Book on flower necklaces

[hollyjosie]

Hi everyone,
I am really inspired by the beautiful flower statement necklaces found online and would like to 'have a go'. I have searched but cannot find any books on this.  Do you know if there are any about?  I have tried to make a few flowers but find they are quite brittle and would break if dropped which is no good if you are trying to make an elaborate design....  I love Yuli Galuschak's work!

[Carrie]

Hi!

There are quite a few free tutorials on YouTube - might be worth looking for those ☺

[Carrie]

Hard to find when l want them!  But here is an easy one to start with, with English subtitles.

https://youtu.be/RUSwq6YxVCI

[Carrie]

Rusalina on YouTube has some - here's one. https://youtu.be/vHtTd4YDTsc

And another, rose one.  https://youtu.be/Z7qXmKQcqv4

I've just looked at Yuli Galuschak's work on flickr....very ott!  Wearable?  Hmmmm!  But amazing

[Carrie]

Btw, the breaking thing - use a strong clay, obviously, but definitely check baking temp is accurate with separate thermometer.  Bake a nice long time, too.

[hollyjosie]

Hi Carrie,

Thank you so so much for your 'youtube' links, how on earth did you find those as I have searched!  Wiil certainly be watching them.  Regarding the clay used, I use premo clay for the flowers and do bake them for quite a long time, more than recommended - do you think they can be overbaked?

Regardd

[Carrie]

Glad they were useful!  There are a lot of videos for individual complex flowers as well so you can build up your own neckpieces.....l will look for some later.   l have subscribed to several artist's channels which helped me find these - l don't watch flower ones myself.

You could also search pinterest perhaps.

You can't really overbake the clay - if you cover it to prevent any possibility of discolouration.

Premo should be ok....Cindy Leitz uses it to make some really delicate flowers.  She has just done a video on Cernit, l think (l'll look for it) -  Rusalina and others on YouTube use it and it's very strong.

[Carrie]

Here's Cindy Leitz's video on Cernit - no time to watch it now but l think she did a flexibility/strength test at the end though l might have completely misremembered that...if so, sorry!
http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/polymer-clay-tutor-cernit-review-raw-vs-baked/20505/#video

Btw, if you really want a book on flower making you might have more luck looking for sugarpaste ones.....but l think in the case of complex flowers a video is going to be better 

[ejralph]

I would advise using a strong clay like Cernit,

But also, mix in some of their translucent to the clay to add even more strength. Bake at the max temp for the clay, 130c for at least an hour, taking care to not allow the clay to scorch or overheat.

That way you will get the clay to be as strong as it can be - but you know, even then I still remain unconvinced that polymer clay is really well suited to very fine and delicate things.

The key is to make these types of petals and flowers in such a way that they look delicate but still are actually quite sturdy enough in all the right places and that takes trial and error, practise etc

Emma

[hollyjosie]

Thank you sop much to everyone for their helpful advice. CARRIE - special thanks to you for your links to Rusalina. I had not heard of this artist but thanks to you have found loads of flower making links on Youtube from her. Last night I spend hours watching one after the other, couldn't sleep with excitement for all the ideas going round my head. Can't wait to do some today!!!!

[Carrie]

Oh good, glad to be of help!

You could run a baking test with some petal shapes before you spend hours on something .....

[ejralph]

Another thing to look at is sugarcraft books and tuturials.

Flower making is a big thing in sugar craft and  so you can get some great ideas from that. Obviously sugar paste and polymer clay handle rather differently and have different qualities, so you have to make minor adjustments to suit using polymer clay, but apart from that they can be really inspirational

EMma