TELL ME WHY

Two nights ago the bulb in my Ott light died.  It was a 13W special bulb just for Ott lights.  So yesterday I went to Joann's to get a new bulb and they were $35.95 just for one bulb and that didn't include tax.  Around the corner from the bulbs were the Ott lights and the one I have was $59.95??????????  So the replacement bulb costs about 67 percent of what a whole new lamp would cost.  Well, right next to that lamp was a bigger one with an 18W bulb, bigger and sturdier base and the head on it was higher.  I had a 40% off coupon and my 10% discount card so I bought that lamp for 50% off and paid $58.00 for it.  I love this new lamp, takes a little more room on the table but sheds lots more light and the head doesn't get in the way.  I looked on Amazon when I got home and I can get the same bulb for $10.35 without shipping because I'm a prime member or the shipping would be $6.00.  So why does Joann's charge $35.95 for a bulb?  But, I got a new and bigger lamp so I'm a happy girl.

 

Did you ever make something that you didn't like?  A friend gave me her clay and all her stuff because her hands are bad.  She had some canes she made in a class that she took from someone else and asked me if I could make something for her since she wouldn't take money for the clay and tools.  She asked me to make a pendant.  The cane was just not to my liking but she likes it so I didn't change it.  The colors were uneven and the clay was mushy, she said it was Premo but I'm not sure.  She had another cane in there that I made a Natasha bead out of and didn't like those colors.  She made a giraffe cane in another class that she took but didn't realize she was using Fimo yellow translucent instead of ecru.  I used that cane to make a swirly lentil bead.  Anyway, here are the things I made for her with the clay things she had in the box.  I'm going to bring them to her today.  The purple and blue cane had big spots of blue in it and I had to cover them so I added a little bling.

I hope she likes these even though I'm not too crazy about them.

I'm going to start making my own Christmas ornaments because I'm getting a new Christmas tree. I only have 69 days so I better get to work.

MORE CAMP STUFF

This is the puff bead I made in the demo.  It was a cane done with silver pink and peacock pearl Premo clay.   I sanded and buffed it but I might do it again.  I made the cane because everyone at camp made a cane and we gave them to Amy who is our most fantastic clay person.  She took all the canes and put them together in a huge Kaleidoscope cane and gave each one of us a piece.

This was the final cane.  Lots of colors and combos.  

I had a lot of strange pieces of clay laying on my desk so I decided to make a flower cane.  I found one in Yonat Dasclu's book that I really liked.  As you can see, I turned the first piece the wrong way that's why I have two different petal colors but I kind of like it.  I am also having trouble cutting it without getting lines from my blade on it.  I've tried 3 different blades so far and still get those lines.  I'm going to take out a new blade and see what happens.

This is a swirly lentil bead that I made from the cane.  Needs more sanding and buffing.

This is a closeup of the braided cane I made on the side that I cut with a wavy blade.  It was three Skinner blends and they were all different colors.

This is the other side of the cane.  One of the Skinner blends was done with Alizarin Crimson and ecru and I put a snake of silver in the middle before I rolled it up.  You can cut these from any side and get something completely different every time you cut it.

This is one of those stretch bracelets that a bunch of us did.  This is Tisha's.  She is really talented.  I think she made 5 more before the weekend was over.

One of the other wonderful things we did was a pendant challenge.  I thought I had a picture of the winner but I'll have to get it from Lupe.  She made a beautiful cross with Mokume Gane and she won.  We all made pendants and they were suppose to be inspirational.  They are going to be donated to a battered women's shelter.  They were all beautiful but Lupe's was especially gorgeous.

SPEAKING OF LUPE

Most of you know Lupe Meter.  She is one of the most talented woman I've ever met.  Not only that, she's really sweet.  I guess you can tell I belong to the Lupe Meter fan club.

Lupe was in charge of the goody bags for camp.  She has been working on them for 6 months and I must say they were incredible.  I should have taken everything out and took a picture of it but no, I had to take everything out and play with it and then find a place for it.  I digress, every bag had a name tag on it.  Not your ordinary every day run of the mill name tag.

