I'M KEEPING AN EYE ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple years ago our guild sponsored a class with Barbara Maguire and we spent two days learning how to make a face cane.

That was one of the most intense classes I've ever taken but when it was over, I had 8 inches of face cane.  Not sure what to do with it, I made a couple pendants.

On this one I used some Stroppel can that I had made.

This is the second one I made and called it "Please don't leaf me".  Nice eyebrows huh?

I made this necklace and earrings and put this in our craft fair and a young girl bought it first thing.

While we were doing the face cane each part of the face had to be done separately, my biggest problem was the mouth.  The eyes are a little wonky but I think every ones eyes are a little wonky.

I ended up having eye canes and mouth canes left after putting the face together.  I was organizing my canes the other day and came across these two canes and a big piece of the face cane.  Hard as I tried, I couldn't get them to reduce very well.

I had an order for my magnetic, refrigerator pens. A lady in Tempe wants to sell them in her boutique and I showed her the ones I made a couple weeks ago and she went crazy over them.  Bought 5 right on the spot.  I was making the pens and saw the face cane parts sitting there, just couldn't leave it alone.

She asked me to make more of these but I couldn't find my directions on how to make an eye cane.  I asked 5 other people and they can't find their's either.  Good thing I take pictures.  I found the step by step details when we were making the canes in my clay class pictures.  If you click on the picture you can see them closer.  The one on the top right was taken from a whole piece of face cane that I cut the eyes out of.  It's funny, I hung one on the refrigerator and it really looks like it's following you around the kitchen.  Well, maybe the wine had something to do with it.

STROPPEL - MAGUIRE PENDANT

One of the hottest new techniques in polymer clay is The Stroppel Cane.  It was developed by Alice Stroppel and she was kind enough to do a youtube video on how to make it.  You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07zXuLZe20 .  Thank you Alice for sharing this.  It's an incredible way to use up old canes.

As I mentioned in a couple previous blogs, I was fortunate to be able to take a Barbara Maguire Face Cane class last weekend.  I decided I wanted to use some of my Stroppel cane on something other than beads.  My Stroppel cane has a lot of translucent in it.  I found that when a cane has translucent in it, after sanding, it buffs up beautiful and shinier than if it has no translucent.

This picture doesn't reflect the beautiful shine on the piece.  I'm having camera problems again and we had awnings put on the house so I lost a lot of the light that I was using for taking pictures.   If you click on the picture, you will see the shine a little better.  She's about 3 inches long and I haven't decided what to do with her yet.  Suggestions????????

I pieced the Stroppel cane around her face, I'm going to try doing one where the cane is laid out so it matches and add the face last.

THREE IS A CHARM ------- I HOPE AND BARBARA MAGUIRE CLASS

My husband needed a new computer because he is a day trader and it's important to have all this geek stuff in good condition.  He decided I could have his old computer.  He spent 4 days transferring my stuff to his old computer and kept asking me why I made quadruplicates of all my pictures?????  I never did that.  Then he wanted to know why I had all these folders full of PDF tutorials on my email.  Well, duh.  That's where they came from so that's where I kept them.  OK, now I'm getting stressed.  I had some tutorials in files on my desktop that I used a lot and he wanted to know why.  Do you other non-geek people have this problem?  Anyway, 5 days later he finds out that my computer had 12 non-death-threatening viruses.  He fixed those, transferred my stuff and the computer died.  OK, first trip was to Best Buy.  Got a computer, started again and the CD burner didn't work.  Back to Best Buy.  Went to Costco got another computer, started setting it up and the thing was so loud we couldn't hear each other talk.  Back to Costco to take the computer back.  Off to Fry's Electronics to get one just like he got two weeks ago.  I have not been able to download any new pictures and I have items I want to put in my Etsy and Artfire stores.

While this was going on I had to go for a cortisone shot in my back yesterday and when we got there he gave me shots in both sides which I didn't know was going to happen.  The doctor blamed my husband for taking me on the cross country road trip in the car to my nephews wedding.  It wasn't his idea but I didn't say anything.  This guy was no Marcus Welby.  They lied about it not hurting but today my back feels pretty good and hope it stays that way because I'm taking a two day class today and tomorrow with Barbara Maguire.

BARBARA MAGUIRE FACE CANE CLASS

http://www.barbaramcguire.com/.  This necklace was featured in a collection on Artfire today called "Elegantly Yours" http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=29840 you can see it here.  There are some beautiful things in this collection including some beading tutorials.

If my new computer works soon, I'll download pictures from the class.  I'm really excited about meeting Barbara and taking a class from her.  I have all her books and DVDs.

This is a necklace I made with Barbara Maguire's tutorial on Mokume Gane which you buy on her website.

 http://www.barbaramcguire.com/