New Pieces on the Website

I've been putting some new pieces on the website. It has been a long time since I did that. That meant taking photos of some of them that were new. Robin has my light box and when the sun isn't out, I don't get very good pics.

I made a couple of Christmas ornaments for the tree. I covered glass ornaments with polymer clay. They both turned out differently than I had pictured them in my mind before I started.

Now I need to go into my studio and make something new.

Trunk Show

Saturday I did a trunk show at Apropos, a gift shop in Wadsworth. Sally, the owner, had a table set up for me with a black velvet cloth and a large lamp on either end. I thought the lamps would take up too much space and not leave enough room for my pieces, but the table was wide enough that I had plenty of room and the vases enhanced the layout. I only took the very best pieces, which I should do anytime I want to sell. I had four busts raised on two vases with a board between. On top of the board I had a lace edged table runner. I think it was a very nice layout.
About lunchtime Sally asked me if I'd like a cup of tea. That sounded great. I had been snacking on some raw nuts I had in my purse. When she brought the tea, she also had a slice of pumpkin roll on it. That's definitely not on my low sugar diet, but I savored every bite. Later she brought me another cup of tea with some chunks of cheese and said that there was a delicious dip and pretzels out front with the refreshments that would be good with the cheese.
I was surprised at how many people came in to shop the small store. Also, how long people stayed. Most were there for an hour or more. A few friends came in an boosted my sales and at the end of the day, Sally bought seven items.
It was a profitable and enjoyable day.

UV Resin

I tried a new UV resin that you can cure outside in the sun or under a UV lamp. Some people use the lamps like beauticians use to dry nails. I just take mine outside when the sun is shining. Some days I just forget about doing it because the sun doesn't come out.

I see beautiful pieces that have resin coating on them and think it would be easy to do. I always get too much on and it drips over the side or I get too little on and there are spots without a nice glaze on them. It's hard to get a happy medium.

I had a couple of pendants I made using a mold from antique buttons. They are round and domed in the middle. The resin slid off the side and some got under the pendant. When the top was cured I turned it over to cure the resin that had sneaked there. I left it out longer than needed and still it didn't cure. It's still a little tacky. I'm going to have to go to the website of the makers and see if they can help me.

First Stained Glasslike pieces

I watched the tutorial on Cindy Lietz blog twice then decided to try her "blend and switch" polymer clay process. The first one I did was a mess. The clay stuck to the tile and the clay stuck to my acrylic roller. I finally gave up and made some beads out of the clay. They turned out gorgeous, so it wasn't a total loss.

The next time I tried it, I knew some things that I shouldn't do and some that I hadn't done before. I think the pieces came out exceptionally nice. I'm going to try it again using different colors.

I've been trying a few new things with polymer clay lately. Not all of them were successful. The faux opals don't look like other people's but I think they are pretty. Others I've seen look like the translucent clay disappears but mine looks cloudy. Then I looked at my real opal ring and it has a cloudy surface. So maybe mine is more real looking than theirs.
Robin and Brent have moved to Pennsylvania. I keep thinking about asking her if she needs anything from the craft store when I'm going and then realizing that it wouldn't be any good because it would be a long time before she got it.
Yesterday I made some torn watercolor beads and tumbled them. Today I drilled holes in them. In some, the drill pulled a piece of the torn clay away and since I used scrap clay to put the torn pieces over, the wrong color showed through. Good thing I made a lot of them.
Clayt went to the hospital yesterday, so I want to go visit him later today. He's been sick for about a week and his two doctors don't know what is wrong. He's having a test later this morning to check out his digestive tract. He has to drink some stuff beforehand.

This is the third year I've gone to the polymer clay Buckeye Bash held at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in the Hope Hotel in Dayton. There are about 40 people (2 men, the rest women) who meet in a large room. We each have a nice area for our own work space. Natalie Harwood always saves me a place across from her. In the immediate area also are Linda Wagar, Linda Ferris, Jill Palumbo and her sister Nancy Blades.

Last year Jill sat beside me and after the Bash we started emailing. She is very talented and I enjoy visiting her flickr site to see what new things she does.

We had a lot of demos this year and I went to most of them. There were two that I knew were going to be more difficult than I wanted to learn. They were canes and I'm not very good at simple canes let alone ones with a lot of steps.

We made poker chips and exchanged them. The poker chips were varied from simple to intricate. We also made rocks, birds, twigs and things of nature to exchange. I exchanged some of my rocks for a bird and a mushroom.

In the brown bag exchange I made an interchangeable bead pendant and received a pair of cane earrings. In the silent auction I bought a set of Egyptian stamps.

I made a fish covering it with extruder flower canes. Linda Wagar saw my flower extruder canes and wanted to know how to do it. I showed her and she told someone else and I showed them and they told several people so I showed them. It was exciting for me to be able to show something new to these people who are so talented.

It was a great weekend - February 18 to 21 - and the weather coming home was great; the roads clear and no snow coming down.

Vertigo

I had great plans for this week. Really wanted to try some new polymer clay effects and even do some work around the house. Monday I woke up to find the world spinning at great rate around my head. To add to that I got violently ill every time I moved.

Clayt couldn't get the doctor on the phone so called 9-1-1. At the hospital, they put some medicine in my IV to stop the dizziness and gave me a pill for the nausea. They did blood work and took a cat scan to check my inner ears.

A couple of hours later I could stand and walk to the car. The pills they gave me caused me to sleep.... and sleep.... and sleep. I slept most of the next two days. When I was up, I staggered from one place to another - couldn't walk in a straight line. I had quit taking the nausea pills but still have a small amount of upset stomach. It's been four days and I still can't walk straight but I'm not going to take the dizzy pills unless it gets really bad again.

I'm sure tomorrow will be a happier day. Since it's my birthday, it better be.

I've gotten so many comments on my polymer clay Christmas Tree Pin I wear on my jacket that I'll have to make something else in other colors. I thought about making one in black, white and silver.
I've been working on some crackled faux raku. I really like the look. I think though that I pre-heated the clay a little more than it needed to be. Part of the pieces crackled too much. Need to add them to the slideshow as soon as I get a good picture.