This is what Lupe made for everyone.  26 of these.  We were all standing there amazed when we saw these.  I know you are all jealous and you should be. LOL  Thank you Lupe for the beautiful name tag and the wonderful job you did on the goody bags.  I'm so glad you won the inspirational challenge because you are an inspiration to me.

CLAY CAMP

Last week I was lucky enough to spend 4 days with a bunch of very talented ladies in Prescott, Arizona at a youth camp doing clay from 8 in the morning till 10 at night.  Now I know that sounds like a lot of fun but at my age there were a few drawbacks.  I just made a couple early New Years resolutions.  I'm never going to stay at a place where I have to bring my own bedding and never want to sleep in a bunk bed again.  I have bumps on my head where I hit the side of the bed bending over to get my clothes and bumps on my head from getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and forgetting there was a wooden plank hanging down on the bed because there was another bed over my head.  The camp we stayed at had awesome food but I'm just not a bunk bed girl.  At least I didn't have to get on the top.

I did a couple demos while we were there.  One of them that I did was the braided cane.

This was done with 3 Skinner Blends covered in black.  Then you braid the canes and flatten them and fold the clay back and forth.  Cut it with a wavy blade and there you have it.  I was so excited.  I got one of those things that go around that you can put tools in.  See it up in the left hand corner.  It's empty.  Not anymore.

The next thing I did a demo on was making boxes.  I've bought about 300 pounds of paper to make boxes and so far I've made 5.  Guess I better get to work.

This is one of the boxes I made.  I put batting on the inside just like the real box makers put cotton in theirs but mine are cuter.  LOL

Then I did a demo on how to make puffy beads.

If I can figure out where the finished bead is I'll take a picture and post it.  It took me 3 days to unpack.  I don't get it.  How do you come home with more than you left with?  So that's what I did for 4 days except for eating snacks which was really fun.

We sure have some talented people in our clay guild.  We had 6 people who had never been at camp before and they sure were busy and having a good time.  A bunch of us made Halloween bracelets.

This is my bracelet. I kind of over did it but I'm a cat person.  The other girls made gorgeous bracelets and I'll post some pictures when I get them.  Mine is kind of wonky but I was tired from bumping my head on the bunk beds.

This is my friend Carol's.  She's really talented and I haven't seen it finished yet but I can't wait.

I'm really upset, I'm watching The Millers and she has my flannel pajamas on and she's eating ice cream while she's walking on the tread mill.  Oh my goodness, it's me.  No more bunk beds.

POLYMER CLAY EXTRUDERS

How many extruders do you have?  If you do a lot of polymer like I do, I love doing things with an extruder.  I originally bought that little silver thing that almost broke my fingers trying to push clay through it.

I was so excited when Makins came out with the great green extruder.  (Blog doesn't like the word extruder).  So, then Walnut Hollow came out with an extruder so I bought one of those.  Two friends quit claying and gave me their Makins extruder, now another friend quit and gave me her Walnut Hollow extruder.  So, I have 2 Walnut Hollows, 3 green Makins and wouldn't you know this website jumped up at me saying a new company from Czechoslovakia called Lucy Clay is making extruders.  They have one representative here in the U.S. that sells them and all the information sounded wonderful.

I love my green Makins extruder except that it hurts my hand when I'm holding it and trying to extrude clay.  It does make that funny noise and every time I use it and my husband asks what the noise is??????????????  He knows, he just likes to irritate me.  LOL

Well, I ordered the CZextruder.  The discs are separate but I think what drew me to the extruder is that the discs are colored, the extruder is colored and the handle comes off.  It works like a ratchet.

