A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE UNLESS YOU ARE THIS ROSE

Tonight my blog is not about me or my polymer clay or my wire wrapping or my animals.  Tonight I want to blog about my friend Rose.  I've mentioned her before and told you what fun she is and how cute she is but I never really mentioned how talented she is or how giving she is.  I've know her for about 5 years and she never stops amazing me.  We belong to a beading club and when people need help, she's the first there to offer her help.  I've seen her work with people that I'm not sure I would of had the patience for.  Anyway, Rose has done some incredible polymer clay things in the past couple weeks and since she doesn't have a blog, I'm going to blog them for her.  Get ready to be amazed.

These pink and yellow beads are polymer clay.  She made them from Studio by Sculpey and they match the new sweater she bought.  This is so fun and well done.  She better make more, I know my sister is going to want one of these.  She sees things in stores and goes home and makes them.  I can't because I forget by the time I get home.

This beautiful bracelet was made with canes that Rose collected from all the clay days that we had together in the last 5 years.  Most of them are hers and some are mine and I'm not sure who else contributed but this is the piece that I think would look better on me. LOL

This is a necklace that she did with a Mokume Gane technique.  She really has a way of putting beads and baubles together.  I love this necklace.  It says "ROSE" all over it.

These two pictures are of beads that I made while my husband was recovering from open heart surgery.  I had just gotten a new bead roller and couldn't make much noise so I kept making beads.  I threw them in a box and left them sit for about a year.  One day Rose came over and found my beads.  I told her she could take them if she wanted them.  Next thing I know she's wearing these gorgeous necklaces, getting tons of compliments and SHE WON'T LET ME TOUCH THEM.  Can you believe that?  I would never have thought to throw them on a bed and put them together.  That's what she told me she did.  I don't know if that's true or not but I still haven't been able to handle them.

I mentioned after Christmas that a couple of us girls got together and had a bead exchange.  This is the one I got from Rose and I wear it very often.

This heart reminds of Rose, bright, shiny and VERY ROSE.

Thanks for being a great friend Rosie, I've enjoyed the last 5 years with you more than you will ever know.  Hope we have this much fun when we are in the nursing home together. LOL

POLYMER CLAY MOULDS AND OF COURSE BOOBOO

After spending two days with Tory Hughes and then watching her DVD's all week I went in search of things that I could make moulds of.  The above is an elephant earring from a set that my mother gave me many years ago.  The trunks up so I thought it would be good luck.

This is some scrap clay that I had.  Make the mould, baked it at 265 for 3 hours.

I used Premo Pearl, made a ball, covered it with Pearlex Gold and put it in the mould.  They are about the size of a quarter.  I lightly antiqued them with burnt umber but the paint didn't stay on very well because of the Pearlex.  I coated them Sculpey Glaze to protect the pearlex, wire wrapped them and will be giving them to my friends Rose and Evelyn tomorrow for good luck.

This is an antique Cameo pin that I thought would make a great mould.

Here is the mould.  Baked for 3 hours at 265 degrees.

The base was done with scrap clay, the cameo with Pearlex powders and both were antiqued, but as you can see, the Pearlex doesn't hold the paint.  I made the base of the pendant thick so it would sit up from the base.  (Still working in the dining room so my pictures are less than perfect).  Will be back in my studio next week.  Glory, Glory Hallelujah.

These are the earrings I made out of the scraps that were left from the pendant.  Rose said I should post them because they are so different.  Thanks Rosie.

This is a mould that I made from the plastic button on the left.  It's good for stamping into clay.  So now I know I can make moulds out of anything in polymer clay.   Thanks Tory.

And last but not least is Booboo helping me crochet.  Since he was a baby he has had to be right there on top of me when I'm knitting or chrocheting and he lets me put yarn on his head and doesn't care.  It's been 18 years of his help, not sure I could crochet without him

If you have a pet, treasure them dearly, they give unconditional love and don't care if dinners late or the toilets get cleaned.  LOL.

