A Few of My Favorite Things
I have three favorite things about custom orders!
The chance to expand my creative horizons!
The feedback!
The inspiration for new products!
This was the the request from the customer:
“So what I'm looking for can either be strung into a bracelet or just a free-flowing strand of beads, either way works for me. I'd like it to be a combination of 4 beads of equal size followed by 1 smaller bead, and then again 4 more beads of equal size, followed by a final smaller bead. The beads don't need to be very tightly snug against one another, some slack would be more than fine, whatever is simplest.
The 4 beads of equal size I would like to be a deep, dark blue, with a swirls of sparkling gold. The smaller beads I would like to be white with swirls of a deep red like a pomegranate fruit, and if possible, create some pinkish colorations from the merging of the white and red. Again, only if possible with minimal effort, I don't fully understand the process itself, so I'm unsure of what can be asked for.”
Very specific, right? But it left me so much room to be creative with how I mixed the color combinations. This is absolutely why I play in the polymer clay medium! The possibilities are limited only to my own imagination (and sometimes a little help from the internet).
I used a royal blue and a purple and a little black to achieve the deep, dark blue I envisioned.
The gold foil flakes are like spinach before it’s cooked…big, out-of-control pieces until you combine it with the clay and the glaze and then it shrinks way down…haha (but adds just the right amount of sparkle).
Mixing in a little satin glaze for shine.
Throughout the whole process, I was checking in with the customer to make sure they liked what I was creating for them.
The “white beads with swirls of deep red” was a little challenging since I didn’t want to overmix and make a ‘pink’ bead.
I gave the customer a variety of cord color choices, but ultimately, what they really wanted was yellow. I can never resist a trip to the craft store, so, off I went!
As a “thank you,” I added a matching fidget stone and pen. He was blown away by the finished product, and said it totally exceeded all his expectations!
Now that I have made a bracelet, I’m excited to make more of those with the extra keychain beads in my inventory. I’m inspired to add some Christmas tree ornaments with my polymer clay beads as well!
We definitely LOVE custom orders! Email us and maybe our next blog post will be about whatever we create for YOU!!!