These are the parts.  The tube comes in 3 different colors.  There is a small white plastic piece that comes out and has to be cleaned with a baby wipe.  That is the clay pusher.  On the left is the inside part of the extruder and as you can see, there is a large bolt on the bottom that pushes the clay pusher.  The handle has a ratchet on it that fits on top.  The discs come in different colors and they are sold separately from the extruder.  You twist them out of the round place in order to get them loose and then you can file or use a cutter to take the two little tabs off.  It comes with 2 o-rings.  I have never used an o-ring while extruding.  The thing I like about this extruder is the tube.  It is very comfortable to handle.
Here is a youtube by Yonat Dascalu using the extruder with an electric hand drill.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ns8W16u9P8&feature=youtu.be

  The green Makins extruder has that hashed metal on it and sometimes it starts bothering my hand.  This extruder works really well but you have to remember "anytime you use an extruder, your clay has to be soft if you don't want cracks on the edges".  Here is a link to Kim's blog about the extruder.  http://kimisjewelryandgifts.blogspot.com/2013/09/czextruder-xxl-demo-review-and-free.html

Both extruders work hard if your clay is hard.  I use to wear an oven mitt to hold my Makins, then I bought one of those table vises for the extruders but they tend to get in the way.  The discs from both extruders fit into the cap of each other so they are interchangeable.  There is another set of discs that I didn't get.

This is my Makins extruder.  I took a piece of that rubbery stuff you use in boats and RV's to keep things from sliding.  I put a double wrap around it and put rubber bands on it.  It's very comfortable to hold now.  However, if you are looking for the best extruder in the world, I don't know if it's been made yet.  If you are using hard clay, it's still hard to twist the handle on any extruder you have.  The Makins extruder is self-cleaning the other is not.  You can buy a brush to clean the barrel.

This is the Walnut Hollow Extruder that a friend just gave me.  She has very arthritic fingers and had to give up doing clay.  I don't know how long she's had this but it turns rather hard.  I have one and don't remember it turning that hard.  I like the folding handle on the this one and I love the packaging but it is not self cleaning either, that is not a big deal but could be.

I'm going to clay camp for 4 days on the 26th and I'm going to take all these with me and let all the clayers try the new one and see what they think.

Would love to hear from the rest you about your preferences or if you have suggestions on how to make these better.

A REALLY FUN HOT DAY

Yesterday my friends Carol, Judy and Evelyn took me out to lunch for my birthday even though it was August 22nd.  I was in Chicago on my birthday and yesterday was the first day we could all get together.

It was 109 outside and very humid but we dragged ourselves to The Cheesecake Factory and had a wonderful lunch.  Before I left for Chicago, Evelyn bought me a beautiful purple suitcase that spins and expands, it is awesome.

My dear friend Carol hasn't been doing clay very long but she always did earth clay and she was an incredible sculptress (I think that's what you call a woman sculptor).  She came over one day with these pendants that she had made and you could have knocked me over with a feather.  She gave me one for my birthday and it was my favorite one.

I need to take a better picture but I have a headache and didn't feel like getting all my stuff out.  The cords slide and those are real feathers and beads and leather cord.  I'm hoping she gets them on Etsy.  Southwest stuff is really big right now and this is an amazing work of art.

My friend Judy gave me this neat high heeled shoe tape dispenser.  I remember wearing high heels and then having foot surgery because I couldn't walk anymore.  I get tickled when I look at this and think about all the young girls wearing 6 inch platforms now and what their feet are going to be like when they get to be my age.  I would like to find the guy who invented high heels and make him wear them for a full day.  Then again, maybe he does.  LOL  I also got bags with gorgeous copper bails, a gizmo to stamp out a picture and automatically put an acrylic top on it and some gold stamp pads.  I made quite a haul.

This is my good buddy Champ.  I made his sister and brother blankets so I thought I better make him one.  I didn't tell his mom but before I gave him the blanket, I rubbed dogie bacon all over it.  She called and told me how much he liked it and he keeps rolling in it and rubbing his nose in it.  I had to confess what I did.  She thought that was pretty funny.

I have a new extruder that I got from a place called Lucy Clay in Czechoslovakia.   I'm hoping to try it today and I'll let you know how it works tomorrow with pictures.