THRILL AND SURPRISE

The mail brought an unexpected surprise this week.  The winter 2014 Polymer Arts Magazine had a picture of one of my pendants in it.

I really like this magazine, it interviews and covers articles and artists from around the world.
This month Julie Cleveland of Blue Morning Expressions wrote an article called "FRAME IT!".  She discusses bezels, frames and cookie cutters to use for frames for polymer clay.  She asked if she could use a picture of mine from a polymer clay pendant that I beaded around.

This is one of my favorite pendants and necklaces.  I haven't done any of this in a while, I guess it's time to start beading again.

This is the entire piece.  I love doing Herringbone for the necklace part, it goes fast and is easy to finish.

Thank you Julie, I really love your articles and the Polymer Arts Magazine.

POLYMER CLAY AND KUMIHIMO

I need to dust and vacuum and wash floors and clean my office and iron.  It's raining here in Arizona so I think that's a sign that says I should do polymer clay or Kumihimo and let all that other stuff wait till it stops raining.  LOL

A friend of mine from home has a niece who has a severe brain problem and had to have surgery.  They are going to have a benefit for her to raise money to help with the expenses.  I made some Kumihimo bracelets and some polymer items for them to use in the raffle.  The blue and white pendant was a polymer cabochon that I beaded around and did a Kumihimo necklace.

I sent 5 of the red, white and blue bracelets, my friends are very patriotic.

My girl friends birthday was yesterday.  She is the mom of the three dogs that I walk every day.  I made her a purse table holder and made a box with Champ's picture on the top.  I want to steal him but Buster doesn't care too much for him.

I just finished this and put it in my Etsy shop.  The polymer pendant is made from the braided cane I did a few weeks ago.  It's a purse bling/key chain.  The Kumihimo beaded part was done with Megatamas, drops and seed beads.

I think I better iron or my sweetie will run out of shirts.

WHAT'S ON MY BEADING TABLE? ANOTHER ONE???????

I started another necklace that I hope will go with the top that I'm wearing to my nephew's wedding.  Husband (he answers to that) said the first one wasn't glitzy enough so I'm doing a netted one with black aurora borealis 4 mm beads and size 15 and 11 antique gold seed beads.  It looks big but it's really slinky.  It's taking a lot of beads but I really like it.

Click on the picture a couple times to see it up close.  Problem is, I have to make a bracelet and earrings to match.  I just ordered 1200 more black beads. :0)  Hope that's enough.  If and when I finish this, I'll post the pictures.

POLYMER CLAY MOKUME GANE

I had an order for earrings made of purple and tuquoise Mokume Gane.  I had some clay left so I used my tiny cutters to make hearts and did a Kumihimo necklace to match and a pair of earrings.  Going to put these in my Artfire store.

I have a bucket list, actually it's a polymer clay/beading/resin list of all the things I want to do or make.  I ordered some Pipettes to do resin with and I thought I ordered 100 but I got 500.  Husband was in shock.  How do you explain 500 pipettes?  He asked me if I was going to rent a warehouse for all my stuff.  He still doesn't get it.  The girl with the most toys wins.

A TOTAL TANGLE

 A friend gave me a beading pattern for a single, "Flat Spiral" bracelet.  I got the bracelet done and decided I didn't like the single, I wanted it doubled.  How hard could that be?  I watched someone at beading adding another row to theirs.  20 feet of Fireline later, I finally got the tangle and the two knots out and figured out how to keep the four threads I was working with from tangling again.  Six tries didn't seem unreasonable at the time.  I did have a seed bead explosion the second time I took it apart.  I told my husband this was "The Bracelet From Hell" and he said "make 2 more and it will be the bracelet from Heaven".  Mr. Positive??????

I was going to make it and give it to my sister but it fits me so I guess she's out of luck. :0(  AWW.  I guess I'll have to do number 2 and make it smaller.

This bracelet has a wonderful weighty feeling to it.  I used size 6 Fireline, turquoise size 6 pearls, size 4 bicones and size 11 silver seed beads.

