ROSE'S BEAUTIFUL NECKLACE AND BEAD CROCHET FRUSTRATION

ROSE'S BEAUTIFUL NECKLACE

Today at our beading club my sweet friend Rose came in with a necklace box.  Inside the box was the most incredible necklace.  She has been working on this all week and the ladies at the club were raving about her necklace.  Last year, Ronna Sarvas Weltman put out a book called "ANCIENT MODERN".  In the book was a necklace called "Serendipity's Sister".  It's made of polymer clay and it has textures and color and each bead has a place of it's own.  This is the book and this is a picture of the original necklace:

WELL, Rose came in with her necklace and I have to tell you, IT'S INCREDIBLE.

Here's Rose's Necklace:

Click on this picture to get a larger view of these beautiful beads and the incredible wire beads that she made to go in between.  Now, check out the clasp she made for this necklace:

Is that clever or what?  Wouldn't you like to hold this necklace?  The beads are so smooth and they feel so nice.  I guess I'm her number one fan and the president of her fan club.  Can't you tell??

Please send comments so I can pass them on to her.  If you could see this in person, you would be amazed.

BEAD CROCHET FRUSTRATION

Three years ago a friend taught me how to bead crochet.  I have been crocheting since I was 5.  I thought this would be a snap.  HA.  Didn't like it three years ago and said I would never do it again but all the women at bead club are doing it and it looked really easy so I thought maybe some new, easy method popped up since I last did it so I bought a big bag full of Tuff Cord and I strung 40 inches of beads.  Took 3 people to figure out how to start it so I could understand.  They all do it a different way.  Finally got someone to start it and show me how.  It's now 8 hours later and I have exactly 4 inches done.  I'm not stopping till I get good at this.  I even watched a lady on youtube do it.  This is what I've done so far:

It's really pretty but I have to make sure the beads are going the right way.  I'm sure by the time I'm 75 I'll get this figured out.

SISTER-SISTER

My sister left yesterday after 8 days of going, going, going.  We noticed how quiet it is here.  Even the cat has been looking for her in the guest bedroom.  We had a lot of fun and got to do many things I normally wouldn't do.  She did finish a set of wire wrapped cheese things so I gave her some of my extra jewelry tools like round nosed pliers, nippers and flat nose pliers.  I also gave her some 20 gauge wire and some beads to take home with her.  She snuck some lemons in her suitcase and the food chopper we bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  My husband is still laughing.  He always tells his friends he's "going on a pleasure trip" when he takes my family back to the airport to leave.  Ha ha ha.  Anyway here is the set she finished:

I know this is pretty wordy tonight.  I think it's because I'm tired.

Back to the bead crocheting, I'm going to conquer this.

SISTER - SISTER, MORE GOLF STROKE COUNTERS AND I'M TIRED

Sister is still here and running me ragged.  Went to the Arizona Opry in Mesa Saturday.  If you get a chance to go, it's awesome.  $29 for a very nice lunch and a two hour show.  The show was great.  Friday we spent the day in Wickenburg shopping with friends.  Sunday we went to the pool, walking and to a friends for a barbeque, today it's walking, pool, and off to Westgate to ride the bull at the Saddle Back Ranch Restaurant. LOL.  Me and bulls don't get along so it won't be me riding that bull.

In between we've had a little craft time.  I'm teaching her how to wire wrap  (she's hit me with the wire 3 times and she only gets one more chance and then I punch her) while I do my golf stroke counters.  She found a box of polymer clay pieces that I was experimenting with and decided she wanted some so I converted them to pendants for her.

Her wire wrapping is getting better, here's some pictures:

I did the one on the left and she did the one on the right.

GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

Here are a few more golf stroke counters that I finished that are going to Illinois:

The bottom set is made from the beads I published in an earlier post from the extruded cane beads.  Didn't think I would like the orange and red together but they look good and are very cheery.

FLAPPING ARMS

Hey ladies, do you have those flapping arm wings?  When you wave goodbye is the skin under your arm still waving even when you quit?  Ha ha ha.

Sister and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and I bought this WEIGHT SHAKE thing.  It's suppose to firm up your flabby arms.  So far all it's done is give me a headache and scare the cat.  It's fun and I can feel it.  I'll let you if it works.

