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

SHE WILL SPARKLE PLENTY

My 96 year old friend Jane is the classiest woman I've ever met.  She's been in a nursing home now for about a year.  I've known her since I was 5.  Her nephew and I were sweethearts in first grade and I won't even tell you how long ago that was.

Jane worked in a shoe store and a high end gift store for almost 60 years.  I visited her in the gift store and she talked me into buying my first ever Gucci purse.  I wore that purse for 3 years.  I loved it.  I digress again.  Jane gets dressed to the nines everyday as I mentioned in a previous blog.  I talked to her this morning and she said it's really exciting in the nursing home now because the nurses and the aides come in to see what earrings she is wearing every day.  She was so excited with the last bunch I sent her.  She said "I SPARKLE PLENTY".  I asked if she needed any other color and she wouldn't tell me but as we finished our conversation she said she would love a pair of pearl and silver earrings.  She is so funny.  She said it was no hurry.  She forgets she's 96.  She really tickles me.  When I have a problem and don't know what to do, I call Jane.  She always leads me down the right path.

She was beautiful when she was young and is still very stately.  These pearl earrings went out in the mail to her today.

White Pearls

Black Pearls

Green Pearls

The polymer clay swirl bead in the picture with the earrings was made with:

this cane.  I sanded it starting at 320 grit and went up to 3000.  It was buffed on a high speed buffer and for those of you who don't know much about buffing, it's not hard but you have to remember to shut your buffer off every couple minutes to let the buffer pads cool down.  If you don't, the hot pads can distort your clay because of the heat.  Been there, done that.

NEW CANE

I love making canes, they don't always come out the way I expected them to.  I made this one yesterday.

Then I cut it in half and doubled it.

I made some cabochons with the cane.  They have been sanded with 320 and 400 grit.  I have a ways to go yet.

With the leftovers, I'm making beads to make a necklace and bracelet.

I taught this cane yesterday in a little polymer clay group that we have that meets at our beading club.  I forgot to take pictures of everyone's pendants when they were done.  They turned out beautiful.  I really like this cane, I want to try it in different colors.

Have a claying good time.  As Rose would say "When you're claying your Playing".

Goodnight my dear Booboo.  Is there Catnip in Heaven?

NAUGHTY TUMBLER

It's late and I'm tired and my tumbler let me down.  I made more black and white Zebra flower beads.  I put 3 in the tumbler and moved it to the guest bathroom where it was cooler.  The beads came out yellow again.  I have to sand them.  I'm glad I didn't put the whole bunch in there.  So now the question is "do I want to sand all these little beads by hand and buff them or do I want to put Diamond Varathane on them"?  Doesn't seem like a big decision does it.  Let me know what you think?


NEW FLOWER CANE

Had some left over clay that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with.  Made another flower cane.

Had some ends left that I made a spiral bead from.  It isn't baked yet but I like the colors.

Maybe tomorrow night we will have some beads made from the cane or some more canes.  I have about 20 pounds of odds and ends pieces of clay and I'm trying to use them up before I open more packages.

I made a Miter Cane today from the Cindy Lietz Friday tutorial.  It turned out great but I didn't like the colors so it went in the scrap pile.  It was the orange and green that is the center of the flower.  It was yucky so now it's the middle of an odd colored flower cane.  Ha ha ha.