I had fallen in love with the stone, larimar, and wanted to recreate it in polymer clay. If you’re unfamiliar with its loveliness, it’s in the silver bezel in the photo above.
My first attempt on the left I call “the blue giraffe.” The spots and borders are way too big. I tried making a pen out of it, but cut it off so I wouldn’t waste the pen kit.
I recycled the first cane to make the second one in the middle. It’s better, but the borders shouldn’t be white and the color is too baby blue. All the borders should be soft-edged, but some ended up hard-edged.
If you compare the cane (in plastic wrap) of my second attempt to the baked slice below it, you can see how the colors changed in the oven. I tried a pen with this, but cut it off, too.
I’ve been reworking the second cane into something like blue lace agate. So far I’ve made pens, pendants and earrings from it.
My third attempt was after I bought Claire Wallis’ water and lightning cane tutorial. I also bought a real piece of larimar, rather than relying on photos and memory. Both helped. I did a better job of matching colors this time. I thought the result was interesting and pen-worthy, although it doesn’t quite look like water or larimar.
If I combine what I did right in the second and third canes, I should come up with something closer to real larimar.
What I learned from this:
- Use careful observation when trying to mimic something. Get the real thing to use as reference.
- Test clay colors by baking them before you make a cane.
- Magic does not happen in the oven. Clay comes out looking like it did when you put it in, or worse.
Cane 1 was beautiful when swirled on the pen & pendants. Wasn’t your target but would consider it a “tangent” success. LOL!
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Thanks, Teresa! I’ve been able to rescue a couple disasters by putting them in the extruder and then flattening them or stretching them out in the pasta machine. Swirly can be good!
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I’m quite familiar with lesson number 3! Thank you for the smile and another good read. What an enjoyable blog. Bravo!
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Beautiful. I was wondering where can I find bezels like these?
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If you mean the bezels with a patterned finish, I made those with polymer clay using CaBezels https://shadesofclay.com/shop/almond-bezels-and-more/
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Larimar comes in many patterns and different blue shades so you’ve come a lot closer than you thought! I love the stone too and have purchased several pieces for my daughter. I think if you want to more closely imitate the exact natural sone you have you may want to add a fingernail scraping of “mud” to a couple of your darkest and medium tone original canes. I always keep a small glob of “mud” (mixture of red,blue,yellow should give muddy brown dirt color) handy in my stash for toning down bright polymer colors to more natural earthy ones. A tiny bit goes a long way and changes the color values subtly but naturally .
You’ve inspired me to try some larimar at home😇🥰
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Thanks, Arlene!
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Bonjour Phyllis, bravo pour l’effet ‘ eau ‘ j’adore … j’ai déjà essayé sans résultat en regardant celle de Claire Wallis… j’aurais tant aimé pouvoir acheter le tuto , mais plus possible… encore bravo
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Je vais essayer de vous envoyer via email un tutoriel gratuit que Sieraden Carolina a fait.
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What kind of pens do you use
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Me encanta haberte descubierto. Aprenderé mucho de ti. Gracias!
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