You hold it in both hands and shake it up and down and all your fat moves at one time.  WHOOHOO

SISTER'S PENDANT

This is the piece Susie decided she wanted so we put a bail on it and off it goes to Illinois with all the wire wrapped forks, some of my beads, lots of wire and 10 bracelets I made her.

SISSY

This is my girl Sissy.  I asked her to get up on the chair and told her to look at me so I could take her picture and she did exactly what I told her to.  She's so smart and so much fun.  Her mom gets mad because I tie her ears together but she doesn't care.  LOL

Sister needs me to help her with her wire wrapping.  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 

WIRE WRAPPING, SISTER-SISTER

My sister from Illinois has been here since Monday night. (Opened the first bottle of wine)  I feel like I'm on a wild goose ride.  We've been on the go since Tuesday morning.  Haven't had a lot of time to do polymer but I did show her a few things and she was really surprised.  She still teaches children with autism, ADD and children who were preemies when they were born and have learning disabilities.  Not sure when she will retire so she doesn't really have time for hobbies right now except drinking wine.  (Tuesday we went to the neighbors and opened the second and third bottle).

At our craft fair last weekend I bought a gift for my girlfriend for her birthday which I can't show on here yet in case she looks at my blog but it had something to do with wire wrapping silver ware.  My sister saw it and asked if I could teach her how to do it.  I had a set of cheese server pieces here so we wire wrapped two of them and here they are:

She gave the one on the left to the neighbors as a gift.  She's there now drinking wine.  I left after one glass.

Big day tomorrow, off to Wickenburg to find some cowboys.  She wants to meet a real cowboy, OH BOY

Time to crash and get ready for another big day with SISTER-SISTER looking for cowboys.  WHOOPEE.

SUPRISE SPOTLIGHT AND MY FURRY FRIENDS

I was really surprised this morning when I turned the computer on and there was a Cindy Lietz email with pictures of my buttons and one of my golf stroke counters.  She is spotlighting some of the work of the people who belong to her website and there were my glow in the dark buttons and antique looking buttons and my red, white and blue buttons and the golf stroke counter that I made from her flower cane tutorial.  That was really nice.  If you want to see the pictures and all the wonderful comments you can see it here at;
http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ .  Here are pictures of the buttons up close and the bead stroke counter that I made with the flower cane that Cindy did the tutorial on.

This is the golf stroke counter made with the extruded flower cane.

SCOOTER, BEAU AND ANNIE

It's been a long time since I had some pictures of my friends Scooter, Beau and Annie posted on here.  I got to spend Sunday night with them.  Annie had a little red hat on and a cherry dress but I missed that picture.  But here are my buddies:

ANNIE

EXTRUDED FLOWER CANE BEADS

I needed to make some more beads for golf stroke counters and I really like Studio by Sculpey clay so I thought I would try it.  It wouldn't condition enough to go through the extruder correctly but I did get a nice outer pattern so I used that to make beads and then I added some pearl to the colors that I was using and it went through the extruder perfectly.  I haven't bake these yet because my sister is here and it's taking me two days to make beads :0).  I tried last night after we had our wine and we laughed so much I couldn't make beads but this is what I have so far:

Want to thank everyone on Cindy's blog for all the nice comments and support about the spotlight.

SISTER-SISTER AND GIVEAWAY

This is going to be a short blog tonight because I haven't had much time.  My sister is here visiting me from Chicago.  She's 8 years younger than I am and she wears me out.  Today we went for a pedicure and manicure and then went shopping and bought some new purses and all kinds of fun stuff.  We've been doing a little wine so my pictures are blurry but we are having fun.

I do want to mention a beautiful blog titled "IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOON".  Her name is Cat Kerr and she's a mixed media artist and does beautiful work.  Please visit her blog at http://inthelightofthemoon.blogspot.com/.  She does great pendants with resin and I'm going to win the one she has on the blog.

Please visit her blog the music is so relaxing especially after two glasses of wine.

