New art bead pendant

Check out this new fiery little number:

I've listed it in my Etsy shop. :) I really enjoy making these little art bead pendants. The teeny tiny slices of petal cane are tedious to work with, but that's ok. The finished look is worth it!
This time I made a bead cluster for the bottom accent. Isn't it cute?! Even Aaron said "I like that! That's really cute!" Coming from a man I take that as quite the compliment. LOL!

I want to find some new sterling bails to use on my pendants. The ones I have (like pictured above) are too small. So far I can't find the perfect size. I want bigger, but not too thick and gaudy. Do you buy bails online? Care to share sources? :)

Faux stone experiments

I recently snagged a new book (Making Polymer Clay Beads by Carol Blackburn) that has a project for making faux marble. It's certainly not the first time I've seen this technique....but it's the first time I've tried it.

I seem to be incapable of following the color recommendations for a tutorial. ANY tutorial. It's like a mental block. HA! The book called for white, translucent, and black. But I've been experimenting with other colors. My very first experiment beads turned out so cool. Unfortunately, I can't get a good picture of them. They are these earthy green, copper-ish jasper like beads. Hopefully I'll get a picture to share soon.

For now, I want to show you the others! I used gold mica powders for these.

My very first reaction to them...after they were freshly sanded: "Hey honey! Want to see what happens when a can of cream corn and a block of marble have a baby??" LOL! Aaron and I refer to them as 'the cream corn beads'. But after I finished all the different grits of sanding and buffing...I love them. In real life, the mica powders are gorgeous. The layers seem to move in the sunlight....they are gorgeous.

These little guys are cute.

They did not turn out as vivid as I had hoped...but I still like them. A good jewelry designer could pair them with other beads that make them pop, I think. I have more that are waiting for buffing.

And these poor little fuglies...

Did NOT turn out like I had hoped. I have too many of these little guys. LOL! I'm sure in the right piece of jewelry they would be adorable. But I just don't have the imagination to make that happen.

I have many more colors of mica powders to experiment with! I'm sure you'll see more of these in the future. :)
Btw...click on any picture to visit my flickr album and see more. If you want to. :)

Leaf cane

Saturday I got the privledge to teach a cane lesson at our guild meeting. I get all nervous and fumble around with the lesson. I mumble to myself and change my mind half way thru the lesson. I'm a real pro! HA! Not. I'm lucky to have kind guild members who don't seem to mind too much. :) Anyway...we had a great time.

I was worried about the reducing process. To me, reducing is the hardest part. You can really screw things up with bad reducing. LOL! Sometimes it takes lots of practice to get the hang of reducing without lots of distortion. But apparently, our guild is full of natural born reducers! :) We had 6 out of 6 perfectly reduced canes. It was very cool. Here's mine.


I hope everyone shares their own cane pictures on our group flickr page. Penni Jo has already posted one. She took her leaf cane, added a Donna Kato style petal cane and made beautiful flowers!

What should I do with my caribbean vaca leaves? (That's what the colors make me think of. LOL!) Maybe a new set of summery jewelry for me? Maybe a caribbean color tree art picture?

Sloooow Etsy?

Is Etsy loading painfully slow for you? It's been getting slower and slower, for me, for days now. At first it was just the search feature but now it's the whole site. Slow slow slow!!!
The rest of the internet works fine for me. I just ran AdAware because I thought maybe spyware was bogging me down. But Etsy is still dragging. I can not get ANY pages to load.
Am I the only one? I wanted to just surf and window shop today. WAH!!!!

Silver Leaf Jewelry

If you are interested in using metal leaf with polymer clay, you might check out the new video tutorial I uploaded.

It demonstrates some very basic techniques that you can build on and turn into your own style! I hope you enjoy it. :)

Swap activities

I recently joined a clay bead swap group. I even signed up for two swaps. Which is sad because my own swap group hasn't swapped in over a year. *hangs head in shame*

One swap is for rainbow bead sets. I loooove rainbow themed anything. I really enjoyed making these.

