LEARNING, LEARNING, LEARNING

In the post before last I told you I bought the Lynda Moseley tutorial "Masterful Faux Made Easy".
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DivaDesignsInc  you can buy it in her Etsy shop and it's wonderful.  I've done 3 batches now and it's been a learning experience for me.  All polymer clay artists put their own twist on things and I'm no different. 

As you can see, there aren't two alike but they are all beautiful, at least I think so.  They are not as pretty as Lynda's and if you go to the picture on the cover of her tutorial you will see the things she made using this tutorial.  I don't like to sand so I took some short cuts and it's obvious.  Lynda made me promise to do it again and do it right.  She sands with 8 different grits, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000.  I skipped a few so I have to go back and redo.

This was my first go at it but I decided to rip the clay and put it together (my twist).  These need re-sanding too.  Now I have 12 more pieces that I made out of these batches so I have a lot of sanding to do.  I would be happy to pay someone to do it for me.

This tutorial is so much fun and I know if I follow directions I will soon be able to make beautiful stuff like Lynda's.  I guess I kind of hurried though since I had to golf, bowl, walk the dogs, wash the sheets, iron the clothes, mop the floors, dust the furniture, change the cat liter.  I think it's time to let all that stuff go and just do clay.

By the way, Lynda has the one on the top right in the above picture and my friend Evelyn took the two round ones to make pendants for her and her sister, she loved them.  The picture doesn't really do them justice.  Some day I'm going to figure out how to take good pictures too, as soon as I clean the bathroom and empty the garbage and walk the dogs again.  So now I only have to re-sand one piece.

Have fun with this and Lynda is so wonderful and helpful.  It's 47 pages of awesome pictures and instructions.  Guess you can tell I'm a Lynda fan.  She's stuck in 11 degree weather right now and it's 80 here so I'm trying to be nice to her.  LOL

POLYMER CLAY CANES AND MISTER BUSTER

Last week at our beading club a bunch of us got together and did clay.  I was teaching beginner classes there but since my back has been so bad I haven't been able to commit to anything.  My friend Rose has been getting the ladies together and doing clay and they are having a ball.  Rose is a wonderful teacher and she's a lot wilder than I am with her colors so the ladies are really enjoying it.  I was amazed at some pieces that were made by some "first time clayers".  I wish I could get out of my boring box and find my wild side again.  Anyway, I put the instructions for a cane on my Pinterest board HERE.  It's called Rita's demo but we knew it as a Lynne Cane.  This is one of my favorite canes and I had some blue and white clay out so I made one.  I put the 4 pieces of square cane together and will work on getting it smoother at the seams and then maybe cut a piece for a pendant and put a Swarovski crystal in the middle.  It's a fun cane, you can't ruin it.

MISTER BUSTER

My friends on face book are laughing about all the stories and pictures I've posted about "Mister Buster" my new kitten.  He's grown about 2 inches since I got him on December 27th.

I'm exhausted, my house is a wreck, I'm constantly on guard for falling flowers, pictures and nick knacks.  I have no idea where the pens are that were on my desk, my Chap Stick is missing and so are two of my crochet hooks.  We had to put the butter up in a cupboard.  I do not allow any animals on tables or counter tops, never have, never will and this little likes to test my patience.  I think he has a higher IQ than I do, he's faster than I am and he can hide in places I can't get my hands in.

I yelled at him the other night and he hid under my desk.  See the beads all over the floor, we had words about that.

He was hiding behind my DVD's in the printer cabinet.  If I hadn't seen the little blue can moving, I wouldn't have known he was there.

He has a fascination for beads.  I need to watch him constantly when he is in my studio.

Last night we were going to bed and I called him.  No Answer.  We looked for 25 minutes and finally found him in the closet in the wrapping paper.  Don't know how he got in there, we don't leave those doors open.

This is Buster getting a bath.  It took two of us.  He was really good for a while and then he turned around and pushed the faucet off.  I believe that will probably be the last cat bath.  Took us two days to recover.

FAUX BONE TUTORIAL

I bought the Faux Bone Tutorial from my friend Lynda Moseley from her Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/SCDiva.  It's incredible.  She has done so much work and the information and pictures in the tutorial are very professional and comprehensive.  Whether you are a seasoned polymer clay person or a new one, this tutorial gives you everything.  I have almost all Lynda's tutorials and it boggles my mind how much information she shares and how much work she has put into them.  This one is no exception.  Lynda doesn't know I'm doing this but I wanted to give her a plug because she is one of most sharing and helpful and pay it forward people I've ever dealt with.  Please visit her shop and see her beautiful work.  I want to be like Lynda when I grow up :0).