CLAY AND RESIN

These pendants are made with a base of polymer clay and all but the one on the far left, are covered with Magic Glos.  The inclusions you can use in polymer clay are endless.  I've used Lumiere paints in the resin and on the clay.  You can't use too much in the resin or the UV light won't harden through it.  The second and fifth ones from the left have Martha Stewart star and heart glitters that don't burn when you bake them and don't change color when you put resin on them.  The third and fourth ones are black clay that I textured after I put it in the bezel, used Perfect Pearls and put some dagger beads in the clay and baked it.  I have thousands of dagger beads that I bought to make dagger necklaces and never did it.

The last two on the right are black clay with watch parts and a key from the Tim Holtz collection and charm that I cut the loop off of.  I finally bought a 36 volt UV lamp so I don't have to keep running outside.  I can't use regular resin that has to cure for 48 hours because I have no place to put it that Buster wouldn't be curious about.

This is a pendant that I swirled Lumiere paints in the resin and put dichoric chips.  It's a two sided pendant.  I forgot to take a picture of the back side and I already sold it.

MEMORIAL DAY

Can't do a blog on Memorial Day without remembering our troops.

Please let our men and women who are fighting for us know that you care and remember our vets who already fought for us so we can have freedoms like doing a blog.

I'm going to be wearing red, white and blue today and lots of it.  Don't forget to put your flag out.

To all veterans and those of you who are still in the service..........

THANK YOU



I'M GLAD IT'S OVER

I started doing a post on the details of my surgery yesterday and I erased the whole thing.

It wasn't nice and it wasn't easy and today I have a headache and a black and blue forehead and a big lump on my forehead.  I can't do anything for 2 days and can't put my head lower than my heart for 2 weeks but I'm here with Buster and enjoying the fact that it could have been worse.

When I was young we didn't think about the effects of the sun on our skin.  I had tons of sun burns when I was little.  I'm a redhead, it happens.  My mother was a sun worshipper when she was young.  We didn't know any better and maybe didn't care.  Tans were the thing and everyone said how healthy you looked if you had a tan.  I saw that woman in New Jersey who spent all her time tanning and it made me cringe.




 If someone told me that I would have skin cancer when I got older from spending so much time in the sun I wouldn't have listened to them.  Yesterday I saw people getting chunks taken out of their nose and cheeks and the tops of their heads.

I play golf and I hate hats, I wear a visor but that didn't cover my ears or the top of my head.

I was told yesterday that 30 SPF was nothing.  Now they want me to use at least 70 SPF.

You only get one skin, so, take care of it.  When you get my age or older, you don't want to have this surgery, trust me.

Take care of those little ones too, they are too precious to leave out in the sun.  It's like putting grapes in the sun, you end up with a raisin.  Teach them NOW.

A GOOD FOUNDATION

When I was young I thought my feet were too big and then I met some friends who had even bigger feet.  My grandma always told me that having big feet meant that you had a good foundation for your whole life.  Someone gave me a bunch of old polymer clay stuff and in the box there were feet molds.  I gave them to a friend at our clay guild.  She does a lot of sculpting.  She made me a gift and every time I look at it, I can't help but smile.

How cute is that?  She's 3 inches tall.  The only thing about her that looks like me is the feet. LOL

Thank you Judy.

The same day, another friend of mine came over and brought me these earrings.  They represent "Rainbow Bridge".   Animals who die go to Rainbow Bridge to wait for us.  Check out the poem

http://www.rainbowbridge.com/Poem.htm.  Presents are wonderful.

This is a pendant I finished with turquoise clay.  I used Guilder's Paste on the ball in the middle.

This bracelet is going to Wisconsin along with a box of 25 other pieces.  It's for a benefit next weekend to raise money for medical expenses for a sick baby.

I'm a little nervous right now.  I'm going in for surgery on my forhead today.  I have a little cancer spot above my right eye.  Just hope my short term memory doesn't leak out, can't afford to lose much more.  Maybe this will kick start my muse again.

OLD LACE, DOILIES, FUTURE BEADS AND OUCH

I was playing around with doilies and old lace.  These two pendants were made with the doily they are sitting on.  I ran black clay through the pasta machine on the largest setting and then ran it through again with the doily.  The bottom of the pendants were made with some scrap clay.  They were baked on a bottle to give them a little curve and then sanded and buffed.  I love using lace on clay too and you can put it on both sides of your clay so you have a texture on back and front.  Garage sales are a great place to find old lace and doilies.

I've been making beads out of some of my old canes.  I'm going to put together some fun stretch bracelets.  There is going to be a benefit May 26th back in Wisconsin to help with medical expenses for a 3 month old baby that had a stroke while it was being born and now they found out she has tumors on her nerve ends in her brain and her spine.  I wanted to send a few things for the raffle.  I also made 3 American Flag Bracelets.

Anyway, I'm was in a hurry to get these beads done.  I usually tumble my beads for at least 14 hours and then buff them.  I coated these with 2 coats of Future and then baked them at 200 degrees for an hour.  I usually only bake them for 20 minutes but I forgot them.  I think the hour really made them shinier.  The pink and brown ones are made with some old Studio by Sculpey clay that I had.  It was really hard so I added some pearl and translucent.  I was hoping the pink would be pinker and the brown would be browner.

OUCH, OUCH, OUCH

Yesterday I had two epidurals in my lower back.  When he was putting the first one in it felt like barbed wire going in my leg.  I yelled out "Holy S--T".  Scared the doctor and the two nurses in the operating room.  When he did it the second time I had all I could do not to faint.  I'm taking some big white pills and have been babbling on and on and on.  LOL

I'm trying to get all this stuff done and my back hurts too much to sit very long.

Better living through chemistry. 

