Susan Dyson's Handmade Jewelry

04/12/2025

I have made the decision to suspend my polymer clay and my jewelry pages due to my husband receiving his long awaited kidney transplant. I will now become his caretaker during his recovery, estimated to last approximately a calendar year. I face a tremendous challenge in that I have never been responsible for his medications nor his schedule of doctor and lab visits. He has been on this journey towards a more fulfilling life for himself and us both for the past 6 years. This transplant means that he won’t have to endure weekly dialysis treatments three time a week for over 4 hours at a time. He faces taking medications to prevent rejection among other things for the rest of his life. His regimen of seeing doctors will increase as they fine tune his meds. He faces weekly blood tests which will taper down to once every month eventually. All this is happening at once. So please be in prayer for us both as we travel this road God has made available to him. Thank you!

08/22/2022

11/18/2017

Well, I promised pics of my very inexpensive polymer cane slicer I made, after painting it with a matte finish spray paint. I put three coats of paint on it and let it dry over 48 hours since it is cold and dreary where I live in Central Oklahoma right now. It dried out in the enclosed garage for that time period. Anyway here they are. Please excuse the messy work bench, I'm working out a new design for a ornament.

11/18/2017

I'm so proud of myself! I made my very own polymer clay cane slicer, out of craft wood that I bought at Hobby Lobby and the total cost was less than $5!
I found a package of craft wood which consisted of 2 12 inch long pieces that were 1-1/2 inches wide and 1/4 inches thick. I cut one piece in half, and then decided I wanted my slicing slot to be 1-1/4 inches in from one end with the slot stopping right at 1/4 inches away from the base.
My next door neighbor used his mitre box and a coping saw blade to make the cuts for me, because I didn't have either on hand. If my dad was still alive, he would have done it for me, but my neighbor stepped in to do it for me. I used a regular nail file to smooth the interior of the slicing slot and a sanding sponge to smooth the edges of the one piece I cut in half to form the sides. I pre-spaced the nails I used to attach the sides to the base before hammering the sides to the base. One nail split the wood on one of the sides, but with some wood glue and a rubber band, I glued it back together and set it aside to dry. I took a picture of that side. Once everything is dry, I plan to paint it with some spray paint in black.
I'll buy a 12 inch metal ruler to help me decide how thick I want to cut my cane slices. I just wanted to show what you can do with some common sense to make your very own slicer. Total cost for the slicer was less than $5, including the nails. Haven't bought the ruler yet, but hope it won't be very much, less than $10. What do you think about it?

05/26/2017

WIP -- I'm working on rings, still. So far I have 10 that are ready to be baked. I made some modifications to the ones I had already made, and made a few more, including trying to do toe rings. Let me know what you think! Suggestions, critiques?

05/18/2017

WIP Wednesday - I'm trying rings. So far, I've made 6, 4 gold and 2 silver. Three are plain and 3 have Swarovski flat backed crystals. Any critiques? Suggestions? Three are textured only and three have both texture and crystals. One has 4 tanzanite colored crystals, one has 5 clear and the other has 3 golden crystals.

02/08/2016

Here are a few pictures of my most recent polymer clay jewelry set. The beads are a blend of several green clays along with some gold leaf flakes. There are two sizes of the beads, 5/16" and 3/16" inch round ones. There are green glass beads separating them, as well as some bead caps on the larger 5/16" beads. There is a 26 inch necklace with gold toggle clasp, a 7-3/4" bracelet, and two pairs of earrings, one pair is 1-1/4" gold hoops with a single bead drop in the center of the gold hoops and the other pair is 1-1/4" two bead drop. Both pair of earrings are on fishhook ear wires. I am also working on a blue faux lapis set and a red faux jasper set. Pictures of those to come.

01/23/2016

Necklace and Earrings made from beads left from previous commission for an archery bulls-eye target. Necklace is 21 inches in total length, with 3 pairs of earrings, one round bead pair, one oval bead pair and one small accent bead pair. The gold wires on the small accent bead pair were made from a set of eye pins as I had run out of the fish hook earring wires. Didn't do too bad on them, if I say so myself. It was the first time I have fashioned earring wires. Each pair of earrings is shown with the same 21 inch necklace.

12/20/2015

This is the finished work in progress of the commission I was making for a co-worker of my daughter. I think it turned out great, but that is just my opinion. I made a necklace pendent, a bracelet and two pair of earrings. The pendent design and the main earring design was an archery bull-eye target.

12/20/2015