Hi, Here's another of my pieces. Polymer clay poppies and seed heads, used with metallic effect seed beads, crystals and acrylic leaves. I discovered polymer clay about 8 weeks ago and love it!!! I am still learning and would love any help and advice.....

Carmie 

Hi Carmie!
Glad to see you made it down here!  Your necklace is so incredible, its just beautiful!  Just the bead work alone is something and then those gorgeous poppies! My gosh! How do you have them attached?  I hope they cant spin backwards. May I suggest something?  I would love to see your work on a toggle clasp. The lobster claw just doesnt do it justice and theyre are so many beautiful toggle clasps out there.  Plus, ladies prefer them, theyre much easier.

Hi, thank you so much. I make a base of Right Angle Weave in seed beads, then wire the flowers and leaves to this. I make the poppies with 4 'holes' forming a cross at the back so they are nice and stable when sitting on the seed bead base.

I take on board your advice about the toggle clasp, but I have found that my 'customers' like to be able to adjust the length of the necklace....I agree toggle fastenings look much better. 

Carmie 

WOW! You certainly have the patience of a saint Carmie! How long did this necklace take you? Please tell me the flowers arent made of Sculpey. The thought of those petals breaking or snapping off just kills me.  Good point about the toggles. 

They are Fimo, but they seem quite tough.  They took a lot of rough treatment when I was actually making the necklace. If they break, I'll just take them off and replace with some seed bead ones......as I mentioned earlier, I am still learning, so still experimenting..... I'll  be  keeping my fingers crossed though!!!  Carmie

Excellent choice! Im relieved!

I gotta say something in defense of lobster clasps. I used nothing but toggles for a while and then, you know what? I got sick of them. Everybody's using toggles now and they tend to all look alike. Lobsters can be less obtrusive and also can lie flat.

I'm okay with toggles, still use them myself, but I don't think they're always better than lobsters.

Just my 2 cents. 

beautifully done, definitely "art jewelry".

on the toggle issue, I spend a great deal of effort into finding interesting and affordable toggles. I think they really can make a piece extra special. My customers pretty much demand them, except on necklaces when I rarely use them in order to keep costs down. Oh except for copper, they are so reasonably priced I'll use copper toggles on necklaces. I have even stooped to using high-quality pewter a few times and have to admit it was no problem while keeping my costs&prices lower.  

That is a gorgeous necklace. The poppies are so striking. You do great work.

Quote:'Excellent choice! Im relieved!'

Help me here! Because I am so new to this I don't know the difference between the polymer clays - advice please!!!  (For example, I didn't know I had to use an armature for my figures, but I do now... so any little tip helps (it may seem obvious to you, but it's not to me...) Thank you. Carmie

basically do not use Sculpey III unless you've mixed it at least 50% with another brand. it's too brittle and breaks very easily. I've heard Fimo Soft is brittle too. Stick with Kato, Premo or Fimo Classic. 

Linelle, I was meaning the size of the claw thats on there now, dont you think something more substancial wouldve been better?  Be it claw or toggle? It just looks like a lot going on at the ends and then the clasp gets lost-no? 

 LCD, I agree there's a lot going on with this lovely necklace. I don't know that it needs more with a commanding clasp (my term, not yours). Some people are into clasps, and sometimes they're a main feature of a necklace. Then by all means make it stand out. I've yet to have anyone comment on clasps for anything I'm wearing. Sometimes I think less is more. Just my opinion.

 My thoughts are that it doesn't. As you say, there's a lot going on, people often have longish hair, and I do like to use my little heart signature and 'dangle' which looks very pretty on the back of a neck. The 'dangles' are carefully  thought out and I give a lot of thought to what fastening I use - even to the size of clasp. I also think it is very important for my necklace to sit correctly at the front, and the added jump rings allow it to do so. I have often used very decorative or 'important' looking clasps which sit at the front and are an integral part of the design. Carmie

Sparklebee thanks so much for the info on the different clays  Very useful!!!