New Directions

Sometimes, yes, sometimes I get bored with my beads.  I hang my head in shame when I say this, but it happens.  When this does occur I try to take my clay new in directions.  I was recently asked to show my jewelry in a shop, & Then Some, and in this little boutique were the CUTEST handmade Christmas ornaments.  And oh, I needed to be a part of it!  So I created these...

Rustic, but still a little shiny...I love them.  I made a million, well, more like 20 and saturated a tiny Christmas tree in the shop with them.  All different colors and shapes.  They look wonderful!

For the Love of Dogs

I've been feeling a bit under the weather for the past couple of weeks and I do believe my creativity decided to take a vacation.  So, to fill the void,  I decided to work a little more on Abby.  Abby came to us back in April, abused, fearful, and needing much love and attention.  It took a month with us before she even wagged her tail.  I decided to turn to Cesar Millan for the crucial help we needed.  Bought his book and dug right in.  She began to transform right before our eyes.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to finish the book....

Apparently, Abby didn't see eye to eye with "Cesar's Way"  and where she got the matches still remains a mystery.  Anyhow, I just recently ordered Cesar's new book, although in my humble opinion it should have been sent free of charge, and we continue to progress in our training and understanding of each other.  Her transformation is a beautiful thing to watch. 

She even got into the Halloween spirit...

But most importantly, she's happy, loving, smart AND she feels safe.

                            

Mokume Gane

This is probably my favorite technique and the first one I learned when I picked up Carol Blackburn's book.  The design possibilities are endless and I think I really enjoy the thrill I get right before slicing into the stack of clay...will it reveal a beautiful design worthy of all that time or will I be left with a pile of well, poo?! I'm happy to say, I've been fortunate...a lot of happy beads have been made and only a few piles of "poo" have been added to the scrap pile.

Here are a couple of my designs when I first began with polymer clay 4 years ago...

Coming up with different objects to inject into the clay is challenging for me and I usually resort to the old round imprints...pens, paintbrushes, straws, toothpicks.  Yes, I get lazy, maybe that's the reason for loving this technique so much.

Here's some of my recent work..

Full of color, just like my life.

Happy Sunday to you!

Halloween Treasures

An honor to have my beads choosen for
this fun treasury :)

'Oh what a tangled web we weave...' by grandmaspider

"Will you walk into my parlour?" Said a spider to a fly; "'Tis the prettiest little parlour That ever you did spy."

WHAT A TANGLED WEB ... lovespelljewel... $9.95	Tangled Web - Sculp... AUNALIArtisanM... $26.00	Moxie Fairy Wings -... OnGossamerWing... $250.00
Aged Spider jewelr... ravenofskys $34.00	Original Philip Cro... PhilipCrow $219.00	Ginger Tangled Web ... theothermagdal... $18.06
Spiderweb on blue 5... BlueberryBayPh... $20.00	Silver Scent Locket... TheEnchantedLo... $25.00	Tangled Wire Hoop E... hypho $35.00
Handmade Polymer Cl... EarthTonesOnli... $15.00	SALE 10 percent off... SilverArrowOri... $26.99	Oh What A Tangled W... GhostShip $19.00
Natural Dreamcatche... Unseelienchant... $60.00	Spider Web Porcelai... SuiteOneStudio $46.00	Halloween Steampunk... jillddesigns $75.00

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Happiness

Many, many things make me happy, but I must say,

when I venture down an avenue with my clay and the

results are successful, I squeal with delight. 

And believe me, my husband will attest to the

squealing part, poor guy.

I adore the look and texture of pottery and stoneware

and decided it was time to figure out how to replicate

it with my clay. 

And by golly, I think I did it! 

Here's what I've come up with so far...

Where do you find happiness?

Spooky Contributions

I've always been a Halloween fan.  Spooky things fascinate me. 

So my contribution to the polymer clay bead

world every year are these little guys...

To get into the pre-Halloween mood last night while creating, 

I watched Mary Reilly on Hulu.  It's a Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde flick...very enjoyable!

But check out this crazy, black cat...

He comes from the imagination of chikiegirlcreations, whom I've always admired. 

And yes, he's polymer clay...love it!!



Can you smell it?

Well, I sure can!  The fabulous scent of autumn

is in the air and my innerchild is screaming with excitement. 

Not only is this my favorite time of the year,

but it's also my favorite time to create. 

Fall colors just seem to suit me well. 

So I've begun some new avenues....

Acorns, to soon adorn a necklace...

and some new egg-shaped fall beads with a

beautiful faux lampwork look.

                                           

More colors to come!

Refreshed!

Back from the coast and I am feeling good! 

We had a such a fun time and saw some beautiful places.

Yes, this was a really big tree,

but I have this thing for trees...

Lots of romantic walks on the beach with my hubby :)

and yet,

I still woke up feeling (and looking) a bit like these guys...

but I've never been a morning person.

So I'm home, refreshed and ready to go! 

I even created this beach inspired bracelet for my jewelry shop and I'm really digging the natural feeling it has.

