Thursday 13 August 2009

from Polymer Clay to Fabric!

I've been experimenting with polymer clay for a while now in my Steampunk-style jewelry, creating beautiful textures and layers with stamps, millfiori etc.

One day I was showing my muse/friend Lyssa my latest piece, when she said "Oh that would make such a beautiful decal for my nails". Lyssa has lovely nails and regularly adorns them with spectacular patterns and motifs. It got me thinking though, as well as decals, why not fabric?

How beautiful would it be to have a corset or waistcoat from custom steampunk style fabric? So I set about finding somewhere to print it!
I just took a photo of my polymer clay slab, tweaked it and cropped it in photoshop and saved a 300dpi jpg. The polymer clay is on the left, the fabric on the right of the photo!

Spoonflower were by far the easiest (and cheapest) net based company - you can upload and play with designs online, automatically "tiling" your image in a number of ways. Then order cottons by the meter, all from their user friendly website. Despite coming from the US, my fabric arrived incredibly quickly, and looked stunning! It's so nice to be able to just get a meter or so rather than a whole roll of a custom fabric!

Then I made the polymer clay slab into pendants and pins to match the fabric ;0 watch this space for the custom corsets!

5 comments:

Gina-B said...

I'm totally impressed. Your clay is so intricate! But the fabric printing, what an idea..!

Marie S said...

Gorgeous fabric!!
Well done you!

Kristina said...

What a splendid and original idea. I like the jewellery and can't wait to see what you'll make from the fabric.

Anonymous said...

Oh this is an amazing idea, and a stunning clay work! Bravo!

MichelesArtJewelry said...

WOW!! This is absolutely amazing....so the polymer clay slab came first and then the fabric?? Beautiful work - I love it.