I'M WATCHING YOU AGAIN

I asked everyone who took the face cane class if they still had the instructions to just make the eye.  I can't find mine and neither can the 5 people that I asked.  So, I thought I would look at the pictures from the class and see if I could recreate what we did.  I tend to take a lot of pictures when we have classes or demos.  Now I know why.  So, I got out my clay, AND;

now I have 3 feet of cane because this one will get reduced down to about a 1/4 of an inch in order to use it on my pens.  I wish the eyelashes would have been thicker but I found out that you can use a Sharpie marker to darken and lengthen them and it doesn't come off after it's baked and sanded.  I tried it with one pen and it worked great.

The one on the left is a Kumihimo pen, the two in the middle were made with left over eye and mouth cane.  The second one from the right which is my favorite was made from pieces of a braided cane that I made and the one on the right is from a silver, white and translucent Mokume Gane.  I get these magnets from Stateside Bead Supply.  They are so strong the refrigerator comes out when you pull on it.  I love them for bracelets but  I found they pick up the silverware if you have one on while you are eating.

Had to put pictures of Buster in too.  He runs through the tube and then pushes the ball around.  He cracks me up.  However, he was doing this at 3 in the morning so I had to get up and turn the ball thing over.

Have a great Thanksgiving and don't forget to turn your scales back 10 pounds.

IT'S 100 AND STUPID HERE SO I'M DOING CLAY AND HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

Today it's suppose to be 111 here in Phoenix.  I live in the northwest side of Phoenix but what they get, we get.  The only thing they get more of is rain.  It's monsoon season here and to me that means it should be raining.  NOT A DROP ANY WHERE.

It's been 9 weeks since I had foot surgery and I still can't put a shoe on.  I wear one of my husbands socks on my surgery foot and one of my own on the other foot.  Good thing we both have lots of socks.

At least I've been able to get back in my studio to do some clay.  I had an email from a lady in Boston telling me she just got a new golf bag and asked if I would make a golf stroke counter to match her bag.  I asked her to send me a picture of her golf bag.

I love this thing.  She asked to have it made in teal, orange, red, black, hot pink and purple and she wanted it glitzy.

This is the one she chose.  And I had enough beads to make two more.

Then my neighbor came over and asked if I could make a necklace for her daughter in law and she wanted white.  I don't like making things just white and it's a pain working with white clay.  I had to really clean my whole work area, I used translucent clay to clean my pasta machine.  Had a 10 gallon bottle of alcohol out to clean things.  I did a Mokume Gane with with white, translucent, silver and pearl.  I made a beautiful pendant and had already put the Magic Glos on it and then decided to bake a bail on it.  It says you can bake Magic Glos.  My pendant came out of the oven and the Magic Glos was yellow.  I threw it away and decided to try some white and mica powders in bezels.

 The cord on this was done with Kumihimo.  The silver star is on the clay under the resin but the Swarovski crystals are on top of the resin.

I also did a swirly lentil bead on a fine silver chain but forgot to take a picture of it.  When she came over today she said she wanted all four and wrote me out a check.

It's really been a great day.  I got a call from the doctor saying the biopsy he did on my leg on Tuesday was benign and I sold 4 necklaces for a lot more than I was asking.  Now if only I could get a shoe on so I could go to the casino.  LOL

WHAT A NICE SURPRISE

I got a little box in the mail a couple days ago and when I opened it I was really surprised.  I got the most beautiful pendant in the mail from Lynda Moseley.  And, it came in an adorable little pouch.

She inspires me so much.  Some of the best pieces I've made came from the tutorials I bought from Lynda.  It's amazing how much she shares.  Here's her Etsy website https://www.etsy.com/shop/DivaDesignsInc?ref=l2-shopheader-name if you are a polymer clay person you will love her Flawless Mica Shift tutorial. https://www.etsy.com/listing/51151212/polymer-clay-tutorial-digital-pdf?ref=shop_home_active_3. 
Thanks Lynda, I plan to put something very special in that little package.



DREAMS IN BLACK AND WHITE

I just finished this necklace that I call "Dreams in Black and White".  The pendant was done in black and white Mokume Gane using one of Penni Jo Couches Best Flexible Molds.  On the back, I used Magic Glos and a rub on that says DREAMS.  I'm going to be sending this one to Oklahoma for their clay retreat.

I have one more piece to do and then they will be going in the mail.

WHAT'S ON MY BEADING TABLE? ANOTHER ONE???????

I started another necklace that I hope will go with the top that I'm wearing to my nephew's wedding.  Husband (he answers to that) said the first one wasn't glitzy enough so I'm doing a netted one with black aurora borealis 4 mm beads and size 15 and 11 antique gold seed beads.  It looks big but it's really slinky.  It's taking a lot of beads but I really like it.

