HOW NICE IS THAT?

I just got an email from "Beaducation" http://www.beaducation.com/ saying I won a $100.00 gift certificate.  I'm so excited.  I love their stuff and I love watching their tutorials.  I can buy some new tools.  My round nose pliers are all twisted and I need new wire straighteners.  This is so exciting.  Go to their website and check them out.  Lisa Niven Kelly does some awesome videos.  Thank you Beaducation and Lisa.

LIZARD TAILS

As I mentioned before, I took a class from Julie Picarello and she showed us how to do lizard tails with left over clay.  Wednesday at our beading club I did a class on Stamped Mokume Gane and lizard tails.  The girls loved it and they had some beautiful stuff come out of it.  I forgot to take pictures.  I chose 6 colors to use for my Skinner Blends.   I was trying to use up some old clay.  This is how my piece turned out:

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet but I see some pendants and earrings and beads in there.  Not sure I like the orange but it's there now.

I had some pieces of this clay left over and made a big lizard tail.  I cut out a couple pendants.  Not done with those yet and had some more left and made another lizard tail.  Had enough to cover a light switch plate.  Husband said the colors "were interesting and the room would have to be white".  He's funny.

I textured this with 100 grit sandpaper and put light green Perfect Pearls on it to change the whole pink thing going on with it.  It's been sanded and buffed.  Click for close up.

Beadwork Magazine had a neat pattern for a covered pearl in it.  I made a pair for Jane.  Told her it was her June bonus for selling so many earrings.  I ordered some 2mm round Swarovskis.  That's what the magazine calls for.  I didn't have any so I used Delicas, 11 seed beads and size 15 Myuki's.  She'll sparkle plenty.

Back to sanding. Phooey.

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

AMAZING KAY SMITH AND MOKUME GANE

Today the amazing Kay Smith (beading teacher at A2Z Beads in Glendale, AZ) came over for a polymer clay class and she brought all her beautiful beading items that she has made.  She's won many awards at the state fair for her bead work and I wish my pictures did them justice.  Check out her Etsy shop at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SunofaBead/.  You can contact Kay there for special orders but here are some of the gorgeous items I got to touch today.

They needed touching, they are so awesome.  Rose, Evelyn and Judy came over today to meet Kay and see her beadwork.  There were a lot of ooh's and aah's.

POLYMER CLAY TODAY YEAH!!!!

We did a lot of polymer clay today and Kay had taken a class a few years ago from THEE JUDITH SKINNER, Inventor of the Skinner Blend.  Kay had a cane she had made in the class and she gave me a piece which I was thrilled about and we took a couple pieces off the ends and I taught Kay how to make a swirly lentil bead.

This is the cane she made in the Judith Skinner class.

This is the swirly lentil bead we made with the Judith Skinner cane.  It hasn't been baked, sanded or buffed yet but I'm guessing it will be beautiful.

MOKUME GANE

This is one of my favorite techniques.  It's a technique where you layer and manipulate the clay.  There are many different ways of doing it and I've taken a class from Julie Picarello and she does beautiful Mokume Gane and has a little twist of her own, I've got Donna Kato's DVD where she does it and Lisa Pavelka's DVD where she does it and they are all different.  Every polymer clay book I have shows how to do Mokume Gane and they are all different.  Well, today I got my Barbara Maguire DVD in the mail showing how to do Mokume Gane her way and I love it.  She was out here last year and taught a class but I wasn't here to take it so I was very happy to find out she had this DVD out.  Even after doing clay all day I decided to give it a try.

Can't wait to bake, sand and buff these.  Looks like a new pendant and earring set to me.

Still have some pieces left that I'll play with when I'm not so tired.