Just Claying Around

Wahh, Wahh, I'm sore. I have "weed eater arms". I try to pace myself, I really do, but I always end up getting sore. Our yard looks good though. I really didn't weed eat that much, just some in the front yard and around several trees, oh and down the bank some. Hmm, maybe I didn't pace myself so well. Anyway...

While waiting for my new clay to arrive, I have been practicing making flowers with polymer clay. Icing roses using a piping tube are a lot easier, I can tell you. Practice helps though. (You notice I didn't say perfect)


Then I messed around with Sculpey Ultra Light and made some bangle bracelets. I used craft wire for the base and covered it with the ultralight clay. After baking, I painted and added some eyes and dots.



And last, but not least, my scrap clay project. He looks a bit like a sea creature. You decide.


That's it for today. I hope everyone is feeling well and staying out of germ ladened areas. Take care and stay healthy.

Until then...

Monday, Monday

I hope this Monday is being good to you. I wanted to say thanks for all my birthday greetings. It was so hot here, that I opted to stay at home and enjoy the day with my hubby. He had already taken me out to eat earlier in the week and chauffeured me around to buy birthday goodies, courtesy of my sister.

I was really in need of kitchen supplies, as after a while you just need to replace stuff. He pushed the buggy at Target's (the best place for kitchen goodies) and I started filling it up. Here is what I ended up with...


DH got me the greatest pair of sandals, flip flop type with a wonderful arch support. We got them from Zappos which is the best online shoe site ever.

I ordered a new awesome art clay, called Clay Craft, made by Decoclay. It is an air dry type, used to make bridal arrangements and such. Can't wait to try this.

Now all that aside, I did have time to make some jewelry. I had a chance to finish my pearly dangle bracelet, which is so comfortable to wear, I just love it.

I also made two pair of dangle earrings, fairly large so you can see them now that my hair is longer. They are made from sculpey ultralight, which is white, so I painted them with acrylic paints.


Pretty funky, huh?





You can't go wrong with dots, ever!

Well, that's it for today. Take care and enjoy your week.

Satuday's Child

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

Yep, I was born on a Saturday, April 25...not that long ago. Enjoy me with a little celebration of life. I am so blessed and so grateful to be able to arise every morning and enjoy the day.

So please stop by and say hi and stay awhile. I love it when you visit.

Take care.

Sneak Peek

Ok kids, here is a sneak peek of my current project...

I have been longing to work with wire again and decided to do something different this time. Well, different for me anyway. I usually like to do things that work up quickly and wire wrapping 60 beads does not fall into that category. It's not a difficult technique, but it is time consuming. You make a wrapped eye pin (the wire with the circle on top) from 24 gauge wire, thread the bead onto the wire close to that circle, then take the opposite end of the wire, bring it up over the bead and wrap it over the already wrapped end. This is fairly thin wire, so it isn't as bulky as it sounds, and makes for a very nice component. Since I'm a bit out of practice, my fingers and wrists will probably get sore, so I am taking it slow. I may have the finished product by the end of the week.

In the last post I mentioned that I had cleared my work area so I could sew. This was an ongoing project, that actually took several months to complete. I had a pair of jeans that I got on sale at Ann Taylor Loft. They were way too long and the color was way too dark, but it was really a great deal, price wise. To get rid of that dark indigo blue, I filled the sink up with hot water, added one cup of good old fashioned bleach and crumpled the jeans up in the bleach water and left them for about one hour. I actually did this two separate times. They eventually came out looking like a reversed tie dye. Very cool. Then they were washed several times and dried to just the right softness.

Well, by this time I have lost a tiny bit of weight and they are too big. Since they were light weight, I was able to take them apart fairly easily. I laid them out flat, then I placed my favorite jeans on top of them and cut them down to that size. I sewed the seams back, zig-zagged the edges and re-fitted the waist band and hemmed the legs. I hope I'm not making this sound too easy, as it took me several hours to get them just right, but now they fit like custom made jeans.

So that's it for today. It's supposed to be warm here tomorrow, so I think I'll pick up sticks in the woods. That is an ongoing process, but it's fun to be outside. Take care and enjoy your week.

TTFN

I Challenge You...

You may already know this, but one of the things I do regularly is challenge myself. I like to make something with all the scrappy things left on my work table when I'm ready to clean it to do another project.

I needed to clean the area to prepare for sewing, so as I gathered up bits and pieces of fluff and googlies, I came across a wad of silver colored Premo clay. I squished it around a bit and decided that it looked like a pea pod. So I ran with this idea. After forming and baking it, I aged it a bit and foiled it a bit and added a piece of sterling silver wire as a bail.


