Having sanded and buffed a load of beads by hand last week I decided to try buffing with a dremel. I wanted to get a really shiny buffed finish and I had read that you could only achieve this with mechanical buffing. I only started sanding recently and have  been buffing by hand  on a tea towel . I have never used a dremel before, I am borrowing one from my parents.I tried the dremel buffing wheel (sewn muslin one that comes with the Dremel)...

Anyone who knows me will recognise the power of the blog – I am not one to finish things as a rule. So this week I not only made some buttons but I finished them (sanded and buffed – they came up pretty good) and then made a brooch using one. Here it is Felt flower brooch with polymer clay buttonI am thinking about making a blog about the rest of my life as this one seems to be a very good motivator (I don’t want to bore you...

Here are my first ever polymer clay buttons! Again it was using a Cindy Leitz video. They aren’t great (my fault not Cindy’s of course!), I can see lots of room for improvement.I had problems with the cling film I was using sticking to the clay – must try a different brand. I would of squished them up but I liked the pattern (off cuts from a scrap clay Natasha bead). I think they might be rescued with some heavy sanding...

This is a neat cane which I learnt from one of Cindy Leitz’s video newsletters  (I love Friday’s the day they arrive!). There is a lot of excitement about this Friday’s video as it is Faux Opals that look great!I had to switch back to Fimo as I had Fimo Soft Glow in the Dark and Kato don’t make one (might be worth an email suggesting that they do of course). I find the fimo so soft to work with now I don’t really...

I have been playing a lot with  polymer clay recently, trying out new things.I thought I would share some of them with you, here’s the first…Square sticks I didn’t quite take the right pictures so you will have to piece it together a bit yourself. I put some sticks of polymer clay in the extruder barrel instead of the usual discs to see what would happen. As you can see I was just playing around and not taking my time to be...

First published March 2010 – updated slightly May 2019 For years I used Fimo polymer clay which is readily available here in the UK. Recently I found Cindy Leitz and having read a lot on her blog and seeing her beautiful colour mixing recipes I decided I ought to try Premo clay. I’ve collected some other brand reviews and comparison on Pinterest here. Being a fan of Donna Kato’s work and having her excellent book I decided to...