Rainbow Snails (b.1 July 2010)

I'm very excited about my new range of Rainbow Snails! I owe a HUGE thanks to Christine who asked me a few days ago through Folksy if I could make up a Wee Snail for her. 'Of course!', I cried, my mind whirring with possibilities. (Christine is a big fan of my wee creatures, and a veritable herd has already made the trip to Northern Ireland to start a new colony there :)

I had a clear picture in my mind of how Wee Snails would look, so I got started straight away. I tried out a few designs using scrap clay, and figured out that the best way to create that gorgeous spiral was to roll out a cone of clay, pointy-ish at one end, and much wider at the other. Once I'd curled it into the shell shape, pinched out the wide end to make the 'skirt'.

I next made the body, deciding to go with a neutral colour for all of them to keep a consistent look. The feelers are flower stamen (usually used in sugarcrafts) which I've had kicking around the place for years and years - they've come into their own now! I've been looking on eBay and apparently you can get every colour possible, so I'm going to experiment to see which deelyboppers work best! I'm quite fond of the fuchsia pink, I have to say...

Once I'd got the basic design sorted, it was a question of what colour to make the shells. I started off with plain colours, then tried out some swirly ones, and then it dawned on me that the shells would work very well with millefiori! I had quite a lot of cane left from making up lots of Klimt Cats recently, so I used the orange/red colours, and I have to say I think he looks rather natty :)

I also had a sheet of pink and purple stripy clay left over from a heart project (I will be writing about these at some point), so I tried out a few snails using this - again, I just love the effect of the stripes going along the spiral! I've used two coats of gloss varnish (or (s)nail varnish, as I like to call it ;) to make the shells really shiny, and have left the bodies unvarnished. The shells are attached to the body with a good dollop of liquid polymer clay.

So I'm looking forward to making up LOTS of Rainbow Snails in the weeks to come!

This is a very exciting time for me - business is booming with lots of commission requests, I've got a couple of exciting events coming up (including Craft Candy on 17 July, and the Big Green Festival at Beningbrough Hall near York on 25 and 26 September). And I'm also in the process of building a brand new website with the help of Lorrie Whittington of Illusio Creative, and I'm working with Jo Askey on a new website banner - things are really taking off! I'll post more once there's more to post, and in the meantime, I leave you with...

...The Snail Parade!

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