Whistling Raven: Blue Bracelet

Picasso's Two Acrobats with a Dog is the painting for this month's challenge at The Art Bead Scene. Participants are encouraged this month to offer their bracelets to the 7000 Bracelets for Hope project. The blue themed bracelets bring awareness for rare and genetic diseases.

I decided to make a blue bracelet that I would donate to the 7000 Bracelets for Hope project. I made four beads out of polymer clay. To make the house bead, I added alcohol ink to white clay to make a nice shade of blue but I liked the marbled look as I was mixing it, so I kept it like that. I had my own stamps to use that I made out of polymer clay. For those I cut the tiny pieces I wanted to stamp with, baked them and then "glued" them to chunky pieces of raw clay using translucent liquid clay (which is a bakeable liquid polymer medium). Then the stamps were baked again, and they work perfectly for making little windows, doors, heart shapes. I formed the house bead, stamped it, baked it, painted it (windows etc), baked again, then sanded it with 500, 1000, 1200, and 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper. Then I added a little Renaissance Wax and buffed it with a clean cloth. That stuff is wonderful. Gives a nice shine. The diamond shaped beads were baked, painted, given a layer of crackle glaze medium and then painted again. I added several layers of protective sealant and sanded in between for smoothness. The dark blue spiral bead was made by shaping the edges of a long strip of clay, then rolling it up. I added gold metallic powder for some shimmer and sealant to protect that. I personally am not a big fan of the high shine glaze, but for certain beads it is needed. I am almost out of the kind I use and am looking to but more. Does anyone have any recommendations for a glaze/ sealant that they like. The other beads in the bracelet are blue aventurine, sodalite, lapis lazuli, two turquoise chips, a trade bead from Kenya, and a few metallic glass beads. I made the clasp.

Thank you for stopping by.