Chalk Pods [Inspired by Shirley Rufener]

Don't we all love reading craft books, being inspired by the beautiful projects and awed by the nice photos?  Today, I will share with you a project that was inspired by the book: 

Polymer Clay Mixed Media Jewelry by Shirley Rufener.

I bought a box of Faber Castel chalk pastels and have been eager to use them in a variety of polymer clay applications.  Shirley wrote about a project where pastels were used to add color to the polymer clay.  After conditioning Premo sculpey in white in the thickest setting of the clay conditioner, I used the pastels to make 3 color palettes using green, pink and purple shades.

Then, I scooped out the colored clay and layed them on a conditioned and colored base clay.   

  The book suggested overlapping the "pods" of clay to have more texture but I did this test project with just 1 layer. When all the petals and leaves were set, I rolled the clay with an acrylic roller and then with the machine in its' thickest setting.

Note that the edge of my petals looked so messy, especially after running it through the machine.



I used a rectangular cutter to trim the edges. 

My first attempt doesn't deserve a "Tada" moment but I loved the technique... more practice.

Sans the not-so-pretty outcome, I went on to bake and finish it. 
I conditioned black clay for the base, added wire, layered the image, and a black border.

Here it is... varnished, sloppy, smudge and all. 

Please bear with me.

I will practice this technique and give justice to Shirley Rufener's hard work in making her awesome book.

Until next time...