BRACELET GIVEAWAY "IT WILL BE MINE" TEE HEE HEE

Cat at "In The Light of The Moon"  http://inthelightofthemoon.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway.  It's a gorgeous bracelet and I can feel it around my wrist now.  If you think you can win it (but you won't) go to her website and leave her a comment and post her giveaway on your blog.  You are wasting your time but go ahead.

You have to go to her website and see her new piece called "Let Art Light The Way".  It's a magnet and she uses things I would never have dreamed of.

JANIE'S JEWELS AND MY NEW FAVORITE MOKUME GANE

JANIE'S JEWELS ARE FINALLY DONE

Two weeks ago I made a black and white flower cane and radical zebra cane and combined the two to make Zebra flower cane beads.  Put some in the naughty tumbler and they came out yellow.  I worked on those little suckers for 3 days trying to get the yellow out.  Where's Mr. Clean when you need him?  I put them in bleach for 2 days, didn't work, I soaked them in Ivory soap didn't work, finally had to sand every little ugly bead.  Got tired of looking at them.  Today they are bracelets and earrings and will be going to Wisconsin to my friend Jane to give to her friends.  I can still see a little yellow but Jane is 95 and her friends are 85 so I'm letting them travel and I'll tell her it must have been the HEAT.

I had enough beads left to make myself a bracelet which is on the right.  The one on the left was made using the Cindy Lietz extruder tutorial at http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/.  If you don't belong to her weekly tutorials you are missing out big time.  The blog is wonderful.  People on the blog are so willing to share anything and everything which to me is what truly makes an "ARTIST".  One of the girls asked me to post pictures of my glass engraving that I do.  Polymer has taken over so much of my life I don't spend much time engraving anymore even though I have two closets full of glass.  In my previous life (before polymer clay) I taught glass engraving.  I guess I need to get back to that but I have about 200 pounds of clay and 400 boxes of beads that need to be made into something.  OH BOY.  Don't tell my husband.

ONE MORE BATCH OF SHIMMERING GOLD MOKUME GANE

I thought I would do one more batch of Barbara Mc Guire's Shimmering Gold Mokume Gane but I wanted to do a bigger batch.  WELL, little did I know that I would get 100 pieces out of what I made.  I got the main pieces, the little pieces for earrings, I used the end pieces for beads and even had enough left over to make spacer beads.  I tweaked the recipe a little, OK, a lot.  And now I have 80 pieces to sand and buff.  I used Magic-Glos on the bigger pieces and the ovals I sanded and buffed and the beads I put in the tumbler for two days.  I LOVE THEM.  But I don't want to BUFF NO MORE.

These are the ones with Magic-Glos.

These are the beads made with end and leftover pieces that were in the tumbler and then hand buffed.

These pieces were hand sanded and buffed.  The piece on the left with the Chinese lady frustrated me to no end.  I used a Lisa Pavelka water slide on that one before it was baked.  I coated the water slide with Fimo liquid clay.  I usually use Kato but in her DVD she uses Fimo.  I apparently missed a teeny tiny spot and when I sanded it, it turned white.  I'm going to try putting some permanent marker on it and then Magic-Glos and see what happens.

I'm still not happy with the camera.  It has a mind of it's own when it comes to changing background colors.  I'm sure it's operator error.  Might be time to get the book out again.

VIKING KNIT, MIGRAINE BALLS, THE GIRL'S PRETTY STUFF

Last Saturday at our clay guild meeting one of our ladies did a demo on Viking Knit.  Like I needed to learn something new and buy more toys.  OH YES I DO!!!!!  It didn't take.  I could not get it going Saturday and I was frustrated.  I think the dowel I was using was too little.  Went to Ace and bought two new dowels.  3/16th's and 5/8ths.  Today I pulled out the instructions and started over and by cracky (as Grandma Kettle used to say) I got it.  I used some crappy wire and it was 24 gauge instead of 28 which was much easier because it didn't kink so much.  When I got home my new Drawplate that I ordered from the Soft Flex company was there so I could pull the chain I made through it.  I'M SO HAPPY.  Doesn't take much to entertain me!!!

My new Drawplate, dowel and my first piece of Viking Knit.  Now I'm going to try with good wire.

MIGRAINE BALLS

I've had 3 migraines this week.  Monday's was a killer.  Couldn't move.  We still don't know what causes them but I am chemical sensitive.  Can't be around perfume or aftershave but Pinesol doesn't bother me.   Go Figure.

Anyway, when I have headaches I like to do clay because it relaxes me.  I like taking old canes and making beads, just plain round beads.  I do use a lot of them when I make golf stroke counters.  This is just a small amount of the MIGRAINE BALLS I made this week.  Some are buffed and all have been in the tumbler.  I'm having tumbler problems this week but I did get 90 beads done.

My girlfriend said her migraines stopped after she had a baby.  I told her I'm too old for that and would forget where I put it.

THE GIRL'S PRETTY STUFF

Some of my friends are doing beautiful polymer clay pieces.  I wanted to show case them since a couple of them don't blog or sell on Etsy.

The first one is Lupe of http://miramecreations.blogspot.com/.  She makes beautiful pendants,  please visit her Etsy shop she has a big sale going on now.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/miramecreations/.

These pictures don't do her pendants justice.  I think I need a new camera.

The second one I'm highlighting is Evelyn.  You've probably heard me talk about Evelyn. She's a sweetheart.  She has wet macular degeneration and has trouble seeing but she does awesome polymer clay work.  At the May guild meeting we made Christi Friesen pendants and Evelyn went bonkers.  I love these.  If you want to buy one, contact me.

Click on the picture if you want to see them up close.

The next is Rose, she's my bright, cheerful and any color goes girl.  Isn't this bracelet gorgeous?  Love those pendants too.  Rose does gorgeous bead work and loves to help and teach other people.  

OK, OK, OK

I did a couple things week besides make migraine balls.  I bought the Barbara McGuire tutorial DVD called Shimmering Gold Mokume Gane http://www.barbaramcguire.com/1video.html.  It's 30 minutes long and comes with pictures and written instructions.  I put some pictures on the blog the other day of pieces I did before baking, sanding and buffing.  I love this technique, it never turns out the same.  I wore this neck piece and earrings today and everyone loved them.  Guess I better get back to the buffer and get some more done.  Thanks Barbara.

I think a new camera is in order.  Please let me know which one I should get.  This one's ok for traveling because it's small but not good for this kind of picture taking.

I know there are a bunch of you who take beautiful pictures for Etsy and your blog.  Help me.

AWESOME GIVEAWAY - THE BEST BEAD GIVEAWAY EVER

The Best Bead Give-A-Way Ever!
 
I have never seen a giveaway like this.  You have to go to Denise Yezbak Moore's blog to see this, it's incredible.  It's http://deniseyezbakmoore.blogspot.com/.  I'm going to win this but you can try if you want.

Denise is a jewelry designer who owns Rusty Roxx Jewelry. She is frequently published in "Stringing" Magazine. Her design have also been seen in "Best of Stringing", "Best of Stringing - Stones", "Bead Star" 2009, Bead Unique, Bead Style, Bead Trends and Jewelry Affaire. Future publications include "Stringing" Summer & Fall 2010 and "Bead Trends" June, July, August, September, October & November 2010. Denise will also be published in an upcoming issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry. She Lives in Yorba Linda, CA with her husband Rusty and their two children Garrett and Britton.

Thanks Denise

Please check out her blog and see all the beautiful items on there and her gorgeous blog.

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.