BEADED BEAD AND HERRINGBONE

I made this beaded bead and decided I wanted it on a herringbone rope.  The size 11 seed beads I used were called gold metallic.  I bought them at a local bead store.  As I was working with them, the color was coming off on my fingers.  It is now a multi-color of silver and gold but it's pretty.

I wonder how much the color will come off on clothes after it's worn a while.

I want to do beading and I want to do polymer clay so why does laundry, ironing, dusting and those nasty things keep creeping in my head?  NEVER MIND, THEY'RE GONE.

Hey Booboo, I found 3 of your rubber balls yesterday.  Thanks for the memories.



POLYMER CAFE AND FINALLY DONE

I got my June issue of Polymer Cafe in the mail today and I was sitting outside reading it waiting for my friend Judy and her husband to come and pick up a car by my house.  I started reading the last page titled "The Musings of an Artistic Late Bloomer".  As I started reading I had this feeling I had read this some where before but didn't know why.  I looked up at the top of the page and there she was big as life "JUDY KELLY".  Just then they drove up and I'm running across the street waving my magazine and yelling.  I'm sure the neighbors thought I was nuts.  Judy was in shock when she saw the article.  She didn't know it was going to be in there.  Anyway, for a kid who couldn't draw stick figures or do stained glass she sure has taken to polymer clay.  I'm kind of proud because I sort of pushed her into it.  We were hugging and whooping and then her husband said to me "see, you created a monster".  It wasn't the first time and won't be the last.  CONGRATULATIONS JUDY, you are in the big time girl.

A couple weeks ago Judy, Rose and I took a class on beading on spools.  I sort of left mine sitting there for a while.  Well, now I have a pinched nerve in my back so I couldn't go golfing today.  I decided it was a good time to finish that necklace.

This is the best I could do for a picture.  My computer got a virus and I had to change some programs.  I tried to flip this but my Picasa doesn't want to transfer or work very well right now.  I really like this necklace.  My husband said I should sell it since I never go any where dressy enough to wear it.  Wait till we go out for fish Friday night and I have on my good tee shirt that matches this necklace, he'll be surprised.

Going to ice my back and put all my beads away.  At least I finished something today.

Hey Linda, thanks for your update on the gold prices.  Glad I do polymer and not precious metals.  Love all your information.

NO MORE LIPSTICK BEFORE DINNER

My husband took me out for an elegant dinner on my birthday and I noticed the lady at the next table putting lipstick on after she ate dinner.  Then she took a drink of water and there was lipstick all over the glass.  Then she took out a Kleenex from her purse and wiped the lipstick off the glass.  Now I'm holding the arms of the chair to keep me in it.  I just don't get it.

I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a glass or cup that had lipstick on it because the new lipsticks have so much wax and chemicals they don't come off the glasses in the dishwasher.  I hardly ever wear lipstick and if I do, I don't put it on before I eat (but I eat or drink all the time).  It would be a waste.  I'm begging you ladies, please don't put lipstick on before or during a meal especially in a restaurant.  OK, now I feel better.  Had to complain about something today.

NEW CAMERA

I'm so excited, you know I've been complaining about my camera and I can't get good macro pictures.  Well, I showed the camera to hubby because he swore it was operator error (me?????).  Anyway, he couldn't get it to do a real close-up macro either.  So now I'm getting a new camera.  They had a special going on at Home Shopping Club for a Fuji S2500 that takes 12 mega pixel pictures.  You know he's going to make me read the whole manual don't you?  This means there will be more pictures on my blog and in my Etsy store.  Hope those nasty people that have been stealing blogs quit pretty soon.  I won't even mention their name or blog here because I don't want people going there.  They did take one of mine and a bunch of Tina Holden's and a few others from other polymer clay people that I know.

