Transfers, Cats and Buster Day

Everyone knows how much I love cats, especially the little black and white one that wakes me up at 5 every morning.  I love dogs but cats and kittens just seem to know I'm one of them.  The last 4 I've had trained me well.  Buster is 10 months old now and still makes me laugh all day long.

He thinks the laundry basket fits just perfect.

Today when I pulled the chair away from the table, he was hiding under there.  I keep towels on my kitchen chairs so he doesn't scratch the leather.  He plays tag.  He runs up real fast, stands up and smacks one of us on the arm and then runs away.

Anyway, I found a wonderful Ebay store that had some cat charms relatively cheap so I made some pendants but haven't decided how to finish them yet.  They might end up being key ring charms or purse blings.

This shows a cat with a halo and angel wings, not Buster.

I had a cabochon sitting on my desk for two years and finally decided what to do with it.

I started beading around it.  Started over 4 times because I didn't like the beads.  Now I have to decide how to hang it.

Last but not least.  I love doing transfers on to clay but they don't always turn out.  A couple years ago a friend made these laser copies for me and I forgot about them.  Found them the other day and thought I would give it a try.  Didn't know if two or three year old copies would work and these are pretty big.  It worked great.  It's on white clay and is covered with resin.  The thing that looks like a tiara is actually going to be the bail.

I'm getting a new laser printer today.  I'm really excited.  I want to try more transfer work and use family pictures.  I don't have good luck with printers and cameras so this will be interesting.  My friend suggested I keep the new printer covered since Buster loves printers.

A LITTLE SHAKY

I'm going to post some pictures that I took today.  I woke up with a migraine and took some pills that made me shaky.  No matter how many pictures I took, they all have a little blur so it's not you.  I'm too lazy to get out the tripod and all the picture taking equipment.  This headache is a monster today but I wanted to do something besides sleep.

STROPPEL CANE

Ever since the first time I watched Alice Stroppel's video on how to make a Stroppel Cane, I've been hooked.  I'll bet I have 35 of them here in my studio.  I've about done everything possible with them except make clothes out of them.  Today I had a small square, I turned it on a point and flattened it, layed a sheet of ecru mixed with pearl, rolled it up, made a triangle, cut it, rearranged it a couple times and made a pendant out of it.  I textured the back and think I like the back as much as the front.  I also think I would have liked this with just plain pearl and no ecru.

It's been sanded and buffed.  I think I'll try again with the pearl and one of my 35 other Stroppel Canes.

Since it's been 113 here for the past week I haven't done much except eat biscotti that I bought at Costco (and now I'll have to buy bigger pants).  I saw Randee Ketzel's tutorial for Striped Spiral Pendants on claylessons.com.  Hers are beautiful, I love her colors.  I used orange, yellow and the new Premo metallic peacock.  Not sure I like the orange.

This is pendant number one.  I flattened it, which Randee doesn't do.  It has a fancy crimp cover in the middle.  I sanded and buffed it.  It's kind of fun.  Out of my normal use of black and what other color is sitting there.

This is pendant number two.  Left it round.  Randee tells you to roll it so it's smooth but I liked the separations in the colors so I left it that way.  It also has a fancy crimp cover.

This is pendant number 3 and it's a baby.  I think I might put a Swarovski crystal in the middle.  Am toying with the idea of making Kumihimo ropes for these but until this headache goes away I'm trying not to think too much.

PENNI JO COUCH'S NEW CLAY TOOLS

Yesterday was a HAPPY DAY.  I won a set of Penni Jo Couch's Clay Tools.

Got them in the mail yesterday.



As you can see I already put them to use.  I love the little picker to put holes in beads. 

Thank you Penni Jo, these are wonderful.  Her tools are on sale until June 15th here:

http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/PJ_tools.htm

This is a pendant I made with the Lynne cane from the previous post.  It hasn't been baked yet and I used some tuille to give it a softer look.  Once it's sanded and buffed it will be beautiful, I hope.  The great thing about the Lynne cane is that when you cut off the ends when you are putting it together, the junk pieces are really pretty so I made beads from them and then make golf stroke counters from the beads.

These need baking and will go in the tumbler and get polished.

BLUE CANE - PUFF BEADS - MOPPING HELP

This week at our bead club we had a clay day.  I need to make some beads for my golf stroke counters.  These are good for keeping track of how many times you walk around the mall or block too.

