Wednesday, June 24, 2015

A Bergie Creation: Welcome To A Bergie Creation

A Bergie Creation: Welcome To A Bergie Creation: Welcome to my handmade jewelry shop, A Bergie Creation? Why is the shop called that? Well, I have been an artist for most of my forty nine ...

Monday, June 22, 2015

Make Your Own Polymer Clay Starter Kit

Since we've been talking about polymer clay lately. I just saw this great blog called the Blue Bottle Tree. I highly suggest subscribing, there are a lot of useful tips and tricks. The newest post is called "Make a Polymer Clay Starter Kit." Worth checking out. Just click on this. I am going to start a list of links to the right, that has the many useful polymer clay tutorials and blogs where I learned how to use Poly Clay (and will continue to learn.)


Sunday, June 21, 2015

Polymer Clay Adventures - Flowers


 My Very First Polymer Clay Flower Pendant...
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The Beginning of my very first Flower Pendant in Polymer Clay
The Beginning of my very first Flower Pendant in Polymer Clay
The Beginning of my very first Flower Pendant in Polymer Clay
 

Before baking- my very first Flower Pendant in Polymer Clay
Completed-  my very first Flower Pendant in Polymer Clay
Remember, I mentioned previously how much I loved poppies? I have painted them as well as drawn them and even made them out of paper and fabric. Well, it only makes sense then that I love flowers in general. God has made countless colours, sizes and types of flowers. They are perfect to inspire
polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund
any artist. When I started working in polymer clay, one of the first pieces I made was flower related. If you want to make flowers out of poly clay don't worry if it looks like a specific flower. What matters most is that you are creating. So create flowers, using real life ones for ideas if you wish. Or, you can try to duplicate actual flower types. You decide. As you look at the ones I am about to share, know that the majority of them were made to be bright and colourful and flower like. My own designs.
No Rules When Making Art?
I always tell children when they are making are that there are no rules. Just create using whatever colours, shapes, lines and textures that you want. That being said, I think I want to make one solid rule when it comes to making art. What rule is that you ask? Have fun!!
Love What You Do.
When I work on any project, I can work from morning until bed time. Sometimes it is because I have a deadline and need it for a specific date, but most of the time it is because I love whatever it is that I am working on. If you love doing what you are doing, you will never get bored and you won't want to stop. Learn from my lessons (it is why I am here writing this). The one problem with loving what you are working on is...when you don't stop, you can develop injuries or pain. It has happened to me. So make sure when you are working on anything in one position, to stop every now and then to stretch your neck and hands. Get up and walk around (for those of you who can :o) Then get back to what you love!
polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund
Walk Thru My Garden...
polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund
Here are some of my polymer clay flowers, including the very first ones I made. If you are starting out making polymer clay flowers, or anything for that matter, don't give up. It gets easier the more you work at any art form.
Experiment and try different colour variations. I like mixing my own colours. No matter what, enjoy!
polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund
polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund
polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund

polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund
polymer clay flower 2015 copyright Anita Berglund

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any thoughts or questions. Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to see what you are creating or know what you would like to learn about.

Spring Means Flowers...

Hi guys. I just wanted to say that I would never have been able to learn about polymer clay, how to use it and received the inspiration to create with it, without the many great YouTube tutorials by a lot of learned Polymer clay artists. Below, I am going to list the ones I can remember, I know there are so many, I can't remember them all. If you are wanting to know about polymer clay, I will teach you what I have learned in under six months, but I strongly suggest viewing the videos that these artists have made just for people like us!

I have had an online jewelry shop since 2008 and have recently added my newest love, polymer clay designs. The video below just has a sampling of what is in A Bergie Creation on Etsy. If you want to see more, feel free to check out the shop (click here).

Now for the video (click here if it doesn't work)
This is just a sampling of what I have been working on. If you'd like to see more feel free to visit my shop at www.ABergieCreation.etsy.com   

For Polymer clay projects not in my shop check out HeArtfullycreating.blogspot.com, my creativity blog.

Subscribe below and/or click "Like"  and share to others!

THANK YOU to the many YouTube Polymer Clay tutorials that made my polymer education possible. Couldn't have done it without you all. I am still learning and watching your videos. Keep up the great work! I highly recommend these channels just to enjoy or especially if you are learning like I am.
















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Friday, June 19, 2015

Polymer Clay Adventures - Love "THE JESSE" Part 2

 In a previous blog (click here) I was sharing my one and only (so far) three dimensional polymer clay
figurine/sculpture that I made to celebrate my dear nephew's life. Wanting it to be as special and unique as possible, I decided to try my newest love, polymer clay. Check out part one to see where we began and how we got there.
In this last part, I just want to share detailed photos of the work in progress and then the completed figure. I hope to put a YouTube mini doc together when I get time.
It is amazing to see how artwork changes from beginning to end. Look and see!
In the beginning, he looked very different..
And he looked like this...
 Off to the Oven he goes....
Bit by bit, piece by piece....he changed....
I changed out his eyes at least eight times....