NEW CROSSES AND OTHER STUFF

My friend Bev asked me to make her a cross with black and gold clay.  I decided to use a tutorial from Barbara McGuire to make the clay.  It's her Mokume Gane tutorial.  Wasn't sure how it would work with the crosses but they came out beautiful.  I made one for Bev and did a herringbone chain with size 11 black seed beads to go on it.  I gave it to her today and she loved it.

I find it's really hard to get a good picture of an item that has Magic Glos on it.  Hopefully the new camera will take care of that.

I'll post the pictures of the other ones as soon as my new camera gets here.  CAN YOU TELL I'M EXCITED?  Watch out everyone, you are going to be on Bonnie's Candid Camera.

This was another cross that I did that has more of Celtic flavor to it.  I put beads on the bottom and strung it on ribbon.

This is a pendant done with Mica Shift, sanded and buffed and then I put Magic Glos on it.  I mentioned before that I purchased a Mica Shift tutorial from Lynda Moseley (SC Diva) and this is one of the pendants that I did. I love the technique, much easier than the carving one.  The necklace is a 4 bead herringbone made with size 11 seed beads and gold hex beads.  By now you must know how much I love herringbone necklaces.  I can listen to my books on audio and whip the necklaces out without having to think too much.  I think they add class to a pendant and if you have never done one, try it.  I do the twist because I like the way it looks.

Wanted to show you the book that my friend Judy made out of polymer clay.  The front cover is the bottom picture.  When you open it up (top picture) she put magnets in it to carry her clay blades.  It's really slick.  The back was really pretty too and I forgot to take a picture of it.

Back to my latest Lisa Gardner book, it's really good.  It's called "The Neighbor".  The library is running out of books on CD for me.  I think I've heard all the good mystery's.  If you know of a good one let me know.  I've done all the Stuart Woods, Lisa Scottline, Harlen Coban, James Patterson and Lisa Gardner books.  I love to bead and do clay and listen to books.  Try it, you'll like it.

POLYMER CLAY NURSING HOME

For the last year or so, I've been losing things, mostly things in my studio that I use for polymer clay.  I bought a set of Prisma Color pencils that I used for a class that I took a couple months ago with Debbie Anderson.  Spent hours looking for those pencils, never found them.  Last week after our clay guild meeting I lost my precious over-sized acrylic roller.  I always blame Evelyn for packing my things away.  I called to see if she had it and of course she didn't.  I found it a couple hours later in the box with my clay, I never put that in there.  Last night I was looking for a box of beads I thought I had and couldn't find it, I opened the box with my glitter in it and lo and behold, the Prisma Colors were under the glitter.  I believe it's time for me to go to the Polymer Clay Nursing Home.  If you are interested in putting your name on the list for the future, please let me know.  You won't be getting nursing home food, we will have pizza brought in a couple times a week and if any of us are still driving we'll get Subway sandwiches, chinese food, ice cream and chocolate.  During the day we'll be doing polymer clay and at night we'll be watching x-rated movies.  Evelyn and I will be sharing a room because we have matching furniture and then I can blame her for everything that's missing.

I finally finished my cat pendant.  It's like the one Rose bought me for my birthday that Lupe made but I put a seed bead necklace on it.  I put it in my Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/bleekreations store today.

This is my "Hot August Night" necklace.  I finally got a decent picture and I put this in my Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/bleekreations store also.

I just finished this last night.  It's a purple, silver, turquoise and brass polymer cabochon that I beaded around with brass seed beads.  The necklace is a twisted herringbone and a brass toggle.  I put this in my http://www.etsy.com/shop/bleekreations Etsy store today also even though I would have liked to keep it for myself.

It's 8:14 p.m. here in Arizona and I'm sure the polymer clay nurses will be coming with my medications pretty soon.  Hope they bring a chocolate martini to wash them down.

AMAZING KAY SMITH AND MOKUME GANE

Today the amazing Kay Smith (beading teacher at A2Z Beads in Glendale, AZ) came over for a polymer clay class and she brought all her beautiful beading items that she has made.  She's won many awards at the state fair for her bead work and I wish my pictures did them justice.  Check out her Etsy shop at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SunofaBead/.  You can contact Kay there for special orders but here are some of the gorgeous items I got to touch today.

