ELEVEN DAYS AND COUNTING - STILL NOT CHRISTMAS

My studio/office has finally hit "DISASTER AREA" status.  Normally my 8 foot table is clean because I do beading on one side and polymer clay on the other.  I have 25 plastic, divided cases that I keep my big beads in and a 6 drawer cabinet that has my seed beads in.  Since I've been working furiously to get things done for the craft fair, I am now in total chaos.

I normally wouldn't show this picture but I thought my BFF's could use a laugh.  They usually rave about how clean and organized I am when they come over.  Wait till they see this.  I have a great rolling chair so I just roll back and forth to where ever I need to work.  I also have a CD player on this table.  I listen to books while I'm working.  Our library needs some new books.  I think I've heard them all.  I just can't remember which ones I've listened to and sometimes I bring the same ones home.


At least I finished two more pieces today.

This is a crystal, glass heart that I didn't know what I was going to do with.  I've had it a long time and it was on a cheap rope.  The heart is really beautiful.  I like it with the turquoise and silver, hope it sells.

The large bead is polymer clay that I did in the ribbon weave pattern.  The gold and black beads are vintage pieces.  A friend gave me her aunts jewelry after her aunt passed and there was a lovely necklace that I took apart and used on some other pieces.  These are two of the beads from the necklace.  Can't decide if I want to leave it this way or add another chain from the middle of the top to the two side chains.  What do you think?  The top seems kind of lonely.

I knew this fair was coming 3 months ago.  What was I thinking?

DRUNKEN BUTTERFLYS - SUTTON SLICES - CRAFT FAIR

My friend Judy's husband is on a long job in Chicago and she's really been getting into clay and beading.  She came over Friday so we could see if we could make the Cindy Lietz http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ butterfly wing cane.  The canes we made were pretty big compared to Cindy's, the colors changed after we baked them and our butterfly's look like they had been in the Jack Daniels.  Judy's is cute, mine will never be seen by the public.

Since I took this picture, Judy added a Swarovski necklace to her and she looks much better.  LOL  She also sanded and buffed it.  Cindy, we are going to try again.  Judy keeps watching the video to see what we did wrong.  Join Cindy Lietz's Friday video group.  It's great.  You will never find another polymer clay tutor that offers so much for such a reasonable rate.  Click on the website above and check out all the fabulous tutorials that Cindy teaches.

SUTTON SLICE TECHNIQUE

These are two sheets of Sutton slice that I did Friday.  Not sure what I'm going to do with them yet.

This is one of Judy's Sutton slices done with Fimo glitter clay on black.

This is Judy's other Sutton slice done with left over pieces from her butterfly cane.  I can't wait to see what she does with them.

SUN CITY WEST CRAFT FAIR

Yesterday was the Sun City West Craft Fair.  Everyone worked really hard but it sure is obvious there is a problem with the economy.  People were looking for inexpensive items for holiday gifts.  Our beading club had the most beautiful displays and gorgeous items.  We didn't do as well this year as we did last year.  People loved all the polymer clay jewelry that Rose, Judy and Evelyn made but they didn't buy a lot.  It sure is hard to tell what's going to sell now. 

Last but not least.  Met this guy last week at a sports fair.  Just as they put him out and he was surrounded by people, he turned his back on everyone and peed all over the floor.  I just thought that was pretty funny.  LOL

CHOCOLATE WHAT CHOCOLATE

I AM A CHOCOHOLIC AND ALL MY FRIENDS KNOW IT.

My friend Evelyn bought me this shirt the other day and said "It's Perfect".  Yes it is.  I have a cat who loves to eat and I love chocolate and here's the perfect shirt.

SPEAKING OF CAT

I got my new camera last week and I absolutely love it.  When I was trying to learn how to use it I told Booboo he needed to pose for me so I could take his picture.  He walked over, looked up and smiled until I snapped the picture but at least he still sat there.

Now you know why I get all these cat gifts.

Did you notice the writing on the pictures?  My friend Lupe told me about Picasa which is a free download from google that you can use to fix your pictures.  You can crop, add light, write on them, put a watermark on them and do all kinds of fun stuff.  I love it.  Thank's Lupe.  Now I can quit moaning about my camera and pictures.

NDEBELE (HERRINGBONE) STITCH

I love doing Ndebele ropes to go with my polymer clay focal beads.  I normally do a 4 bead rope which goes pretty fast.  I've done them with Delica beads and size 11 seed beads.  My favorite herringbone is the twisted herringbone.  I found a swirly lentil bead that I had done with some left over clay and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.  Last night I finished it and today put the toggle on it.  I love these toggles.  If they accidentally slide to the front, it doesn't matter because they are so decorative.  I'm thinking about giving this away on my blog but haven't decided yet.  Let me know if you would like this.

