Bright Rainbow Cards (6 September 2009)

Making these cards really took me back to my childhood.  I have always loved rainbows, to the extent that I remember keeping a C&A bag for ages because it had a rainbow stripe down the side. I had even blu-tacked on my bedroom door (and I should point out that I was about 10 at the time) a handmade paper name plate in rainbow colours, with "RLE" after it - Rainbow Lover Extraordinaire. Of course.

With the exception of the two small cards, I used a thicker extruded clay to make the rainbow stripes. This gives a lovely chunky feel, complimented by the bright colours of the card. I have lightly rolled out all the rainbows except the one on the green card - I wanted to preserve a more stylised feel, and I think it looks like water pouring out from an unseen tap.

The half-hoop rainbows (without clouds) are just over 4.5cm in diameter. The upright rainbow is 4cm tall, and the large double-clouded rainbow 8cm wide in total.

For the two small blue cards, I used the thinner extruded clay used for the Black Rainbow designs. The designs are just over 3cm wide.

The full range of Rainbow cards is now available to buy at both Folksy.com and Etsy. com.

Small Black Rainbow Cards (6 September 2009)

These little cards are A7 size - the sort of size you see in wedding invitations. They are the perfect size for these small panels, measuring 2cm x 2cm.

For these designs, I laid out a long length of rainbow strands on the background clay, rolled them lightly to incorporate them into the background (which distorts the lines slightly), and then cut out three squares to create these panels.

I created a similar effect in the cards on the left using thin slices taken from the thicker rainbow strands. I placed the tiny circles randomly on black clay, rolled them in, and then cut out the panels. I think they look like streams of tiny rainbow bubbles.

Black Rainbow Panels (6 September 2009)

I woke up on Sunday morning at 6am after dreaming of rainbows all night. So what choice did I have but to get up and make some rainbows!

Having loved the effect of bright colours against a black background, I started from there. I experimented with the prism effect of splitting the colours. On the right hand panel (which measures 4cm x 4cm), I left the 'split' strands lying on top of the background, and rolled the rainbow stripe into the clay to produce a two-level effect. It puts me in mind of crossing the plasma streams in Ghostbusters.

For the panels on the white cards, I had had this idea in my mind for a number of months. In fact, I had tried to create this effect using rainbow-coloured bamboo poles and a large black frame from IKEA several months ago, but without much success.

I cut out the black frames by using two sizes of square cutters, and then I laid out the rainbow strands across the back of each frame and attached them using liquid polymer clay. I only varnished the frames, leaving the rainbow stripes untouched. The frames don't have backs to them, so you can see the white card through the rainbow stripes. These panels measure 3cm x 3cm.