Click on the picture a couple times to see it up close.  Problem is, I have to make a bracelet and earrings to match.  I just ordered 1200 more black beads. :0)  Hope that's enough.  If and when I finish this, I'll post the pictures.

POLYMER CLAY MOKUME GANE

I had an order for earrings made of purple and tuquoise Mokume Gane.  I had some clay left so I used my tiny cutters to make hearts and did a Kumihimo necklace to match and a pair of earrings.  Going to put these in my Artfire store.

I have a bucket list, actually it's a polymer clay/beading/resin list of all the things I want to do or make.  I ordered some Pipettes to do resin with and I thought I ordered 100 but I got 500.  Husband was in shock.  How do you explain 500 pipettes?  He asked me if I was going to rent a warehouse for all my stuff.  He still doesn't get it.  The girl with the most toys wins.

POLYMER CLAY EARRINGS

As you know from previous posts I've been making earrings to send to my 96 year old friend in Wisconsin.  So far she's sold about 100 pair of earrings.  I sent her a pair of earrings made with polymer clay.  She had 3 people that wanted to buy them but didn't want the beads on them.  She finally found someone that wanted them with the beads but she called and asked me to make more without the beads.  I made those a year ago and didn't keep any of the clay.  I did two Mokume Ganes to try and replace the original.  One with Premo 18kt gold and gold leafing and one with silver leafing.  They turned out really good.  I hope her customers like them.

I think these are kind of boring without beads but that's what she wanted.

It's 115 here today.  My friend calls it "100 and STUPID".  UV resin sure hardens up fast but 5 minutes out in the sun causes headaches.  I'm still trying to figure out who talked me into moving to Arizona.

BUT IT'S A DRY HEAT

CELEBRATING 200 AND OH MY IT'S RESIN

Never thought I would see the day that I could say "Hey, this is my 200th blog".  Three years ago I had no idea what a blog was and here I am.  YIPPEE

A BON-RO NECKLACE

As you know I love making crosses with Mokume Gane polymer clay.  I've sold quite a few of them and given many away.  The last two crosses that I made I used the new Premo 18kt gold and it really gave them pizazz.  Rose asked me for one of the crosses and matching earrings and because I gave them to her, she made a Kumihimo necklace for the one I kept.  It's going to be displayed in the library here the month of August.

Rose does Kumihimo so fast she amazes me.

RESIN, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE OH #$%@^^!#@!

I have been experimenting with resin.  I've always used Magic Glos on some of my polymer clay.  About a year ago I ordered some UV resin  from epoxyjewelry.com.  It's a one part resin that cures in the sun.  I've been following a resin blog and love the work that she does so I decided to try some.

This is the Good.

This is a bangle done in a mold (too small for my hand).  It has coral and mixed chips and no hole beads.  It also has a few bubbles.  I had to sand the sides and re-resin the top and bottom.  Not bad for the first time. 

This is the Bad.

I thought I would try the resin in molds.  I made the mistake of mixing Pearlex powders in the resin first.  Because of the powders, the resin didn't cure.  I should have done it in layers.  I was able to get the uncured resin out of the molds with rubbing alcohol.

This is The $@#^%^#&(#%$

Just couldn't give up.  Decided to try the Magic Glos in the mold.  There was a bubble so I picked up a piece of wire to pop it, the resin got a black line through it and the wire turned nasty.  Normally when I do Magic Glos, I run a BBQ lighter over it to get the bubbles out.  The bear is cute but he needs more sun.

STAY TUNED - NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT 

Carmi, I have some ET Lite that I will try as soon as I can find a place to put things to dry.

WHO NEEDS A UV LAMP???????

Living in Arizona has it's advantages and disadvantages.  For one thing, I never need a UV light to cure my Magic Glos.  I put it on, run a BBQ lighter over it to get the bubbles out, run through the house to the back patio and there's my UV light.  However, when it's 114 degrees, the Magic Glos is usually cured before I get it to the "Curing Wall" and then I'm sweating.

These are some crosses I made with a Mokume Gane that I did with the new Premo clays.  It was done with Premo White Glitter, Premo 18 kt Gold, Premo Magenta and Premo Black.  I also put a layer of silver leafing in between the stacks that was sandwiched between translucent.  The Premo 18 kt gold is so beautiful and gives a beautiful highlight.  The crosses were made with Penni Jo Couch's molds.  I can't say enough  good things about them.

Click on the pictures and you can see the colors better and the top one shows more of the gold.

These little ones are earrings.  One of these sets is for my friend Rose who just had throat surgery and we are celebrating that there was no cancer in her thyroid.  She saw the last set I made and raved about them.  When she does that, I know she's begging.  :0)

Arizona is hot in the summer but during the winter I play golf 3 times a week and go bike riding and walking and I'm not shoveling snow.  YIPPEE  Drove to work in that stuff for 30 years.  I'll take the heat.

