HAPPY WAY TO START THE DAY

Two very nice things happened to me today.  First, I've been accepted to the Polymer Clay Smooshers of Artfire.  They are a very talented group of polymer clay people.  I feel honored to be part of their organization.  Check them out on Artfire http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=10459 this is their latest collection.  My good friend Lupe belongs to the Smooshers also and she has a new blog
http://gesmpccorner.blogspot.com/.


The second great thing that happened to me today is that I got an email from 2 Good Claymates http://2goodclaymates.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-for-give-way.html saying I won this beautiful Lace Heart Pendant that they had on their giveaway.  When I get it in the mail I'll take a picture and post it for you.


CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION

Today John is putting up smoke alarms in the garage because of the fire I had with my oven.  We moved the oven away from any cabinets and will put the oven outside when it gets a little warmer.  I am going to buy a timer to hang around my neck when I am baking that will go off every 10 minutes to remind me to check the oven.



I've had a lot of responses about the fire and the oven and I'm glad everyone is more aware of their own ovens and the place where they are baking.


GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

I just finished some golf stroke counters and put them on my Artfire and Etsy shops.

Now I'm working on the pendants for our clay guild's swap so I better get back to work.

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE

EARRING SWAP - RIVOLI PENDANTS - FLOWER CANE

Let's start with the EARRING SWAP.  My clay guild had a swap and we wanted to do earrings but didn't want them finished so that people could decide if they wanted post or French wires or clip ons and everyone could finish them however they wanted.  Some of our members don't wear earrings so they could make bracelets or pendants or keep them in the bag and just look at them, tee hee hee.

I'm having a little camera trouble so I put both pictures up so you can see all the beautiful pieces.  I need to get my photo set up out and up soon so I can take some decent pictures.

RIVOLI PENDANTS

At our last clay guild meeting we had a demo on how to make pendants with Rivolis, I would have been better off making ravioli's.  I'm not even putting a picture of the one I made at guild on the blog.  I showed it to my husband and he said he thought it weighed 6 pounds so we won't put a picture of that on here.  BUT, I came home and decided to make a couple more but not with the rolled bail.  I used some old clay canes that I had and I love the results.

The pendant on the left has a black Rivoli in that's hard to see.  The one on the right has a peach colored Rivoli and two small, peach colored Swarovski flatbacks.  This clay combination was a mix left from last September from our retreat in Prescott.  I took scraps from people and combined them.

MORE GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

Had a request for more golf stroke counters and sold the ones I had that I was going to send to my sister.  Her golf league girls keep buying them for gifts for all their friends.  I made some canes out of leftover clay and did some extruder canes and put them together.  I also put some wood beads between the clay beads, the wood beads are really nice and quite a bit cheaper than the metal ones I was using.

I thought I had a lot of beads made for the counters but I think Rose took them to make necklaces. LOL.

FLOWER CANE

I've made many flower canes but they never looked like I wanted them to.  I was playing around with some left over clay tonight, had an idea I wanted to try and was very happy with the outcome.  I also used the Lynne Schwarzenberg method of reducing so I didn't loose much cane.  It didn't take long and it was really easy.  Going to try again this weekend with different colors and a couple different ideas.

Picture isn't very good but the flower is cute and kept it's shape.  YEAH!!!!!!!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

This blog wouldn't be complete without a picture of one my favorite guys.  Booboo sleeping in his bed next to my work table in my studio.  If I'm there, he's there.  He will be 19 on Halloween this year.  Those are his rubber balls laying by him in the bed.  He carrys them around in his mouth and sings.  I picked them up and put them in his bed while he was sleeping and he never woke up.  He brings me a ball and I throw it and he goes and gets it.  My friends think he is part dog.  I wash those balls all the time but they never stay clean.  He still likes to eat toilet paper.  He did that when he was a baby and still does.

Goodnight Annie, you are a bright and shining star and we still miss you.

GOLF STROKE COUNTER INFORMATION FOR LINDA AND CAROLYN

These are the latest ones that I did.  One I did with all polymer clay beads and the rest I put in the beads that I bought at Michael's.  Sometimes the holes in those are too big and they don't stay up so I put a little glue in them or wrap wire around them.  The beads must not fall by themselves or the counter won't be any good.

Girls (ladies) if you click on the picture it will show you a close up.  The beads on the far right have wire wrapping on them to make sure they stay up when the bead under them is pulled down.  You can see the new swivel lobster claws I put on them from the url I mentioned in our conversation from El at Tantalizing Stitches at http://bagnsupplies.com/.  She ships fast and 5% of your purchase is donated to animal charity and you know how I feel about animals.  Thanks El for that.