I showed it to my husband and he said I should have put some copper or brown beads in it too so it would match the pendant.  He's the guy who can't match shirt and pants most days.  Guess I better check with him next time to make sure the colors are good.  LOL.

That's it for today folks.  I'm off to beading club and then coming home to do clay.  Next week my clay guild is going up to Prescott, AZ for 4 days to do clay.  We are staying at a camp that is suppose to have wonderful food and CHOCOLATE.  Sounds like another 5 pounds to me but at least I'll learn a lot of new things, get to laugh for 4 days and spend time with a lot of wonderfully talented people.

NEW FRIEND, NEW CABOCHON, GIFTS FOR THE TRIP

I'm going to start with the cabochon.  This was a piece from the Shimmering Batik that I did but I added some glitter to this batch.  I cut out some pieces and wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  I decided I wanted this piece to be a beaded cabochon.  I just finished it and my eyes are about done for.  This is only my 3rd beaded cab.  I love doing it and I wish my camera would break so I could get a new one and take better pictures.  Maybe if I accidentally drop it on the floor.  LOL.  I need help.  I can't decide what to put it on.  I had it on wire, didn't like that, had it on satin, didn't like that, someone please tell me what this would look good on.  The beads are actually a brass color.  Maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture of it outside where it is now 114 degrees.

NEW FRIEND

I made a new friend who is just starting into polymer clay.  Her name is Lorrie and she does beautiful glasswork.  We had that in common as I used to do glass engraving until polymer clay and beading took over my life.  Anyway, Lorrie just set up a blog and she has pictures of her beautiful glass on her blog.  I have her blog on my list of blogs I follow so you can go to her blog from there but I wanted you to see some of her glass work. http://lorriesglassart.blogspot.com/ so just click on here.  I was going to post a picture of her glass but I can't get a good copy.

POLYMER CLAY FUN

I finally finished some pieces that I did.  Have about 1000 more sitting here waiting to be something.

Swirly lentil bead earrings made with the black and white flower cane and some leftover yellow clay.

Left over clay from one of the Shimmering Batik pieces.  I love making swirly lentil beads.  I go to Barb Farjardo's blog quite often just to look at her beautiful beads and she has a great tutorial there too.

This is a Natasha bead made with the leftover clay that was on my work table before I put it all away to start beading that cabochon.  This looks to me like a Santa Claus with a yellow beard.  There are cats eye on the back of it.

I've sanded and buffed this bead till I'm blue in the face and now I don't know what I want to do with it.  It's about 3 inches long and weighs about 20 pounds.

GIFTS FOR MY TRIP

I won't be blogging for 3 weeks after next Saturday.  I'm leaving for a week in Wisconsin and 2 weeks in Illinois to visit my sister and mother.  We are going to Branson for a week and then to the beautiful lakes in Wisconsin again.  Hope the mosquitoes are gone before I get there.  Anyway, I started beading some bracelets to give as gifts to my friends at home.  I should of had 10 done by now but I'm a little behind.  Here are the first two.

The picture on the right is the back of the second picture.  Guess they can be worn either way.

I am going to throw that camera on the floor.  It used to take good pictures but now it has a mind of it's own.  I'm sure it couldn't be operator error could it????????????????????????

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.

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

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.

POLYMER CLAY EXPERIMENT, GIVEAWAY AND SCARF FOR SOLDIERS AND ANNIE NEEDS A PRAYER

I bought the tutorial called Batik and Shimmering from Tina Holden at http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/.  It's a wonderful technique but I screwed it up somehow.  My friend Lupe at http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/ did a beautiful job and made a pendant that she is giving away but don't bother commenting because I'm going to win it.

I did the same technique but I think I used too many inks.  Here are my beads that I did.

Each one of these pictures has a story.

These are the original sheets of clay I made.  I think too much ink.

After I baked them I tried doing the technique where you put liquid clay on them, let them level and then bake them for 12 minutes at 325.  The back of the clay burned, the large bead got too plastic looking.  I peeled the liquid off.

These have Magic-Glos on them.  As you can see, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I used my new stamp pads on them before I baked them.  I am a mad scientist at heart.

These also have been stamped.  Some of them have liquid polymer clay on them and the two bottom right ones have a resin coat on them that I just got in the mail.  One step UV resin.  No mixing.  I have to sand the sides and bottom and it's a little thinner consistancy than Magic-Glos.  Going to take some practice with that.