They needed touching, they are so awesome.  Rose, Evelyn and Judy came over today to meet Kay and see her beadwork.  There were a lot of ooh's and aah's.

POLYMER CLAY TODAY YEAH!!!!

We did a lot of polymer clay today and Kay had taken a class a few years ago from THEE JUDITH SKINNER, Inventor of the Skinner Blend.  Kay had a cane she had made in the class and she gave me a piece which I was thrilled about and we took a couple pieces off the ends and I taught Kay how to make a swirly lentil bead.

This is the cane she made in the Judith Skinner class.

This is the swirly lentil bead we made with the Judith Skinner cane.  It hasn't been baked, sanded or buffed yet but I'm guessing it will be beautiful.

MOKUME GANE

This is one of my favorite techniques.  It's a technique where you layer and manipulate the clay.  There are many different ways of doing it and I've taken a class from Julie Picarello and she does beautiful Mokume Gane and has a little twist of her own, I've got Donna Kato's DVD where she does it and Lisa Pavelka's DVD where she does it and they are all different.  Every polymer clay book I have shows how to do Mokume Gane and they are all different.  Well, today I got my Barbara Maguire DVD in the mail showing how to do Mokume Gane her way and I love it.  She was out here last year and taught a class but I wasn't here to take it so I was very happy to find out she had this DVD out.  Even after doing clay all day I decided to give it a try.

Can't wait to bake, sand and buff these.  Looks like a new pendant and earring set to me.

Still have some pieces left that I'll play with when I'm not so tired.

SHIMMERING BATIK - BEADING WITH CABOCHONS - ANNIE

First of all I want to tell everyone who said a prayer for Annie that I appreciate it and so do her parents.  She's doing better but not out of the woods yet.  She will have to have surgery in about 3 weeks when she gets over the infection, but she's fighting.  She finally started drinking water and eating a little.  Annie says thanks.  I do too and I'm going to keep praying that she gets 100% better.  She's very special and now has a happy, loving home, a big brother and lots of dog friends who don't abuse her.

SHIMMERING BATIK BY TINA HOLDEN ALIAS BEADCOMBER

I mentioned the other night that I bought a tutorial from Tina Holden http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/   and I posted some pictures that weren't anything like what she put on her blog after doing the technique.  WELL, I missed two important parts when reading the tutorial.  DUH.  My pieces came out ok but not like Tina's pictures in the tutorial.  Last night I started over and did two sets with a couple different twists (colors) and won't say what they are because you have to buy Tina's tutorial to appreciate this.  I did want to post my pictures of what I finally came up with after reading and following directions.  I also used almost a full bottle of Magic-Glos on these and I still have more pieces to do but I ran out of sunlight.  I did get a lot of pieces out of each set and I'm thrilled about that.  I want to tell Tina I really love this technique and I probably won't get anything else done until I have couple hundred pieces like this.

I'm having a little camera problem tonight.  These are so much prettier in real life.  I'll put up pictures when I make jewelry with them and they are finished.

BEADING WITH CABOCHONS

A couple weeks ago a friend was here visiting and she is into beading now and does some beautiful work.  She had this book with her and it fascinated me.  She was beading around cabochons and showed me what she was doing.  I saw the cabs she was using and thought "I could make those out of polymer clay and bead around them that doesn't look hard".  Then I remembered what a great time I had trying to crochet with beads.  I think I invented some new swear words.  Good thing there is a lady on youtube that shows how to do that.  I bought the book and it's beautiful.

It's by Jamie Cloud Eakin.  Now I have another book and maybe someday I'll teach myself how to do that too.  Don't hold your breath.  I just like books.

Back to my clay and Lupe if you are reading this I want that necklace http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/.

Goodnight Annie, sleep well, we love you.