Now on to fill some custom orders that came in while I was away.

Cheers!

Ahhhhh, vacation...

It's finally here! 

Headed for the beautiful Oregon coast tomorrow

morning for some well deserved rest and relaxation. 

The boys are excited and cannot wait to build their sand castle "cities". 

My shop will be closed while I'm away...

Capturing Beauty

Abigail, my pitie, was chasing butterflies again this morning. 

You can't imagine how funny it is to watch this "ferocious" puppy frolic in the grass

after these delicate creatures ;)

Anyhoo, butterflies....

they inspire me! 

I whipped up some more tiles/pendants last night and applied some bright, eye-catching colors.

and the smaller one...

They have a slightly old, vintage feel to them (kinda how my body felt when I woke this morning).

Hope your day is full of beauty!

Success!

Wow, what a fun weekend!  Set my little booth up at the Bead Stampede in Sisters, Oregon amongst some really big guns....I felt a little out of place (not to mention tiny), being that it was my first show and all.  But I seem to have held my own.

I was the only poly clay artist there so explaining the process and techniques involved

in my work to every customer became a little tedious.  

 Book with LOTS of pictures showing some of the steps is definitely in order for the next show.

But I'll tell you, my favorite part of the show was meeting the other artists. 

They were so wonderful and so very helpful!

Now I'm home and can breath a little easier.  Time to work.  I have so many new ideas....

more to come!

Btw, that's my Mom in the corner there, without which this show would not have been possible. 

Thanks Momma!

Closing Shop

I'll be closing my Etsy shop tomorrow through the weekend.  Bead show starts Saturday and I'm taking all inventory with me.  Excited and nervous, but I'm sure it will be fun.

Wish me luck!!

Bottling time....

I woke up this morning with a smidgen of terror in my heart...

the show

is in

1 week!!

And of course, I'm nowhere near prepared. 

See, this is my first bead show and I really have no idea what to expect.  I've done the research, figured out my layout, written my lists, and now I am trying to bead like mad.  The hold up....

are they not gorgeous?!  My boys, my life. 

Summer time means camping, fishing, hiking, biking, laking, and any other outdoor activity you can think of.  I spend my days fulfilling their every desire.  So that leaves me a couple of hours at night before I go to bed, to bead.  Adding to that, sales have shot up along with more custom orders than I can keep up with, meaning my inventory is low; too low for a bead show (dang, nice rhyme)!

Hence the panic.

And now I will kick myself because it really sounds like I'm complaining.  I'm not.  My life is wonderful and I am so extremely fortunate.  I just need more time!! 

OK, one more, 'cuz I just can't help it!

It's a Faux Thing...

I have to admit, I never knew what that word meant until I dove deep into the polymer clay world. 

Fox, huh, oh pardon me, f a u x....I am such a DORK sometimes. 

Here's the wonderful thing about this medium...the ability to simulate so many different types of surfaces.  Probably the reason why I never get bored and why I am so often accused of having polymer clay ADD (yes, I'm all over the place and darn proud of it)!

So here's my latest experiment...

Ringing any bells yet?

It's suppose to look like ceramic.  I love these greens.

These were made from a mold of a fern collected on a recent hike.

Simulated ceramic or rather faux ceramic.

Polymer clay excites me way too much!

Bead Buddies

Do you have one....?

I have two. 

They sit or rather lay at the foot of my stool while I bead away in the evenings.

My Abby and Harley.

Pretty darn cute, huh?

New Addition

No, I'm not talking about the boy band that made my skin crawl in the 80's...

I figured out what to do with my successful tile transfers...keychains!

I have all sorts of fun images just waiting to be assembled.

More to come!

I was flipping through an addition of National Geographic and came across this photo of beach huts in Cape Town, South Africa.  I couldn't help but fall in love with the color contrast so....

My little beach hut house beads; aren't they cute?!

Just goes to show, inspiration can come from anything.

Opening Doors

My secret is out, I am no longer a closet jewelry maker.  I have created way too many pieces to keep them bundled up anymore so I opened ANOTHER etsy shop...the insanity! 

Here's what I did with one of my pressed flower beads

Earthy and organic; right up my alley

The shop still needs work, especially the pictures,

but if you get a chance stop on by.

http://www.earthtonesoriginals.etsy.com/

Transfer??

I purchased this transfer tutorial, http://www.etsy.com/listing/39908788/tutorial-1-how-to-transfer-images-to, about 2 months ago and thought I'd finally give it a shot this past weekend.  You see, I've tried this technique many, many times using tutorials from other artists only to hang my head in shame and disgust at the final out come.  I'll let you be the judge as to whether or not it worked this time....

The beginning of the transfer...

hmmm, looking pretty good so far...

Result after baking

Not bad for my first try and I owe it all to the lovely Lynda who came up with this wonderful tutorial (I now know I am not a transfer loser).

Tonight, more tiles, more images, and hopefully I'll remember to not use images with words...they kinda come out backwards...duh!