Friday, June 24, 2011

LIZARD TAILS AND SWIRLY YARN

A few years ago I took a class from Julie Picarello and found out what to do with all the left over clay I had.  Now everyone can make lizard tails.  Her new book is awesome.  Has everything we learned in class and more.  It's called "Patterns in Polymer, Imprint and Accent Bead Techniques".  If you don't have it you need it.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of canes to make the "mystery items" that are going in the goody bags for our guild's retreat in September.  I had to make 25 items so that's a lot of canes.  With the leftovers, I usually make Natasha beads or bead centers.  This time I made big lizard tails and made pendants out of them.


This is about 3 inches in diameter.  I'm thinking a beaded bail and a Kumihimo rope.  This was cut out of the middle of a flattened lizard tail.

This is the piece that was left when I cut out the one above it.


This is a lizard tail with the bottom cut off.  Looks like a hot air balloon to me.  This took two sandings and two buffings.


This cane was done with left over clay.  There's a little blue in there that really shines.  I think this is going to get a Kumihimo rope too.

This pendant has it's own bail in the back.  These colors are much prettier in real life.  I made the bail from clay.

I wrapped the bail around a paint brush and baked it.  When it was cool.  I slipped it off the paint brush and cut 1/4 of the back off so it would lay flat.  I put some Sculpey Bake and Bond on it and then rebaked it.  It really worked well.  That stuff bakes really hard and stays put.  I found a stamp set at Office Max to use to make my name plates so I can start putting my name on my pieces.  It has two sizes of letters.  This is the large one.  I think I'll start using the smaller one.  It's a really good set, a little costly but not bad.





This is a scarf I just finished knitting.  It's really a fun pattern.  The lady that gave me the pattern thought the swirls looked like potatoe chips but to me it looks like chocolate and vanilla ice cream.  But everything looks like that to me. :0)  I asked my friend Judy to model the scarf.  Don't you love the Bubba Gump tee shirt?
I finished another with the same yarn but it has pockets on each end so you can put your hands in the pockets of your scarf to keep them warm.  Now you are asking "why are you knitting when it's 114 degrees in Arizona".  Because I'm a KNIT WIT.  Ha ha ha.

Hey Booboo, I changed the picture in the frame.  Now there is a picture of you there looking all sweet and cuddly.  It's not funny.  You and I know the real truth.  MEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

1 comment:

Melobeau said...

Bonnie, Lovely new pieces. I especially like the first one pictured on the post from the "lizard's tail". It's absolutely STUNNING! Love to see a picture when you have it all beaded and roped.