Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Poinsettia Pins

I've been making poinsettia pins for the Christmas season. The three colors I like and make are: red with gold Pearl-ex powder; white with pink powder; pink with gold powder. Waiting to find out who I'm going to give them to. They are also on my Etsy site.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Out of My Comfort Zone


Some time ago Marla said on Creative Bead Chat that we should get out of our comfort zone now and then. I like my comfort zone which is making jewelry and wasn’t sure I wanted to go out of it. After that thought ran around in my head a few days I started to think what I could do that was different.

I had an old Carol Duvall tape where Becky Meverden made a cat. It looked so easy when Becky did it. She had a bunch of balls of clay all laid out and one by one she shaped them into: the body, the head, the arms, the legs, eyes, eyeballs, ears, mouth, puffy cheeks, etc. I thought maybe I could make a cat with a long tail that would serve as a ring holder. I watched the tape a few times and headed for my studio in the basement.

I started making a ball for the body. It seemed too small so I added some clay. When I rolled a ball for the head, it was too big, so I took some off and rolled again. That was the story with each ball I made - it was either too big or too small, and not just once but several times for each one. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to make another cat.

The next week a friend of mine saw my cat sitting on the shelf and just loved it. She said if I’d make more she would like to give them to her three friends - and one for herself, of course.


I can’t wait to get back in my comfort zone!


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Pandora Style Beads

I just finished an order for 3 sets of large hole beads for a friend. She wanted 5 beads of black & white, pink and also torn watercolor blue.

The torn watercolor beads are made by rolling three colors together - always black and white then the color you want the beads to be. Then you tear off little strips and add them to a base bead. A little of the black and white show at the edge of the strip. It makes an attractive bead. I used a pearl blue for this set.

My friend saw my kitten ring holder and decided it would make a good gift for some friends so she ordered four of them. I hope these go faster than the first one did. I could never charge for the time that one took.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

August

My friend Sally is making Kumihimo and was talking about how hard it is to get focal beads with a hole big enough to put all the cords through. I made her a couple samples out of scrap clay to try. The holes only have to be a little bigger than what I make in the Pandora style polymer clay beads. I'll probably make some more only making them a little better if she thinks they would suit.

I'm working on making a figurine of a cat. I have a dvd with a demo of making one. Hope I can make mine half as cute as theirs. I know I'll have to make a few of them so they look good.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Summer Season

I've done two craft shows recently. One at York Township for Relay for Life and one at the Medina Fairgrounds for the Antique Tractor Show. I wanted something new for these shows so I covered some pens with polymer clay and made some bracelet helpers and covered them with polymer clay. The bracelet helpers are a tool that acts as a third hand when putting on a bracelet with a clasp that is hard to put on. I had fun trying different styles and techniques of polymer clay to cover the pens and the bracelet helpers.

I've entered the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy's monthly challenge the last two months. The last month was vessels and I put a bowl I had made in it. This month is using the extruder with polymer clay. I put a pendant I made that the extruder made little flower canes. I put slices from the canes on a sheet of black clay.



Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Out of My Comfort Zone

I decided to try something different than my usual pendants and beads. Christi Friesen had a tutorial at Fire Mountain of a peacock necklace. I decided just to make the peacock sitting on a limb as a pin. It doesn't look a lot like Christi's but for a first try, I like it.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Flowers

I've been making flowers with polymer clay and just love the results.  I am donating the above necklace to the Salvation Army Spring Silent Auction.

 Next I think I will make a sunflower if I can mix some clay to the right shade of dark yellow.