Not wanting to rat my dear hubby out, I won't give an exact quote, I will just say that this is not his favorite pendant. He tends to like more traditional designs and thought this was...less than cute. But sometimes it's not how beautiful a piece is, sometimes it's just about the creative process.

So here's my challenge to you, the next time you need to move onto another project and have tiny bits of fabric and left over clay and pieces of "junque", make something from them. Put on your thinking cap. Think about unusual shapes, color combos that you don't usually use, and then put your scrap art piece together. Maybe you have been wanting to try Steampunk, or do cutesie, instead of funky. Whatever it is, push yourself a bit outside the box if you want. They are scraps after all, and can be discarded if you want to. You don't have to post a picture of it, you just have to do it.

So there you go Scrappy Doo, make something different. You just might like it.

Breathe

For long you live and high you fly,

for smiles you give and tears you cry,
for all you touch and all you see
is all your life will ever be.

Breathe by Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon
1973

Funny thing, here I am with another post about a line from a song. I am not sure why I was never introduced to Pink Floyd. This is such a marvelous lyric. It says pretty much all that needs to be said, so when I saw this really cool bronze pendant at Artbeads.com, I had to have it.

I like to think about a piece before I plan my design, but I don't want to over think. The more I read this quote and the more I thought about the time period, the more I got into a breezy, gentle mood. I thought about what kind of jewelry I would have made if I had been listening to the Floyd in my room. I walked around with this bronze pendant in my hand (I tend to pace while thinking) and noticed how it took on a pink glow. I knew without looking, that I didn't have any beads in my stash of hundreds (could it be thousands?) that would really do this piece justice.

I just knew that this pendant needed vintage...that it needed natural...that it needed metal... that's when I knew that I was going to have to disassemble a vintage piece to get what this was needed.

So I went to my closet and got several gemstone necklaces that had colored stones and an '80's necklace that had metal pieces. I looked at these necklaces for quite a while. DH is playing electric guitar in the background and I'm thinking about colors and metal and just digging on life.

So this is what I came up with.



This particular piece was just begging for simplicity. Think about it, if you were a little hippie chick, you would not have worried about needles or findings. You would have instinctively known to use a piece of leather cord, thread the beads on and tie a knot in each end, leaving plenty of cord to tie in the back.

With all that being said, this is my first order from Artbeads.com and I am quite happy. The quality of the pendant is excellent, a good thing for my first bronze piece. The shipping was fast and securely packaged with the bead bagged and carefully wrapped in purple tissue paper. It was a nice enough experience to have me wanting more. So...

I'm thinking of going sparklie with my next piece, and maybe using some crystals. This is an area new to me. Have any of you used any of the flat back type rhinestones? I could use some help deciding.

That's it for today, enjoy the day and remember to listen to the music.

By the way, there were other bronze pendants to choose from so check them out also.

It's a new day...

This is a line from one of the songs from the 60's movie, Wild in the Streets, and it is stuck in my head. Last week my DH played it several times and you know how you just can't get rid of a song that you heard? Yeah, it's stuck there so I thought I would just go with it and let today be a new day.

I worked with polymer clay all last week and not all of my efforts were successful, but I did make this piece that I am happy with...



DH was diligent with the camera and finally got a picture that shows the layers of this piece. I made the disc out of black clay, distressed it and aged it with red, green and yellow acrylic paint. I then coated it with Kato liquid clay and used the heat gun to bring it to a shine and then I applied metallic foil film (3 different foils) to the warm clay and gave a quick pull on the film, for the metallic effects you see here. The center piece of silver colored polymer clay was done using the foil also. The stone in the middle is actually a dark green glass nugget from my mosaic supplies. I attached a purchased silver bail and leather strip and there you have it.

So, it's a new day. A day to do whatever you have been postponing. A day to break a bad habit. A day to do art. A day to love.

Even if you don't use it "wisely", it is still a new day and guess what??? You get it every day. There's no wonder I love life.

Happy Easter

Just some things that remind me of Easter...


A white wicker basket full of friends,

A pink glass bunny...


A springtime evening sky reflected in an imaginary lake...


Praying hands...

Happy Easter

Pillow Talk

Just a quick post, to show you the birthday pillow I made for my sister. She loves big cat cubs. Tigers and lions and such. She even was asked to help pick the names for the cubs that were born at the Wild Animal Park several years ago.