TH EARTHY INFLUENCE NECKLACE

THE TORY HUGHES EARTHY INFLUENCE NECKLACE.

This is the necklace I've been working on since I took the Tory Hughes class two weeks ago.  I wasn't able to finish it right away because I had to finish the buttons for our clay guild's exchange this Saturday.

We took two classes from Tory.  One was called mixed media and the other one was hinges.  This necklace was made with mostly Premo clay.  I textured the front and back and then antiqued it with acrylic paint after it baked.  The necklace is made of deep brown chips and small pieces of turquoise.  The toggle is a beautiful antique copper piece that I found at a bead store.  The top hinge was made from 20 gauge copper wire that I bought from A Beaded Affair http://www.abeadedaffair.com/.  She sells beautiful copper wire and has an Etsy page also http://www.etsy.com/shop/abeadedaffair.  I love this wire and won't use any other copper wire.  I got spoiled.  The bottom pieces are 18 gauge copper wire (also from A Beaded Affair).

This is the back of necklace.  I guess I could wear it either way.

As you can see on the top, it leans down to an angle.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do this so it would hang straight so I used the 16 gauge copper wire and made eye pins and attached them to the piece and put the chips going between the eye pins.  The single turquoise piece on the bottoms swings freely which I really like.

I'm still working in my dining room because of the flood in my studio and the new window won't be in till the 24th of February so, I guess I'll be here at least another two weeks by the time everything is done.  I guess I should be thankful.  It could have been a lot worse, at least I can still do clay and my 18 year old cat Booboo is sleeping right here next to me.  He got a blanket in the mail from Humane Society of the United States and he loves it.  He sure snores loud though.

BUTTONS, BUTTONS, I THINK I'VE LOST MY BUTTONS

Next Saturday the Arizona Polymer Clay Guild will be having their button exchange.  We had to make 4 sets of buttons for 15 people, since I can multiply a little I know that's 60 buttons.  Who in their right mind needs 60 buttons.  Apparently I do because I signed up to do the button exchange.  I wasn't going to post pictures of my buttons until after the exchange but I'm so tired of working on buttons, I don't even care anymore.  Some of my buttons glow in the dark,

Some of my buttons are reversible, some look like old wood, some look like cookies and some are just butterflies.  I made a set of buttons from a cane that I made and I loved the cane but didn't like the buttons when they were done.  I've been doing these buttons so long, I'm getting too critical.  I need to finish putting them on cards and put them away until next Saturday.

This is a picture of one set of my friend Judy's buttons.  She was smarter than I was.  She made 15 sets of different buttons so there is no question about which buttons to put together.  My friend Evelyn did the same thing and so did Rose.

Wickenburg Gold Rush Days

I'm moving on to another subject. 

Today we went to Wickenburg, AZ to see the parade which was very good.  After the parade we went to the Arts and Crafts area.  The first booth was a lady doing wire wrapping.  She was wrapping some dichroic pendants that were ok but nothing special.  I asked her some questions about her wire wrapping and her dichroic.  I asked her if she had ever done polymer clay.  In a very loud voice she said "I would never do that crap it's for 6 year olds and it looks like crap and any 6 year old can do that".  I just happen to have been wearing this:

I also had some polymer clay earrings and a bracelet on.  When she got done being stupid and loud, I told her I taught polymer clay and did wire wrapping.  Then she started yelling that she didn't have time to get into other things that she was really busy BLAH BLAH BLAH.  At that time my husband grabbed me by the back of the collar and dragged me away.  She apparently didn't want to sell anything.  It didn't matter, there were 60 other jewelry vendors out there anyway.

This is the Pink Breast Cancer Fire Truck. 

A group of fire fighters from Glendale, Arizona have been driving this pink fire truck across the country to raise awareness for breast cancer.