HOW NICE IS THAT?

I just got an email from "Beaducation" http://www.beaducation.com/ saying I won a $100.00 gift certificate.  I'm so excited.  I love their stuff and I love watching their tutorials.  I can buy some new tools.  My round nose pliers are all twisted and I need new wire straighteners.  This is so exciting.  Go to their website and check them out.  Lisa Niven Kelly does some awesome videos.  Thank you Beaducation and Lisa.

LIZARD TAILS

As I mentioned before, I took a class from Julie Picarello and she showed us how to do lizard tails with left over clay.  Wednesday at our beading club I did a class on Stamped Mokume Gane and lizard tails.  The girls loved it and they had some beautiful stuff come out of it.  I forgot to take pictures.  I chose 6 colors to use for my Skinner Blends.   I was trying to use up some old clay.  This is how my piece turned out:

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet but I see some pendants and earrings and beads in there.  Not sure I like the orange but it's there now.

I had some pieces of this clay left over and made a big lizard tail.  I cut out a couple pendants.  Not done with those yet and had some more left and made another lizard tail.  Had enough to cover a light switch plate.  Husband said the colors "were interesting and the room would have to be white".  He's funny.

I textured this with 100 grit sandpaper and put light green Perfect Pearls on it to change the whole pink thing going on with it.  It's been sanded and buffed.  Click for close up.

Beadwork Magazine had a neat pattern for a covered pearl in it.  I made a pair for Jane.  Told her it was her June bonus for selling so many earrings.  I ordered some 2mm round Swarovskis.  That's what the magazine calls for.  I didn't have any so I used Delicas, 11 seed beads and size 15 Myuki's.  She'll sparkle plenty.

Back to sanding. Phooey.

CLAY CLASS - MY OH MY NECKLACE - NEW BEADS

CLAY CLASS

Last Wednesday I did a beginner's clay class with 7 students.  I usually do the Mokume Gane technique because students are awe struck when they take that first slice off the top of the stack.  The last class I taught I gave them the clay to teach them how to condition it and we had problems with a couple of the clays.  They were really hard and the students were getting frustrated so this time, I spent all day Tuesday conditioning clay and making the stacks ahead of time.  At the class I showed them how I did it in order to save time but I let them make all the indentations in the clay.  I had them slice pieces out of the clay stacks and we made pendants and earrings with cutters.  We did get them baked but not finished. Today only two people were able to bring their pieces back to finish.  I showed them how to sand and put the holes in their pieces and then we took them outside and sprayed them with Preserve Your Memories II.  We really didn't have time to do a class on buffing and they wanted their pieces to make jewelry with.

Linda's beads look like hot air balloons.

Next week I'm going to do a demo on bead rollers.  I love bead rollers.  I make all kinds of shapes with them.  When I got my first bead roller I made over 100 beads.  I couldn't stop.

MY OH MY NECKLACE

Last week when I was doing the stacks of clay, my other friend Judy came over and was watching me.  I cut some end pieces off of one the stacks and gave them to her because she liked the colors.  I showed her a couple different shaped beads that could be made with the clay.  Today she showed up with this incredible necklace.  I know I'll never get to wear it but at least I got to touch it.  LOL

I really need a picture of it hanging.  It's gorgeous.

The clasp is rhinestones and has a magnet.  I guess I'll just sit and make beads and give them to Judy, Rose and Evelyn and let them make jewelry.

NEW BEADS

Last week at clay day we made some Natasha beads using Iris Mishly's method of making them.  I had a lot of canes left so I made a bunch of beads.  I sanded them all and I was going to buff them but I bought some new gloss and thought I would try it.  Big mistake.  Will be resanding these and buffing them.  I never did like using gloss or Future or glaze of any king except Magic Glos.  That taught me a lesson.  I was trying to save time.  Some got spots and parts didn't dry clear.  These beads are too pretty to leave them like that.  Made more work for myself.  DUH.

The two on the top right were sanded and buffed, the rest have gloss on but not for long.  They look like plastic and I don't like that.

 

HEY GIRLFRIENDS, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP WITH THE CLASS LAST WEEK.  IT WAS FUN.

VIKING KNIT, MIGRAINE BALLS, THE GIRL'S PRETTY STUFF

Last Saturday at our clay guild meeting one of our ladies did a demo on Viking Knit.  Like I needed to learn something new and buy more toys.  OH YES I DO!!!!!  It didn't take.  I could not get it going Saturday and I was frustrated.  I think the dowel I was using was too little.  Went to Ace and bought two new dowels.  3/16th's and 5/8ths.  Today I pulled out the instructions and started over and by cracky (as Grandma Kettle used to say) I got it.  I used some crappy wire and it was 24 gauge instead of 28 which was much easier because it didn't kink so much.  When I got home my new Drawplate that I ordered from the Soft Flex company was there so I could pull the chain I made through it.  I'M SO HAPPY.  Doesn't take much to entertain me!!!

