The Blue Bottle Tree

I've completed week five of 100 Days of Polymer Clay Wall Art.

I'm sharing my experiments with new media in my daily post in Blue Bottle Insiders.

BTW, did you know that dozens and dozens of Insiders members are ALSO doing their own 100 Day Projects? Their daily posts are also shared in the 100 Day Project section of the Insiders website. There are sculptures, collages, canes, drawings, surface patterns, embellishments, and so much more. I'm inspired each day by what these intrepid explorers are making.

There's also a ton of interaction on the main boards. You just never know what we'll discuss next!

You can join from the link in my bio or head to my website.

If you look on Amazon or other marketplaces, you’ll see dozens of different brands of clay machines. What’s the difference?

Well, I’ll let you in on a secret. They’re not really clay conditioning machines. They’re pasta machines, and there’s very little difference between them (if any). They’re not originally designed to be polymer clay rollers.

Okay, okay, let’s roll this back a bit. There are three main categories of machines that you can use with your clay.

1. Lucy Clay Machine – the only one INTENDED for polymer clay use. Very pricey. Beyond the scope of this post, but you can read my review of an early version of these machines on my website.

2. Italian Pasta Machines – Usually made by either Marcato (the Atlas) or Imperia, these are heavy-duty pasta machines that work well with polymer clay (within reason).

3. Imitations – China does what China will do. And factories there have copied the basic design of the Atlas and produced them with sloppy tolerances, cheap metal, and sharp corners. Years ago, when pasta-making was big, you could find the same machines flooding cheap markets, definitely labeled as “pasta machines”. Now that polymer clay is big, you guessed it, they’re selling the same thing as “clay conditioning machines”. They’re not. They’re knock-off pasta machines.

Read the rest of the article on my website. I'll put the link in the comments.

Another week in the books of my 100 Days of Polymer Clay Wall Art.

There's more info on each one on my website. And as always, there's a full writeup for each on each day's post in Blue Bottle Insiders.

Speaking of Insiders, there are a couple dozen more of us doing the 100 Day Project, each with our own theme. It's fascinating seeing what everyone is doing each day. And very educational!

The main area of Insiders is hopping right now, too. We've had quite a few new members and 12 posts in the past day. If you've ever felt alone in the polymer clay world, that stops here. Come join us in Insiders!

A Skinner blend is a graduated ombre blend of color across a sheet of polymer clay.

I've written a few tips for preventing some common problems when making a Skinner blend.

Head to the article by searching on my website for "Skinner".

Week 4 of 100 Days of Polymer Clay Wall Art.

I continued exploring the draped/folded forms with different treatments and also started dabbling with acrylic inks. (So much more to explore here.)

Swipe to see them individually. You can see them all on my website. And remember, I'm sharing the how-to's and thought processes in the daily post in Blue Bottle Insiders, too.