Helen Breil is a wonderful polymer clay artist whom I've featured before. What's more, she is a fellow member of the Grand River Bead Society and a friend.  Once she discovered polymer clay, there was no going back.  Her passion for polymer clay and in particular for surface techniques led to her creation of novel designs as well as unique texture stamps and  silk screens.


The jewelry designs shown here utilize her latest idea of integrating magnets into polymer clay lariats.  She wanted to preserve the "elegant, artfully displayed curves" of necklace cording rather than let the cording react to gravity when worn.  

 Helen explained, " By attaching magnets behind the 2 components it served 2 purposes. I could vary the position of the components and their relationship to each other to allow for many unique ways to wear the lariat. As well, the cording becomes an important (and also variable) design element, adding sweeping lines and complementing the two components."  There is a third benefit - the magnets also do not affect clothing like brooches where the pins pierce the garment.

Helen used neodymium magnets which are very strong (but best not used by those with pacemakers).


As you can see, her designs are fluid, modern and unique.  The lariats can be worn in many ways.


All the polymer clay pieces shown here were silkscreen ones using her own silk screens. They are all handmade by her husband Mike and sold world wide.  The list of global retailers is here.


Helen's collection includes 8 very different contemporary designs (click on any of the images below to see a larger version).  Check out Helen's free demo if you are unfamiliar with how silk screens are used in polymer clay. 5 lucky readers will win a silk screen design each in this giveaway.










Helen is teaching a polymer clay wrap bracelet class on Craftcast on January 20, 2016.  Check out what Helen is up to on her Facebook.

Giveaway
If you'd like to win 1 of 5 of Helen's Silk Screens (your choice of silk screen design)  please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info below if you do not have an online shop or blog.

Email subscribers need to scroll down the post they receive, click on Share Comment and enter your comment. Pick Name/URL. If you don't have a store or blog, leave the URL blank.

This giveaway is international. 

Extra entries if you become or are a blog subscriber or follower etc. If you also do shout outs about this giveaway, those will count as additional entries too! Please say so in the comments.

It ends in a week's time at 6 pm EST Monday, January 18 , 2016. I will pick the winner randomly and announce the results as soon as possible after. So be sure to leave a contact email if you don't have an online link or make sure you come back and check! Otherwise I will redraw in a week. Good luck!

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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