The little white flower petals have irridescent white glitter on them. Which turned out looking more like texture than glitter. SO..I added pearl mica powder also. I still wasn't 100% happy with them, but they are still cute.
There's not much story behind the tire shaped beads. I wanted basic B&W spiral beads...but didn't want the typical round shape. So they got a light squish. :)

I also signed up for a MG pendant swap. I planned ahead and made an extra set of rainbow beads, just in case. But I didn't make extra pendants. Two more people have signed up since I made these.

I don't know if I should make a different style or keep going with more of these. These are not terribly time consuming...just wire consuming. :) But aren't they cool?! I'm going to make one for myself eventually.

Revisiting an old idea

Shield your eyes! I'm warning you. Fuglies ahead:

These are some of my very first beads from 2000. The long skinny pendant on the left was an idea that came to life way back then. I still have the pendant hanging on my clay table. I liked it (the basic idea) 7 years ago, and I still like it today. The old one was made with a beginner cane, some old scrap silver colored wire, and a couple seed beads.

Here is the same idea with mokume gane slices, nice sterling wire and two teeny tiny swarovski crystals.

I made the mokume gane block thinking of ocean colors. The pendant shaped itself. It started rectangular and grew from there.

I jumped on the Etsy bandwagon and opened a shop. I'm going to use it to sell my loose pendants and beads. I'm still fumbling around the system a bit....trying to get used to picture settings and such. But I like it. Seems much cozier than Ebay.

My photo box setup

During Claypen chat last Thursday, we talked a bit about taking better photos of our clay creations. I wanted to share my own low-tech setup.

First I take a drawer out of the rubbermaid rolly cart.

I have tried many different lighting setups. Right now I choose to use natural sunlight. Lots of indirect sunlight if possible.
If I absolutely have to take a picture after sunset, I put lots of lamps around the sides and top of the drawer.
I also tweak the settings on my digital camera. I am SO not a digicam guru. I don't even know what the settings mean...but I have found what works for me is:
Changing the 0.0 setting to +0.7. It lightens the picture a bit. I use macro mode (looks like a little tulip flower icon). I also use my cheapo little tripod. (Less than $10 at Walmart) ANY movement while using macro mode makes for blurry pics.

I use white printer paper as the background inside the drawer:
It's normally sitting on a table next to a window.
Even my best pics need tweaking afterwards with a program. I use PhotoImpact, but there are many others. I made a little tutorial to demonstrate cropping out background. Sadly I've never finished it to include color tweaking. I'm sure you can Blingo tutes for your specific program.

You can also use free online photo editors. No need to go buy a program. I have not searched extensively...but here's a few to get you started.

Here is a before/after of an edited photo.

Now clearly I'm not an expert at it all. But I've seen worse. :)

The VERY belated bday bracelet

Mom's bday was Feb. 6th. I had the great idea to make her a bracelet using gold mica shift beads. She wears yellow gold and some sterling...so I thought gold clay would be great for her daily wardrobe.

Oh wait! Let me back up a bit more. I recently experimented with mica shift tile beads and came up with this bracelet for myself:

It was one of those morphed ideas that turned into my most favorite thing I've ever made. Since they were my first tile beads, the thickness was an experiment. They were almost too thin. Drilling was tricky so as not to crack the beads. And I could not afford to ruin any beads drilling...not when it takes an hour to make each bead (and clay time is in short supply for me)!
ANYWAY...point is: I judge all new beads against these for the cuteness factor. But wanted future beads to be a little thicker.

Now back to Mom's bracelet. I made very pretty gold beads and decided to add turquoise as the accent color.

I did not love it. So I asked my friend as PCC
for help. They suggested black crystal rondelles. So I ordered some. In the meantime I found these beautiful 6mm cathedral beads and gave them a chance:

Didn't like it either. So finally the black crystals arrive. The picture does not do them justice...they are simply elegant.

But I STILL don't like it! Not to mention...the bracelet is an INCH TOO SHORT. Aaron bought me a new baby bench grinder. I was using it to polish the gold beads this past week. I lost control of one bead and, well...you know what happened. PING! VROOM! BAM!! The screaming astroid bead got damaged during re-entry. Damn it.

Yes, I could make one.more.bead. But I'm not gonna. I'm sick and damn tired of these gold beads! I've decided the problem is the thickness. They are too chunky. Too chunky for an elegant, glistening, swirly design. Do you know WHY I know this??

