CLAY GUILD CANE EXCHANGE

This past Saturday at our February clay guild meeting we had a cane exchange.  There were 12 of us that participated.  Some of us were seasoned (can't say older) clayers and some were brand new clayers.  It was fun to see all the different canes.  Now I have to decide what to do with them.

 

These are all the canes I received.  In my last blog I put up a picture of the ones I made.

 

 

 

I made big ones so I could cut them in half.  The one on the top right was a combination of a split cane and a barbed wire cane.  I used the ends to make pendants.

 

The top two on the right are the ends of the cut cane pieces pushed together.  They have Future on them.  The three hearts and two footballs have Magic Glos on them.  Love these colors, now I just have to figure out what I did.  I always say I'm going to write down what colors I use to make a cane and take pictures as I do it.  I listen to books on my Ipad while I'm doing clay and I get so involved I forget to write things down and take pictures.  I should write myself a note to do that but I would probably lose the note.  Getting old is not for the weak.

 

This is a picture of the heart pendant, bracelet and texture sheet that I sent to Tina Holden when we had our Polymer Clay facebook swap.  I stole the picture she put on facebook since she had all three pieces in one picture.  This was my first texture sheet.  It's too thick and too deep so I told Tina she could use it to feed the birds up in Canada.  LOL 

The large heart on the left is attached to a beaded Kumihimo key chain with hearts.  The bracelet is a Shambala bracelet made with the same flower cane that is in the center of the heart.

 

 

I GOT BEAUTIFUL HEARTS FOR VALENTINES DAY

Yesterday I got a wonderful package in the mail from Tina Holden who was my swap partner in the hearts and texture sheets International Polymer Clay Swap.  Aren't these beautiful?

I love the texture on the one on the left and those are my colors.  The one on the right looks just like my sister.  She loves blue, green and silver and she's tiny.  What's amazing is that I sent her a silver chain for Christmas and it will look beautiful with this heart on it.  I hope Tina doesn't mind if I share but no one is touching the bronze one except me, me, me. LOL

Along with the beautiful hearts I got two texture sheets that Tina made.

 

These are so nice compared to the one I sent her.  They are nice and thin and flexible, I love them.  As soon as Tina gets my package I'll post what I sent her.  It takes 2 weeks to get a package to and from Canada and 5 days to Europe.  I don't understand that.

 

 

GUILD CANE SWAP

 

This Saturday our clay guild is having a cane swap.  There are 12 of us participating so we needed to make 11 canes. They have to be 3 inches by 3/4 or 1 inch.  I agonized about what kind of canes to make.  Normally I don't have a problem but I had clay problems.  It was either too hard or too soft and mushy.  I leached some clays and put Mold Maker in the others to soften them.  Here's the results:

 

 

 

I made some beads out of the ends of the electric looking ones and I really like them.  I'll post the ones I get in return, we have some really talented ladies in our guild and I'm sure what I get back will be awesome.  Going to make some earrings from the beads from the electric canes.

 

Back to work, have to keep up with BJ from Knightwork, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  LOL

A NEW TOY AND I NEED HELP

I got a new toy this week and I just set it up and used it.  I'm a happy girl because it works great, so far.

This is the new Walnut Hollow extruder vice.  As you can see it also works with the Makins extruder.

 

 

It clamps to the table really well.  The head swivels so you can adjust the direction of the extrusion.

 

It has padded grips to hold the extruder.  We had to do a few minor adjustments but nothing hard or complicated.  My left hand isn't red and sore from holding the extruder while I crank it but it still makes noise.  No big deal.  I like it, I'm going to keep it.  I got this one on Amazon for about $23.

 

 

I NEED HELP

 

Yesterday I went on a bus trip to Tucson to the Gem and Mineral show.  I have a disease when it comes to beads and polymer clay stuff.

 

 

I went a little over board on the findings but I got them cheap.  These should last me a couple years.  LOL

 

 

This is half of the beads I bought.  I found a place to store the other half but these are homeless for now.  Where is that Bead Psychiatrist?

 

On To Polymer Clay

 

I was so happy I got to say hello to Christi Friesen.  She was doing a class but I interrupted her.  I was wearing a butterfly that I made in one of her classes a couple years ago.  I think I had 100 people stop me and ask about it.

I have this on a large chain and it was amazing how much attention this got.  I'm waiting for Christi's new book to come in the mail.  It's called Flourish.  I forgot to bring her cheesecake.  I'm in trouble.

 

Next Stop

 

Our next stop was at the Windmill where Lisa Pavelka was.  And yes, I am now the Official Queen of having the most flexible texture sheets.

 

 

Lisa was selling new ones that I didn't have, we ran across a company that had new ones of Helen Breil that I didn't have and when I got home there was a package from Shades of Clay with texture sheets that I forgot I ordered.  So I got 11 new texture sheets yesterday.  Yippee.  Where's the Polymer Clay Psychiatrist?

 

Isn't there a saying that the man that dies with the most toys is the winner????????

 

I don't want to be him, I just want to go clay and bead and use all my new toys.  I must say I sure supported the economy yesterday.  I do have to tell you that I share all the things I have with my friends and the girls I teach clay to so everything gets put to good use.

