Fimo miniatures class with Helena Wilton

Have you ever fancied taking a Fimo/Polymer cay class?  Well, if you have (or even haven't) I would really like to recommend a class with Helena Wilton from Heevis Miniatures.

I attended her 'Fimo Miniatures' class in Hobbycraft, Carlisle on Friday night. I've worked with Fimo before, of course, I even teach bead-making in it myself, but having seen Helena's tiny cupcakes, cheesecakes & macaroons I really need to have a go at miniatures.

I learnt how to make a cheesecake, we could choose our own fruit - I picked kiwi,  and how to make the biscuit base look biscuity as well as how to make the jelly topping.

Cute little cheesecake :)

We then went onto cupcakes, I could tell you how to make these but it might be a trade secret, so I better not :) they are smaller than my little fingernail!

The one thing we didn't do was the actual cane that becomes the little fruit slices, but Helena has agreed to return to HC to do a cane class, so can't wait for that one!

Some of the class mates.

(It's on the 1st November if you're interested :) )

Polymer Clay class at Hobbycraft

Last night I did a Polymer Clay class at Hobbycraft, this was the first time I had ran this particular class and it had a good turn out and went really well.

Give someone a lump of coloured clay and they are whisked back to their Plasticine days.  Rolling, cutting, making sausages  :)

Of course this time we were using Polymer Clay.  We used Sculpey due to the fact it has a shorter cooking time than Fimo (although I am not sure it has as I always seem to have to give it a bit longer).


I didn't take any class photos, but I managed to snap some piccies of the finished beads for you.

PS:  The Amazon links I have throughout my blog are affiliated, which means if you click and purchase I may get a few pennies - just so you know :)

Some more Klimt Cane Beads

Today, my daughter Shona, and her mate Hannah decided to have a play day.

They decided on Fimo beads for this morning activities, as Hannah is studying Klimt at school for her GCSE Art, and I had previously made some Klimt Beads, we decided to revisit the technique.

After the last attempt at these beads (http://soozintheshed.blogspot.com/2010/03/klimt-complex-cane-beads.html) I had bruises on the palms of my hands from pushing the clay through the extractor! A friend who makes the most magnificent fimo pieces, suggested I bought a wind-down extractor, rather than the push one I was using - I have to say it was worth every penny of the £22 I paid, it made making the beads so much easier.

All three of us picked totally different colours, I did mine in a muted grey & pinks with a touch of turquoise, while both girls picked vibrant psychedelic shades.

Here are mine, a set of eight beads with a matching pendant, which is very large at around 60mm.

The girls hard at work, Hannah is the blonde, and Shona..... well, the non blonde :)

These are Shona's beads and a matching pendant.....

...and last but not least, Hannah's beads and matching pendant.

After lunch the girls went on to bake !!

Shona + Hannah + cake making ingredients = MESS !!!

Still, at least they had fun :)

Klimt & Complex Cane Beads

I went and bought a whole pile of different colour packs of Fimo, for another project..... but as usual got sidetracked and made cane beads instead :)

Kilmt cane is where you roll your Fimo into a sausage then cut it into slices, do this with a few colours and then lay the discs together to form a long coloured sausage, push this through a clay extruder and you get some fabulous coloured canes. You then bunch these all together and roll slowly to combine, then lay on your beads.

I made a pendant first then the matching beads.

Then I made a complex cane, like a kaleidoscope, using sausages of colour, wrapped in other colours, cut and re-wrapped to make many different canes, of varying shapes and sizes. I bundled it together, chopped it into 6 and bundled it all together again before wrapping it all in purple. I then reduced by rolling it into a sausage.

I made the pendant first using the larger slices of cane, then I reduced it further by rolling to make the beads. On reflection I think I reduced it too much for the beads, as the pattern has become a little too small to see. These beads I shaped into lentils.

I had two left over slices of cane from the pendant, so I just put a little hole in each to make earring charms.

And this is my left-over bead. All the left over bits of clay, mushed into one, swirled and shaped into a large lentil measuring around 35mm. I quite like it :)