TURTLES, I LOVE TURTLES AND THERE WERE TURTLES IN MY MAILBOX TODAY

A few weeks ago Penni Jo Couch put a picture on her blog of her new turtle mold and then she had it on her facebook page.  I was so excited.  As you all know I love Penni Jo's molds.  I have them all.  When I'm in the nursing home, I'm going to take them with me so I can take my food and make cabochons and turtles out of it.  Any way, I got my turtle mold in the mail today and I'm going to make 100 turtles tonight.  LOL

You can get this mold and many more wonderful molds at http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/.


LEFTOVERS

I can't figure out why I always have so much left over JUNK clay after every project that I do.  I love doing Natasha beads and pendants.  After the class I did last Wednesday, I had a pile of clay here.  You guessed it, I made Natasha pendants and used some of Penni Jo's molds.  I use to sand in cold water and soap and a friend of mine told me to use warm water and soap and these are really shiny but I also took out some new sand paper.

This is a pendant I did with one of Penni Jo's molds and some Sarah Shriver cane that I had left from a class that I took from her in November.

This is what was left of the Sarah Shriver cane and I did that Natasha thing which I love to do.

This is my favorite.  It was from the ends of the cane that I taught at class last week.  I was very careful about sanding and buffing.  It really looks like glass and it has a lot of pearl and translucent in it.

Here is another Natasha that got slightly off kilter but I like it.

I'm really excited.  My friend is coming over and we are going to do the Barbara Fajardo Mimbres Flora beads and pendants.  We both bought the tutorial from Craft Art Edu.  Our clay guild had Barb here a couple weeks ago for a two day class but I couldn't go because I was told I had a fractured hip and I couldn't sit for two days.  It wasn't a fracture, I've got bursitis.  Got a cortisone shot and am exercising a lot and it's much better.  If  you are hurting, push yourself to exercise and stretch.  I am walking my friend's 3 dogs every morning.  It's good for them and great for me.

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.

NEW FRIEND, NEW CABOCHON, GIFTS FOR THE TRIP

I'm going to start with the cabochon.  This was a piece from the Shimmering Batik that I did but I added some glitter to this batch.  I cut out some pieces and wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  I decided I wanted this piece to be a beaded cabochon.  I just finished it and my eyes are about done for.  This is only my 3rd beaded cab.  I love doing it and I wish my camera would break so I could get a new one and take better pictures.  Maybe if I accidentally drop it on the floor.  LOL.  I need help.  I can't decide what to put it on.  I had it on wire, didn't like that, had it on satin, didn't like that, someone please tell me what this would look good on.  The beads are actually a brass color.  Maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture of it outside where it is now 114 degrees.

NEW FRIEND

I made a new friend who is just starting into polymer clay.  Her name is Lorrie and she does beautiful glasswork.  We had that in common as I used to do glass engraving until polymer clay and beading took over my life.  Anyway, Lorrie just set up a blog and she has pictures of her beautiful glass on her blog.  I have her blog on my list of blogs I follow so you can go to her blog from there but I wanted you to see some of her glass work. http://lorriesglassart.blogspot.com/ so just click on here.  I was going to post a picture of her glass but I can't get a good copy.

POLYMER CLAY FUN

I finally finished some pieces that I did.  Have about 1000 more sitting here waiting to be something.

Swirly lentil bead earrings made with the black and white flower cane and some leftover yellow clay.

Left over clay from one of the Shimmering Batik pieces.  I love making swirly lentil beads.  I go to Barb Farjardo's blog quite often just to look at her beautiful beads and she has a great tutorial there too.

This is a Natasha bead made with the leftover clay that was on my work table before I put it all away to start beading that cabochon.  This looks to me like a Santa Claus with a yellow beard.  There are cats eye on the back of it.

I've sanded and buffed this bead till I'm blue in the face and now I don't know what I want to do with it.  It's about 3 inches long and weighs about 20 pounds.

GIFTS FOR MY TRIP

I won't be blogging for 3 weeks after next Saturday.  I'm leaving for a week in Wisconsin and 2 weeks in Illinois to visit my sister and mother.  We are going to Branson for a week and then to the beautiful lakes in Wisconsin again.  Hope the mosquitoes are gone before I get there.  Anyway, I started beading some bracelets to give as gifts to my friends at home.  I should of had 10 done by now but I'm a little behind.  Here are the first two.

The picture on the right is the back of the second picture.  Guess they can be worn either way.

I am going to throw that camera on the floor.  It used to take good pictures but now it has a mind of it's own.  I'm sure it couldn't be operator error could it????????????????????????