In the last month they've visited 22 states and over 7,000 breast cancer survivors have signed the truck.
They say their goal is to show support for women everywhere.

"We as men on this truck are funding this ourselves, we have no sponsors, we aren't affiliated with any organizations," said Dave Graybill, a firefighter from Glendale. "We're asking all men out there whether you have been affected by cancer or not to take a stand and support the women in your communities."

The firefighters are asking local fire departments to wear pink on October 25th, 26th and 27th and organize their own local fundraisers to support breast cancer.
October is breast cancer awareness month.

This was so neat, I hope they get a lot of funding and support where ever they go.

This was one of my favorite parts of the parade today.  Her name is Annabelle and she is a miniature cow.  She was adorable.  It was a great parade, lots of horses, kids, old women doing splits in the street????? and a lot of people cleaning up horse poop.  Some days that sounds like a good job.

If I ever get these buttons done, I'm going to start working on the pieces I made in Tory Hughe's class last weekend.  Can't wait to get my studio back.  Now I remember what it was like when I use to work in a cubicle except I didn't have a cat bothering me all the time and I wasn't so close to the refrigerator.  LOL.

IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOON

Today I was looking at my friend Lupe's blog and she always has interesting things and beautiful items that she does.  She has a way with putting polymer clay and beads together.  Anyway, on her blog she referenced a new website that I hadn't seen yet and I don't know why not.  It is the most beautiful blog I've ever seen.  I asked her to come to Arizona and build me one LOL.  Her name is Cat and this is her blog
http://inthelightofthemoon.blogspot.com/ .  She has music and beautiful pictures.

Cat is giving away this necklace you just need to visit her gorgeous website and leave a comment and mention her on your blog.

I'm still working on some buttons for our button exchange.  I'm going golfing this afternoon.  Need to get some exercise and get away from the computer and the mess in the dining room from the construction.

Thanks CAT I love your website.

OH WHAT A MESS, NO MORE RAIN, PLEASE!!!!!!!

Well, I mentioned that it rained in my studio two weeks ago.  Little did I know that the little bucket full of water that I collected was going to cause such a big problem.  Over the weekend I took a Tory Hughes class which really inspired me to come home and go outside and get dirt and THINGS and put them in my polymer clay.  It also made me want to come home and HINGE everything in my studio.  When I got home Sunday night I had to start moving everything out of my studio and put it in the dining room and the hallway.  Some is in the garage and some is in places where I don't remember that I put it so it will be a surprise when I find it.  Anyway, I took a couple pictures of my dining room and hallway so you can see how bad it is.  Even the cat's confused.

As you can see, I have a lot of STUFF as my husband would say.

I decided I was going to do clay at my little table in the dining room anyway.  I wanted to do some Art from the Heart and make something different than I normally do.  I made some pieces that I can hinge or not.  I can also wire wrap them or leave them as separate pieces.  I haven't decided yet.  I've also been making buttons again for our guilds button exchange.  I made some yesterday and baked them at too high a temperature and they came out looking like little pieces of chocolate.  I forgot to check the temperature on the oven and got company while I was baking.  I may antique them with white paint.  That should work.

Here are a couple pieces that I did.  One I'm going to call "Here's looking at you"  I love this lady's face.

This is the entire set of pieces that I did today.  I don't have an area to take good pictures so these are the best I could do under the circumstances.

When we took the Tory class we had to put the holes in the pieces after they were baked and one of the girls had a teeny-tiny drill bit that worked great.  I found some in my Dremel stash today but didn't have the collette to fit them in the Dremel so I made my own little polymer clay handles.  They work great.  They look big in the picture but they are only about 1-1/2 inches long.

