Button clay mini

I made several of these and I like how they turned out. I tend to go monochromatic when I first start with a new style, but they do have their appeal to me. I started with a smaller bracelet blank and used smaller sets of buttons for this one. It's been my experience that when people sell vintage buttons, they don't really sort sizes much. It's usually by color. The result is a variety of sizes to work with. In the 600+ lot that I bought off of Ebay, there were a bunch that are too big for me to work into the two sizes bracelet blanks I'm currently using. 

I've seen people string large buttons together as a platform for smaller ones, and might try that at some point. Another idea I had is to use the larger ones to make brooches, mixing clay tiles and buttons again. I like the variation in color and texture. It's interesting to me that the process of putting the elements together isn't easily rushed. I have to sit down with a bunch of buttons and tiles in front of me and try different things until I get combinations I like. There's an orange one I love and I'll post that one soon. 

Ruby Reds

Here's a new bracelet I'm calling Ruby Reds. I love how it looks with a maroon shirt and a teal scarf that I have. Upcycled vintage buttons and hand-stamped polymer clay tiles. In my Etsy shop. 

Back to the start

This is the kind of bracelet that got me into making bracelets in the first place. I made a few more of these over the weekend and this is one of the first to get photographed and listed on Etsy. I like it that each one is a one of kind creation. I love the process of picking out the elements for these. 

The round things with the cabochons are mainspring barrels from vintage watches. I love how they provide a great background for the cabochons. And the cabochons are sparkly and eye-catching. I use my stamped clay tiles, too. I pick those colors first, and then pick cabos and buttons to match. 

Fun! 

Olive striped tiles

There is a house in my neighborhood that has a color scheme that is olive green with navy and white accents. It looks different, yet it goes together really well and fits with the old style of the house. I decided to mimic the colors for some large clay tiles. Above, you can see where I have mixed the colors, cut them into strips and am in various stages of rolling them into thin ropes.

An overexposed shot of the sheet of clay with the thin ropes before I roll it through my pasta machine once. These ropes ended up being just a little thicker than I thought they'd be, but I'm still happy with the results.

The light green kind of gets lost agains the foil, but each tile has the three colors in roughly the same order. I like that effect of that, where the colors repeat, but the tiles don't look the same. I took the rest of the thin ropes and the strips of clay that didn't get rolled out, put them together, and made the mostly blue tiles. It's a good way to use up the leftover clay and it's fun to see how they'll turn out.

Does anyone else love purple and green?

I don't know what it is about purple and green together like this, but I find it very satisfying. This is another of the recent texture tile bracelets that I'm slowly getting onto the Etsy site.

I had another idea for these. I like to wear them two at a time, and thought maybe of making one long chain of links that a person could wrap around their wrist twice and clasp once. Hard to explain? I don't have time to work on it until this weekend, so I'll post some pictures when I've got a few done. They'll be fab, you'll see.

Aqua Hues

What is is about aqua? I made several bracelets in this last batch in shades of aqua/turquoise/blue-green. It's restful and pleasing. I like how my eye just kind of goes around, looking at different elements of this one. 

I've laid out some smaller button-clay bracelets - minis - that I'm hoping to get glued today. It's a good feeling to have a bunch done so I can post one or two a day. I think Etsy's algorithm for searches favors listings from people who are active in that manner.  

New pieces

I've been working on a bunch of new button-clay bracelets and I'm very pleased with how they turned out. This one is just as red in person as it is in the photo. Bold and sassy!

I think I've solved my smelly button problem. Ha! That makes it sound like a hygiene issue, doesn't it? No, I ordered some buttons and they arrived with this weird small that made them unusable unless I got rid of it. So I first soaked them in dishsoap and water. Then baking soda and water. Then more soap. Finally, I put out a call on my FB page (which you can get to by clicking on the picture of the buttons on the right side of the page) and someone suggested vinegar.

Okey-dokey. I couldn't used them otherwise, so might as well give that a try. And it worked! They don't have a noticeable smell now, so I can use them. That's good because I really like them. The colors on a couple faded, but they all faded the same way, so it won't matter.

In the meantime, I ordered few more lots of buttons in colors I didn't have. Squee!

Have a good rest of the weekend, all!

Easy Teals

Sometimes, the pieces sort of come together seemingly on their own. This was such a piece. I seemed to have a lot of teal (aqua, aquamarine - what would you call these colors?) colored buttons and clay tiles, so it went together easily. I really like this one, but I'm like a mother with multiple kids - I love them all. :-)

Vintage button and clay tile bracelet - yellow khaki neutrals

These are pretty substantial bracelets, but I love the visual interest of them. Lots of subtle changes in color and texture. $16.00 in the Etsy shop. 

Experimentation

I made some buttons with this sheet of clay and had enough left to make circular tiles for a bracelet. I like the smooth look to the tiles and it's a light bracelet, even though it's kind of chunky. I'd like to fool around more with color combinations to see what looks nice together.

Texture Tile Bracelet

One of my favorite parts of all this is to mix different colors of clay to make the clay tiles. I have a bunch of bracelets that use the tiles plus upcycled vintage watch parts, and wanted to make some with just the tiles, too.

So, Texture Tile Bracelets were born. Does one always need a catchy title? It helps, I think. But here's a recent one. I love purple and green.

Checking in

Has it been since November?! I've got lots of stuff to say, and jewelry designs to share. I'll start to post more regularly soon. In the meantime, here are a few links to my pieces on Etsy:

Texture Tile Bracelet
https://www.etsy.com/listing/104128535/stamped-polymer-clay-bracelet-orange-and

Mixed Media Bracelet
https://www.etsy.com/listing/103665909/mixed-media-stamped-polymer-clay

Polymer Clay Buttons
https://www.etsy.com/listing/103792317/polymer-clay-buttons-shimmery-blue-green?ref=v1_other_1

Mixed Media Necklace
https://www.etsy.com/listing/100966773/stamped-polymer-clay-mixed-media