Pantone Color Trends for Spring 2016

It's time to decide which of the trending Pantone colors you will incorporate into your Spring 2016 polymer clay palette. Here are the Top 10 to get you started.

http://www.pantone.com

The Queen of Kitsch and Kitchen

Thinking back on my entire life, I cannot recall a time when I was rendered speechless. Go ahead, roll your eyes. It's just that today I stumbled upon someone who has forever changed my view of the world. I am seeing life through a lens of supersonic inspiration. It is taking my breath away. It is splendiferous.

You see, I've found a countess of cool. The queen of kitsch and kitchen. Her name is Christine McConnell. She bakes, she sews, she makes magic with Adobe® Photoshop® software, she creates objets d'art. She's half Elvira, half Stepford wife, half Dita Von Teese. One minute she's appears wholesome and the next minute wicked.

She's got a book due out next March called Deceptive Desserts: A Lady's Guide to Baking Bad!, but we will call it If She Makes it With Sugar, We Can Make it With Clay!. 

Here is a pumpkin pie she made in the style of Cinderella's carriage. Can you see it in polymer clay? Treat yourself to her website and Instagram. I believe you will find Miss Christine can be a nightmarish dream or dreamy nightmare.

Oh, and one more thing; in her spare time she dotes on her kitty cats and she makes (and models) her own underwear. Wow.

Photo credit: Christine H McConnell via Instagram.

Aromatic Inspiration From DeviantArt.com

With all the avenues one can traverse on the journey to unearth and take in massive amounts of polymer clay art, there is none quite like DeviantArt.com. Yes, there are traditional works. There are displays that are the same as those gracing the usual polyclay haunts (Etsy, Facebook, Pinterest, . . .) but many times at this social media mega site, there are surprises. Many times the display is part of the art. Take Monster Kookies for example. Here is an artist with a whimsical mind. I hope the tutorial inspires you to try scenting some of your clay creations, and the visual display tickles your fancy.

Photo Credit: Monster Kookies

Happy Halloween!!

Good grief!! Halloween got here much sooner than I expected, so the most I can muster at this late date is something orange. I know, it's feeble, but wait until you see it. As crazy as I am for canes, and for as long as I've been involved with polymer clay (23 years), here is a cane (orange BTW) I've never seen. It's one of many from FIMO Live Journal. Imagine the possibilities just by using different color combinations. You could make a quick pair of earrings to wear with your costume -- you are dressing up, right? Have fun tricking or treating and remember to set your clocks back an hour. Oh, how I love that!!

Photo Credit: FIMO Live Journal

♪ Happy Birthday dear FIMO, Happy Birthday to you ♪

You will want to be part of this celebration!! 

The 50th Anniversary of FIMO will commemorate the brand AND all the proceeds from auctioning the clay pieces we donate go to two of the polyclay community's favorite charities: The Samunnat Community in Nepal that Cynthia Tinapple works with and Ron Lehocky’s KIDS Center for Pediatric Therapies. Ron is the powerhouse who makes all those magical hearts from our clay leftovers. Get more information below and then start working on your contribution to this once-in-a-lifetime occasion!!

FIMO 50 World Project

September 19 at 7:14pm · 

This is a very special moment for the global Polymer Clay community, one of these rare ones that will truly become a once-in-a-lifetime celebration. Polymer Clay is about to be fifty years old! The brand that started it all, FIMO, will be fifty in 2016!

It’s all about celebrating how FIMO and Polymer Clay have become such a powerful vehicle to expand and connect our world, making it ever larger, wider and more beautiful.

Here’s the idea: together we want to make a big, International collaborative project with pieces from all over the world that together will create our ‘World’.

And here comes the best part: this initiative, the whole experience, is all non-for-profit, charity-oriented. We want to really make it count: every piece donated will be auctioned online and, once the whole ‘World’ is completed and presented, it will be dismantled. The pieces will travel around the world again to their new owners. And all the proceeds will be sent to two charities that are so dear to the Polymer Clay program worldwide: The Samunnat Community in Nepal and Ron Lehocky’s KIDS Center for Pediatric Therapies.

How to participate? It is so easy! Make an art piece that speaks about you – make it on your own, with your friends, with your guild… send as many as you like! There are no rules! Well, just one: the pieces will be 10cmx10cm approx., so that they will all fit nicely onto the World. The more pieces we all send, the more beautiful the World will be and the more we will collect for our friends!

On October 1st, all the details –how to register, where to send your piece…- will be published on the official ‘FIMO 50 World Project’ website. Right now, let’s all start to create our art pieces!

Thank you so much!!

Photo by Modern Vintage Events

It's never too early to start making preparations for Halloween. These adorable mini pumpkin lanterns are from Modern Vintage Events. And while MVE used real pumpkins, their design ideas are easily transformed with polymer clay. For a detailed tutorial on making the lanterns as shown, go to the Modern Vintage Events website.

It wouldn't be Halloween around pcPolyzine World Headquarters without paying homage to the memory of Thomas Ojeda. Together with his compadre, Kim Kennedy, they kept the ezine afloat with little to no kudos along the way. Today, we celebrate both of them and their inimitable spirit for Halloween with a tutorial from the pcPolyzine archives. Their delightful polymer clay mini jack o'lantern votives are from the October 2003 issue. Be sure to look through the index of free tutorials in the pcPolyzine archives for more trick 'or' treat ideas from Kim and Thomas. You can find an alphabetical list of all the pcPolyzine tutorials to download by selecting the link in the upper right-hand corner.

Photo by Kim Kennedy

Uninspiring...boo, hoo, hoo.

Hello everybody - We, rather I, are/am having technical difficulties. I broke my laptop screen making it difficult to navigate. But I am on the job and hope to have everything fixed in the next week. I miss you and will try to be back soon. :((

Eternal Inspiration: Remembering Karin Ashdown

My favorite Karin Ashdown polymer clay tutorial ever!!

A sad day for the polyclay community.

Visit Karin's Pinterest page to see some of the things she enjoyed. The images speak for themselves.

Peace be with you, dear Karin.

Yummy Sweet Inspiration

 [Click to play video] 

OK, so it's cookie dough and not polymer clay. The technique is the same. 

Watch this one, then visit YouTube to subscribe to the channel where there are more videos just like this one. Great fun!! 

(Thanks to Polymer Clay Annex​ for posting this on their Facebook page).

Video from: Eugenie Kitchen on YouTube

Inspiration From Down Under

Photo credit: Australia.com

This lovely is circulating on Facebook and I am posting here to be sure you do not miss it. It is a gorgeous Rainbow Lorikeet and can be found in coastal regions across northern and eastern Australia. I am inspired and hope you are, too!

Aniko's Star Shines Brighter Each Day

Here we are again tooting Aniko's horn. We are so proud that her journal is included at Bliggs.com (http://www.bliggs.com).