My granddaughter told me she wanted me to make her a necklace to go with her new dress. She just wanted a black rectangle. We discussed size and texture. She showed me a picture on her phone and later emailed it to me. It is sort of turquoise in color with a deco design at the hem with black and white. When I printed out the picture I decided to try to match the color of the dress to make a pendant that was mostly black but with some of the turquoise. I mixed turquoise and pearl. When I got the color right, I was afraid that the color would darken when I baked it. It didn't. I made several for her to choose from. The plain black has a deco stamp in the middle which she will probably put silver mica powder on. I really like how they turned out and hope she picks the pendant with the two colors.

Anyway, I got a feeling of satisfaction getting my colors mixed up right.

 great feeling when you get it right! good job, your granddaughter is lucky to have you.

One of the things we love about clay - mixing the colors "just right".  Not as easy as it sounds but worth the effort!

Can you post a pic, beadme? I'd love to see what she chose and the end product.

Kelly - Here is a picture of two of the pendants for my granddaughter to choose from. The one she chose was a black oval like the black one on the right.

I had to read what you'd written twice, hahaha. Black, oval. Did it also have an imprint like the rectangular one? I've never used polymer clays, or PMC or enamels, or resins or anything like that. At the moment, I think it would just be another thing to buy and try. I'd really like to stick at the one style and get it as good as I can, before I pick up a new thing......having said that, I look at the very pretty things that people like you do and I want to give it a go. Unfortunately, I don't know anywhere I could get some hands-on practice and there really aren't many places I can go to pick up supplies off the shelf (kilns included). When I was in the US in 2007, it seemed you could walk into any town, anywhere and get jewellery making supplies. Apart from beads, it isn't like that here in Australia.

Thanks for posting the pic....they really are worth a thousand words, aren't they!

I agree with you about sticking with one style and getting good at it. By the way, polymer clay doesn't need a kiln. You bake it in a regular oven.

I think that the multicolored oval is really nice. I like that gradation in it.

 I'm with Bentiron, that would have been my favorite, I think!

Does it stink up your oven? If I didn't need to get any other equipment than the polymer clay itself, I might be tempted to give it a [small] go.

 The odor is minimal, but if you are worried about it, you can get an oven bag, or cover your baking tray with foil to contain any outgassing. So far I've been working with my main oven, with no issues, but if I do more and more PC I'll eventually give over my toaster oven and get a better one for the kitchen!

Certainly, your cooking oven should be fine for a few initial test runs.  Just don't be surprised if, like me, your initial efforts look like something a 5 year old did.  

I bought a polymer clay oven with the 40% coupon from Joann's.

QUOTE[Just don't be surprised if, like me, your initial efforts look like something a 5 year old did.]

Hahaha, I have a 3 1/2 year old. I'm sure his efforts will be better than mine, simply because he doesn't have the same inhibitions that I have about trying something and worrying that the final product isn't 'perfect'.

I LOVE the satisfaction of getting the colors "right" for the design - I do a lot of commissioned work - I always ask millions of questions about the design, findings, metals etc. but most importantly the colors - colors are so subjective, one persons idea of the perfect color scheme may be ghastly to someone else.  So, when I get it right and the customer is thrilled with my choices it feels GREAT!