Polymer clay cat hairpins

I decided to make some new products! I have always loved hairpins and wanted to make some. Finally, I have finished my first hair pins!

I know there will be more to come, as I need to stock up the shop in city center. :)

20 cats necklace, custom anniversary jewelry

I just love taking custom orders! 

I think it is so much fun to poke my brain around and wonder how to design something based on the customers needs. Usually I make 2-3 designs to get the end result that I end up with.  This spring has been good for me in the sense that quite many people have asked custom works from me. Usually the contacts come trough my Facebook page. 

A man contacted me about a custom design necklace for his wife. They have been together for 20 years, so he wanted to remember the wife with something unique. He has ordered things from me before, so he also knows my style pretty well. I suggested to make him a necklace with 20 different flowers (kind of like bouquet) made from polymer clay. His wife LOVES cats so he asked me to change the flowers into cats. So I needed to make a necklace with twenty different cats - one for each year they've been together. Absolutely  lovely idea, but proved more challenging than I first imagined!

I actually redid the idea three times before I got to the result I was happy with!

The necklace has twenty different color cat beads.
All in the shades of black, white and gray.

Life isn't straightforward, so I mixed the different
color beads and cats...

It's so much fun how the cats go up on
the other side and down on the other...

How to make cat earrings from polymer clay

Here is how to make cute polymer clay cat earring studs for you or someone you love!

I also sell them in my Etsy shop.

You need:

Black and yellow polymer clay

one pair of earrings studs

4 jewelry pins

round jewelry pliers

superglue

Make the face of the cat. Starting with same size
 balls is easy to flatten out as a face.

Add two feet. I used a wooden stick to create the toes.

Add yellow spots as background for the eyes.

Roll some polymer clay so it has a sharp end.
Then cut the end with a wooden stick.
Keep in mind you only need a tiny little bit of polymer clay.

This is what you should have now.

Roll the clay gently with your finger to make it more oval.

Use a stick to insert the eye in the middle of the yellow part of the eye.
Make a small oval body on  a jewelry pin like in this picture.
 Add two oval feet in the lower part of the body, use the wooden stick to help create toes for the legs.

Make a small clay ball and stick a jewelry pin inside it,
then roll the clay between your fingers to create a tail for the cat.
You now have three parts for each cat: the head, the tail and the body. 

Fire the cat parts in an oven heated to 130 celcius for 30 minutes.
Cut the tails jewelry pin shorter and bend it with jewelry
pliers to attach the tail to the body like in this picture.

Now cut the jewelry pin in the body shorter and
bend it inside/around the lock of the stud earring. You cat body is now ready!

Glue the stud on to the cats head.
Use a superglue so strong that you cannot pull the pieces apart.
 I use Loctite superglue.

The front!

The back!

The side!

I hope you enjoyed this how to :)

Thanks for looking!

Nelli

How to make a polymer clay cat bookmark

Here is how I make my polymer clay cat bookmarks, step by step.

Materials and tools that you need to make this:

Polymer clay

Toothpick or similar stick

Baking paper (to cover surfaces)

Lacquer (I use waterproof lacquer that takes 30 minutes to dry)

Your choice paper (I used orange, pink and golden papers as in the picture above.)

1-1,5mm thick cardboard (2 pieces, one for molding the cat, other for the bookmark itself)

Super glue

Paper glue or Erikeeper 

Brush for the lacquer (and glue is you use Erikeeper)

Book (to help drying the cats)

For the cat you need polymer clay, wooden stick and some thick cardboard.

Make a ball out of polymer clay.  If the ball is too big, the cat will be fat
if it is too small then it will be harder to handle. 

Slowly make the ball longer and evenly thick.

Slowly bend the clay and make it longer, while keeping it evenly thick.

This is how it should look like now.

Pinch the ends of he clay with your fingers to make small legs for the cat. 

The legs should look like this.

Both side legs done. 

Now attach the cat to the cardboard and press the legs a bit so it
keeps the body still and stuck on the cardboard.

Measure a small ball of polymer clay that is the right size for the head.

Shape the head for the cat by hand. I like to keep them simple.

Use the stick to attach the head to make sure it sticks well.

Measure a tail for the cat. I like them quite long.

You can model the tail like this to see if it's a good size.

Shape the tail of the cat.

Use the stick again to attach the tail properly.

Remove the cat carefully from the cardboard and it is ready!
If you can't remove your cat from the cardboard, don't panic.
Put the cat in the fridge or freezer for a while (15min) and it will be easier to take off.

This time I made four cats. 

Bake the cats like it says in the polymer clay instructions.
 (I bake them for 30 minutes in 130 celsius)

I sand all my creations to remove the fingerprints and other marks I don't want  in the cats.

Sanding makes the polymer clay grey.

Difference between sanded and not sanded cat. 
After sanding the cats its time to put the lacquer on.  

You need a book, thick card board, brush and lacquer.

Use the cardboard when you paint the lacquer on so you don't leave fingerprints on the cat.
Put 2 or 3 layers of the lacquer to make it nice and shiny. 

Use the book to leave them dry like this.

This is how my four cats looked like after all the layers of lacquer. 

You need cardboard for the bookmarks, paper glue or Erikeeper
(I watered the erikeeper down about 50/50) brush,  your choice colored or patterned paper.

Put glue on one side of the cardboard and glue it to the paper. make sure
there's no wrinkles. Then cut out with scissors and make the other side too.

Use superglue to attach the cat onto the cardboard.

Done!

Thank you for reading my blog!

You can see more of my bookmarks and buy them here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NellinShoppi?section_id=11767307