So, I made one of my favorite canes.  I've heard it called a dozen names but I call it the Lynne cane because that was the name of the lady that I first saw do this.

This cane makes really pretty beads.  This is the end so it isn't matching.  I didn't want to cut it in the middle until I decided what to do with it.  I used two packages of blue and two packages of white so I have about 6 inches of cane to use.  I'll post the beads or whatever when I get them done.

Polymer clay puff beads are all the rage now.  I did this one with some left over green clay and I used guilder's paste on it after I baked it.  Sanded it a little and used PYMII for protection.

This was done with left over clay and some left over basket weave clay.  I antiqued it to give it a softer look and then used the PYMII on it.  The picture doesn't show the colors very well but it really is pretty with all the different levels and colors.

My buddy Buster is laying on wet tile that I just vacuumed and mopped.  I don't get it.  He chases the mop, slaps it and then rolls around on the wet floor.  I always used Pine Sol and a little bleach to do the floor until he came along.  I didn't want him licking his feet after he ran through the bleach.  Now I use Simple Green.  I think 9 months for a cat is like terrible twos for kids.  Yesterday everytime I got on the phone, he started throwing his toys out of the box that he sits in by my desk.  Good exercise for me but very boring.  Everyone needs a Buster.  He makes me laugh all day long.

Have to go finish the floors so I can play with clay.

SUTTON SLICE NECKLACE FINALLY DONE

I couldn't decide what to hang this pendant on and when in doubt, I do a herringbone.  Thanks to Linda Kropp and Lupe Meter, they made up my mind for me. They both said "DO THE HERRINGBONE".   It's finally done and I do like it.

Now I have two more and will have to decide what I want to do with them.  I don't want to do another herringbone.  Wish I had a twin sister who would finish my pieces and just let me sit and do clay all day.

This bead and the ones above have been sanded and buffed.  I started at 320 and finished with 3000.  I was having problems with my pieces after buffing.  There were little marks in the pieces.  I changed buffing pads and what a difference.  Went to look for more buffing pads.  Finally found some on Amazon that were reasonably priced.  So, when your pieces don't buff well, change those pads.

100 AND STUPID

I love Arizona in the winter but I'm already tired of the heat.  It's been 100 AND STUPID here for over a week.  Friday it was 112, today it's going to be 103 but that's only from noon until 7 o'clock.  The rest of the time it's about 85.  No humidity but the sun is very hot.  It's too early to have this kind of weather.  I'm cranky already.

Anyway, having to stay inside, I get more stuff done.

This is a Sutton Slice pendant I did with a piece of a cane and black clay.  The black part on the top was textured with a doily.  The rim was done with a piece of lace and Pearlex powder.  Then sanded and buffed.  I'm making a black herringbone necklace for it.

Another clay back ground with watch parts and resin.

A piece of eye cane from the Barbara Maguire class I took last November.  It's getting hard, I need to use it.

I used fancy crimp covers on her.  I didn't use magic glos on this one.  I used another uv resin and had some bubble problems even though I let it sit before I put it in the light.  I dug out the one bunch of little bubbles and put another coat of resin on it and put the crimp cover in the opening where the bubbles were.  Normally I take the clay out of the bezzle and glue it back in but I couldn't get her out of the bezzle.  That's what caused the late bubbles.  The heat from the UV light caused the air to come up from under the baked clay piece.  I was in a hurry when I took the pictures and didn't wipe the dust off of them first.  That's all the little white stuff you see.

Rose's Bracelet

My friend Rose came over yesterday and she had this bracelet she made.  It was her first of this kind.  She does a ton and I mean a ton of Kumihimo.  This is a Kumihimo braid made into a bracelet.  It fit me perfect and matched what I was wearing.  She made me give it back to her.  I guess I'll have to make one for myself. LOL  The balls sit up when you put the bracelet on.  It's really cute.

I was going to put up a picture of Buster but I thought you girls would like this better.  You can sit and stare and day dream.  For those of you who don't recognize him, it's Jim Caviezel from the show "Person of Interest".  Thursday night was a big night for me.  First Jim and then The Mentalist.  I don't answer the phone from 8 to 10.  Now I'm watching reruns of both shows on Thursday night.  He whispers.  I told my husband I wish my number would come up so he would follow me around for a while.  I got that "who are you kidding you old bag" look.  And then he said, why do you need him when you have Buster following you around all the time?  They don't get it.

He is cute though.