I SALUTE YOU AND THANKS FOR EVERYTHING

Some of the women from our beading club are involved with Luke Air Force Base which is about 10 miles from here.  Many organizations try to do charity work for military wive's and children.  Next week there is going to be a luncheon for the wive's of the men who are deployed out of Luke.  There are 150 of them and our beaders have been making bracelets to give to each of the wives.  I've finished 5 so far and hope to get a couple more done before the deadline tomorrow.  Since I have about 200 kilos of red, white and blue beads I thought I would do some Kumihimo bracelets.  I wanted to do some polymer clay red, white and blue stretch bracelets but didn't have time.

 

 

As you can see, there is an odd ball in there.  It's purple, gold and black and has megatamas.

 

If you ever get a chance to do some charity work for the military, it's definitely rewarding.

 

Thank them if you can.  Times are not easy for the families right now.

 

LITTLE POTS, CANES AND A FUNNY CAT

 

This little pot is made entirely of polymer clay.  My friend Judy came up with this idea about 2 years ago and there was an article in Polymer Cafe on how to do it.  She did a class at our beading club on Wednesday so I made a bunch of canes the day before and made another pot.  Unfortunately on Tuesday night I had cramps in my fingers so bad, I couldn't move them.

 

This is the cane I made.  It's called the Frilly Flower Cane and it's a tutorial by Kathy Harm at CraftEdu.com.  It's really a lot of fun.  I cut it in half and wrapped half with fuchsia too.

 

I have about 4 feet of cane and I'm going to make beads with it for golf stroke counters.

 

 

This is a scarf pin I made with the cane for a friend who is leaving to move back to Colorado.  I also made her two scarves to go with it.

 

 

Do you know how hard it is to do laundry when the basket has something in it?

Good old Buster.  I should have known by the size of his feet when he was a baby that he was going to be a really big cat.

 

 

 

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, WHEW

This has been one really busy week.  I committed to making some pieces for another clay guild and I finally finished them.  Took these pictures quick so they aren't great but you get the idea.

Item #1 - A purse bling, key chain.

Item #2 - Purse bling or key chain.

Item #3 - Purse bling or key chain.  This is my husbands favorite.

Item #4 - Purse bling or key chain.

Item #5 and last but not least another purse bling or key chain.

Two weeks ago at our clay guild meeting we did a cane swap and I used one of the canes to make a very large lentil bead.

Love the colors in this. Haven't decided what I want to do with it yet.

A friend of mine has Parkinson's Disease.  He asked if I would make him one of my twist pens but in black so he could use it at work.

He really has a hard time concentrating when he is writing especially if the pen is too small for his hand.  I buy the pen parts at Boston Clay Works and cover them in polymer clay.  They are really easy to put together.

Now I've some requests for pendants and I have to get my things ready for our craft fair on March 23rd and my husband had surgery on Tuesday this week.  He had a tumor the size of a large lemon on his neck pressing on his peratid gland.  He's home and he's fine now but it's been quite a week.  I did meet a sweet little girl in the waiting room by the name of Sadie.  She kept me company and helped me relax.  

She was 8 weeks old and if I didn't have Buster, I would have paid anything for her.

There's nothing like puppy kisses to make you happy, calm and relaxed.

Her dad was teaching her to sit up.  Wish I wasn't shaking so much when I took the picture.

Back to work but I need to give Buster a hug.

CLAY GUILD CANE EXCHANGE

This past Saturday at our February clay guild meeting we had a cane exchange.  There were 12 of us that participated.  Some of us were seasoned (can't say older) clayers and some were brand new clayers.  It was fun to see all the different canes.  Now I have to decide what to do with them.

 

These are all the canes I received.  In my last blog I put up a picture of the ones I made.

 

 

 

I made big ones so I could cut them in half.  The one on the top right was a combination of a split cane and a barbed wire cane.  I used the ends to make pendants.

 

The top two on the right are the ends of the cut cane pieces pushed together.  They have Future on them.  The three hearts and two footballs have Magic Glos on them.  Love these colors, now I just have to figure out what I did.  I always say I'm going to write down what colors I use to make a cane and take pictures as I do it.  I listen to books on my Ipad while I'm doing clay and I get so involved I forget to write things down and take pictures.  I should write myself a note to do that but I would probably lose the note.  Getting old is not for the weak.

 

This is a picture of the heart pendant, bracelet and texture sheet that I sent to Tina Holden when we had our Polymer Clay facebook swap.  I stole the picture she put on facebook since she had all three pieces in one picture.  This was my first texture sheet.  It's too thick and too deep so I told Tina she could use it to feed the birds up in Canada.  LOL 

The large heart on the left is attached to a beaded Kumihimo key chain with hearts.  The bracelet is a Shambala bracelet made with the same flower cane that is in the center of the heart.

 

 

I GOT BEAUTIFUL HEARTS FOR VALENTINES DAY

Yesterday I got a wonderful package in the mail from Tina Holden who was my swap partner in the hearts and texture sheets International Polymer Clay Swap.  Aren't these beautiful?

I love the texture on the one on the left and those are my colors.  The one on the right looks just like my sister.  She loves blue, green and silver and she's tiny.  What's amazing is that I sent her a silver chain for Christmas and it will look beautiful with this heart on it.  I hope Tina doesn't mind if I share but no one is touching the bronze one except me, me, me. LOL

Along with the beautiful hearts I got two texture sheets that Tina made.

 

These are so nice compared to the one I sent her.  They are nice and thin and flexible, I love them.  As soon as Tina gets my package I'll post what I sent her.  It takes 2 weeks to get a package to and from Canada and 5 days to Europe.  I don't understand that.

 

 

GUILD CANE SWAP

 

This Saturday our clay guild is having a cane swap.  There are 12 of us participating so we needed to make 11 canes. They have to be 3 inches by 3/4 or 1 inch.  I agonized about what kind of canes to make.  Normally I don't have a problem but I had clay problems.  It was either too hard or too soft and mushy.  I leached some clays and put Mold Maker in the others to soften them.  Here's the results:

 

 

 

I made some beads out of the ends of the electric looking ones and I really like them.  I'll post the ones I get in return, we have some really talented ladies in our guild and I'm sure what I get back will be awesome.  Going to make some earrings from the beads from the electric canes.

 

Back to work, have to keep up with BJ from Knightwork, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  LOL