My new Drawplate, dowel and my first piece of Viking Knit.  Now I'm going to try with good wire.

MIGRAINE BALLS

I've had 3 migraines this week.  Monday's was a killer.  Couldn't move.  We still don't know what causes them but I am chemical sensitive.  Can't be around perfume or aftershave but Pinesol doesn't bother me.   Go Figure.

Anyway, when I have headaches I like to do clay because it relaxes me.  I like taking old canes and making beads, just plain round beads.  I do use a lot of them when I make golf stroke counters.  This is just a small amount of the MIGRAINE BALLS I made this week.  Some are buffed and all have been in the tumbler.  I'm having tumbler problems this week but I did get 90 beads done.

My girlfriend said her migraines stopped after she had a baby.  I told her I'm too old for that and would forget where I put it.

THE GIRL'S PRETTY STUFF

Some of my friends are doing beautiful polymer clay pieces.  I wanted to show case them since a couple of them don't blog or sell on Etsy.

The first one is Lupe of http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/.  She makes beautiful pendants,  please visit her Etsy shop she has a big sale going on now.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/miramecreations/.

These pictures don't do her pendants justice.  I think I need a new camera.

The second one I'm highlighting is Evelyn.  You've probably heard me talk about Evelyn. She's a sweetheart.  She has wet macular degeneration and has trouble seeing but she does awesome polymer clay work.  At the May guild meeting we made Christi Friesen pendants and Evelyn went bonkers.  I love these.  If you want to buy one, contact me.

Click on the picture if you want to see them up close.

The next is Rose, she's my bright, cheerful and any color goes girl.  Isn't this bracelet gorgeous?  Love those pendants too.  Rose does gorgeous bead work and loves to help and teach other people.  

OK, OK, OK

I did a couple things week besides make migraine balls.  I bought the Barbara McGuire tutorial DVD called Shimmering Gold Mokume Gane http://www.barbaramcguire.com/1video.html.  It's 30 minutes long and comes with pictures and written instructions.  I put some pictures on the blog the other day of pieces I did before baking, sanding and buffing.  I love this technique, it never turns out the same.  I wore this neck piece and earrings today and everyone loved them.  Guess I better get back to the buffer and get some more done.  Thanks Barbara.

I think a new camera is in order.  Please let me know which one I should get.  This one's ok for traveling because it's small but not good for this kind of picture taking.

I know there are a bunch of you who take beautiful pictures for Etsy and your blog.  Help me.

AMAZING KAY SMITH AND MOKUME GANE

Today the amazing Kay Smith (beading teacher at A2Z Beads in Glendale, AZ) came over for a polymer clay class and she brought all her beautiful beading items that she has made.  She's won many awards at the state fair for her bead work and I wish my pictures did them justice.  Check out her Etsy shop at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SunofaBead/.  You can contact Kay there for special orders but here are some of the gorgeous items I got to touch today.

They needed touching, they are so awesome.  Rose, Evelyn and Judy came over today to meet Kay and see her beadwork.  There were a lot of ooh's and aah's.

POLYMER CLAY TODAY YEAH!!!!

We did a lot of polymer clay today and Kay had taken a class a few years ago from THEE JUDITH SKINNER, Inventor of the Skinner Blend.  Kay had a cane she had made in the class and she gave me a piece which I was thrilled about and we took a couple pieces off the ends and I taught Kay how to make a swirly lentil bead.

This is the cane she made in the Judith Skinner class.

This is the swirly lentil bead we made with the Judith Skinner cane.  It hasn't been baked, sanded or buffed yet but I'm guessing it will be beautiful.

MOKUME GANE

This is one of my favorite techniques.  It's a technique where you layer and manipulate the clay.  There are many different ways of doing it and I've taken a class from Julie Picarello and she does beautiful Mokume Gane and has a little twist of her own, I've got Donna Kato's DVD where she does it and Lisa Pavelka's DVD where she does it and they are all different.  Every polymer clay book I have shows how to do Mokume Gane and they are all different.  Well, today I got my Barbara Maguire DVD in the mail showing how to do Mokume Gane her way and I love it.  She was out here last year and taught a class but I wasn't here to take it so I was very happy to find out she had this DVD out.  Even after doing clay all day I decided to give it a try.

Can't wait to bake, sand and buff these.  Looks like a new pendant and earring set to me.

Still have some pieces left that I'll play with when I'm not so tired.