Slowly he starts to look like my original vision....

From behind...

From the front...

Adding a friend....

Detail by detail...


by detail...






The Final Edit






Poppies....So Inspiring

Poppy slices I made from polymer clay.
God's Creation
I love flowers and I love creating. It only made sense to learn how to make my favourite flower out of
From our garden
fabric, then they wouldn't die like all flowers have to do. Below are a couple of photos of the gorgeous blooms we are blessed with year after year that inspired me to create. 

You can see why I would want to try to have these flowers in our home all year round. As you will see, creating two dimensional poppies is one of my favourite things to do. Including recently, as I have been learning how to use polymer clay. To the right, after watching many YouTube tutorials, I figured out how to make a "Poppy" cane out of polymer clay. (I will be writing more about polymer cane making in the future.) For now, I just wanted to share these photos so you can see what we can create when we are inspired by God's creation. 
Our garden
Inspired to Create
Most of us are inspired to create because of others who create. God being Thee number one Creator, His creation is perfect. We are created in His image, so it makes sense to me that we love creating. His creation has inspired me my entire life. It is important to use your eyes, and other senses to seek out things that stir your creativity. 
My polymer poppy can- pencil holder can
Capture Inspiration
I suggest that if you see anything that stirs your heart to create, take pictures of it so you have them to refer to when you are ready to create. Ideally, if you can draw or paint outside, in real life, instead of using a photograph, then go for it. Whether you choose to draw it, paint it, sculpt, use textiles like fabric, thread, yarn, knitting, stitchery, cut it out in paper... in polymer clay like I have done already or whatever method you want, create away. The methods we can use to make art or create, is endless. I receive my inspiration from looking at what other artists do as well as whatever God makes.
Photography itself is not only a great way to record images you can create from, but it is also a way to express yourself creatively. Photos themselves are works of art.
My Poppies...Painted
Since this is about Poppies, as you will see Poppies are one of my most favourite sources of inspiration.
The poppy flowers we grew from seeds to plants that return yearly in our garden, inspire me to take tonnes of photos and the photos inspire me to paint and draw and now make using polymer clay and in fabric. 
Over the last twenty to thirty years as an artist, I use to only paint and draw poppies in two dimensions. Two dimensions means the art work has height and width. I wanted to share some of those paintings with you so you can see just how one flower inspires to create. And then I will show you how the poppy also has inspired me to creating it in three dimensional form. Three dimensions are what we are, we have height, width and depth. Ever been to a 3D movie?

A poppy I painted using Acrylic paint. By Anita Berglund Copyright

A poppy I painted using Acrylic paint. By Anita Berglund Copyright
This Poppy - I tried to be more abstract with

I do love blue, this is called an Himalayan Poppy - by Anita Berglund
Four canvasses make up this poppy painting I did over fifteen years ago










My Poppies in Three Dimension

I love oriental poppies and wanted to try to learn how to make my own in fabric. When I first started out, I made a couple as hair ornaments using fabric.
This poppy was made using satin and beads sewn in place.
Organza poppy made by Anita Berglund
Ideas of what you could made with a handmade flower...that's me, Anita

Ready for Lift Size Poppies
After some research I was blessed with the idea to make life size poppies to decorate our home. Take a look...if I can make these, you can too.
They were made using taffeta fabric, a lot of tea lights and matches to melt the edges of the petals. The centre part of the poppy, was constructed using a cotton ball stuffing that has been packed into a stitched circle of fabric including a layer of organza for sparkle and a stretchy black jersey, then tightened and stitched to form, a flat orb, think tangerine or persimmons. To make the pie slice like sections, I jammed a thick darning needle down the centre of the orb with a thin black cord and came back out and back in around and around until the centre was looking similar to a real poppy centre. The black fuzzy stamens in a real oriental poppy are velvet and fluffy. Mine were made with a lot of hot glue gun blisters as I glued pieces of whatever thinnish black string or cording I could find all around the underside of the "orb" centre.

A LOT of hot glue was used...Oh right, the petals were secured with the hot glue and a long 18 gauge floral stem was connected to the center part. Once it was all where I wanted it to be, I needed to buy and cut thin wooden dowels for stability. To make the stems look more stem like, I wrapped them in green floral tape.
Bouquet number one sits in our living area. Red is such a nice pop of colour.


Can you see the divided section in the centre.
Here is one out of two bouquet's that I made. So rewarding and beautiful.

SO MUCH FUN!

This project was so much fun. Even when something is time consuming, if you love it, you'll do it.

The size of the flowers across, are about ten inches. I have noticed that keeping the petals from drooping is tricky. Anyone have any ideas? let me know. :o)