Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Faux Abalone

One day last week, I finally gave myself permission to try a project from one of my polymer clay books. I chose the faux abalone from Carol Blackburn's bead-maker's bible, Making Polymer Clay Beads. (So there won't be a tutorial for this one. )

I stuck pretty close to the instructions on this project, though I think I may have left off one or two of the colors of clay suggested, and since I didn't have abalone leaf/foil and was too lazy to try my own idea of using inks and paints to make my own "faux abalone leaf", I used plain composition gold leaf. I also used the abalone loaf a bit differently that suggested in the book. (I made sheets of my slices and cut them with shape cutters, rather than tearing the slices into pieces.)

I was pleased with the results. (Though now I can think of some things I should've done differently. Well, I'll just write down some notes for next time.)

Here's a photo of what I made with some of my faux abalone charms:


I also took this opportunity to try out one of the magnetic clasps I bought on sale a long while ago. I haven't decided if I like the magnetic clasp or not. I like the idea of it, because so often, putting on a bracelet without assistance is an exercise in futility. I'm just not convinced yet that this particular clasp is strong enough. . . and (as expected) when the clasp is open, the magnets want to stick to the chain and jump rings. I'll wear this one a while to test out the strength of the clasp.

If you're interested, there are a couple more photos of the faux abalone at my Flickr account.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! (See my comments on your Flickr) ;)

Anonymous said...

OOO Love it. Have you tried Faux Ivory? I just saw an episode of carol duvall where they did this and wanted to try it.

Michael said...

Thank you both! :o)

I tried faux ivory a long while ago-- one of my earliest projects. But I didn't do much with it, so I really need to try it again. I love the little animal pendants that people sometimes sculpt from faux ivory.

I saw that there's a faux ivory tutorial in Carol Blackburn's book, too, so maybe I'll give that one a try, one day. :o)

Anonymous said...

I want to get some of these PC books. I guess I can wait till Christmas and gift myself from amazon. The sell too high around here in the craft stores.

Michael said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael said...

KC--
Have you tried your local library system? It's not as nice as having the book "for keeps", but it's a good way to check them out and decide which ones you like best.

If not that, then maybe try to preview them at Amazon or Google Book Search.

Here's a link to what you get if you search Google Book Search for "polymer clay":
http://books.google.com/books?q=polymer+clay+&btnG=Search+Books

Jane said...

Oh, I just got this book and can see that I am going to have to try this technique today. NOW. It's just a fantastic book that is good for way more than just beadmaking. More. Way more. It's like a cookbook of easy techniques to achieve very complex and artistic ends. Thanks, these are gorgeous!