Painted and inked Polymer clay fish

Well I managed to finish a couple of fish today - although I am not sure what I will do with them.  I need to make 5 charms for a swap - so I might use one of them towards the five.

 They took a long time to paint and I had to leave them for hours and do them in stages

They are looking pale in the photograph.

In reality they are shades of silver, blue, and salmon - all metallic colours blended to show up the scales - and some 'dirty' brown mix of acrylic paint to add a bit of depth and interest to the segments.

Polymer clay button

I have entered a 'button' swap which has to be in by the end of July - which is good because I need time to practice.

There was a link on how to make buttons using paper and card - basically you cut out lots of circles and glue them together in a stack.  It would take me too long to do that as I don't have a circle punch so I decided to have a go with polymer clay.

I  have cut out and baked a dozen or so, so I should be able to make the minimum  3 required shouldn't I? 

As it's raining today - in biblical amounts - I have taken the opportunity to practice painting some.  You would think that it would be easy doing a little button wouldn't you - but with my big bent fingers I now realise that it's not as easy as I thought.

This is the first one at the just painted stage.

This is a Big enlargement - the actual size is the size of a 10p piece!

It'll take ages to dry before I can varnish it - but I am determined to not touch it until tomorrow or I am bound to mess it up!

The 'red' edging on the right of the button is a reflection from the material.  I need to do the edges when the top and back are totally dry!