Polymerclayer

Chirstmas Market starts from Monday!

2009-12-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Gosh one year has definitely passed by like the wind. Here I am back at Piazza di Cinecittà (near the metro station Subaugusto) and I will be here for the next 2 weeks with all the inconvenience of going to public toilets. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of what you can find at the christmas market. They come as a set and will be packed in tubes ready for gift giving. Tommorow's going to be a busy day preparing the area, hopefully the weather cooperates and we can all open our stalls!

Christmas order to Turramurra

2009-11-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

Now that the festive time is approaching, I am starting to get orders which is absolutely great for me! Hi N&C here are the photos of the items you have ordered. Take a look and reply if its fine to go ahead with the listing and shipment. Thank you.

Last market at Trastevere

2009-11-13T05:23:00.000-08:00

Well, What can I say, I will be sad to not be able to do the Christmas market at Trastevere, but can't really do anything about it since my association planned not to do the authorization process which had to be very comprehensive.

I do hope that there will be people these three days that will have plans to buy presents early.
During december I will be at Piazza Cinecittà from 7 to 24 december.

These are some pictures of stuff I did for this week. I am doing more salad serving sets now, in basic black and white but the all-time favourite with everyone....

Importance of opacity

2009-10-09T05:07:00.000-07:00

I always encounter people who dabble in polymer clay work sometimes that their colours darken after baking or dont stay true. This is usually because of the opacity of the colours and it can be corrected simply by adding white specifically opaque white.
Working with Cernit, I have to stress the importance of buying the opaque white which will help in improving the colours. the picture below shows Cernit's white before baking and after baking on the right. As you can see, the white is darkened by the black slightly before baking and worsens after baking. the left cane uses an opaque white and the colours did not alter.Cernit do have an opaque white. Try to go to specialized craft shops instead who may have a wider range available.
So look for the "opaque white" Cernit instead of the normal "White" if it is suitable for your application where translucency is not wanted. Here are some simple canes I made.
If you dont intend to use white in anyway for your canes, it is still advisable to use opaque white as a background when you apply your cane slices. like these hair clips that were made, they all have a white background.
Oh and as usual, I am back to doing the market starting today til sunday at Trastevere, Piazza Sidney Sonnino so see you there!

Back In Singapore

2009-08-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

Not wanting to miss out on doing markets I will also be going to do a month long market at geylang serai, where its all set up for the upcoming malay new year.
This should not be new for me since the last time I set up shop in Singapore was 11 years ago, full of inexperience and a crowd of people who did not appreciate the price I put on my work. I am hoping mentality has changed somewhat but the usual pessimistic me would say its still the same.
Looking at the wares that the other vendors have in the stall you can see stuff brought in from Indonesia, Thailand, Korea and undoubtedly, China. Its all price competition here since all you can get here are imported goods, seriously.
Well I shall hope to be surprised admist all the horror looks I will be getting when I answer to their "how much?"
All in all, I shall grint my teeth and mantain a nonchalant face and I will give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

2009-07-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Lucky for me I will be doing the market this weekend at trastevere. Hope not everyone has left town for the sea. I tried some stuff and revisited some techniques these days and after this I hope to come up with some unique pieces with some good inspiration. I think I should not touch clay just for one day in order to put my creative juices to work.

This bracelet is made using the water colour technique.

Here's a fun-looking bracelet for the summer.

I have also been experimenting with gold leaf on translucent clay with skinner blends.

This pendent also has gold flakes too and the background was created with the water colour technique.

And some spoons for the market tomorrow.

Summer, a season for wedding orders

2009-06-22T13:34:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

What a tiring week, made a 12 set of dessert spoon with fork and a pair of serving pallete and knife for a wedding present and then another 6 set cutlery set for another wedding present... I only have pics of the second order, and also some other lighter covers I made on the side.

This saturday I will be at a notte bianca at Passo corese quite aways from the city centre in the north of Lazio, so I will not be doing the pigneto market this sunday since the saturday market would be till late night. Like always, I am looking forward to it!

About the website, I think within the next few weeks, there would be an update on the procedure page, where I will upload the episode of Paint your life, just a short clip where I show how I made a flower cane my way.

More teaspoons!