It's done strictly with water color pencils . No bold outlines, no Inktense pencils and somewhat different from my usual style.

That's it for now. See ya' soon.

Goodies

Just a quick post to show you some of the goodies I have received recently. My bloggy friend Angela sent me the sweetest thank you card when she received her polymer clay heart.



Along with the card, she included the cutest kitty cat buttons, some fun fibers and some great pink quartz beads that I am currently designing a piece of jewelry around.

I loved the textured paper that she used to wrap everything in with generous strands of raffia type ribbon. Thanks again, Angela.

I mentioned previously that I was anxiously awaiting a package from bloggy superstar Kristen. She makes the coolest greeting cards and posts them daily. She has an upcoming line of rubber stamps in the works, using her own original drawings. She said she was organizing her studio and sent me a wonderful box of clay and other various items that she just knew I would love.

First off she packaged it in the most wonderful box...

and when I opened it I was stunned...


She sent me one of her wonderful cards, tons of polymer clay, even plastic zip bags just the right size for beads. She included some glaze that I haven't tried before and she thoughtfully added a box of round toothpicks, which are perfect for polymer clay. It was a lovely gift and I am so appreciative. Thanks again, Kristen.

Now, last but not least...


Yes, these are dental tools. It took only a simple request and my periodontist gathered up all her broken tools, sterilized and packaged them for me to use with polymer clay. Dental tools have to be very specific and if they get worn, nicked or too thin they have to be thrown away. When I asked if I could have some, she was happy to help out.

So there you have a glimpse of some of my goodies. I hope you all have had a good week. I know it has gotten cold here again, and even snowed in some areas. In fact, it's been so chilly that some chamomile tea just might be in my very near future.

Well, that's it for now. So try to stay warm and enjoy the rest of your week.

Just a quick hello

It's gloomy here today. so I thought I would post a little still life picture I took over the weekend.

Doesn't this look like a huge tin of spice? No, it's all just an illusion. I combined a small plastic vial (repurposed from holding glitter) and the tiniest purple flowers from my yard. I just think they are so sweet and looked good with sunshine streaming through the window this weekend.

I made another trinket box. I like the combo of pink and green, and as my friend Kim says, we always need more boxes to hold our treasures, so another box was in order.


I mentioned previously that I applied liquid clay to the outside of the can prior to putting on the clay. This acts as an adhesive for the sheets and strips of clay that I cover the can with. This is not strictly necessary. You can certainly cover the can without the liquid clay. By the way, most craft stores now carry liquid clay in their polymer clay sections. It can be used in several different ways and if you're not familiar with it, I suggest you try it.

For the top of the trinket box, I cut a circle from a sheet of matching clay and add a ball of clay as a handle. I even added four clay orbs for feet this time. I covered some watercolor paper with fabric to make the lining.

Well, that's all for today. I just saw the mailman deliver a box, so I've got to run and see what bloggy friend Kristen sent me. I'll take pictures and post them later. I can hardly wait!

Have a good rest of the day, and don't forget to get creative.

Fabulous Friday...

Actually every day is fabulous. Today especially, as I got an e-mail from a bloggy friend telling me to watch for some mail she is sending me. That is so sweet and it reminded me that another bloggy friend sent me a gift and I forgot to post it. So as soon as I get the second one, I will post them both. I have the best friends.

On a different note, it's been raining again here in the Star City, but that certainly doesn't keep me from doing a project. My hubby and I eat canned tuna periodically, and I love the size of the cans. I have been saving them for a rainy day project and yesterday I came up with this.


For those of you new to polymer clay, you can not only sculpt and make beads with it, you can cover a variety of items with it to make such fun stuff. I used beige colored clay and covered the outside of the tuna can with the clay. There are several ways to do this, but I liberally applied liquid clay to the outsides and bottom of the can before applying the bottom circle, and the long strip around the sides. I then made polymer clay flowers and leaves to make a little design.

I am going to use this little box for jewelry, so I finished off the inside with fabric and a padded bottom, (just like me).

Just a little trinket box here, but the possibilities are endless, I have covered light bulbs, cardboard boxes, and wooden items, just to name a few. I have been playing with polymer clay for years, off and on, but I almost always go back to jewelry. I did want to show you this and remind you that there is an artist in you just waiting to come out. You don't have to wait for a rainy day to invite that artist in, go for it and have fun.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. The hubs is getting ready to take me to lunch and a movie, so I'll say bye for now, but we'll talk soon. Take care.