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Featuring Fiber Tools and Fiberart Jewelry With a Celtic Theme

Spindles Priced At $22 | Spindles Priced At $30 | Spindles Priced At $40 | Spindles Priced At $52

Fox Den FiberArts is a home based business dedicated to producing high quality fiber working tools out of polymer clay and other materials. Under this business name I create high whorl drop spindles decorated with Celtic and knotwork style designs (with a few exceptions).

About the Spindles
The Idea

I have been spinning with drop spindles for a number of years and as a member of the Yahoo group Spindlers; I joined the �made by me� spindle exchange we conducted in the spring of 2003. A group of serendipitous events including playing with Playdoh with my daughter, wandering around Micheals, and a trip to the thrift store, led me to making my exchange spindle out of polymer clay. It worked so well and was so different from other spindles that are available I thought that there would be a market for them. I have received many complements on them. Here are a few:

"I never imagined my Celtic Stamps would look so good."
"Nice work -- not just nice... your detail is TERRIFIC!!!!! You must enjoy your work, because it sure looks like ALOT of love and ALOT of TIME goes into each piece!!"
"Wonderful spindles !!!! They are gorgeous!!!!! hope to order one soon..."

The Method

With their high gloss finish my spindles may look like they are made out of ceramic, but they are much lighter and more durable. I create a custom blend of polymer clays to ensure the clarity of the impressed designs while at the same time allowing for strength in the final spindle whorl. I (and my three year old stress tester) assure you that they will bounce when dropped on a hardwood floor. She has not managed to break one yet. They may appear to be delicate decorations, but they are hard working spinning tools. During this blending I also mix the background colors to get just the right look.

My embossed designs are pressed into the raw clay with rubber stamps creating the details that will then be painted. I use mica powders for almost all of my colors and I apply most of them dry to the raw clay. The clay has just enough stickyness to allow the mica to adhere nicely. The finest of the details I have to color after the whorls are baked for the first time. After that I paint the final details with more mica powder. This time I mix the mica with the same clear acrylic I will later use as a final protective finish. Acrylic paints give me the very few colors I do not use mica for. Like the polymer clay background colors, I blend the colors I need, both as the dry powder and to mix in with the acrylic. That is part of what makes each spindle a unique work of art. While I can try to match a previously produced spindle, there will be variations in the colors and hand painting that should be expected from a hand crafted work of art.

In order to protect the painted finish and add the distinctive high gloss final look I apply at least two coats of a clear gloss acrylic topcoat. When everything is dry, the completed whorls are baked again to finalize and strengthen the finish. The final steps are mounting the whorls onto their hand shaped rock maple shafts, adding the hooks and giving the shafts a treatment with Wood Beams wood conditioner. A final test of the spin balance and tweaking of the hook alignment, and they are ready to ship out to you.

Here is a look at one of my spindle whorls. To see more of my work check out my gallery page.

Spindles Priced At $22 | Spindles Priced At $30 | Spindles Priced At $40 | Spindles Priced At $52