This is the Amy 2mm Macrame cord that I told you about.  You could probably use others but I like this.  I usually cut about 16 to 18 inches sometimes less and use that for the counter.

These are the two drills I use for the beads.  On the left is 5/64ths and the right is 1/8th which is the perfect size for the Amy cord.  Don't start your hole with the 1/8th right away.  Work your way up or the bead will crack.  Save all the little shavings and roll them into some translucent clay for a wild effect.

Let me know if you need anything else.  Maybe you two should come to Arizona and we can have a clay weekend.

SCARVES FOR OUR FORCES IN IRAQ

I belong to a club here in Sun City West that does a lot of charity work.  A couple months ago the Cave Creek, Arizona American Legion adopted a batalion that is over in Iraq.  They asked if someone could make them scarves and hats because it does get cold in the desert over there.  Our club volunteered to do this.  So far, I've made 4 scarves and 3 hats.  They are only allowed to have pure wool and the scarves have to be 12 inches wide and 42 inches long so they can be tucked into their pants.  They have to be pure wool in case of fire.  Wool does not burn the skin.  I started this scarf this morning.  It's suppose to be single crochet which is very boring and takes forever but we found out we could do a double crochet every few rows.  Now I've finished almost a foot in the small amount of time that I've been working on this and I still only have 4 inches of the bead crochet I've been working on.  GO FIGURE.

It looks pretty boring but if it keeps one of our people in Iraq warm I'll make 100 more.  This yarn is pricey.  We have been able to use Joann and Michael's coupons to buy it which helps a lot.  I bought some at Hobby Lobby but could only use one coupon.  When we send this back, the paper work from the yarn has to be wrapped around the scarf.  That's how important it is to them to make sure it's wool.

WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER

My friend Lupe from  http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/ won another giveaway.  I think this is number 4 or 5 just in the last month.  Please go to her blog and see the latest pieces that she has done, they are gorgeous.  Talk her into giving away some of her pieces but she needs to give them to me LOL./

If I don't blog again, have a Happy Easter and eat lots of jelly beans.

SUPRISE SPOTLIGHT AND MY FURRY FRIENDS

I was really surprised this morning when I turned the computer on and there was a Cindy Lietz email with pictures of my buttons and one of my golf stroke counters.  She is spotlighting some of the work of the people who belong to her website and there were my glow in the dark buttons and antique looking buttons and my red, white and blue buttons and the golf stroke counter that I made from her flower cane tutorial.  That was really nice.  If you want to see the pictures and all the wonderful comments you can see it here at;
http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ .  Here are pictures of the buttons up close and the bead stroke counter that I made with the flower cane that Cindy did the tutorial on.

This is the golf stroke counter made with the extruded flower cane.

SCOOTER, BEAU AND ANNIE

It's been a long time since I had some pictures of my friends Scooter, Beau and Annie posted on here.  I got to spend Sunday night with them.  Annie had a little red hat on and a cherry dress but I missed that picture.  But here are my buddies:

ANNIE

EXTRUDED FLOWER CANE BEADS

I needed to make some more beads for golf stroke counters and I really like Studio by Sculpey clay so I thought I would try it.  It wouldn't condition enough to go through the extruder correctly but I did get a nice outer pattern so I used that to make beads and then I added some pearl to the colors that I was using and it went through the extruder perfectly.  I haven't bake these yet because my sister is here and it's taking me two days to make beads :0).  I tried last night after we had our wine and we laughed so much I couldn't make beads but this is what I have so far:

Want to thank everyone on Cindy's blog for all the nice comments and support about the spotlight.

GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

I have been so busy the last 3 days.  I got an order for more Golf Stroke Counters.  I make the large beads with polymer clay and put 10 beads on each counter.  It takes time to make the beads and the counters together but I have been getting a lot of requests for these.  I made 5 today and delivered them.  It started about a year ago when I gave some to friends to hang on their golf clubs.  People asked them where they got them and it escalated from there.  I even had a guy call and ask me to make him one with 15 beads on it.  He was going to use it when he walked around the track so he could keep count of how many times he went around.  Here are some pictures of the ones I made.

This one was done with a cane that Cindy Lietz did on her Polymer Clay Tutor website http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/.  She's a great tutor, check it out.

Well, back to work.  Got more orders for my counters so I better get busy.