Thursday, March 1, 2012

DIY polymer clay pendant

Each year, on 1st of March, Romanians have a tradition - they offer to each other little "martisoare" which are little decorative objects that symbolize the beginning of the spring. They resemble brooches and they absolutely necessary have to have a white and red ribbon with tassels attached. After you receive your "martisoare" you wait until you see the first bloomed tree and you tie it up to a branch of the tree. Quite a lovely tradition. This year, hoping to save a little money I made my own, from polymer clay which I gave a golden patina. I'd say they turned out great! They were appreciated little gifts. You can use this method to make much more professionally looking jewelry of all sorts:



This is just a little thing made for fun, but if you wanna go pro with polymer clay, I recommend you invest a bit and get yourself a real tutorial here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/101144233/polymer-clay-pdf-tutorial-oriental. Check out the pretty polymer clay canes too while you are there: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sigalsart

23 comments:

  1. How wonderful! Such a creative idea for making martisoare. Who are you giving them to? It would be great for three girls who are best friends and can share and complete it like a puzzle :) And I happen to know just the right ones, hehee!!!

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  2. :)) Haha Teo :) Since I've got this blog, I can't surprise you with anything anymore, you read it here before I tell you :) Your martisor is in the mail and should get to you shortly!

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  3. this is lovely. in Bulgaria, we call them ''martenitsa'', they are made of red and white wool thread :) use google for more info :) btw, I'd love to wear a pendant like this one not just as ''martisoare'' :))

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  4. Gorgeous! Maybe we should start this tradition here to! It's sweet :)

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  5. I love it! What did you use for the gold?

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  6. Beautiful. I wish you had a tutorial even though it looks simple. I'm not yet familiar with working with polymer clay, but I intend to buy some to try it out. I saw something similar made into a bracelet. Very inspiring. Also, I love the dress worn in your blogspot.

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  7. Baghy, that is absolutely fabulous little piece. And I like the tradition as well, never heard of it before, we do not have anything like that in Czech.

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  8. Thank you all, I am so glad you like it!
    I think Bulgaria's martenitsa are the same thing actually, even it sounds similar :)

    Yeah it would be nice if for a change other countries would borrow Romanian traditions... we imported quite a few from others :)

    Yeah I thought of making a tutorial but thought people familiar with polymer clay would find it boring :) But really, it's as simple as it looks. For the gold, I used Jaquard's Pearl-ex, like this one: http://bit.ly/ykGTkW but I think you can use any fine golden powder.

    Encouraged by the responses I'll be adding more polymer clay projects - an excuse for me to play with polymer clay more :)

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  9. This is such a unique and amazing DIY! Loved and Pinned :)

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  10. I've never heard of this tradition! How lovely! Your pendants came out quite beautifully.

    http://www.eyeseefaeries.blogspot.com

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  11. Great tradition!! and I love the pendant you made!!!)

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  12. Great Picture tutorial.
    What program did you use to add the pictures together so nicely?

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  13. Anca, where's this magical garden in your banner?

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    1. Dori :) this magical garden is... in my garden! :)

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  14. What a brilliant and easy way to make a fabulous pendant!

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  15. Thank you :) Yes, they are very easy to make and you can use a wide range of textures to press on it and get a lot of different results. Lace fabric also is a lovely option!

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  16. The lace fabric idea to press into clay would be a great idea! This was such a pretty post and a great DIY project. Hope to try it out someday soon!

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  17. Never heard of this tradition.
    it is great, what do you use as the gold dust?

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  18. It is a Pearl-ex powder pigment... those pigments are great, they have some interference ones, they are so cool... and they do not change their color when baked.

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  19. I knew it was Romanian the moment I saw the red and white thread! An excellent idea to cut it into 3 and share.

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  20. Hi, the trinklet came out really well. I wanted to share this with my readers and hence I have featured this on my page here, with backlink ofcourse. Here is the link:
    http://www.letscreatecrafts.com/polymer-clay-crafts-ideas/

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