2009-06-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

Last week I received a custom order of spoons by colour range, I personally prefer the black and white ones. I hope this sale goes through, then it would be the first ever time selling from Etsy.
As for weekend markets, I will be at Piazza Sidney sognino this friday and saturday and sunday I will be at Circolo degli artisti at Via Casilina Vecchia 42, for an exhibiton cum sale kind of market. I hope more than anything to do some publicity.

Next Market

2009-04-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

This sunday will be the 3rd time i will be doing this market at pigneto. I have prepared many earrings and small stuff, seeing that after 2 tries there, the people seem more interested at vintage stuff than polymer clay. I hope to catch the attention of some young people with my new bright colours and also some ladies shopping around for summer accessories.

My first big piece!

2009-04-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

This tray is an order from a customer who has also ordered 12 sets of cutlery. Then after that they had the idea to buy a tray and asked me to cover the handles. The back of the tray had the manufacturer's mark engraved on it so I decided to cover the whole back. Heck! I wanted to do it so that I can at last do big pieces. I always covered small stuff, so now I can say that this is my first big piece. Hope for more to come and I already have ideas….
The scenery might seem like trees and stars but actually the trees are supposed to be corals and the circles signify the eggs during spawning. The clay is slightly metallic in colour and the texture is also ribbed to make it seem more water-like. I am proud of this piece, and hope that the people who receive this would enjoy it as much as me.

The tray is stainless steel. This is the front of the tray, you can only see the handles decorated.

Just to inform what will be available at the next market

2009-03-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some stuff that will be on sale at the market this sunday. i think they are nice all the same with respect to the other stuff i have already made.... there is this bracelet that's already sold though, it reminds me of the bracelet wilma has on flintstones... will make a new different one for the next market

More markets to come

2009-03-24T04:08:00.000-07:00

I think this year is going quite well for me. i just did a market at pigneto last sunday. Sales wise have been down though. i think its because its not an all crafts market, so i have to rethink about my display to make it more interesting or something... Hope to be confermed for the market at piazale morelli next month. but i shall be confermed for the easter weekend market at trastevere.

Been a busy week with orders

2009-03-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

All in a span of a few days, i received 3 orders of utensils

one lady ordered 12 sets of a particular design i made in relief. was nerve wrecking because all this time i have always made 2 or 3 sets of cutlery but 12 was a bit of a challenge. well here is what i had to do first.

place slices of leaves as naturally as i can

cover the cutlery with these and then put in the flowers

Here is a panoramic shot

then there was the 6 sets, i made 7 so that she can choose.

then some teaspoons that i had to remake because i had them posted on my website and the client requested for similar because she cant come by personally to choose them. No pics here, i think its quite similar to the one i made before and the pics are in the website.

By the way, after some suggestion from a friend, i now have my email written on the back!

i hope all goes well this week at the market. i have made some bracelets and other stuff. Dont know if i will take pics of it. if i get to it tomorrow i will post it.

Valentine's week

2009-02-13T03:36:00.000-08:00

I would really not want to do the market this week.... but for the sales (If any) I need to... Why? Because the provision is zero°C for the whole weekend! And i am staying outside in that weather with strong cold winds. Hope I don't fall sick after...

During the last month I was doing some netsurfing on polymer clay and could not help but not try some new stuff inspired by Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes. I think their stuff looks great... I have always been caning and did not really go into mica shift techniques. So recently I decided to try, inspired by their objects.

Here are some scarf pins

some lighter covers

some rings

Then I have done some utensils with colours and designs inspired by Klimt and Kandinski

a new necklace
And lastly a necklace that was ordered by Vale with her own choice of colours, I hope she likes the pea pod. It was supposed to be a plain form with skinner blend of red andpink but i thought the colours were too far apart from the rest and the forms would not have harmony together so I added some violet peas in the middle

2009-01-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hi all this is a picture of bottle openers that i made during the last market. January is generally a cold period for selling crafts especially since this month is one of the hottest sales periods for the shops. I am sure there are many out there who have saved money and would rather get a heavily discounted branded bag than something handmade...

Anyways, these bottle openers will be going to Paris......

They will be taking part in the 23 to 27 january 2009 exhibition of Maison & objet. An exhibition with a design theme. I will not be going there though :( they dont sponsor the artist, an art gallerist will be representing me. But its too cold for me anyway... -8 °C ! and some pollution cloud news i heard

Along with these other stuff, some spoons and some lighter covers and utensils i made in the past. I will be posting some other stuff before the next market in february. See ya!