POLYMER CLAY INITIAL CANE

Thursday we had a clay day at my house and we made initial canes.  I don't know why I thought it would be a piece of cake.  Then I sat down and started doing it.  First it looked like a cat that who's dad drank too much vodka.  Good thing Michele was here and she is very methodical in her work with polymer clay.  Our friend Carol just had hand surgery so Michele helped her with her cane.

They did a little off-set thing and it really turned out great.

This is a picture of the final cane after they put it in the extruder.  Sorry I was little shaky and blurry with this picture but I think this is awesome.

This is the start of my cane.  The black on all three initials should have been heavier.

This is my finished cane and it's been reduced so it's about 1/2 inch wide.  

This was Evelyn's cane.   I really like the ecru and black together.

This is her finished cane.

And of course, Evelyn took her end pieces and some of mine and made beautiful Natasha pieces with them.

Well, we had fun and now I have two feet of initial cane that will probably take me 3 years to use.  But, I want to make another one with ecru and black and thicker initials.  This really works well.  I'll take some pictures of some of the pieces that I put this on.

Clay Day and New Tutorial

I'm having 3 friends over today for a clay day.  One of them is Michele Norine from Michele's Art Jewelery https://www.etsy.com/shop/MichelesArtJewelry.  My friend's Carol and Evelyn will also be here.  Michele is going to show us how to make an initial cane so we can cut slices and put them on the back of our hand made pieces.  I'll post some pictures when we are done.

Michele is also working on a new tutorial that she will be putting in her Etsy shop.  I was fortunate to be able to try it out for her.  It is really fun and the end product is spectacular.  The tutorial is almost like doing a puzzle but to me was much easier.  It all started with the pendants she gave me that looked like my Buster.

This is one of the pendants she gave me that I made into a purse bling/key chain.  She teaches all kinds of little tricks.  You can do it with all kinds of different textures.  She knows I'm a cat person so she did the cats.

These are the cat pendants I made with the incredible bails that she teaches you how to make.  I've ordered a ton of texture sheets to do this technique with.  She has so many different new ideas in this tutorial that you will be amazed.  I'll let you know when the tutorial hits Etsy.  I know you will enjoy it.  I'm going to try it with some butterfly textures I bought.

 A few months ago I made this cane called the braided cane.  I still have a really big chunk left.  I made this cross with Penni Jo Couch's flexible cross mold and than put Magic Glos on the top.  I love these colors.  Getting wild in my old age.

Today is National Girl Friends Day.  Tell your friends you love them.

POLYMER CLAY AND KUMIHIMO

I need to dust and vacuum and wash floors and clean my office and iron.  It's raining here in Arizona so I think that's a sign that says I should do polymer clay or Kumihimo and let all that other stuff wait till it stops raining.  LOL

A friend of mine from home has a niece who has a severe brain problem and had to have surgery.  They are going to have a benefit for her to raise money to help with the expenses.  I made some Kumihimo bracelets and some polymer items for them to use in the raffle.  The blue and white pendant was a polymer cabochon that I beaded around and did a Kumihimo necklace.

I sent 5 of the red, white and blue bracelets, my friends are very patriotic.

My girl friends birthday was yesterday.  She is the mom of the three dogs that I walk every day.  I made her a purse table holder and made a box with Champ's picture on the top.  I want to steal him but Buster doesn't care too much for him.

I just finished this and put it in my Etsy shop.  The polymer pendant is made from the braided cane I did a few weeks ago.  It's a purse bling/key chain.  The Kumihimo beaded part was done with Megatamas, drops and seed beads.

I think I better iron or my sweetie will run out of shirts.

POLYMER CLAY PENDANTS

Not enough hours in the day especially when you have to take a nap.  AND, I do.  I get up every day at 5 and go take my friend's 3 dogs for a walk and then I get in her pool to cool off.  It's so hot here in Arizona right now the dragon flies are diving bombing the pool.  Anyway, I have been really busy making pendants.

These are all made with polymer clay in bezels and then covered in resin.

I really like the white ones.  These are also polymer covered with resin.  The two on the right are from a cane I made a couple of weeks ago.

The second heart is a Natasha cane made from the left over Mokune Gane I did for the shower pens.  I like the third one in the brass bezels with the blue Swarovski crystals.

The cross in the middle is not polymer.  I poured alcohol ink in the cross to see what would happen and when it dried it was beautiful.  I laid the jump rings and the crystals in and put the resin in.  Most of these have 2 or 3 coats of resin.  The one on the right was sanded and buffed, no resin.

These two have both been sanded and buffed.  I love doing Natasha pieces with left over clay.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

BUSTER

One minute he's the sweet Buster.

The next minute he's the "ALIEN IN THE BRAINS BUSTER".

Going to the show where it's cool and I can have popcorn for lunch.  LOL

Birthday Presents

I have 16 relatives/friends who have birthday's in July.  Some get cards, some get gifts.  My great niece is going to get this next week.  She loves cats and she loves Buster even though she's never seen him in person.  I send her pictures on the computer.  She's only 10 so I think she will like this.

The beads are done in Kumihimo.  The pendant is polymer clay.

This is a pendant I bought at Michael's.  The woman in the picture is Esther Williams.  For you young things out there who don't know who that is, she was the greatest female swimmer in the 1940's and 50's.  She made movies with famous male stars AND she was beautiful and feminine.  She swam in the Olympics and she was not like the muscle bound swimmers you see now days.  She was my mother's favorite so when I saw this, I knew it would be perfect especially since it says "rock on sister".  I changed the beads on the bottom and the necklace and bracelet are done in Kumihimo with pink beads and crystal Megatamas.

Time to go walk the dogs and go for a swim.