YouTube, Resin and Polymer Clay
Recently I have been dabbling in a couple of new crafts, well new to me! I have two craft fairs coming up very soon and as it is getting closer to Christmas I have been thinking of sewing gifts I could offer for sale.
I wanted to find something which was relatively easy to make, with great results and would be a fun gift for any sewist. This led me down the path of making decorative sewing pins with fimo, and magnetic needle minders using resin.
Here comes the non productive but very fun part of making, YouTube videos! When I am learning a new craft or technique I usually prefer the written word as it is easier to refer back if I go wrong, or need to check something. But when I started googling resin and polymer clay the amount of videos I was being shown was phenomenal! So of course I had to take a look :)
I soon found myself watching more and more videos of other creatives making the most wonderful creations from resin and from polymer clay, the issue with this is that you have less time then to create your own ‘master pieces’! Both crafts take time to perfect but as someone who loves to have a go, and I need to get stuff made quickly, I just went for it, with mixed results.
Firstly I started with resin as I wanted to make magnetic needle minders. I know a few people who cross stitch, including myself, and some who hand sew so I thought these would be useful and pretty gifts. There are two magnets, one on the back of the large heart and one on a smaller heart which is on the back of the display card. Place the two magnetic pieces either side of the fabric you are stitching and your needle lives on the top of the larger heart when you are not using it, no more lost needles! I first started making these in September when we were having a spell of warm weather which meant I was getting great results! Since the weather has cooled and my flat is quite cold, the results haven't been so good, so I started the sewing pin toppers with fimo, this is where the watching of endless videos came in!
It is surprising how long it can take to make a polymer clay cane, which is what I made to make the toppers. I found some fantastic clay artists on YouTube with fantastic tips and tricks, I will share their links below. I also used some of the pieces I cut from the canes to form the hearts , which I am most proud of, and these will be made into needle minders.
I can't say that any of my pieces are perfect, but when you love handmade it doesn't matter, the joy is in the making and gifting, or in my case hopefully selling!
If you are subscribing to October's Fabulous Fabric Club box you will find one of these unique, handcrafted gifts in your box as an early Christmas present!
Here are the links to two outstanding creatives I have started following on YouTube - The Creative Dork and Laura Schiller, both are polymer clay artists.
Happy crafting!