ANOTHER OBSESSION

Did I ever tell you I have my PHD in crafts?  PHD actually means PILE it HIGHER and DEEPER.  I always did crochet and knit and sew.  Then I met a lady who taught me how to hand engrave glass, she got cancer and asked me to take over her teaching and classes so I did.  She was a wonderful lady and left me with a legacy and a lot of engraving tools and glass paint.  Prior to that I had a friend who owned a ceramic store so I had to help her in the store and started teaching ceramics.  When I retired and moved to this Del Webb community there were about 100 different clubs to join and I was overwhelmed.  I joined ceramics, sewing, knitting and crochet club, beading club, golf and bowling.  Then came the polymer clay.  No more ceramics, only knitting and crocheting when I'm watching TV, not much glass engraving, lots of beading but I had to quit most of the clubs because of my migraines, I'm allergic to perfume and some people wouldn't stop wearing it so I couldn't take a chance on getting a migraine more than I already do.  I still do a lot beading, golf and bowling and polymer clay has been my passion now for 10 years.  About 5 years ago I taught myself how to do Kumihimo.  I love doing it with beads.  It's also a passion now.  Well, a friend of mine from Texas started doing pens with Kumihimo so I thought I would try it.

I put my own twist on it by adding beads with a magnet so it can hang on the refrigerator.  I always put a little extra bling on them like the one with the little flip flop.  I think I've done about 200 pens with polymer clay on them but these are really great.  My husband likes them because they are bigger and more comfortable in the hand especially if you have arthritis.  I found some pens on Amazon that work great for this.
You can click on the picture to see them better.

NEW BABIES

We had a surprise the other morning.  There is a tiny nest in the window of our house.  It's a mother hummingbird sitting on eggs.  I went out to get a picture but didn't want to scare her.

If you click on the picture you can see her little nest better.  It's about the size of half of an egg shell.  We don't turn the lights on in the morning before the sun comes up so we don't scare here.  I can't wait to see the babies.  She's so patient it amazes me.

OH WHAT A MESS, NO MORE RAIN, PLEASE!!!!!!!

Well, I mentioned that it rained in my studio two weeks ago.  Little did I know that the little bucket full of water that I collected was going to cause such a big problem.  Over the weekend I took a Tory Hughes class which really inspired me to come home and go outside and get dirt and THINGS and put them in my polymer clay.  It also made me want to come home and HINGE everything in my studio.  When I got home Sunday night I had to start moving everything out of my studio and put it in the dining room and the hallway.  Some is in the garage and some is in places where I don't remember that I put it so it will be a surprise when I find it.  Anyway, I took a couple pictures of my dining room and hallway so you can see how bad it is.  Even the cat's confused.

As you can see, I have a lot of STUFF as my husband would say.

I decided I was going to do clay at my little table in the dining room anyway.  I wanted to do some Art from the Heart and make something different than I normally do.  I made some pieces that I can hinge or not.  I can also wire wrap them or leave them as separate pieces.  I haven't decided yet.  I've also been making buttons again for our guilds button exchange.  I made some yesterday and baked them at too high a temperature and they came out looking like little pieces of chocolate.  I forgot to check the temperature on the oven and got company while I was baking.  I may antique them with white paint.  That should work.

Here are a couple pieces that I did.  One I'm going to call "Here's looking at you"  I love this lady's face.

This is the entire set of pieces that I did today.  I don't have an area to take good pictures so these are the best I could do under the circumstances.

When we took the Tory class we had to put the holes in the pieces after they were baked and one of the girls had a teeny-tiny drill bit that worked great.  I found some in my Dremel stash today but didn't have the collette to fit them in the Dremel so I made my own little polymer clay handles.  They work great.  They look big in the picture but they are only about 1-1/2 inches long.

Prior to doing polymer clay I spent most of my time engraving glass (not etching).  I do hand engraving with an electric tool and diamond burrs.  I engraved vases, mirrors, wine glasses (even did pickle jars).  The vase below took me 3 nights of continuous work.  When engraving glass, I usually highlight the engraved area with Rub n Buff.  It's amazing how long that stays on the engraved area.  I haven't done much engraving since I started polymer clay but as soon as my studio gets back together I'm going to start again.  It's an art that is not very well known.  I did 40 vases with roses on them for a friend who's daughter was making her Quinceanera.  Her name was Rose.  I never wanted to see another rose but this is one of my favorites.

Now that one of my best friends name is Rose and she is a sweet heart, I'll get back into doing Roses again, nothing is more beautiful than a Rose in bloom.