THESE POLYMER CLAY BOWLS ARE GETTING TO BE AN OBSESSION

Making these bowls is really getting me crazy.  I love doing this.

The bowls in the picture above are for my sister and two nieces.  My sister wanted something with birds so I used the silk screen that came with the Sculpey kit to make that one for her.  She likes blue so the base of the bowl is blue and there are blue Swarovski crystal on it.  The top left was done with a stencil and the top right was done with scrap clay.  I really like that one and it can't be duplicated.

This is the back of the three bowls.  The top right was done with a texture sheet and the other two were done with the extra pieces of clay with the silk screen and stencil.  If you click on the pictures you can see them close up and see the details.

Every time I sit down at my table I say I'm going to do something else and then I end up making another ring dish.

I have a great niece that I absolutely adore.  She's 17 months old and so happy.  I made her this Minnie Mouse hat because that's who she reminds me of.

This was my poor Buster after the Packers lost Sunday.  He was so sad but he still loves them.  He's hoping they beat the Bears Thursday and that his mom quits putting hats on him.

LET'S GO GOLFING-------FORE

Many years ago a friend of mine bought me a very expensive golf stroke counter and it was made of plastic.  It was nice but my friend said "why don't you make some of these with your polymer clay beads?"  The first time I put them in my Etsy shop I sold 10 counters in a week and got orders for more.  For a while, I wasn't keeping up very well with my Etsy shop but I decided it was time to get back into it.  I sell the counters for $15 and shipping and I know with all the work I put into them I'm not making any money but if I raised the price, I wouldn't sell any either.

These are a few of the latest ones I put in my shop.  I make the beads, bake them, put three coats of glaze on them and bake them again.  Every counter has some glitzy beads on the bottom.  They can be used to keep track of how many times you walk around the block and how many times you let the dog out.  

Here's my Etsy Shop check it out.

I'm going golfing.

PEBEO AND CLAY, DOING IT MY WAY

Every year I try to make a few things to donate to the Oklahoma Clay Guild.  They do a lot of good work for the high school girls in Oklahoma.  This year I tried to do a few different things.

This is suppose to be Steampunk.  The heart is clay and the center is Pebeo and Magic Glos.

This is also polymer clay with Pebeo and Magic Glos.

The top heart was done with a Randee Ketzel tutorial,  The bottom key chain is a swirly lentil bead that's been sanded and buffed.

This is also done with the Randee Ketzel tutorial.  It's one of my favorite.

Now I need to clean off my work table and start making some canes and get more stuff in my Etsy store.

Thanks for stopping by.

I LOVE YOU AARON RODGERS, SEE YOU SOON.

The Green Bay Packers have been my favorite football team as long as I can remember.  I live in Arizona but my heart is in Wisconsin.  My brother lives in Florida but he's a Packer fan too and so his daughter and her boys.  She got an official Green Bay Packer shirt for Christmas and she asked me to make her some jewelry to go with it.

I made her these to go with her shirt.

And, I sent her the two sets on the left to go with her shirt.  The ones on the right I made for my friend who is an Arizona Cardinals fan.  Those didn't bring them much luck either.

I just finished this bracelet for her and will send it soon.

I made a discovery, at least for me.  I was looking for something on Amazon and found this stuff called Judi-Kins Fluxe.  It said it was a powder resin and you could bake it at 250 degrees.

This is what the bottle looks like.

Last week at clay guild my friend  Lupe Meter did a great demo using stencils, Pan Pastels, chalks, mica powders, etc.  I wanted to try what she was doing on black clay even though all I had was a little metal stencil.  I learned fast that you have to very careful after you use the Pan Pastels not to touch them.  They smear very easily.  Anyway, I made these earrings and baked them.  I found the bottle of Fluxe in the cabinet and thought I would try it.  I don't know if you can tell there is a resin like finish on these but I sure like it.  I dumped a bunch on each earring (it self levels), put them back in the oven at 250 and 10 minutes later I had a piece of polymer clay with a great looking gloss on the top.  I'm experimenting with more things right now to see how it works.  I did a couple metal bezels with glitter in them.  I just put another coat on and put them back in the oven.  Will update more later.

Gotta go get my boobs squished.  Yearly mammogram.  Hope they warmed the plate this time.

EXPERIMENTING WITH POLYMER CLAY AND PEBEO -----AGAIN!

As you know I love these Pebeo paints.  The result is a surprise every time I use them.

My sweet dentist that I made the crosses for in the previous post loved the pendant I made his assistant and he asked if I would make one for his wife.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of the one I gave her.  I decided I wanted to do a test with polymer clay and Pebeo again and make his wife a pendant like the one I made my friend only smaller.

Sorry the background looks dirty but these are still wet and I didn't want to touch them or move them.  If you look at the large football shaped pendant in the middle (click on the picture), you will see squares of texture coming through the paint.  I made the polymer clay base by running my sheet of clay which was done on the pasta machine on number 1 which is the largest setting on my machine.  I ran the clay through again on the number 1 with a thin rubber texture sheet.  

