FLOWER CANES ON CLAY DAY

My friends have been after me to show them how to make flower canes.  We get together in my studio at least once a month for about 7 hours and do clay.  We do break for lunch.  Today was our clay day so we did flower canes all day.  I have my own way of packing a flower cane and I might write up a tutorial for it but I haven't decided yet.  They were so happy because thier canes turned out great and they loved the new packing method.  I've done some with translucent clay but found that if you don't cover what ever color is on the outside (especially black) it leaches into the translucent.  Today we covered the outer edge with white before we did translucent but I did my canes in black.  I used Premo and my clay was kind of soft.  I should have leached it between paper before using it but didn't take the time.  Here are the pictures from today's clay day.

This is my finished cane with the black packing.



This is a Natasha bead that I made with the scraps of everyone's flower cane.  Not baked, sanded or buffed yet.



Love this cane, Evelyn has a knack with colors even though her eyesight is so bad.  She has macular degeneration and is having a really bad time with it.

We try to help her as much as we can but she gets very frustrated.  I don't know what I would do if that happened to me.............................

MY FURRY FRIENDS

My friend Bev's mom died last week so her and her husband had to go back to Indiana for the funeral.  Her mom was 94 and she was a pistol.  I got to take care of their plants while they were gone and my neighbors got to take care of Beau and Honey the two dogs.  Joe and Dee have a rat terrier named Scooter.  They rescued him from the shelter the day before he was going to be put down.  They were told he was too aggresive.  Later they found out the kids were pretty mean and Scooter was just protecting himself.  Since Scooter has been with Joe and Dee and he is the most well behaved, lovable little dog you have ever met.  Anyway, the three of them together are a stitch.  Beau is an older dog and all muscle, Honey is a new dog they rescued in August and she's not totally adjusted yet but she's really pretty and is very funny.  She has a problem with men though but my friends are helping her through it.  Scooter is a well trained, very protective little dog who is sharing his mom and dad now with two really funny dogs.  Joe sent me this picture yesterday and I had to put captions on it.

I had to share this.  Now tell me you didn't laugh when you saw this.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

The holiday's are coming and I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that I need to finish my polymer clay and beading items to submit for the craft fair.  They have to be turned in by next Wednesday.  I'm also teaching a clay class that day so I guess I better get going and get organized.

 Halloween isn't even here yet and I've seen people putting up Christmas decorations.  I just don't get it.  Why so early?  I decided to put my clay away and finish some of the things I have in my studio so I can put them in the craft fair.  I had some beads that I made at our retreat and finally had a light bulb go on about how I wanted to put them together.  Got the wire idea from my friends Judy and Rose.

These beads were made with a flower cane from left over clay that I was using.  The three hanging beads are rocker beads made using the Cindy Lietz tutorial http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ from her Polymer Clay Tutor video library.

These are also rocker beads.  There are 8 beads attached with stretch cord on the bracelet.  I love making those beads.

This is one of the pendants I made with the green flower cane and spliced flower cane that I made at camp.  The bail is made using peyote stitch and the necklace was made using the herringbone stitch.

NEW TRANSLUCENT CLAY

I ordered some Fimo 00 translucent clay to try.  I was told it disappears when you use it.  I made a flower cane with it using some left over clay and then used the left over flower cane to make a kaleidoscope cane.

Not sure I like the white around the middle of the flower but it looks good on beads.  I'll post them when they are done.  The translucent is pretty easy to work with and I coated the edges with corn starch before I baked them to protect the translucent from burning.

POLYMER CAFE

An article and technique by my friend Judy has been accepted in the Polymer Cafe Magazine.  I'm so excited for her.  As soon as it's published I'll put the pictures up here. 

 Congratulations Judy.



ARTFIRE TREASURY

Boy am I excited.  I just set up my Artfire shop a couple weeks ago and today I got a notice that Tonja Lenderman http://tonjastreasures.com/wordpress/ chose one of my Celtic Crosses to be in her Artfire Treasury.  Tonja does some beautiful polymer clay and writes great tutorials.  Check out her blog and Artfire shop.