POLYMER CLAY BUTTONS AND GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

Last month our Arizona Polymer Clay Guild had a button exchange and I got 14 sets of buttons.  There were 4 buttons on each card and they were all beautiful and unique.  The people that didn't get in the exchange were sad :0( because they all loved the buttons and wanted them.  I debated what to do with the buttons.  In a previous post I showed a picture of a bag that I had made for my mother that she didn't use so I took it back (Indian Giver).  I finally decided that I wanted those beautiful buttons on my bag and I couldn't decided how to do it.  Sitting on my table was a roll of 20 gauge copper wire that I got from A Beaded Affair (love this stuff) http://www.abeadedaffair.com/.   I thought I would do a little wire wrapping on the beads with the copper and I love it.  I knew trying to sew them would be a royal pain since I hate hand sewing unless I'm beading.  I tried gluing some of the buttons on first but didn't care for that and they didn't stick very well.
Here are front and back pictures of my bag with the buttons.  If you click on the pictures you can get a close up of the buttons.

I used colored wire on some of the buttons but mostly I used the copper wire.  This way I can change the buttons if I want to.

The city I live in is a retirement community and they are having a craft fair tomorrow.  We have a Village Store that sells items made by the people who live in the community and belong to the clubs.  We have a silver club, a beading club, 2 clay clubs, wordworking club, metal club, knit and crochet club, leather engraving club and the list is endless.  We also have 7 golf courses, 5 swimming pools, tennis courts, pickleball courts, walking tracks, 4 work out facilities and this list goes on.  It's really a wonderful place to live and it's hard to decide what to do when there's so many things to do.

I started making golf stroke counters as gifts for friends.  I make polymer clay beads and mix them with other beads.  People started asking at the Village Store for them so now I make them and sell them there.  I put 5 in the store this week and made more to put in after the craft sale.  Here's my new ones.

Looking forward to the Clay Guild meeting tomorrow.  One of my favorite people is doing two demos and I'm sure they are going to be great.

GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

I have been so busy the last 3 days.  I got an order for more Golf Stroke Counters.  I make the large beads with polymer clay and put 10 beads on each counter.  It takes time to make the beads and the counters together but I have been getting a lot of requests for these.  I made 5 today and delivered them.  It started about a year ago when I gave some to friends to hang on their golf clubs.  People asked them where they got them and it escalated from there.  I even had a guy call and ask me to make him one with 15 beads on it.  He was going to use it when he walked around the track so he could keep count of how many times he went around.  Here are some pictures of the ones I made.

This one was done with a cane that Cindy Lietz did on her Polymer Clay Tutor website http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/.  She's a great tutor, check it out.

Well, back to work.  Got more orders for my counters so I better get busy.

CLAY DAY IN ARIZONA

Today was a very special day for me.  My friends Judy, Rose and Evelyn came over for 6 hours and we played with clay.  We did take time for lunch but not much.  Evelyn made a shrimp salad, Judy brought the bread, Rose brought donuts and my husband made a buttermilk chess pie for us for desert.  I will probably have to borrow my husbands pants tomorrow after eating all that today.

Anyway,  I am lucky to have a big enough studio/office that four of us can fit into and do clay.  We like to share new techniques with each other.  Things that we've read about or seen on youtube.  We also share other things, like today, Rose ordered hollow acrylic rollers for all of us, Judy bought some brass stencil plates for us to use and Evelyn gave us all a package of texture sheets.  We usually meet at least once a month and everyone has an idea of what they would like to try.  Today, I showed them how to do what we call a Lynne cane.  They all came out different.  We also did another technique from a tutorial that I purchased from Rivervalley at http://www.claylessons.com/rivervalley.  It's really fun. 

This is the piece that Judy made.

This was the raw clay it was made from.

This is the piece Evelyn made.

This is the raw clay it was made from.

This is the raw clay that Rose made and I forgot to take a picture of her finished piece.

These are my finished pieces that I did yesterday and again tryng to use the stamp pads to give things color.  Won't do that on baked clay again as you can see by the piece with the blue on it.

GIRLFRIENDS

They told me today that I could post their pictures so here they are.

This is Judy, she just started doing clay about 8 months ago and she's hooked.  YIPEE.  As you can see from the photos above, Judy is quite talented.

This is Rose, she's sweet and cute and makes us laugh and she does great clay.

Last but not least is Evelyn.  She's our green and brown and gold girl.  She's also our cook and baker and people are in awe when they see her pendants.  Someone asked me yesterday what kind of stone she used when making a necklace and I told them it was "Polymer".  They were stunned.