I got this from Shades of Clay many years ago and haven't seen them any where since.  It goes through the pasta machine so easy.  I doubled the clay in half so each side would have the squares and circles texture on it.  Pressed it together and then cut out the pendant shapes.  Since the bottom was flatter after I baked it, I put the paint on the bottom.  When I put the paint on I used a toothpick, I thought I put it on pretty heavy.  When I looked an hour later, I could see the circle starting to show through.  I was kind of surprised but I really liked the effect.  Once the paint is dry, I'll put Magic Glos on to protect them.  I usually do one of coat of Magic Glos, sand the edges and back and buff them and then put another coat of Magic Glos on.  I don't know if the texture will show through the Magic Glos or not.  I'll take some pictures when I'm done.  

I'M NOT A HOARDER

BUT, I do find things that I bought and forgot about.

I was looking for something the other day and found some Secret Compartment Key Chains that I forgot I had.  So, I put some clay on them and they will go in my Etsy shop.  I love these things for keeping pills or toothpicks in.  I keep my migraine pills in one and hang it on my purse.

I've had a migraine all day and it's been a really bad one.  I was laying back in the recliner on the couch and Buster

Came up and laid on me for an hour so I guess I got my cat scan today.  Didn't help the headache but made me feel better.

MORE IS MORE, LESS IS A BORE - MY NEW MOTTO

I've decided that I'm going to start being flamboyant.  Not that I was ever shy but as I'm getting older I seem to lean toward glitzy things.  So, when I over do something and it's too wild I'm just going to say it's from the new flamboyant muse side of me.  You are probably wondering where this is going.

I had mouth surgery two weeks ago and I still feel like there is a canyon in my mouth and helicopters are flying in and out.  My periodontist is one of nicest people I have ever met.  He's kind and caring and is very concerned about his patients.  When I am in his chair however, he starts every sentence with my name which at first I thought was a little strange but now I understand the man and that's just one of his great little quirks.  He belongs to a Christian church and he and his wife do a lot of charity work for people around Phoenix.  He collects clothes in his office for the homeless and they give a lot of their time to help homeless children.  He loves crosses and he's always finding one to give to the wife of the pastor also.  I had 4 wooden crosses here that I haven't done anything with and I was going to put polymer clay on them but the Pebeo paints were sitting there and those things are always calling my name.  SO:

Here are the 4 crosses that I made him.  Most of them I painted over at least twice sometimes 3 times because I didn't like the color or the paint.  They all now have a base paint of Pebeo Moon.  The top one looks like it has wet flour on it but it's white with moon rock which is kind of silver.  The Pebeo paints did something strange when I put them on the cross.  They pulled into the middle and no matter how much I tried to stretch them back across, they still pulled into the middle so I left them that way.  If he doesn't like them he can give them to the pastor's wife.  I was going to glue little animal buttons to the plain blue one but changed my mind.  Might do one of those for myself since I'm the animal lover.

NOW, you have to see this.  My friend Lupe Meter came over yesterday and brought me a salad from Kneaders.  It was awesome.  While she was here I gave her a half of a block of the new Premo Opal clay.  I should have given her the whole thing.  Lupe is working on a faux abalone project with polymer clay and what she has done is incredible.  Check out her blog:

Lupe Meter

I didn't want to copy the pictures because you have to see the whole blog to appreciate what beautiful work she does.  She really inspires me.

Thanks for visiting, I'll let you know what the doctor says about the crosses.  He's so nice he would say he liked them even if he didn't.  Time to get this helicopter out of my tooth.

HERE'S MY HEARTS

Last Saturday a woman from Beads of Courage visited our Arizona Polymer Clay Guild meeting.  The Beads of Courage program is our charity that we support. Beads of Courage Needs You click here to find out more about the program.  Every child who goes through a procedure like chemo, or giving blood or surgery gets a necklace and they get a bead for every procedure.  Most large city hospitals have this program so you should check with your local hospitals to see if they need donations.  If not, contact the Beads of Courage on the web site.

The picture on the top is of polymer clay heart pendants that I made to donate.  They aren't exactly beads but the heart pendants are going to be given to some of the mother's and to the nurses who are involved in the program.

 The second picture of heart pendants were also made with polymer clay but then I covered them with Pebeo paint and Magic Glos.

This was another heart that I made and gave to my friend for her birthday.

I have been looking all over for the new Premo clay.  The only place I found them was at Sunny Day Crafts http://www.sunnydaycrafts.com/ and I get most of my clay from them because of the price, and I usually get my shipments in 2 to 3 days so I know it hasn't been sitting on a hot truck in Arizona for 4 days before I get it.  Their shipping prices are reasonable and they really package it well.  Unfortunately, they are out of the new clay colors right now but keep checking with them or ask them to send you an email when they come in.

The outer edge of the pendant on the left is made entirely of Premo White Glitter Clay.  This was an experiment that I did.  When you add glitter to clay and try to cut it, the blade usually drags and you are taking a chance of scratching your pasta machine depending on what type of glitter you use.  This clay does not drag, it works easy in the hands and the results to me were great.  The other thing I did by accident was mix some with another Premo color and I was left with beautiful purple glitter clay so I can make my own colors and add this clay to it.  In the top picture there is a black swirl heart.  That has a little of the new Premo Opal, white glitter and yellow glitter in it.  The opal clay does have pieces in it so you need to be careful how you cut it and use it.