Because I made another set just like them, only in beautiful baby blue. They are so pretty. I mixed the color specifically to go with these cool tortoise shell glass window beads. Brown and baby blue...very cool color combo. Right?!? Wrong! Not when the pretty blue beads are TOO DAMN CHUNKY!! See:

I am so design challenged. It's driving me nuts. I'm getting rid of these two sets of beads. The beads are great! I know they can make beautiful jewelry in the hands of someone with imagination. And it ain't me! I'm going back to the drawing board. I'm going to find the perfect thickness. Thick enough for easy drilling....not too thick to look chunky.

Whew. I feel better now that I've spewed and rambled on about this very un-important topic!
(p.s. click any of the pics for a larger image)

Back in the saddle

I started this blog to host a weekly recipe swap. That idea flopped, floundered and died. But oh well. No biggie. It was not my first bad idea...won't be the last. :)

I had also used this blog to talk about my clay work. Almost every item I make has a story behind it. Not always interesting stories...but stories nonetheless. Personally, I find it fascinating how the stream of conciousness idea works. Ideas and thoughts sprout new ideas, and they morph into new ideas, and maybe because of special circumstances they change again, and so on. This is how most of my clay things come to life. In my sketch book they start out completely different. Perhaps the journey to the finished products will only be interesting to me. But again...no biggie. That's why I love journaling. Looking back and reading about what once was and how it came to be.

With that in mind...I'm going to go crop/edit/and upload a couple new pictures. I'm frustrated with a current idea and I need to talk about it. :)

Mica shift magnets

I've only tried mica shift once before. The results were not impressive. Totally my fault for skimming directions. That was well over a year ago.

Last week I got the wild hair to try again. I have Kato clay now and have read many times how wonderful Kato is for mica shift. I mixed up a pale blue color and got out one of my favorite swirly stamps. I loved it instantly! I kept making my husband rub his fingers over the raw clay...."Feel how smooth it is?!? How cool is that?!?" LOL!

The next day I sat down to play. NO prior plans or expectations. I was merely 'piddling'. I got out the wavey blade. I trimmed the blue sheet a bit. Then I decided to put a black & white border around it....contrasting the pastel blue....it might look cool. (I just love the funky striped border effect!) Then I envisioned beaded dangles from the wavey edge. And it clicked: magnets!!

So I started mixing coordinating pastel colors. I suddenly had a plan. *insert evil giggle* A whole set of bejewelled, shiny, funky fridge magnets. Ooooh yeah!!

This is what I got.

(click for bigger pic)
I call it jewelry for the fridge. I love love love the way they look on the fridge. I will definately be making more fridge jewelry in the future!

Clay on canvas

I had an idea for a wall hanging for my daughter's room. I painted a canvas pink, added glitter, and then created clay flowers and a dragonfly. I really like the way it turned out.



It still needs something. I can't decide what. Originally I planned on a black & white stripe clay border....along the outer edge. I've sinced changed my mind. I may paint some white clouds. I also thought about a swirly stamp along the edges. But I just can't decide.

This was my "prototype". I have several ideas for similar wall hangings. I love building flower canes, but hate having to choose a color for the outer/negative space. This canvas idea is great for me. I can make oodles of petal canes and not have to commit to background color. Plus I like the 3D look. They don't have to be flat like cane slices.

Oh...the dragonfly! Was my first TLS experiment. What FUN that stuff is!! I bought a bunch of pre-colored TLS from a fellow clayer. I've been playing around with the colors making sets of wings. Fun fun fun!!

Now I need to hit the craft store for more canvas. Wheeeee!!

Flowers and a bear

Here are 2 new flower canes I've made:

The pink flower came first. It's my favorite! I love how it turned out. From start to finish it just worked. :)
The orange flower went thru several incarnations during the building process. I started w/the idea of a simple sunflower-esque cane. But I did not really like the colors after I built the petal cane. So I tried reducing it and changing the look. I had to make the petals really small. I didn't start with a large enough skinner blend....a problem when changing plans. Long story short: I was unhappy with it from the start. It seemed to get uglier with each incarnation! LOL! But I finished it and reduced it. I was shocked when I cut into the cane. It turned out quite nice! Talk about a happy accident!

