BIRTHDAY LUNCH - LUCKY ME AND POLYMER PIECES

BIRTHDAY LUNCH

Even though it was a 109 today my friends Rose, Evelyn and Judy took me out for lunch for my birthday. It isn't till Sunday but this was the only day we could all get together.  We went to a wonderful restaurant called "Vogue Bistro".  That was my first time there and I loved it.  They have the best sweet potato fries I've ever had.  We had a great lunch and the waiter brought us a beautiful birthday desert.  I should have taken a picture of it.  It was four compartments and had chocolate coated macaroons, white chocolate coated dried fruit with macadamia nuts, white chocolate coated passion fruit and chocolate coated French wafers.  I don't want to eat again for a while.

I got some wonderful gifts (this is all leading to polymer clay) Evelyn gave me shoes to go walking in the water ( I guess she wants me to go to the pool again), a shirt with 2 cats on it, a container for my polymer clay and beading stuff and beads, Judy gave some special chalks to use on the new Tina Holden Honeycomb Tutorial http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/ that you can get the information for at her blog, Judy also made me one of her special bracelets out of canes that she has made and I'll post a picture of it when I get it back.  It needed one more bead.  Rose gave me a kitty stamp and a beautiful necklace.  She got the pendant from our friend Lupe at http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/ .  Lupe will be telling you all about it on her blog but Rose made the necklace part and put it together:

They all know I love cats and this necklace is gorgeous.  I think Rose and Lupe should team up and make jewelry although both of them make gorgeous pieces.

POLYMER CLAY AT LAST

I was gone 3 weeks and didn't get to do any polymer clay.  It's like not eating ice cream for a year.  Phooey, won't do that again.

I spent 3 days beading around a cabochon that I had done using the Barbara Maguire Mokume Gane technique.  I think it gave me a headache but it's done and I love it.

I made a short Herringbone necklace for it.  My camera still isn't taking good pictures but I should probably be taking pictures in the daytime.  I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can get a good one.

Next pieces are some Mica Shift that I was playing around with.  I actually bought the mica shift tutorial from Lynda Moseley http://www.scdiva.blogspot.com/ who does some incredible mica shift pieces.  As you can see I like to support the artists.  Here are my pieces.

I added a little of my own technique to the bottom ones.  Lynda does her with sanding and buffing.  I did sand these but then I put Magic Glos on them.

I had some leftover purple clay and some inks and other texture sheets.  As you can see I love those oval cutters and my new heart cutters with the tipped tail.

FLEXIBLE MOLDS

I've had a box full of flexible molds that I didn't do a lot with.  Last night I saw someone doing clay with flexible molds but not the way I had done it in the past.  I thought I would get them out and try the new way.  Looked interesting.  I have a Celtic cross mold and I know Evelyn likes those.  I made one and decided to make two more.  Now I know I was going about it all wrong and last night I finally did it right.

These came out beautiful even if I have to say so myself.  I used Magic glos on the middle part of the cross.  I used two coats, which I normally do.  I did the bails using the Cindy Lietz method http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ which you can find in her tutorials.  It worked wonderful.  Check out her website.  She sends tutorials every Friday and she is remarkable.  It's a really small fee to receive these tutorials but the learning experience from them is priceless.

These three crosses are now with Judy, Rose and Evelyn.  They got birthday presents from me.

Thanks girls for a wonderful lunch, great presents and a fun day.  I love you all.