I love this clay.  I sanded and buffed both of these pendants and the colors didn't change in the glitter clay.  The pendant on the right has Premo Yellow Glitter Clay in it.  I also bought Premo Rose Glitter which is so pretty in the package I can't wait to use it.  It looks to me like the base of the clay is translucent with a special glitter that is dense and sands and buffs really well.

If you find out some where else where the new Premo clay is being sold let me know.

WHAT WILL IT BE??????

My Godson and his wife are going to have their first baby in April which means my sister will be a grandmother for the first time.  They decided that they didn't want to know whether it was a boy or girl so it's difficult to buy a gift unless it's yellow or green.  Well, my sister is having a shower for them so I said I would make little "Take Homes".  Little did I know she was going to have 45 people there.  The theme of the shower is HEARTS in pastel colors since it's near Valentines Day.

So, I ended up making 50 files with pink, blue, yellow, green and white hearts on the different backgrounds and putting Swarovski crystals in them and on the black case.  When I got done with those I had all that pastel clay left over so I kept going.

I made 50 hearts with bears on them using Penni Jo Couches mold.  I had ordered some baby charms that I was going to put on the bottom but ended up putting them in the hands of the bears.

Thank goodness for a motor for my pasta machine because my arm is still sore and cranking that pasta machine with all that clay would have done me in.

A couple weeks ago I was at our hospital and stopped in the gift shop.  They had so much wonderful baby stuff.  While I was looking, the lady working in there came up and showed me this bear.  It talks, I started crying and of course the bear went home with me.  I also had to buy a pair of baby pants that said "I POOD" on the back.  They fit the bear.  The bear talks to the new baby and welcomes it to the world and tells the baby how important family is.  I can't wait till my sister sees it, I know she will cry.  I made it an ear warmer and I'm knitting a baby blanket that I will wrap it in when I send it so they can open it at the shower.

My favorite thing about this bear is at the end.  He says we all come with the label that says

'HANDMADE BY GOD".

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.

I'M WATCHING YOU AGAIN

I asked everyone who took the face cane class if they still had the instructions to just make the eye.  I can't find mine and neither can the 5 people that I asked.  So, I thought I would look at the pictures from the class and see if I could recreate what we did.  I tend to take a lot of pictures when we have classes or demos.  Now I know why.  So, I got out my clay, AND;

now I have 3 feet of cane because this one will get reduced down to about a 1/4 of an inch in order to use it on my pens.  I wish the eyelashes would have been thicker but I found out that you can use a Sharpie marker to darken and lengthen them and it doesn't come off after it's baked and sanded.  I tried it with one pen and it worked great.

The one on the left is a Kumihimo pen, the two in the middle were made with left over eye and mouth cane.  The second one from the right which is my favorite was made from pieces of a braided cane that I made and the one on the right is from a silver, white and translucent Mokume Gane.  I get these magnets from Stateside Bead Supply.  They are so strong the refrigerator comes out when you pull on it.  I love them for bracelets but  I found they pick up the silverware if you have one on while you are eating.

Had to put pictures of Buster in too.  He runs through the tube and then pushes the ball around.  He cracks me up.  However, he was doing this at 3 in the morning so I had to get up and turn the ball thing over.

Have a great Thanksgiving and don't forget to turn your scales back 10 pounds.

PLEASE FINISH ME!

The other day I opened a box that was on the shelf in my studio.  It scared me half to death.  All the little pendants on the inside started yelling "FINISH ME, FINISH ME".  So I took them out and took out my beading board and put them on one at a time and told them I would do the best I could to finish them.  After two hours I had every bead I owned, every crimp, crimp cover, chain, toggle and 4,000 feet of wire on my table.  Does this happen to just me?  I still have 3 boxes full of pendants and pieces that need finishing, my office looks like an explosion and I can't find the top of my work table but I did manage to finish some things.

Love this heart made from the Randee Ketzel tutorial.

This is Mr. October.

Husband approved this one.

I love this one.  Another one from the Randee Ketzel tutorial.

Purple and turquoise, my favorite color combination.

I hear more pendants calling me.  

Maybe it's just the voices in my head or it could be a sinus infection.  Now, if I can find the top of my work table it will be a wonderful day.

MEMORY BEADS (Continued)

I made this cross for my brother in law from the rose petals from his mother's funeral.

I embedded the petals in pearl clay.  The Celtic cutter is about 4 inches long so I laid sheets that I textured on the top and bottom before I cut through it to make it thicker.  I baked the cross and then made the base the same way.  I embedded the cross in the base with a generous helping of Genesis to make sure it stuck and then baked it.  It's antiqued with gold iridescent paint.

I made a stamp on the back that says 1913 to 2014.  It's very tiny and I had a little trouble with the paint in order for the numbers to be seen.  You can see the rose petals in the clay in this picture.

I put the petals in a glass jar and they sure do have  strong odor.

The lavender beads in these bracelets are made with translucent clay and rose petals.  That's the color that the clay turned from the rose petals.