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



WE CAN DO IT - SOME GOOD, SOME BAD BUT IT KEEPS ME OUT OF THE BAR

Was walking through Michael's the other day and saw some Lisa Pavelka water slide transfers.  They looked interesting so I bought a couple packs.  The first one I put on a bead and put translucent clay over it thinking I could do a porcelain bead like in the Debbie Anderson class I took.  Well, those transfers don't bend and I think my trnaslucent was too thick.  So I tried again and here they are:

Actually this picture is of me a couple years ago when my hair was still red.  LOL

I used Magic Glos on this one and I'm getting to the bottom of bottle.  I didn't see the bubbles until I took the picture.  I found that with the Magic Glos, if you run a flame over it, the bubbles will disappear just like when you do that to UV Resin.  The transfer is really pretty but it's made of a plastic and needs to be handled gently once the back comes off.  The bubbles are really tiny and you don't see them that well in person.  The camera really makes those things stand out.  The transfer has to be flattened because of the water on it, it tends to make it move around and get wrinkled.  I'm going to try to do a couple more on baked clay and see if that works better.

This one which I love because of the picture and the saying also has a small bubble on the left in the clay that I didn't see.  It doesn't show up as much when looking at it in person.  I used Perfect Pearls on the sides of the picture and poked a hole in the side and did a little wire wrapping.  It has flaws but so do I so we fit together well.  I believe this picture is from WWII and I was born right after that so I know "WE CAN DO IT".

 

This cute little guy is a new stamp I found.  You know I love cats.  He will probably end up being a pin for my friend who has a cat that looks like him.

This cat has Magic Glos on him also.  Right now it's 110 here in Arizona and running out in the sun might be what's causing the bubbles in my pieces.  I have to put sun screen on just to go get the mail.  I love getting in the car with leather seats after it's been sitting outside for awhile.  I try to do it a couple times a day with shorts on because I figure it burns the cellulite off my thighs. 

My friend always says "IT'S A 100 AND STUPID" anytime it goes over 100.  My glos dries before I get it to the table outside.  Had two quail looking in our patio door with a sign asking for cold beer.

Today I made a black and white flower cane.  It's actually very pretty.  My camera keeps turning things pink, might be time for a new camera.  This cane was made with white, pearl and black Premo and the outside is Fimo translucent.  I didn't wait for it to rest before I cut it.  Don't have patience to do that.  It's so hot in my studio when the lights are on, I'm surprised the canes don't cook while I'm making them.

A few weeks ago at our clay guild meeting we had a demo on doing the Christi Freisen Peppermint Twist pendant.  Since that time all my friends have done 8 or 9 and I only did one.  We were suppose to use Swarovski Rivolis but since I have 800 pices of that flat glass, I decided to use that for my test piece.  I thought it was too big but my friends didn't, so, I made a Herringbone necklace for it with Delica seed beads.  Since I made this I found out that BIG is in this year as far as jewelry.  Wish they meant butts.

Tomorrow my friend Lupe www.miramecreations.blogspot.com/ and I are going to take a cabachon beading class.  I have quite a few books and tried a little one so I'm self taught but I like taking classes and this lady we are taking the class from does beautiful work and I think she has some tricks for making it easier to start.  I'll blog with a picture when I finish it.  I'm still working on my second crocheted necklace and it's turning out good, but I'm still a little slow.  Great thing to do if you can't sleep at night or want to listen to an audio book.

Gotta go, the quail are at the door again because we are the only ones in our neighborhood that haven't left for somewhere cool.  Yesterday it was coyotes at the door asking for frozen Margharitas.

SOMEONE STOP ME

Well, you'll never guess what I've been doing in my studio?  SHIMMERING BATIK AND MORE SHIMMERING BATIK.  I'M OBSESSED.  SOMEONE STOP ME.

Since I bought this tutorial I have done nearly, and I say nearly, nothing else as far as polymer clay.  I usually make 200 to 300 beads in a week that I use to make my golf stroke counters and now I have no beads but I sure have a lot of Shimmering Batik pieces.  I sold a few before they were even finished.  I've used 2 bottles of Magic-Glos and I will need a 10 gallon drum at this rate.  Tonight I'm making beads and who knows what wonderful piece of art tomorrow will bring.

My silver experiment.

My multi-color experiment

My green and purple experiment.

My red experiment with a pair of earrings I made for myself.

My first white and gold experiment.  The toggle is gold plated and is a magnet.  Easy for people to get on and off and pretty enough to wear next to the focal bead.

This is pearl clay, with layers of cane from a Jana Roberts Benzon class that I took two years ago.  They do have Magic-Glos on them and need a couple more coats.  Not sure what I'm going to do with them.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

The lemon meringue pie I made for Easter dessert from lemons from our tree.  It was awesome.

A girls got to eat to keep up her strength to roll beads you know.

MMMMMMMMMMMMM

ANNIE AND BEAU - TINA CREATED A MONSTER

Want to thank you all for your prayers for Annie.  She's doing good and started eating and drinking and taking her medicine.  She will have surgery as soon as the infection is gone and she's a little stronger.  I have some great pictures that her dad sent over.

Nothing cuter than a sleeping puppy except a sleeping cat.  Just kidding Rex.

This is Annie and her big brother Beau out getting some vitamin D in the beautiful Arizona sun.  He's quite a guy.  He looks after her and brings her treats and toys.  When Beau sees me in my golf cart he jumps in and wraps himself around me.  He's a great dog.  I told my husband I wanted a dog and he said we would have to build a casita.  I told him I hoped he liked it out there.  Ha ha ha.

Here's my other buddy Scooter.  He's standing by a cactus in his back yard that had 72 blooms on it.  Is that beautfiul or what.  This time of year in Arizona the cacti bloom and the flowers only last one day which is sad because they are so beautiful.  Scooter is a snowbird and will be going back to Illinois sometime this week.  I'll really miss him.  He smiles when he sees me.  He's a good dog.

TINA CREATED A MONSTER

OK, Tina Holden created a MONSTER.

About a week or two ago I bought Tina Holden's http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/p/batik-tutorial.html tutorial called Batik and Shimmer and that's all I've done for 5 days.  I tweak a few things each time I do it to see what I come up with and every time I do it I love it more and more and I have all these beautiful pieces and I don't think I'm going to be able to part with them.

I sent Tina an email last night and asked if there was a meeting like AA where I could go so I could stop doing this.  I need a 12 step program for sure.  The only thing I can tell you is that it uses Magic-Glos so I get a lot of exercise running out to the patio to put my pieces in the sun.  I have one of those little UV lights but I don't like it.

This is my latest batch and now I have another one in the oven.  I'm going to need a 10 gallon drum of Magic-Glos which means I'll have to get a job to pay for the Magic-Glos which means I won't have time to do clay.  What a dilema.

Anyway, I think you all should buy Tina's tutorial because that will mean there will be meetings everywhere for those of us who can't stop doing this.  Even my husband said they were awesome and he was glad to see I was finally getting some exercise.  LOL

Goodnight Annie, Goodnight Beau, Goodnight Scooter, Goodnight Booboo, Goodnight Grandma