Bottom row, second from left.  Thank you Tonja.  I'm really enjoying the Artfire experience.  Got my new, replacement camera from HSN today and it works great.  Just need to find a place with correct light to take my pictures.  I have a portable light studio that came with those little lights but they get really hot.  We had awnings put on the windows in my office because it gets so hot and now the light doesn't come in like it use to.  We live in Arizona and my studio is in the southeast corner of the house.  WHEW.

CELTIC CROSS WITH BEADS

I made quite a few crosses with the Mokume Gane that I did and I finally finished another one today and put it in my Artfire shop.  I'm not really really a cross person but I had some molds and when I figured out how to put the Mokume Gane into the mold and make a perfect cross, I decided to make quite a few of them.  People who aren't cross people have purchased them for friends as Christmas gifts and I'm trying to come up with different and unusual ways to finish them.

This one has uv resin on top, it was done with quite a bit of gold leafing and some alcohol inks.  It has Swarovski crystals and gold spacer beads hanging from the bottom and the neck cord is 6 green covered wires and one green ribbon.  The bail has a large heart on it and needs a home.

Thanks again Tonja.

MIGRAINE CAT - HERE MOUSY MOUSY - ROSE'S BIRTHDAY

My husband said I should make a mouse to go with the glow in dark cat earrings and I thought that was pretty silly.  Next thing I know I'm looking in a Christi Friesen book to see if there were any mice in there because I for one don't like mice and don't care what they look like.  Well, I made some glow in the dark clay and put some black embossing powder in it and the next thing I knew I had a mouse.  I showed it to Booboo and he pulled it out of my hand and started batting it around the floor.  I set the mouse on the chair and he kept moving trying to get the mouse.

I made 2 more and gave them to my friends Judy, Evelyn and Rose today just for a laugh.  I have to make more now because they wouldn't give them back.

I glued their leather tails in with liquid Sculpey before I baked them.  They do glow in the dark.  I hope the girls remember that before they put them on their night table.  Ha ha ha.  The one on the left got a bigger nose than the rest.  He must have a sinus infection.

MIGRAINE CAT

Yesterday I woke up with a migraine and spent a lot of time on the couch with an icepack on my head.  The one I have has long strings on it.  Every time I laid on the couch, Booboo would come up and lay on me.  I put the strings on him and he didn't care. He knew I didn't feel good.  He's a soother.  If anyone knows any good ways to relieve a migraine please let me know.  I have drugs but they don't help much.

ROSE'S BIRTHDAY

Today we celebrated Rose's birthday.  It was actually in September but this was the first time we could all get together.  We had a wonderful day.  We went to a big bead store in Tempe, AZ and then to a cute little restaurant for lunch and then to another shopping center and then to Joann's for some serious craft shopping.

I wanted to give her something hand made and I saw a flexible mold from Penny Couch that had roses in it.  Not sure what she's going to use this for but I guess she could put it on her beading bag or her tool bag.

BAD NEWS

My new camera that I've only had for 3 weeks is broke.  Tried to take some flash pictures and it didn't work.  Sent it back and hope to get a replacement soon so I'm back to using my little Sony.

By the way, I got a box of Good & Plenty from my husband for our anniversary yesterday.  He did take me out for a nice dinner though.



ARTFIRE, BOO, IT'S HALLOWEEN AND MY BELOVED LANYARD

Finally got my Artfire shop up and running.  Not much in it yet but I really like it.  Seems easier than Etsy and the shop looks pretty good.  I know a lot of artists are moving from Etsy to Artfire and I'm going to keep both going till the end of December and see what happens.  There are a lot of beautiful things on Artfire and I hope they get a lot of business.  The link is http://www.artfire.com/users/BLeeKreations.

HALLOWEEN AND CATS

When I was little my aunt told me that on Halloween all the cats in the world would change.  Their eyes would be green and would shine at night and if you pet them, they would glow in the dark.  She's also the one who told me there was no tooth fairy.  As you know if you have read any of my other blogs that I have a cat named Booboo who was born on Halloween and will be 19 this year.  He does not glow in the dark but he does sing in the dark.  Anyway, this morning he was singing and I got to thinking about the glow in the dark cats and decided I needed to make some earrings.  I put them in my Artfire shop and I think I'll do some black cats too.  These do have shiny eyes because I put crystals in them.  They look green in the dark.