Prior to doing polymer clay I spent most of my time engraving glass (not etching).  I do hand engraving with an electric tool and diamond burrs.  I engraved vases, mirrors, wine glasses (even did pickle jars).  The vase below took me 3 nights of continuous work.  When engraving glass, I usually highlight the engraved area with Rub n Buff.  It's amazing how long that stays on the engraved area.  I haven't done much engraving since I started polymer clay but as soon as my studio gets back together I'm going to start again.  It's an art that is not very well known.  I did 40 vases with roses on them for a friend who's daughter was making her Quinceanera.  Her name was Rose.  I never wanted to see another rose but this is one of my favorites.

Now that one of my best friends name is Rose and she is a sweet heart, I'll get back into doing Roses again, nothing is more beautiful than a Rose in bloom.

Hinged Polymer Clay Pendant

This is going to be a short blog today.  I have to get everything out of my studio because the construction guys are coming tomorrow to take the walls down and repair the damage from the big storm we had two weeks ago.  I don't know how long I'm going to be working in the dining room but I'm getting claustrophobic already.  AND, I can't find anything.  I put things in the garage and the closets and drawers and boxes.

Anyway, the picture is of a hinged pendant that I made this weekend.  It's polymer clay and I made the hinges myself.  I took a Tory Hughes class on Saturday and Sunday and it was fabulous. She's the only woman I know that travels with a 40 pound belt sander and a drill press.   She is a great teacher and she went out of her way to show me that I needed to reach within myself to find my art.  I like using cutters and forms and texture sheets and doing things that are more classic instead of earthy.  Tory is a very earthy person and her work reflects that.  It's beautiful and complicated but soft and when you look at it, it says Tory Hughes on it.  She tried to make me feel that and at first I was afraid but then the inner me took over.  My piece is still not without some outside influence but it's better.

Tory makes you want to be one with the dirt and the earth which is hard for me because I'm not an earthy person.  I was raised to be classic and mop up the dirt not put it in my clay.  Maybe I can be one with the plaster for the next few weeks.

Thanks Tory, YOU ROCK and dirt and paint and hinge and sand and drill :0).

BEAD ROLLER BEADS AND MAGIC-GLOS

Last month at our guild meeting I did a demo on using Magic-Glos and making beads in the bead rollers.  My previous blogs showed some of the Magic-Glos items and also pictures from the demo.  The above pictures are of a bead that I did in the largest bead roller.  It's hard to see the exact shape but I made it with green Premo pearl that I mixed with some and gold Premo and pearl Premo.  The redish color running through it was also made with pearl premo that I mixed colors in.  Sorry the pictures aren't better but the construction guy is here now talking to my husband about the work that needs to be done in my studio after the leak in the roof.  I miss my photo table.  I sanded this bead starting with 600 grit and went through to 2000 grit and then buffed it on my electric buffer.  There is no coating on it.

These beads were also done on the bead roller with some left over clay that I had from making buttons.  They have all been hand sanded and buffed.  My fingers are sore from sanding but it sure is worth the effort.

A couple weeks ago I went to the auto parts store and bought all the grits of sand paper that I needed.  I brought it home and cut it into 3 inch square pieces, wrote the grit on the back of each piece and made myself sandwich bags with one sheet of each grit in them.  I normally use my sandpaper 6 or 8 times and then throw it away so now I'll throw away the entire bunch and have a bag ready to go instead of stopping every time I sand something and getting the papers ready.  I found the auto parts store is the one only one that carries the larger grits of sand paper.  I usually start at 400 or 600 and go to 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000.

This was the front part of a Natasha bead that I had made from left over pieces of a spliced cane.  This bead does have Magic-Glos on it which gave it a really nice domed effect.  I decided to wire wrap it and will probably put on a black ribbon.

I'm still making and finishing buttons for our clay guilds exchange but I decided not to post them till right before the exchange.  This is suppose to be a surprise and I think I'll keep it at that.  I'll be surprised if I ever finish them all. HA HA HA

I DREAM ABOUT BUTTONS!!!!!

Taking a Tory Huges class this weekend, that should take my mind off buttons.  Can't wait.