Fun with Leftovers

I don’t know how many pieces I’ve made resulted from looking over at my scattered scraps and suddenly seeing a new texture, form or design in the randomness. Its kind of like finding animals in the shapes of clouds … you look over and you see shape for a pendant, the texture for necklace or a form that could make an interesting bead.

So when perusing some collected online tutorials, I stopped at this very pretty bit of modified mokume which is pictured in a tutorial titled “How to make faux snake skin or honeycomb veneers” by Desiree McCrorey and really wished I could grab, not a slice from the revealed slab but rather those first holey layers off the top. Wouldn’t they look just so striking pressed onto a sheet of pearl clay, those thin little edges of purple around the circles framing the background color?

I wonder how many other people out there automatically do that as well? I know Helen Breil does … that is how she came up with the curling and frame type shapes which are the basis of her new book Shapes (which we review in the upcoming Spring 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts.) That kind of eye is hard to teach. But I would recommend that before balling up your scraps and tossing them in the scrap bin you look at what you have and see if anything jumps out at you. Just that could send you on a whole new journey and invigorate your line if you are looking for something new. You just never know and all it takes is keeping your eyes wide open.