BEAD ROLLER BEADS AND DEMO - BREAST CANCER GOLF OUTING

This has been a busy week.  Wednesday at our beading club I did a demo on bead rollers.  I have some new people who are getting into polymer clay and they all bought bead rollers but were having problems with them.  When my husband had his new heart valve put in and his by pass surgery, I sat for 2 weeks and played with the bead rollers. Couldn't make much noise and couldn't leave the house.   I love using the bead rollers because I never know what the pattern on the bead will look like.  I made some beads and sanded and buffed them to show them what they could do with bead rollers.

Most of these were made with leftovers or cane ends.

The one on the right is one of my favorites.  It was made with two pieces of a flower cane  that I made a couple weeks ago.   The one on the left is made with black and white flower cane ends and strips of silver clay.

KUMIHIMO BRAIDING

Some of the girls at our beading club have been making their own neck cords on a disk using the Japanese art of Kumihimo Braiding.  Rose, Judy, Evelyn and I decided we wanted to try it.  Some of the girls bought their disks at the Tucson Bead show and paid $80 for them.  We found a place in Texas that sells a kit.  The kit comes with the disk, 8 plastic bobbins and some satin thread all for $22.  We got our kits Wednesday and I just finished one braid and I think Judy has done two and Rose is doing one and we still have to show Evelyn how to do it.  It's really fun and not hard.

This is my disk and my finished braid.  I used some size 2 nylon cord that I got at Hobby Lobby.  I bought some larger cord also and will try that next.  If you are interested in ordering this kit, leave me a comment and I'll give you the name of the place that we got our kits from.  I don't know them well enough to publish their website on my blog.  I think this is going to be a great way to make matching cords for my polymer clay pendants.

BREAST CANCER GOLF OUTING

I told you this has been a busy week.  Today I golfed in a breast cancer golf outing.  I bought raffle tickets and won a $20 gift certificate to The Corner Bakery (just what I need).  They had a silent auction and had some beautiful items that people donated.  They had a basket full of Mary Kay products and I bid on it and won.  It has enough things in it for me to use as gifts for Christmas for at least 3 people.

The weather was gorgeous, we had hot dogs before we teed off and the Texas Road House gave out ribs on one of the holes.  Hard to hit a ball with a rib in one hand and a club in the other.

MY WISH IS THAT THEY FIND A CURE FOR BREAST CANCER OR A PILL THAT A WOMAN CAN TAKE SO SHE DOESN'T GET BREAST CANCER. 

If you get a chance, find a way to help the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  We could be saving your best friend, your sister or your daughter by just giving towards research to help find a cure for this terrible disease.  Don't forget to get your mammogram.

Some time in the very near future I will posting a pink ribbon bracelet as a give away.  Watch this blog.

NEW FRIEND, NEW CABOCHON, GIFTS FOR THE TRIP

I'm going to start with the cabochon.  This was a piece from the Shimmering Batik that I did but I added some glitter to this batch.  I cut out some pieces and wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  I decided I wanted this piece to be a beaded cabochon.  I just finished it and my eyes are about done for.  This is only my 3rd beaded cab.  I love doing it and I wish my camera would break so I could get a new one and take better pictures.  Maybe if I accidentally drop it on the floor.  LOL.  I need help.  I can't decide what to put it on.  I had it on wire, didn't like that, had it on satin, didn't like that, someone please tell me what this would look good on.  The beads are actually a brass color.  Maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture of it outside where it is now 114 degrees.

NEW FRIEND

I made a new friend who is just starting into polymer clay.  Her name is Lorrie and she does beautiful glasswork.  We had that in common as I used to do glass engraving until polymer clay and beading took over my life.  Anyway, Lorrie just set up a blog and she has pictures of her beautiful glass on her blog.  I have her blog on my list of blogs I follow so you can go to her blog from there but I wanted you to see some of her glass work. http://lorriesglassart.blogspot.com/ so just click on here.  I was going to post a picture of her glass but I can't get a good copy.

POLYMER CLAY FUN

I finally finished some pieces that I did.  Have about 1000 more sitting here waiting to be something.

Swirly lentil bead earrings made with the black and white flower cane and some leftover yellow clay.

Left over clay from one of the Shimmering Batik pieces.  I love making swirly lentil beads.  I go to Barb Farjardo's blog quite often just to look at her beautiful beads and she has a great tutorial there too.

This is a Natasha bead made with the leftover clay that was on my work table before I put it all away to start beading that cabochon.  This looks to me like a Santa Claus with a yellow beard.  There are cats eye on the back of it.

I've sanded and buffed this bead till I'm blue in the face and now I don't know what I want to do with it.  It's about 3 inches long and weighs about 20 pounds.

GIFTS FOR MY TRIP

I won't be blogging for 3 weeks after next Saturday.  I'm leaving for a week in Wisconsin and 2 weeks in Illinois to visit my sister and mother.  We are going to Branson for a week and then to the beautiful lakes in Wisconsin again.  Hope the mosquitoes are gone before I get there.  Anyway, I started beading some bracelets to give as gifts to my friends at home.  I should of had 10 done by now but I'm a little behind.  Here are the first two.

The picture on the right is the back of the second picture.  Guess they can be worn either way.

I am going to throw that camera on the floor.  It used to take good pictures but now it has a mind of it's own.  I'm sure it couldn't be operator error could it????????????????????????