Now remember, I've been starting from scratch (as far as clay and supplies). My stash of canes is in storage. :( I was dying to try an idea I had in my mind. I envisioned the green background flower canes on a "grassy knoll"....and a cute little teddy bear sitting there. In my mind the knoll was covered with several different color flowers. But! Since I have no patience, I made it with the two canes I had. LOL!
It's a photo holder!


Remember to click on the pictures for larger images. It will also take you to my Flickr where you can see more pictures of the raw canes.

Broccoli Cheese Chicken by Jenn

Thanks to my in-laws, I have outside participation again. Yay! All you long time internet friends I thought would join in...
This week's recipe courtesy of my new SIL, Jennifer. Her personal notes are in color.

makes 4 servings
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 25 min

1 tablespoon margarine or butter
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Campbell's condensed Broccoli Cheese Soup
2 cups fresh broccoli flowerets (I use the frozen chopped)
1/3 cup water or milk
1/8 teaspoon pepper

In a 10-inch skillet over med-high heat, in hot margarine, cook chicken 10 min or until browned on both sides. Remove, set aside. (If you have a George Foreman Grill use that to cook the chicken. It makes it easier to cook and quicker to prepare, plus it guarantees the chicken is done - NO E COLI)

In same skillet, combine soup, broccoli, water and pepper. Heat to boiling. Return chicken to skillet. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and broccoli is tender, stirring often.

1st "watercolor"

I met a wonderful, sweet lady (Hi Glori!) recently on Flickr. She creates beautiful things in polymer clay, and was kind enough to tell me how she makes her "watercolor" creations.

I had some leftover tinted translucent clay and decided to try the technique. My colors are too light, but it was the only scrap I had at the moment. The technique is so much fun! I can't wait to make more watercolor creations with brighter tinted clay!

(Oh! This is also the 1st items I've baked/sanded/buffed using Kato.) The heart was the 1st thing I made. It started as a big round bead, but I changed it to a fridge magnet. I worked it and stretched it too much. But that's ok! Live and learn. :) The rest are double-hole beads. Again not perfect, but I'll happily make a bracelet out of them someday. (When I get my jewelry supplies out of storage.)


I remembered why I stopped making beads. The sanding and buffing sucks! LOL! I may be young in years, but I have arthritic hands of a woman twice my senior. I opted for beads b/c I needed things I could bake flat. I don't even have fluffy polyfil to bake things on. I came {this close} to performing surgery on one of my son's stuffed animals. LOL!

Anyway! The watercolor technique was simple and fun. I'm really looking forward to try it many more times. Thanks so much for sharing, Glori! HUGS!

1st new canes in months

It's so nice to be making canes again. If I could figure out how not to require sleep, I could clay for several hours each day! LOL!

All of these are made w/Kato clay. A new brand for me. The first few blocks I purchased (at Michael's) were very hard. I was frustrated and my hands ached. But I decided to buy a few more blocks online and try again. They were completely different! Fresh and soft and wonderful to work with. Except for the horrible odor (I may be strange, but I enjoy Premo's smell), I'm growing to really love Kato clay. If you cane, and have not tried Kato...I highly recommend it! It reduces beautifully and quickly.

Ok, enough of my unpaid product endorsement. LOL! This tulip is the first thing I've made in months. As well as my first tulip cane. The middle petal is not as pointy as I'd like, but I'm still pleased.

I decided to try a dragonfly. Every color in the cane is a custom blend. Even the white is not 'white'. It's white, pearl, and translucent. Here are the bullseye canes I used for the wings. Each is slightly tinted translucent. You also see the 3-color skinner blend I used for the body segments. The blend is SO pretty. But the poor little dragonfly.....UGLY. LOL! I did not make good color choices, IMO. Perhaps when reduced, it will be smashing. But for now...UGLY.

I am very pleased with it's shape. For me, the first time making any new cane is experiment. Even though the colors are fugly, it LOOKS like a dragonfly. Yay! Oh! Something else I learned while building it....the wings. Before I reduced the wings, the "cells" were SO COOL! Unfortunately, now they are too small to appreciate the colors. I'll try to correct this next time.

