The Challenge: Use your favorite sewing tool to create a project. Tell us and show us why you love it. Use rotary cutters, scissors, rippers, die cutters, etc. and show us what you made.
Thank you Carol from Just Let Me Quilt for hosting! For this hop, I decided to not sew anything or show my favorite gadgets…although my favorite might just be my die cutting machine the Crossover II by Crafter’s Edge. I use that thing for my kids’ school projects, Girl Scouts, volleyball and sewing!) So instead of creating a project or telling you more about my favorite gadgets I am going to work with an entirely different medium. Instead of sewing something related to gadgets or using my favorite one, I spiced up my current gadgets with some Polymer Clay! It was a lot of fun re-visiting a medium I have used before. I made polymer clay ornaments in the past and my kids and I like to make beads and jewelry with it. However, I still wanted to challenge myself and try a new technique.
For today’s gadgets I attempted faux quartz. I used pigment free clay and added my daughter’s eye shadow powder pigments. I also added faux gold leaf to add to the glitz and glimmer. If interested, check out the steps below to see how I upgraded my boring sewing gadgets.
Supplies:
- Sculpey Premo Clear Clay
- Eyeshadow Pigment
- Liquid Polymer Clay Clear
- Faux Gold Leaf
- Polymer Clay Cutter
- Rolling Pin (I used my kids play dough one and a strong plastic straw)
- Oven and tray
- Shiny Clay Glaze and paint brush
Instructions:
Begin by conditioning the clay. The clay can be really hard and crumbly and conditioning it makes it soft and pliable. To condition, you can simply massage it with your hands till soft. Depending on your clay this step can take some time and some strong hands. Once soft, add your pigment and mix till blended. You can also just add some colored clay or a little bit of acrylic paint. Next, chop up the clay into little bits.
With your fingers break up the little chunks. They will stick together a little bit. Then add a sheet of faux gold and mix in. Then, add a little bit of liquid polymer clay. The liquid clay isn’t necessary but helps to bind all the little pieces together without losing the definition of the separate colors and gold. Once you have added the liquid clay, squish the clay together and shape into a rectangle.
Using the clay cutter, cut 1/4″ slices and layer them just slightly over each other. Roll together with the rolling pin. Shape over the handle of the sewing gadget a form till smooth. I used a large seam ripper and a long handled flat head screwdriver. Bake according to the clay instructions. Once cooled, finish by using a shiny glaze finish.
Finished!
Thanks for stopping by! Check out the other bloggers who are posting today below. OR check out the full list HERE!
Wednesday, September 21st
Continue to bloom by choosing JOY ~ Julia
What a fabulous project! This would be great on crochet hooks too. Thanks for sharing 🙂
You may not have shown a gadget, but you certainly showed your creativity with one you already have. Great idea!
What a great idea to personalize your gadgets. They are so pretty now.
This brought back some memories, Julia. Years ago I had a seam ripper and the first time I used it, the metal part came out of the plastic handle. So what did I do? Certainly not throw it away! I grabbed my Fimo clay and fashioned a new handle for the seam ripper. It came out nice, so I grabbed the other 2 seam rippers I had and I made new handles for them too (but I just made those clay handles over the plastic ones). I even made round ends with swirling clay coming down on Stiletto’s I made from thick short bamboo skewers. I gave those out to lots of my friends. I still use them and still have extra stiletto’s. So what a great gadget and memory jogger for me, lol!
Great idea to personalize your gadgets, thanks so much for sharing!
Fun way to dress up our tools!
Your tools are beautiful! I used to work with polymer clay and really enjoyed it.
Wow, Julia! That is awesome! My daughters and I used to make lots of figures from polymer clay, but I haven’t done anything with it (except make gnome noses) for years. Thanks for sharing this!!
That is quite a clever idea to creatively personalize your smaller sewing gadgets. I heftier handle is always a better grip! A fun surprise for this blog hop.
Clever way to personalize and coordinate your gadgets! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, that turned out so pretty! Such an interesting way to spruce up a gadget. Thanks, Julia!
What a great and fun post! I used to play with clay. I think I need to do that again! LOL Thanks for sharing your process.
So cool, thank you for sharing
Wonderful idea! Some of my old tools could use a facelift. Thank you for showing me how.
Interesting process! Looks like fun! Thank you for sharing!
Ohhh, how glamorous those tools are. What a lovely way to interpret the hop. Wonderful!
What a clever idea to make your own gadget handles. Thanks for sharing your process…it’s brilliant!
Very interesting. Love the color.
I’ve never used polymer clay. Thanks so much for the mini tutorial. Love your new and improved gadget handles.
oh but this is wonderful. I love your creative use of polymer clay plus. and you are showing your gadgets. thanks for sharing and insuring. I may give this a try now. thanks
This turned out fantastic! Such a cool idea!
This is terrific! I have always wondered how these were created and I’m thrilled to know it’s do-able at home. Thank you!
this is SEW cool, my daughters love sculpey clay and I have lots of seam rippers! does the plastic not melt in the oven?
It doesn’t! The oven temp is only 200 degrees
Really unique and pretty. They look good.
Very cute idea to spill up your tools!
Oh wow, that is sooo cool! I’ve never done anything like that, I think it was a great idea and perfect for this hop! xx