 

Wednesday I taught a class in which we used leafing.  Today I unpacked my carrier and put everything away.  I made myself breakfast and when I looked down there was a piece of silver leafing on my toast.  My thumb was covered with it.  Guess I should be more careful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HEART AND TEXTURE SHEET SWAP

As I wrote in my last blog, I joined Tina Holden's International Polymer Clay Swap Group at the last minute.  I was so lucky to get Tina as my partner was my first thought.  Then as I started to make the heart and the texture sheet I asked myself "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING".  Tina Holden is the like the utmost master at polymer clay and so are some of the other people on the list of swap people.  I had one of those moments when I wished my computer would have crashed before I had a chance to do this.  I've been looking at blogs from some of the other people that are doing this like Betty Jo Hendershot at Knightwork's Playing With Clay. She posted some pictures of texture sheets she made.  Well, I hope Tina has a sense of humor when she gets my package.  I went to the post office yesterday and the guy gave me a headache and I was already nervous.  The package is on it's way to Canada and maybe with a little luck a Canadian Goose will steal it when it hits the ground.  My texture sheet is so thick she can use it to feed the birds in the winter.  I don't like making clay texture sheets.  My brain just stops.  The heart may save me but I'll soon find out.  Tina, please have a glass of wine or two before you open the box I sent you.

ARTHRITIS

My grandmother's hands were so arthritic she was told to move to Florida and put her hands in the hot sand every day.  She did that and it helped a little but she was always in pain when it was damp or cold.  She lived to be 99 but her arthritis started when she was in her 40's.  Her fingers were so gnarled she couldn't even get her wedding rings on and off.  I was always afraid that was going to happen to me.  My hands are bad and they don't hurt a lot like hers did but I found that working with clay, knitting, crocheting and beading really help my hands.  A couple years ago I made some pens out of polymer and made the handles very thick.  I showed them to some friends and they raved about them because they had hand problems too.  Yesterday I was doing a class with a friend on how to cover twist pens and I decided to make mine thicker.  I wrapped some pieces of Premo 18kt gold around the pens just to brighten them up because that really shines when you sand and buff it.

These twist pens from Boston Clay Works are really great and they make good gifts.  I'll do some more for normal people.

When I get Tina's package I'll post what she sends me.  I bet it's going to be beautiful.  Now I have to go make 12 canes for our guild's cane swap and some pieces to send to Penni Jo for their retreat.  I think I said that in the last blog.  Can anyone tell if I made a dent in all this stuff to do?

Giving Is More Fun Than Receiving - Sometimes

A couple years ago I got an email from a lady in Tucson who said she had seen my blog and she had decided not to do polymer clay any more and wanted me to have all her clay stuff.  I met her at a half way point and she loaded 8 bankers boxes of polymer clay, tools, pasta machines, powders, paints, books, stamps and two ovens in my car.  I had no idea at the time that she had that much stuff.  She refused to take any money but she liked the necklace I was wearing so I gave her that.

A couple weeks ago a friend called and decided she didn't want to do polymer clay any more and asked would I take her stuff.  She came over and brought me 4 big boxes full of clay stuff and a brand new clay oven and many items that were never used and still in the packages.  She had about 25 polymer clay books which I already had so I sold all but one.  She had two bags full of clay.  1 bag of unopened clay and 1 bag of balls of clay from when she took my classes.  She also gave me a cane that she had made when she took a class from Judith Skinner at the Bead Museum in downtown Glendale.  Unfortunately the museum has been closed for about 2 years now so we think this cane is about 5 or 6 years old.  I decided I wanted to make something for Connie since she gave me so much polymer clay stuff.

 

I worked on that cane for a long time to get it to move so I could put it in one of Penni Jo's molds.  I sanded it for a long time and then buffed it.  As I was buffing, the buffer started walking across the table and I grabbed it.  Now I'm wearing big band aids on my two pointer fingers where the buffer took chunks out of my fingers.  That will teach me to turn it off before I try to grab it.

 

  The white beads are Megatamas done on a Kumihimo loom.  It can be used as a key chain or purse bling.  Connie loved it.  I'm not crazy about the colors but I'll bet that cane was hard to make.

 

MY PRINCE DONE IN PENCIL

 

Another friend of mine who is just starting in clay is an incredible self-taught artist.  She came over to the house one day to clay with me and she fell in love Buster.  He puts on a show every time she comes over.  She asked me for some pictures of him and this is what she did.

Buster in pencil.  This is the picture she took it from.

But, we turned it upside down.  I think she did a terrific job.  He looks so calm and sweet in the pencil picture.  The day she brought it over he pushed the screen out on the window in my studio and then started doing flips all over the tables and the chairs.  I think he liked his picture.

 

 

RESIN ON FUTURE

 

I was doing a pendant and I put Future on it and re-baked it.  I always rebake my pieces for 30 minutes at 200 degrees after I put Future on them.  It solidifies the Future and hardens it.  I didn't the like the final finish and I had never used resin over Future before but I decided I had nothing to lose.  I put Magic Glos over the Future (Pledge) and the amazing thing is that it didn't pull in on itself like it normally does and I only had to use one coat because it leveled itself to a nice dome.

 

CLAY SWAP

 

I joined The Polymer Clay Swaps Group.

My swap partner is Tina Holden, I'm so excited.  I'm almost done.  I just have to box my stuff up and ship it to her.  We had to make a heart and a texture sheet.  This is my first polymer clay texture sheet.  If she doesn't like it as a texture sheet she can use it for a trivet.  I have to practice at that more.

Now I have to make 12 canes for a cane swap for our clay guild and some things to send to The Poly Clay Twister Retreat in Oklahoma.

I know, get off the computer and get to work.