Polymer clay play

I've played with polymer clay a few times over the last few years, but I've never devoted enough play time to it to get confident using it.  I think that's going to change, I've spent a LOT of time admiring polymer clay art on Pinterest in the last few months...

So, I thought I'd make some simple polymer clay inchies for a swap.

 These were made using dark skin tone scrap clay, into which I pressed a plastic tablecloth to create an intaglio effect. I brushed them with copper Pearl Ex, which has brought out the design. I baked them, but have decided they need something more. Maybe gems. I'll work on it.

Next, I played with making a cane. A simple geometric cane, where I layered black clay with 2 different greens. And then I cut it up and re-assembled it so that the stripes went in different directions, to make it a bit more interesting. I made 3 inchie bases and treated each differently. 

The first had two balls of the darker green added, then poked with a stick to make holes.

The second had eight slightly larger balls of the same green (mistake) rolled into cigar shapes and flattened, then attached to the inchie. I used an awl to press them down and make the central line in each petal. Then I added a squashed ball of yellow clay, and dabbed it with an old toothbrush for texture.

The third just had six little balls of green clay squashed and added in a flower shape, then a black ball added to the centre, and poked with an awl for texture.

The third set, I was pleased with technically, and I went with primary colours (although I'm not sure I should have, that yellow is VERY bright). I made a cane of variegated stripes which you can see a slice of on the left hand inchie. I then cut the cane into some slices, then cut thin strips off the slices before cutting the inchies and using the stripy strips as an inlay. This was starting to get quite technical, and I was starting to have fun. 

Once I'd inlaid the stripes, I needed some dimension, so the first inchie got a shaving off the cane and a little spiral of the striped strip.

The second inchie got a much bigger spiral of the striped strip.

The third inchie got a very thin strip of striped wiggled around on top of the inlaid stripes.

I'm not sure if these are the inchies I'll actually send out for the swap. They are OK for a beginner. I'd like to do better, with some slightly more muted colours.