My entries in the Smooshers May Flowers Challenge

The theme for the next Polymer Clay Smooshers guild Challenge is May Flowers, and I was able to come up with two pretty awesome entries.  I had decided to make a floral trinket box first, since I've been having a lot of fun creating unique trinket boxes lately.  These trinket boxes are also a great way to recycle all the aluminum cat food cans that would otherwise be thrown away around here.  I start these by thoroughly cleaning and drying the cans, then I cover them with tacky glue.  Once the glue dries the clay sticks much better and I have fewer issues with air bubbles.  For this particular box I mixed a custom shade of purple from blue and purple Premo clay.  I use Premo just about exclusively now, and I always seem to mix my own custom colors, making each creation truly one of a kind. 
The next step in the creation of this piece was to stamp pretty designs into the clay.  I've fallen in love with flexible rubber stamps and polymer clay over the last year or so.  Then add a bit of Pearl Ex powder (in this case Sky Blue mixed with Reflex Violet) and you've got something magical!  Then I went on to create the pink flowers.
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They have textured petals (each shaped by hand), and are attached to a metal filigree finding.  I spent a lot of time digging through my bead stash to find the perfect beads for this box.  These are my last two ceramic bird beads, and also the last of my red glass butterfly beads.
 
All the beads are secured with wire and liquid polymer clay, so there are no worries about anything coming loose.  The lid is made from polymer clay with reinforcing wires baked into the clay.  The large flower was rubbed with blue and purple Pearl Ex powders for a gorgeous color variation. 
To finish the box I covered the bottom with felt and lined the inside with felt as well.  I'm really very happy with the way this turned out.  I may have to make one of these for myself to hold my favorite jewelry ;-)

My second entry is a necklace I call Mai's Flowers.  Christi Friesen's book on sculpting dragons helped inspire this one, as did the Irises blooming in the front yard.  Irises are some of my favorite flowers and I love sculpting them.  The first thing I did to create this piece was to sculpt the Iris beads. 
These took many hours and four separate bakes to complete.  Although they look very fragile, I used the green leaves behind the flower petals to add strength to the flowers.  Each petal was carefully sculpted and textured, then I dusted the center petals with blue Pearl Ex powder and the outer petals with purple Pearl Ex.  Each flower was sculpted individually, and just like in nature, each is unique.  Once the flowers were sculpted it was time to move on to Mai the dragon. 
Isn't she sweet holding her favorite flower?  I used glass beads to embellish her and add a bit of bling (if you're familiar with Christi Friesen, you're familiar with this technique).  She even has blue glass heart beads on her head, since she's such a loving little dragon ;-)  She's named after Mei from the movie My Neighbor Totoro (my favorite Myazaki movie of all time), who is also a sweet, fun loving little girl.
To make this necklace even more special I used blue, pink, and purple Swarovski crystals.  Nothing sparkles quite like Swarovski!


I absolutely adore this necklace, and I might just have to make one for myself!  I definitely see more Christi inspired dragons in my future- sculptures, jewelry, trinket boxes- there's no end to the possibilities!
Both of these items are available for sale in my shop.  Just click on any of the pictures to be directed to the listing.
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing another creative journey with me!

~Michelle of CreativeCritters

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