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, GET THE WINE

All my friends and I do Kumihimo (Japanese Braiding).  We try to teach ourselves something new all the time because we all have inquiring minds.  My short term memory has been testing me though.  Anyway, I have this Kumihimo book by Kathy King James.

In the book she gives direction on how to do a square Kumihimo.  It's not that hard unless you are watching NCIS or Person of Interest.  I can't concentrate when Jim Caviezel is on TV.  I started this square rope on Wednesday morning, took it apart Wednesday afternoon.  Started it again on Wednesday night, took it apart Thursday morning.  This one took me 5 tries.  You put 8 cords on the loom and you make 4 moves clockwise and then you make 4 moves counter clockwise and put your east west cords back in the regular position and start again.  Mess up one cord and it's wine time.

I used 1 mm black satin rattail and 2 mm gold satin rattail.  Wish I had some gold 1 mm the 2mm was kind of heavy.

This is the finished rope.  It's 20 inches long and I'll be tying off the ends and either put them in caps or do some beading around them.  I have a polymer clay bead that I want to put on this.  I'll post it IF I EVER FINISH IT.

FUNNY CAT

Can't blog without a Buster story.

Here he is yelling at me again.  I was taking pictures instead of finishing my ironing.

Last week I was ironing, baking some polymer clay, curing some resin pieces in my UV lamp, watching TV, and had the computer on.  Blew the electric on this side of the house.  Got that same old lecture from my better half about the fact that I can't iron, bake clay and use a resin light all at the same time.  I told him I forgot and that I took a test in the National Enquirer and my short term memory isn't so good.  He just rolled his eyes and walked away.

DOING BASKET WEAVE AND PROUD OF IT

Last Wednesday at beading I taught a class in polymer clay on how to do a basket weave but with a few extra things that I added.  Two of the ladies brought their finished pieces in today for me to see.  Their creativity has just blown me away.  Karen, loves big pendants and Isabel loves small ones but they both went beyond what I imagined.

These are Isabel's.

These are Karen's.

I was going to try to steal the heart but I wasn't fast enough.

If you love the craft you are doing, teach someone else how to do it.  Share your knowledge and your toys.  It's a wonderful learning experience. 

A girl can never have enough toys.







A REALLY LONG LANYARD

How many beads does it take to make a 30 inch lanyard?  LOTS AND LOTS.

A friend asked me to make a lanyard for her friend and said she had to have it 30 inches long.  I didn't realize how long that is until I cut the wire.  I called my friend and asked if she was sure this woman needed a 30 inch lanyard.  She laughed.  Apparently the lanyard is for a woman who is 5'10" tall and has a rather large bosom.  She wanted green, yellow, blue and silver.  I decided to make some polymer beads and when I went to find yellow, green and blue beads, I was surprised to find there wasn't much out there that I really liked and decided to use what I had.  So, here it is.

As you can see, I don't have my photo box set up anymore.  Thank goodness for Picasa.  Hope all these different colors of yellow will work for her. 

I'm really tired now.  Don't want to see beads for a long time.

At least till tomorrow.

BUSTER LOVES POLYMER CLAY

This is a pendant made from a double cut heart from the Basket Weave class I taught at our beading club last week. 

If I'm in my studio, Buster's in my studio.  If I'm in the kitchen, Buster's in the kitchen.

Today I was looking for a place to take a picture and there he was.  He never moved and I kept moving the heart around.  My friend Rose said it looks like he got a medal for bravery or valor.  Do they give those to cats?

PRACTICING FOR WHEN WE GET OLD - NOT

Wednesday I taught a Basket Weave polymer clay class at our beading club.  There were 6 students and we really had fun.  Anytime you get girls, clay, paint, cutters and glitter together it's a good thing.  Too bad we couldn't bring a couple bottles of wine to the class, that would have been fun.

I'll publish more when I get some finished pictures.

If you want the directions for this technique, they were published in a 1993 Polymer Cafe and originally done by Kellie Robinson.  I've changed a few things from the original instructions.

I experimented with a few things like embossing powder and that wasn't good.

I use a lot of Magic Glos and I've always used a BBQ lighter to get the bubbles out.  It works great.  Someone told me to try an embossing heat gun.  I did and the Magic Glos blew all over, back to the BBQ lighter.

I just ordered 14 - 1 pound blocks of Premo from Boston Craft Works.  I was a little worried that with the heat out here the clay might bake.  They shipped it so fast and it came in perfect condition.  Their clay is so fresh, I just love it.

Wish I had time to make stuff to put on Etsy and Artfire, my shops are suffering because I'm so busy.

I bet if I quite chasing the cat around with my camera all day I would get a lot more done.  LOL

IS IT SCULPEY OR IS IT PREMO?

What's your guess?  I made the beads on this necklace about 4 years ago with Studio by Sculpey clay which I love.  Unfortunately, they don't make this clay anymore.  However, being a hoarder, I have a big box of Studio clay in my closet and I better use it before it gets hard.  OK, the beads are made of Studio but the large focal is made of Premo.  I sanded it but I didn't buff it.  They really look like the same clay.  My friend Evelyn was going through my finished beads.  She saw the necklace laying on my table because I was redoing it.  She picked up this pendant and put it with the beads.  She has a knack even though she doesn't see very well because of her macular degeneration.

I'm teaching a polymer clay class at our beading club today.  The above is a ribbon weave technique that I found in an old Polymer Cafe but I've done quite a few changes to the technique.  The pendants on the left have Magic Glos on them and the pendants on the right have Sculpey Gloss on them.  Very different looks and finished feel of the clay.

This is a new technique I've been working on., especially the size and shape of the outer pendant.

Don't you love the background on the pictures?  It's Costco paper towels.  I was in a hurry.  LOL