These also have the ink stamped on them and they have a layer of Magic-Glos around the outer edge.  Tina Holden suggests this as a way to stop the Magic-Glos from pulling in.  I'll finish them tomorrow now that the taxes are done.

SOFTENING OLD CLAY AND CANES

Found some old canes that didn't want to soften up and I couldn't decide what I wanted to do.  Had to buy a new coffee carafe today and saw this at the hardware store and remember reading that someone used this to soften their clay and canes.  It's a Mr. Coffee mug warmer.  I'll put a piece of cloth on it and put the clay on to warm it up. 

SCARVES FOR THE MEN IN IRAQ

 

I told you I was crocheting a scarf for my club that will be donated to the 282nd Battalion in Iraq.  Well, they gave me the yarn and I mentioned it was 100% wool.  I got the yarn Friday and not realizing it, every time I worked on the scarf, I got a severe headache.  Finally figured out what the cause was and had to put a mask on to finish the scarf.  Either I'm allergic to the wool, the oils in the wool or it sat on a shelf or in a warehouse where there was mold and mildew.  I finished the scarf and sprayed it with that new Febreze.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, ANNIE NEEDS SOME PRAYERS

I know you all remember Annie the little Yorkie that my friends adopted right before Christmas.  She is 6 years old and came from a drug home where they raised pit-bulls for fighting.  Annie held her own but needed lots of food and lots of love.

This is a picture I took of Annie this past Sunday.  She was very lethargic and wasn't eating.  I held her for almost an hour.  My friends took her to the vet yesterday morning and Annie has a severe uterine infection and sepsis.  She's been given some major antibiotics but she's so small, she's really fighting.  She had tremors and was crying because the pain was so bad.

PLEASE SAY A LITTLE PRAYER FOR ANNIE.

GOLF STROKE COUNTER INFORMATION FOR LINDA AND CAROLYN

These are the latest ones that I did.  One I did with all polymer clay beads and the rest I put in the beads that I bought at Michael's.  Sometimes the holes in those are too big and they don't stay up so I put a little glue in them or wrap wire around them.  The beads must not fall by themselves or the counter won't be any good.

Girls (ladies) if you click on the picture it will show you a close up.  The beads on the far right have wire wrapping on them to make sure they stay up when the bead under them is pulled down.  You can see the new swivel lobster claws I put on them from the url I mentioned in our conversation from El at Tantalizing Stitches at http://bagnsupplies.com/.  She ships fast and 5% of your purchase is donated to animal charity and you know how I feel about animals.  Thanks El for that.

This is the Amy 2mm Macrame cord that I told you about.  You could probably use others but I like this.  I usually cut about 16 to 18 inches sometimes less and use that for the counter.

These are the two drills I use for the beads.  On the left is 5/64ths and the right is 1/8th which is the perfect size for the Amy cord.  Don't start your hole with the 1/8th right away.  Work your way up or the bead will crack.  Save all the little shavings and roll them into some translucent clay for a wild effect.

Let me know if you need anything else.  Maybe you two should come to Arizona and we can have a clay weekend.

SCARVES FOR OUR FORCES IN IRAQ

I belong to a club here in Sun City West that does a lot of charity work.  A couple months ago the Cave Creek, Arizona American Legion adopted a batalion that is over in Iraq.  They asked if someone could make them scarves and hats because it does get cold in the desert over there.  Our club volunteered to do this.  So far, I've made 4 scarves and 3 hats.  They are only allowed to have pure wool and the scarves have to be 12 inches wide and 42 inches long so they can be tucked into their pants.  They have to be pure wool in case of fire.  Wool does not burn the skin.  I started this scarf this morning.  It's suppose to be single crochet which is very boring and takes forever but we found out we could do a double crochet every few rows.  Now I've finished almost a foot in the small amount of time that I've been working on this and I still only have 4 inches of the bead crochet I've been working on.  GO FIGURE.

It looks pretty boring but if it keeps one of our people in Iraq warm I'll make 100 more.  This yarn is pricey.  We have been able to use Joann and Michael's coupons to buy it which helps a lot.  I bought some at Hobby Lobby but could only use one coupon.  When we send this back, the paper work from the yarn has to be wrapped around the scarf.  That's how important it is to them to make sure it's wool.

WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER

My friend Lupe from  http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/ won another giveaway.  I think this is number 4 or 5 just in the last month.  Please go to her blog and see the latest pieces that she has done, they are gorgeous.  Talk her into giving away some of her pieces but she needs to give them to me LOL./

If I don't blog again, have a Happy Easter and eat lots of jelly beans.