I'M KEEPING AN EYE ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple years ago our guild sponsored a class with Barbara Maguire and we spent two days learning how to make a face cane.

That was one of the most intense classes I've ever taken but when it was over, I had 8 inches of face cane.  Not sure what to do with it, I made a couple pendants.

On this one I used some Stroppel can that I had made.

This is the second one I made and called it "Please don't leaf me".  Nice eyebrows huh?

I made this necklace and earrings and put this in our craft fair and a young girl bought it first thing.

While we were doing the face cane each part of the face had to be done separately, my biggest problem was the mouth.  The eyes are a little wonky but I think every ones eyes are a little wonky.

I ended up having eye canes and mouth canes left after putting the face together.  I was organizing my canes the other day and came across these two canes and a big piece of the face cane.  Hard as I tried, I couldn't get them to reduce very well.

I had an order for my magnetic, refrigerator pens. A lady in Tempe wants to sell them in her boutique and I showed her the ones I made a couple weeks ago and she went crazy over them.  Bought 5 right on the spot.  I was making the pens and saw the face cane parts sitting there, just couldn't leave it alone.

She asked me to make more of these but I couldn't find my directions on how to make an eye cane.  I asked 5 other people and they can't find their's either.  Good thing I take pictures.  I found the step by step details when we were making the canes in my clay class pictures.  If you click on the picture you can see them closer.  The one on the top right was taken from a whole piece of face cane that I cut the eyes out of.  It's funny, I hung one on the refrigerator and it really looks like it's following you around the kitchen.  Well, maybe the wine had something to do with it.

CLAY GUILD CANE SWAP

Today our clay guild had our "Cane Swap".  There were 12 of us that participated and there was a lot of moaning going on when they started doing the canes but everyone did really great.  I had some of my canes done and then I got "THE CRUD" that's been going on around here and my desire to work or do anything went down the toilet.  I ended up making some Stroppel canes which I really love.

Here is a picture of the canes I received today.  Can't wait to start making something with them.  I'll post what ever it is.

We had a lot of new people in the swap that never made canes before and they did a beautiful job.

Last night I had some canes left over and some end pieces so I made some more Stroppel canes for me (tee hee hee).  They're all mine.

  I see earrings and pendants and earrings and buttons and earrings made out of these.

THIS IS NOT BUSTER.  This is a cat that needs the "Cat Whisperer".  He was made by one of our members who was teasing me about my love for Buster and showing how to use fun stuff when working with polymer clay.

Tomorrow is the day I have to clean off my clay table, get organized and now that the CRUD is gone I can start exercising. :(0

STROPPEL - MAGUIRE PENDANT

One of the hottest new techniques in polymer clay is The Stroppel Cane.  It was developed by Alice Stroppel and she was kind enough to do a youtube video on how to make it.  You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07zXuLZe20 .  Thank you Alice for sharing this.  It's an incredible way to use up old canes.

As I mentioned in a couple previous blogs, I was fortunate to be able to take a Barbara Maguire Face Cane class last weekend.  I decided I wanted to use some of my Stroppel cane on something other than beads.  My Stroppel cane has a lot of translucent in it.  I found that when a cane has translucent in it, after sanding, it buffs up beautiful and shinier than if it has no translucent.

This picture doesn't reflect the beautiful shine on the piece.  I'm having camera problems again and we had awnings put on the house so I lost a lot of the light that I was using for taking pictures.   If you click on the picture, you will see the shine a little better.  She's about 3 inches long and I haven't decided what to do with her yet.  Suggestions????????

I pieced the Stroppel cane around her face, I'm going to try doing one where the cane is laid out so it matches and add the face last.

WATER FOR THE STEAMPUNK ELEPHANTS

Last February I took 4 classes from Christi Friesen at the Tucson Bead Show.  When we came home I made myself a steampunk elephant necklace and I get more compliments on that than on anything else I wear.  Well, my elephant is worn out and missing some pieces, I don't think water would do him any good.  I did listen to that book "Water For The Elephants" and then it came out as a movie.  To me, it was a very sad and depressing book so I never went to see the movie.  The other day I decided to wear my elephant for one last time.  A lady came through our beading club and asked if I would make one for her daughter.  I finished it today.

He's all silver and black with Groucho Marx eye brows, a monocle and lots of steampunk parts.  Hope she likes him.

WOODEN NEEDLE CASE

A couple months ago I bought some wooden needle cases.  I thought they would be great to carry my beading needles in and to store them.  I forgot I had them.  I made another Stroppel cane and decided it would look great on one of these cases.

I guess I could have beaded around it but this is more fun and less time.

This is a resin-steampunk piece I did with a Kumihimo rope necklace.  It has clay in the bottom and two layers of resin on top.  Someday I'll take my time and get rid of the shadows in my pictures.  I set up my picture box but the lights still aren't right.  This was taken outside.  I need to do more resin.  This was UV resin.  I'm going to try the two part resin some day along with a bunch of other things.  LOL  No more room for stuff.



STROPPEL CANE NECKLACE

As you know the latest rage in polymer clay is the Stroppel Cane by Alice Stroppel.  This sweet lady even has a video on her website http://polymerclayetc.com/ showing you how to do it.  Alice shares a lot of wonderful tips about polymer clay, hop over to her Etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceStroppel and check out her cute girl friend items.

This past weekend I found a box that had some left over and end cane pieces.  I decided to try the Stroppel Cane but made my black sheets a little thicker.  I love doing this cane it's amazing what comes out of it.

The focal pendant has Magic Glos on it.  Let me tell you about the beads.  Someone told me they were using Future on raw clay.  They were making beads and rubbing the Future on them to smooth them out and get the finger prints off of them.  I made my beads, did the Future thing, let it dry, baked the beads at 265 degrees and they came out brown and had bubbles on them.  So, I put them in the tumbler for 8 hours and most of the Future came off but they had a funny white film on them.  I hand sanded them all.  I don't like Future on my beads or pendants, I like sanding and buffing but was running out of time.  I put 6 coats of Future on these and then put them back in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes to set the Future, this gave them a glass like finish.   You can click on the picture to see it closer.  Thanks Alice, this is fun and a great way to use up old cane pieces.  I'm putting this in the craft fair this weekend.  If it doesn't sell, you will see me wearing it a lot.  I still have cane left so I'll have to make a bracelet and earrings to match.