Sunflower Pendant Production.  During the month of August I began my new line of sunflower jewelry which was inspired by a family member who is in an ongoing battle against ovarian cancer.  Having survived the treatments, she led her team in this year's Winner's Walk of Hope which was on September 13.  Many of her friends and family came together to celebrate her survival by collecting sunflowers we grew this year behind the barn to decorate the trail at the park where this very special event was hosted. They tied the flowers to trees along the route to mark this very special journey of hope.

The sunflower is the symbol of the Winner's Walk of Hope and I wanted to contribute some hand crafted sunflowers as well as the ones from behind the barn so I got busy and made my first set of 6 which she and 5 of the people closest to her wore for the walk. They loved their pendants so much that I couldn't stop there. I have since been busy on the drawing board.  

The Process.  Making these sunflower pendants is very much like making cookies.  They begin with a material called polymer clay which comes in the full spectrum of colour.  I roll it into thin sheets using the handle of the plunger my boy Andrew insisted I buy for him at the Dollarama when he was a toddler, so he could press it up against all the flat, smooth, shiny surfaces he could find and make popping noises with it.  I don't know what it is about boys and rubber objects with suction-like sticking power, but now that he wore out both plungers I bought on 2 different Dollarama shopping trips, I have since discovered that the handle works very well for rolling out polymer clay.

Once the clay is rolled out I cut it into small units that are large enough to accommodate the flower design of the template and begin the process of stenciling into the clay using pearlex powder, a brush and fine prismatic gold glitter.  When the stenciling is finished and the clay is peeled away from the template, this is when I take my circle cutter, find the edge of the flower and do my cookie-cutting.  The design you see directly above shows how it looks when you get a perfect stencil result.  It is now ready to go into the oven.  My marble slab is one of the best polymer clay crafting tools in my kit.  I bake all my clay on it and the results are always perfect.  Marble is perfect for rolling and cutting polymer clay on as well because it is one material that the clay doesn't stick to.

The Finished Product.   After the clay is baked for approximately 10 minutes at 270 degrees F and after the slab and the clay cool off, I am ready to do the touch up work with my paints.  Some of my earlier pieces needed major touch up work so I ended up repainting the entire flower using a very fine brush to apply several layers of iridescent gold or brilliant, opaque yellow over white and dark accent colours to help make the flower stand out as much as possible.  All the flowers are charged with fine prismatic glitter so that when the finished product is worn in the sunlight, they sparkle with all the gleaming colours of the rainbow.

I would like to thank Liane, that very cool and crafty lady I met at WWH for coming over to my studio to help me make them.  At this point we have 20 flowers similar to the ones you saw on the drawing board that are ready for the painting and sanding process to be completed and after this step, they go through the clear coating process.  The overall effect is beautiful because I incorporate prismatic layers into the back side of each piece so they can also be worn with the flower side down and the back side up.  When they catch the sunlight you see all the colours of the rainbow, which is a wonderful symbol of hope.

Diana

Sunflower Pendant Production