Take a look at my first attempts at the "Galaxy Bead" project in Katherine Duncan Aimone's new(ish) book, Polymer Clay: The Art of Jewelry. (The book was a Christmas gift from my parents. Thanks, Mom and Dad!) The photo quality's not much, but it'll have to do for now. It's too dark to take a decent photo (since I normally use natural light). At least you can get the basic impression:
The project was contributed by Jennifer Bezingue. I didn't recognize the name, but the beads (and another, similarly styled project she contributed to the book) are absolutely gorgeous, I think.
I had fun with the project, though it was a little bit of slow going at first. Even by the last bead I made, they're still rather time-consuming beads to make. I'm sure I could crank them out faster by pre-cutting the appliques, but I like to see what I need for each bead as I go. Besides, I don't really need to crank them out.
One thing I had a little trouble with-- in the book, many of the appliques are these darling little stars-- far, far smaller than the smallest star-shaped cutter I have (the Makin's Clay brand of cutters). I ended up using mostly the hand-cut swirls and drinking straws to cut circles and crescent moons. I think the moons turned out pretty well, but I really loved the look of the stars, so I'm putting that on my "Maybe Someday" wish list, assuming I can ever even find a place that sells such tiny shape cutters. Art stores on-line probably do...
So, anyway, fun project, beautiful beads. I'm looking forward to trying it again, maybe with a few twists on the basic idea next time.
2 comments:
You did an absolutely fabulous job with these!
And yeah, I think every single little teeny tiny kemper cutter is on my wishlist.
Thanks, Elaine!
The teeny tiny ones do seem to be the most useful for those of us who do small work. I have some small "cookie cutter"-style cutters, and they're great for some things, but they're nowhere near small enough for this project.
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