Far far away clay

My newly aquainted clay friends do not know much about me. So here's a background story for you. Maybe I'm just the nosiest person ever...I don't know. But I really enjoy hearing the personal stories behind crafty creations and their creators.

My wonderful husband, Aaron, is in aviation. He repairs and modifies the skins of airplanes. Which means any part of a plane that is metal...he can change it, repair it, modify it, build a new part from scratch, install it...you name it! His job enables us to move a lot. We go where the good jobs are. (This is why I've been homeschooling our 1st grader.) The last job took us to Arkansas. We were *this close* to moving to a new location when my renter decided to vacate my house in Oklahoma.

Aaron and I both owned houses in Oklahoma prior to getting married. Both homes were rented until January, when my renter LEFT! We decided to remodel my house and sell it. We thought it would be a quick (2-3 months tops!) remodel. We opted to move into the house while remodeling. In the meantime Aaron would work in Oklahoma City (60 mile commute from my house) to pay the bills. Unfortunately, our "plans" have gone horribly wrong. Aaron is working 80 hours each week! 6 days a week! Plus commuting 2+ hours each day! He is NEVER HOME. I am trying to work on the house. Trying. But my job is 24/7/365....homeschooling and an 11-month-old baby AND being pregnant....leaves very little time for painting and that sort of labor.

Now let me back up. Because we were expecting to be here 2 months, we left 90% of our belongings in storage in Arkansas! We were planning to finish this house quickly, go back for our belongings, and move on to the next job. This means: my beloved clay and ALL my supplies are 300 miles away. Most likely curing and ruining in a HOT metal storage facility. The price of gasoline and renting a Uhaul truck and TIME!! is preventing us from retrieving our things from storage.

A few weeks ago we visited Michael's and I bought some clay and a crappy Amaco pasta machine. Just to get me by for now. I desperately needed my creative clay time. I get VERY little clay time, but very little is better than NONE! Everytime I use the pasta machine I curse it's name. However! It's better than no pasta machine.

I get to work on a cane for 20-30 minutes at a time. Before getting pulled away for various things. Consequently, it takes me days to finish one simple cane. But I will triumph!! I am determined! So far I've made a tulip (for the 1st time), 2 leaf canes, and I'm currently working on a dragonfly (for the 1st time). I hope to have pictures to share very soon.

Four layer cheesecake by Gwen

Woohoo! It only took 3 months, but Recipe Swap Sunday finally has outside participation! LOL! Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, Gwen for this recipe.

Crust:
½ C chopped pecans
1 C flour
¼ C melted butter (oleo)
Mix together until moist. Press into bottom of 7x11 pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

2nd Layer:
8 oz pkg of cream cheese
1 C Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
Mix together until creamy. Spread over cooled crust.

3rd Layer:
4.6 oz box of Chocolate Pudding
3 C Milk
Mix according to package directions. (I prefer the taste of Cook & Serve Pudding, but Instant can be used also) When cool, spread over cream cheese layer.

Topping:
16 oz Cool Whip
Spread over top of pudding layer. Can top with sprinkles of Choc or anything pretty for decoration.

Can be varied:
Sometimes I slice bananas between the 2nd & 3rd layers and use Banana Cream or Vanilla Pudding. Just use your imagination!!

Easy baked chicken

Boneless chicken parts - your choice
1 pkg. McCormick Grill Mates dry marinade mix - any flavor

Mix up the McCormick marinade according to package directions, in a small baking dish. Lay chicken pieces in marinade. Turn over once to coat both sides. Cover with aluminum foil and bake, 375 degrees until cooked thoroughly.

That's it!! Add instant rice and your family's favorite veggie. I've made this 2 ways: letting it marinate overnight AND instantly popping it into the oven. Both ways are delicious!

New polymer clay books

I recently bought these two new books.


They should arrive in 2 more days. I'm excited! It's been a long while since I've bought new eye candy/learning books. Plus all my books are in storage right now. All I have with me here is a couple issues of PolymerCafe. I'm jonesin' for new books!!