Beading on Vacation--Who Could Resist!

Polymer clay isn't the easiest thing to take on an extended vacation to the high desert.  Since it truly is my passion at this point in my life, I didn't think I could be away from it for so long, so I have been baking up beads especially for the trip.  First I watched Sarah Shriver's dvd tutorial on kaleidoscope canes again and made up a new kaleidoscope cane. 

Next, I made a bib pendant and two earring pendants. 

Next I made up a set of beads with collaged pieces of the canes all over them.  Next, I experimented with leftover scraps of skinner blends and my clay gun and came up with a surprise effect that resembles niobium in some ways due to the pearl and gold clay that I used in my clay mixes. 

The marbleized "faux niobium" became the backing for the bib pendant, the border for the earring pendants, and the skin for an entire set of beads.  

 I decided to take the leftover clay from both of the first two sets of beads and make a mokume gane slab and then cover some beads with that.  I added sliver leaf to a scrap sheet of translucent clay and made a multi-layer sandwich with the translucent and the mixed color cane clay.  I took more pieces of scrap clay, including some bullseye cane ends and inserted them into the mokume gane slab.  The slices from this slab became the third set of beads. 

The final beads came from the scraps of the mokume gane slab.  I made jelly roll canes with these rolled out into a slab and then sandwiched with some of the marbleized gold clay.  I made butterfly wings and bodies from the jelly roll canes and sliced them to make pendants and earring dangles.  They are pictured above with the bib pendant.

I can't wait to see how these beads look in whatever design creates itself around them.  I am sure that the process will be a fascinating and fun part of my vacation!