OK, this has been a long blog, sorry, I'm still wound up and the funny thing is Booboo spent the whole day in the studio with us and he slept right through it.

HAND HELD DRILL BITS FOR POLYMER CLAY

Susan these are the hand held drill bits I told you about.

In the top picture starting on the left the little one is 5/64 and they go up to 5/32 which is really big.  I use the 5/64 the most and the 3/32.  The ones on the right were teeny bits that I had and I made the handles for them.  Bake the bits in the clay and then take them out and use a cyanoacrylic glue to glue them back in.  They are great for making little holes in clay to add wire or tubing or whatever.

Hope this helps.

INK STAMPING ON POLYMER CLAY AND GLOW IN THE DARK BEADS BY CINDY LIETZ

I decided to do a little claying around by mixing some different clays together and trying some new techniques and using some of the things I have in my studio that I don't use very often.  Every Friday Cindy Lietz - The Polymer Clay Tutor, www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ sends out something new and interesting to people who belong to her website.  Last week she did a glow in the dark cane with alcohol inks and it looked interesting so I thought I would try it.  I put glow in the dark clay in my outlying black clay and I think it looks muddy so next time I'll just use straight black or another color but this is what I ended up with.

They both glow in the dark which is really cool. Thanks Cindy, that was fun.

THE NEXT CLAYING AROUND ADVENTURE

My next adventure was making pendants using texture sheets and different kinds of clay.  When they came out of the oven they were kind of boring.

I got out some Color Box stamp pads that I had.  One was called "Treasure"

I applied the the ink right from the stamp pad to the clay pieces and this is what I got.  I thought they looked lovely.  Well, I let them sit for 2 hours and the ink wouldn't dry so I hit them with a heat gun, would not dry, put them back in the oven for 30 minutes would not dry.  Let them sit out all night, would not dry.  So I wiped them off with a paper towel and this is what I got:

They looked like they had been antiqued with gold paint but the one on the bottom right I used green Stazon Ink to highlight it and the ink dried immediately.

This piece was made from a cane that I didn't like because the colors seemed to blend into each other so I made some leaves from one of those leaf cutters that punches the veins into it.  After it was baked, I put the green Stazon ink on the leaves and they dried immediately.  I don't get it.

I sent an email to the company that makes Color Box and they told me to go to Polymer Clay Express even though I didn't buy the stamp pads there.  The lady there was really nice but said they never had a problem with the Color Box inks not drying.  She also told me about some she uses called Brillance.  They are Japanese and they sell them at Polymer Clay Express so I bought some to see how they work.

ANOTHER TEST GONE BAD  "EXPLOSION"

I tried stamping this piece also but it ended up being antiqued with the inks.  I left little openings in it and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them.  I decided to get out my "no hole" beads.  There are at least 100,000 all over the floor in my studio right now.  Anyway, I put a few in the holes and put some Magic Glos over them and ran the little tile outside in the sun and forgot about it.  Next thing I know, it's raining outside.  That happens here in Arizona, one minute the sun is out and the next minute it's raining.  So this little piece has two layers of gloss and beads and some rain trapped in there somewhere.

WISH WE STILL WORE HATS

This is a piece of pearl clay that I did a transfer on from a picture I took from a CD that I bought from Luna Girl.  I haven't done a lot of transfers but I just took the Tory Hughes class and we did that in her class so I wanted to give it a try.  Didn't quite like the plain old color on it so I added some "Stream" Alcohol inks to the picture.  My pointing finger on my right hand is now bluish.  I'll keep trying this but do it different ways.  Some people bake them on, some people use special paper and others use nail polish remover.  I'll let you know when I find a good way.  I know a couple people in the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy do a lot of transfer type things but I'm not really sure which ones they do.  I'm just playing with clay.

NEW GRANDMA

This is my good friend Evelyn that I talk about a lot.  She's going to be a grandma for the first time in September so I wanted to be the first one to make her a baby blanket.  This will be one of many since I have a whole house full of yarn.  Evelyn does clay and she does beautiful work.  She's the green, brown, gold girl in our group.  She also is in the beginning of Macular Degeneration and her eyes are getting really bad but she still plods along with the clay and making jewelry AND she's a lot of fun.  We love her because she makes great deserts.

Well, back to the claying around and see how many more weird things I can do tonight.