KALEIDOSCOPE DEMO

Our beading club is getting into polymer clay with a bang.  I've been teaching beginner classes for two years but because of a bad back, I haven't had a chance to do a class this year.  My friend Rose has been getting the girls that are interested in polymer together and doing demos and just playing with clay.  These girls are amazing.  Some of the things they have come up with are awesome.

Last week Rose did a demo with them on Skinner blends and spliced canes.  I saw some of the canes they did and I was awe struck.  Yesterday I did a Kaleidoscope cane demo.  I made some Skinner blend plugs the night before to use in the cane.  I'm really happy with the way the cane came out.

This is the original that I made into a square.



This is 4 squares together, cut in half and put back together.

This is another part of the cane that I made into a triangle, flipped 2 parts of the triangle over and cut into 3 pieces and then cut in half.  The girls loved this cane so much I gave them all pieces.  I have quite a bit left so I can do it again but I know it won't be exactly the same.  You can see the spots on the card behind the cane.  It happened so fast because some of my clay (black) was pretty fresh and it leached on the card before I had a chance to move it.

NOW, what do I make with this???????????????



WHAT YOU DO WITH A BAG

Next time you get a Trader Joe's bag, bite a hole in the side and keep sticking your head out.

This cat makes me laugh all day long.  He is still stealing things.  Pens are missing from every desk, his original collar that he had on when I got him from the shelter is no where to be found.  He probably put it in the cat liter so I wouldn't put it back on him. 

He's a climber, if we can't find him, we just go in the closet and look up.

I can't believe I got so lucky.

I'm doing a demo tomorrow on Kaleidoscope canes at our beading club and I don't have anything ready yet.  I have a migraine but I better get to work.  I want to make one something like this but with more Skinner blends and less pre-blended canes.

I've been making a lot of Stroppel canes from all the pieces I had left from our guild's cane exchange.  I usually do them in black but I did one yesterday with a coral layer to it.

I really like this.  It's more summery and lighter looking.

By the way, it was 80 here today and I played golf for the first time in 3 months.  It was gorgeous.

CLAY GUILD CANE SWAP

Today our clay guild had our "Cane Swap".  There were 12 of us that participated and there was a lot of moaning going on when they started doing the canes but everyone did really great.  I had some of my canes done and then I got "THE CRUD" that's been going on around here and my desire to work or do anything went down the toilet.  I ended up making some Stroppel canes which I really love.

Here is a picture of the canes I received today.  Can't wait to start making something with them.  I'll post what ever it is.

We had a lot of new people in the swap that never made canes before and they did a beautiful job.

Last night I had some canes left over and some end pieces so I made some more Stroppel canes for me (tee hee hee).  They're all mine.

  I see earrings and pendants and earrings and buttons and earrings made out of these.

THIS IS NOT BUSTER.  This is a cat that needs the "Cat Whisperer".  He was made by one of our members who was teasing me about my love for Buster and showing how to use fun stuff when working with polymer clay.

Tomorrow is the day I have to clean off my clay table, get organized and now that the CRUD is gone I can start exercising. :(0

IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHERS

This has been a tough week.  Woke up Monday with a sore throat, headache and no voice.  Thought I had a cold but it turns out it was all sinus and the headache just kept getting worse.  It's been 5 days now and I still don't have much of a voice.  I sound like Andy Devine for those of you old enough to remember Wild Bill Hickok and his side kick Jingles who had an incredibly strange, raspy voice.  My husband hasn't exactly been complaining that I haven't been talking much :0).
In the meantime, my 96 year old friend ordered more earrings so when I wasn't sleeping or playing with the cat I was making earrings.  I finished 20 pair in 2 days so I did pretty good.  Now I have to stay awake long enough to pack them up and mail them.

Here's my IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHERS.

These are just a few of the ones I made.  I'm still not comfortable with the camera and the macro and I was too lazy to set up my photo box so I just took these pictures on my desk.

Thanks to Tina Holden, I ordered a gizmo for my camera called Little Big Shot.  It's a device you put on your digital camera's so you can take really close macro clear pictures. 

Check out this website http://littlebigshot.blogspot.com /  his videos are incredible.  I can't wait to get mine so I'll be able to take some really good pictures.  Dave promised me I would be a happy girl when I got this.  I have the feeling he knows what he's talking about.

WAIT FOR ME WILD BILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHAWL AND SHAWL PIN

My 96 year old friend Jane is in a nursing back in Kenosha, WI.  It's an older facility and they don't have air conditioning in the rooms and they have very little heat.  She gets chilly just sitting around so I started knitting a shawl for her before Christmas and had so many interruptions that when I finished it, it didn't look right.  I crochet 20 times faster than I knit so I was really disappointed about spending all that time knitting instead of crocheting.  I found a crocheted shawl pattern that looked classic and not confusing. 

I finished it yesterday and I really like it.  Even my husband liked it.  It's all black which Jane will like and it has that fuzzy yarn around the whole thing with extra rows on the bottom.  I decided she needed a shawl pin to go with it so I made a pin out of polymer clay. 

I used black clay and a texture sheet and put flat back Swarovski crystals on it and white perfect pearls.  She loves silver and crystals and black so I'm sure she will like this.

EMBARRASSED

I had some pictures of Buster printed at Walgreen's today.  When I went to get the pictures I told the young gentleman at the counter my name and he said "OH, the cat pictures".  I said yes, those would be mine.  He said "yup, the cat on the door, the cat in the garbage can, the cat sleeping in the chair, the cat chasing the ball" and then I cut him off.  I said "my mother lives in Florida and wants to see pictures of my new kitten, you are lucky I didn't have any nude pictures of old people in there".  At that he gave me a strange look and told me since this was a retirement community, he sees a lot of strange things everyday and that's getting to be a normal thing.

I'M GLAD I ONLY HAD PICTURES OF THE CAT.  My husband warned me I was getting to be a geezer because I spend too much time talking about the cat.  He said I should get a life away from the cat for a while.  So, I asked him if he wanted to change the cat liter, scoop the cat liter, feed the cat, play ball with him and all the other things a good cat mom does?  He just said

"NEVER MIND" 

:0)

CANE SWAP TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

OK, I'm frustrated.  Most days I can sit down and make a flower cane or Kaleidoscope cane with no problem.  Now that I HAVE to make a cane my brain and fingers aren't working together.  My friend Evelyn who has macular degeneration came over the other day so we could "play with clay" and do some canes for the cane swap.  Yesterday she came over so I could help her reduce her cane.  She fell in the garage a couple weeks ago and hurt her hand.  Her cane is beautiful.  She has a way with colors.  She was an art teacher all her life and now she has trouble seeing, it's a dam shame.  That's all I can say.

This is her Kaleidoscope cane which I think is beautiful.

This is my cane that I did yesterday and my black clay was very mushy so I'm letting it rest and then I will square up the sides.  This is how it started.

I wanted to reduce while it was still a little soft because I thought it wouldn't move if I waited too long.  Guess I should have waited, the black would have reacted better.  At least I got 4 canes out of this so I only need 6 more.  I have till the 18th of February but I have a ton of other things I need to do like play with the cat.  LOL