variety of vases. I sold tons of vases at the art shows. They were very popular for me too. So this one just has canes all over it I’ve added some decoration at the top, and you can get a nice vase that way which makes a nice gift. This is another large vase I’ve done. And I’ve done them all sizes and shapes and as long as it’s glass or it’s metal it will work. And this one has a bunch of canes that I’ve made over the years on there and actually I have a vase like which is Daddy Mcmillan’s book and then we’ll put a link on the website so you can check it out.
This is another candle stick I’ve done. And this is actually a metal candle stick I’ve found in my travels, and here’s a taller one and a shorter one. So it’s just covered right over the metal as you can see there’s metal in there let me turn around. Metal underneath, so it’s just solid metal and the clay looks really good with metal. It works really good with glass, and you can just have fun with it.
This is another piece I made—ops make it that. The top is really funky and I’ve just added the clay and the little funky design around the edge. And this is actually a cookie jar or whatever you want to put into it. You know and I’ve just added the canes around it built it around the glass, fired it directly on to the glass and you catches off—and your little cookie jar.
And there like I said there’s so many things you can make with the clay it’s just the matter of using your imagination having fun with it and playing with it, and some of the tips I have for when you doing art shows and if you want to try doing art shows or craft shows that usually have your sign up for the show maybe six months in advance. So you want plan your shows for the year if you want to do more than one, so that you can get your money in for the jarred shows prior so that you can get it and do the shows. So when you get in to the show I think it’s important to be creative with your design. So I like to when I do shows we usually have a 10X10 tent, and I like to hang things around the tent. I think it grabs people’s attention and it makes them come over from far away, and that’s what you really want to do with the art show. You want to grab people’s attention. There maybe 300 other booth there, so if you’re you know one in a million and you don’t have anything to grab their attention chances are they might skip your booth.
So find really neat things and used them. This is a lamp I made and actually made it and I made a lot of canes but he put it together. It’s basically just over frosted glass and frosted glass is a little tricky because it doesn’t like to stick to the clay, but you can use something like a Lisa Pavelka’s Poly Bonder and that will help to stick too. We did not use on this. My husband just worked it on pretty good. So when this lights up it goes through so this if you have electricity at the booth at your booth the lamp is a great to bring people’s attention over to your booth. This is to get people run and especially when we do night shows because it closes through like stained glass.
I also made fan poles you know to turn your ceiling fan or to turn on a light and those we’re going to be showing in an upcoming episode how to make so check that out. But those are good to hang around my booth, so that people could catch their eye it could catch their eye because it’s hanging around and they’re like, “Oh well those are really neat. Let me go check them out.” And I have to say I sold hundreds if not thousands of those at the shows, so it was a good attention grabber.
Another I like to do with the shows. You have magnet hanging from my booth as well. So magnets are really good they’re inexpensive to make and they’re inexpensive to sell so you can make a bunch of them hanging from my display. I had a heart that was made on a metal and I just put it right on there, and you can make them yourself where you can find them sometimes at the craft stores and just embellish with the clay, any little embellishment can really help sell your work and really dress up your booth.
So as you can see there’s a lot of different things you can make and we’ll be showing you more with the upcoming episodes, these are some of the pieces that I have made that it also help me win awards at the show. I made a lamp that look like a mushroom before. Of course it’s sold but it bought people to my booth and it also won me best for show which was really cool.
And so you know you can make really small things some jewelry and on off to bookshelves, and I’ll try to get a picture of some of the bookshelves that I made and put it on the website for you as well because those were a big attention grabbers on the art shows. I mosaic them and with all different pieces I saved for about 12 years. They just grab attention I used them as my display. I put my lamp on there. I put some vases on there, and people just love to come up and pick up and locate it because there so much detail.
So I wish you luck at the craft shows and the art shows because you can really do well at them. If you be creative because you want to really set yourself apart from everyone else and be different. So just have fun and have fun creating.
Thanks for joining us today and we’ll see you next time on Polymer Clay TV. Thank you.
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