I need to learn how to take pictures in the dark.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

MY BELOVED LANYARD

Last week I wrote about what a wonderful time we had at clay camp and all the great things we got and did and I forgot to mention the gorgeous lanyard that was in my goody bag.  My friend and clay guild pal Lupe, made lanyards for everyone at camp.  The amount of work in these things is incredible.  I wore mine for 4 days.  I put a flashlight on the end one day but it kept banging into things and knocking things over so I took it off.  Anyway, Lupe also opened an Artfire shop and has some gorgeous things in it.  Check it out http://www.artfire.com/users/Miramecreations.

One side of the focal bead has the Arizona Polymer Clay Guild emblem on it and the other side is this beautiful Kaleidoscope cane that Lupe did.  She is so talented and she takes care of her father in law, animals and a pool.  Thanks Lupe, hope your Artifire shop goes great.

Please keep checking my Artfire shop and let me know what you think.

Tomorrow is our 29th wedding anniversary and we can't decide where to go for dinner, probably end up at Taco Bell.

AMERICA'S GOT TALENT

Last night my friend and I went into Phoenix to see the America's Got Talent top 10.  It was at the Dodge Theatre and we had great seats.  17th row on the aisle.  Show started at 7:30 and from 7:30 to 8 the ushers were bringing people down front to their seats which really upset the people that got there in time.  One lady grabbed an usher and told her to lock the doors.  A woman sitting behind us kept taking out her phone and listening to messages, very loud messages.  I finally told her to put it away.  People were getting up and down constantly.  I just don't get it.  Why are people so rude now?  I wasn't brought up that way. 
Those people on the stage don't deserve to have someone walk out in the middle of their performance.  It was a wonderful show.  My favorite of course was Prince Poppycock.  That guy is an entertainer.  He's the only one that got a standing ovation.  Michael Grimm the $1,000,000 winner was really great too.  He's quite a singer.  Jerry Springer was the MC and I'm NOT saying another word about that.

GOLF TREASURY AND THINGS FROM CLAY CAMP

I was so excited today.  I got an email saying one of Etsy golf stroke counters was in an Etsy Treasury.  I wanted to post it on my blog but of course I couldn't get it small enough to do that.  I went to Lynda Moseley http://www.scdiva.blogspot.com/ like I always do for help. She sent me an email explaining how to get this into a jpg. format.  If you get a chance, check her blog and her Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/SCDiva, she has some amazing polymer pieces and some great tutorials.

 My golf stroke counter is on the bottom right.  This is a great treasury especially since the Ryder Cup was this weekend, too bad the Americans lost.  They seemed to have fun though and that's what matters most.

CLAY CAMP IN PRESCOTT, ARIZONA

Last week our clay guild spent 4 days in Prescott at a Christian Youth Camp doing clay from 7 in the morning till 10 at night.  This was our first year at this camp and it was wonderful.

This is the building where 24 of us spent our days doing clay.  The food at this place was tremendous.  Last year we had gray pancakes for breakfast one morning, this year we had home made banana bread, waffles, scrambled eggs, strawberry compote.  I ate so much breakfast I didn't go to lunch but dinner was like eating at a 5 star restaurant.  The deserts were fresh and the car was heavier when we came home.  LOL.

There were many demos and people shared things they were doing.  We blew a few fuses with our ovens but we did ok.  I shared a big round table with my friend Judy and we made a mess but we had a lot of fun.  We worked on different techniques like flower canes, spliced canes, metal working, wire wrapping.  I finished more this year than I ever have.

These are some spliced cane beads that I made and finally put it into a bracelet.

These are some pendants I made with what started out to be a spliced cane and ended up being a flower cane and the ends of the spliced cane.  They have Magic-Glos on them and gold leafing.

This was made from magenta, gold and turquoise with the extruder.  The colors match the necklace but with the Magic-Glos it doesn't look like the same colors and someday I'll learn to use the new camera so I can get some real color pictures.

THE MOUSE FROM HELL

We had a little visitor at camp, I think he was just a baby but he caused a lot of screaming and we had to put all the food away at night and everyone was worried that he was going to eat their clay.  We had one guy in our group who has a heck of a sense of humor.  One night after everyone left he did this:

It got baked and is going back to the guild with us.  Thanks Brad.

There's a huge storm coming and I think I need to turn the computer off.  Will continue another time.

Had a great time at camp and want to thank everyone for their contributions and donations.