FLAWLESS

Heather Stokes uses a simple molding technique to make her polymer clay jewelry, but her pieces look incredibly sophisticated. Dreamy colors, gently-arched shapes, nice little accents created with other beads – it all adds to the beauty of Heather's collection, but my attention was caught first of all by her flawless craftsmanship. Look at the last picture. It shows that Heather creates a vein pattern on both sides of her polymer clay leaves. Beautiful, isn't it?

BOTANICAL

Kate, another artist from Pennsylvania, offers a beautiful collection of jewelry and vessels in her Organic Odysseys shop on Etsy.com, all adorned with botanical motifs. Kate explains: “Each piece is carefully hand crafted, starting first with selection of the subject matter, be it an herb leaf, flower or edible/non edible green.... Vegetables, fruits and their seeds are also carefully hand-picked for size, shape and sometimes state of ripeness... Every piece goes through numerous steps, some of which can be up to 5 firings of the clay. Also involved in the process of completion: carving, sculpting, painting, antiquing, and lots of sanding.”

The plants Kate uses are the most humble everyday plants, such as tomatoes, nasturtiums, eggplants, carrots, etc., but she manages to unlock their beauty and preserve it in polymer clay.

I am so ready for spring and a new gardening season!