THANK YOU BEADUCATION

I mentioned the other day that I got an email from Beaducation http://www.beaducation.com/ saying I had won a $100 gift certificate.  I was thrilled.  I go to their website all the time because they have wonderful little tutorial videos about all kinds of jewelry making tips.  Today I was making earrings and my round nose pliers went goofy.  Instead of the tips being together they started crossing.  I've made 130 pairs of earrings in the past month.  $8.00 pliers don't cut it.  I went to Beaducation http://www.beaducation.com/ and ordered new German made tools.  I'm so excited.  Check them out.

POLYMER CLAY CROSS AND EARRINGS

I don't know how many times I've mentioned how much I love Penni Jo Couch's molds from http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/.  One of her molds is a Renaissance Cross and it has little crosses in the same mold.  I use many of my polymer clay canes to use in this mold.  I also use Magic Glos on them.  Some of them I drill a hole in the bottom and put beads in them. 

I just finished this one using the Mokume Gane that I showed in a previous blog.  This is going out to someone special for her special friend.  You can click on it and see it larger.  The good thing about her molds is, you can put them in soapy water and wash them to get out some of the old polymer clay.  I also spray a little Armour All in them when I use them and the pieces pop out and the Armour All doesn't hurt the clay.

MORE EARRINGS FOR JANE

This is three of the 14 pairs I made in the last two days.  I like the bottom ones, I think I'll have to make a pair for myself.

Today is my husband's birthday.  I bought him two pieces of cheese cake from the Cheescake Factory.  I've never seen such a happy guy.  White chocolate, macadamia, carmel and Dutch Apple Carmel.  I'm going to have to get him some elastic waist pants..  Why should I be the only one wearing those things????



FROM THIS TO THIS AND A FUN BIRTHDAY LUNCH

I've always loved cameos. This pendant is probably 70 years old.  It's missing the stone in the necklace.  It belonged to a dear friend who left it to me when she died about 30 years ago.

I bought some 2 part mold making silicone from Terry Morris at http://epoxyjewelry.com/ so I thought I would try it with this cameo.

This is the mold.  They don't need a release agent.  I need to clean up the top of the pendant with a blade.  The clay pendant came out a little distorted on the top.  Kind of like me. LOL

I have to make 18 pendants for my clay guilds swap but I don't think this is going to be it.

I used some black clay to make the pendant.  Sanded and Buffed it.  Not sure where the gold highlights are coming from.  I antiqued it in white and didn't like that result so I redid with burnt umber and a copper mix.

The paint in the outside holes isn't dry yet.  Might take a tooth brush to it when it's dry to make it less obvious.

Yesterday we took our friend Evelyn out for her birthday.  We went to the Borgata in Scottsdale (very phuphu).  We ate at an organic restaurant.  The food was very good but the place was kind of empty.  I gave Evelyn some fancy measuring spoons and a Michael's gift certificate.  Rose and Judy made her handmade gifts (I feel bad but she liked the Michael's card).

This is the beautiful necklace Judy made for her.  Don't you love my use of the dish for the picture?

This is the gorgeous bracelet Rose made for her.

I have an excuse, I've been sick for 2 weeks with a cold.  These girls sure do awesome work.

Hope my muse comes back so I can figure out what I'm going to do and do it 18 times.  LOL

BIRTHDAY LUNCH - LUCKY ME AND POLYMER PIECES

BIRTHDAY LUNCH

Even though it was a 109 today my friends Rose, Evelyn and Judy took me out for lunch for my birthday. It isn't till Sunday but this was the only day we could all get together.  We went to a wonderful restaurant called "Vogue Bistro".  That was my first time there and I loved it.  They have the best sweet potato fries I've ever had.  We had a great lunch and the waiter brought us a beautiful birthday desert.  I should have taken a picture of it.  It was four compartments and had chocolate coated macaroons, white chocolate coated dried fruit with macadamia nuts, white chocolate coated passion fruit and chocolate coated French wafers.  I don't want to eat again for a while.

I got some wonderful gifts (this is all leading to polymer clay) Evelyn gave me shoes to go walking in the water ( I guess she wants me to go to the pool again), a shirt with 2 cats on it, a container for my polymer clay and beading stuff and beads, Judy gave some special chalks to use on the new Tina Holden Honeycomb Tutorial http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/ that you can get the information for at her blog, Judy also made me one of her special bracelets out of canes that she has made and I'll post a picture of it when I get it back.  It needed one more bead.  Rose gave me a kitty stamp and a beautiful necklace.  She got the pendant from our friend Lupe at http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/ .  Lupe will be telling you all about it on her blog but Rose made the necklace part and put it together:

They all know I love cats and this necklace is gorgeous.  I think Rose and Lupe should team up and make jewelry although both of them make gorgeous pieces.

POLYMER CLAY AT LAST

I was gone 3 weeks and didn't get to do any polymer clay.  It's like not eating ice cream for a year.  Phooey, won't do that again.

I spent 3 days beading around a cabochon that I had done using the Barbara Maguire Mokume Gane technique.  I think it gave me a headache but it's done and I love it.

I made a short Herringbone necklace for it.  My camera still isn't taking good pictures but I should probably be taking pictures in the daytime.  I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can get a good one.

Next pieces are some Mica Shift that I was playing around with.  I actually bought the mica shift tutorial from Lynda Moseley http://www.scdiva.blogspot.com/ who does some incredible mica shift pieces.  As you can see I like to support the artists.  Here are my pieces.

I added a little of my own technique to the bottom ones.  Lynda does her with sanding and buffing.  I did sand these but then I put Magic Glos on them.

I had some leftover purple clay and some inks and other texture sheets.  As you can see I love those oval cutters and my new heart cutters with the tipped tail.

FLEXIBLE MOLDS

I've had a box full of flexible molds that I didn't do a lot with.  Last night I saw someone doing clay with flexible molds but not the way I had done it in the past.  I thought I would get them out and try the new way.  Looked interesting.  I have a Celtic cross mold and I know Evelyn likes those.  I made one and decided to make two more.  Now I know I was going about it all wrong and last night I finally did it right.

These came out beautiful even if I have to say so myself.  I used Magic glos on the middle part of the cross.  I used two coats, which I normally do.  I did the bails using the Cindy Lietz method http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ which you can find in her tutorials.  It worked wonderful.  Check out her website.  She sends tutorials every Friday and she is remarkable.  It's a really small fee to receive these tutorials but the learning experience from them is priceless.

These three crosses are now with Judy, Rose and Evelyn.  They got birthday presents from me.

Thanks girls for a wonderful lunch, great presents and a fun day.  I love you all.