Creative frenzy... and mundane details

One week and one day ago in my last post I had made some earrings out of electronic components, resistors. I ended up with 37 pair(including a pair for myself) and they were a huge hit at the party! Everyone loved them.
I've made 5 more pair, for a few stragglers that didn't get a pair.

And the creativity has been flowing, in between a brake job on my car, and a broken water heater....

Here's a nice shot of the votive candle from my last post with a light inside:

 It came out nicely. The dark area at the bottom is because the votive candle is in a metal cup. Kind of annoying. But it does make the old candle easy to remove.

Today(well, yesterday now) I went out and bought some more colors of clay. I had to get Sculpy III for blue as Michael's had nothing firmer. I also got some Fimo soft, red and yellow as the only Fimo classic colors they had were black and white and I have some Kato coming in on Thursday in those colors. I ended up mixing in some of that super-stiff Kato pearl and it helped a little.

I wanted to try something like a rainbow. I found a new way to make a Skinner-like blend, using tear drops on Cindy Lietz's 'Polymer Clay Tutor' on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLAfFTcfSA8

 It was easier to make the tear drops than the triangles. Here they are squished down a little:

 And they blended up nicely:

I made the blend into a rainbow spiral:

It sliced up nicely also:

I flattened each slice on setting 6:

And applied them to this little Ball jar mug:

 Here's the finished product, lit and unlit.

 Not bad, and way outside of my usual color palette.

With the leftover piece of cane, I decided to try the 'Reason to Friesen Challenge' over at Polymer Clay Adventure (http://polymerclayadventure.com/reasontofriesen/) monthly project. It is a funky pod. First I took that rainbow cane and reduced it and made it into a flower(cut into 7 pieces, one in the middle, six around it).... then did that again(reduce, cut,  flower). Has a butterfly wing effect which is so cool! I took slices of it and covered a pod shaped lump of clay:

Then I took Kira's lead and made some cute little cups:

 Pre-baked them then attached them to the pod with head pins and beads.

 And here's the little beast, looking pretty cute:

This was my first 3-D object from clay. Also the first time I baked some bits first to stick onto something later. I sort of like it! I think I'll post it over on Polymer Clay Adventure, too. It is also worth noting that it turned out quite dark. I could have mixed in more translucent to lighten it. I believe this is a property of Sculpy III. I've been using Kato mostly and plan to continue.
The green section is almost invisible so I'm not sure the green cups were the right choice. Maybe yellow would have been better. The cap could have been a little more contrasting.
I also notice a fingerprint right in front.... but just looked up ways to eliminate it!
 These are critiques... since I'm just learning I want to get everything I can out of each 'lesson'.
I am amazed that after only 2 weeks I have so many finished items, and have learned so many different techniques. I've also found at least 3 communities of crafters... there are certainly dozens! Are there any larger groups of communities?

More projects in my next post....