Playing with Clay

I've been using clay as a new material for my jewlery making hobby. I watched my sister fashion decorations for a doll house and discovered that polymer clay could be used to design beads as well. While I still enjoy beading with crystals and stones...making my own beads truly makes me feel like an artist. Tonight's projects incude a deep red flower design and a fun summer blue design. It usually takes me about 4 hours to complete a necklace. The picture shows my work in progress. I start by creating a design in the shape of a fat sugar cookie. Then, I extrude the clay (by rolling) to shrink the design to about 1/4". There's so many things to do with clay....but my favorite technique (shown here) is to cut small slices and laminate a clay ball with the pattern.