From My Heart to Yours

Happy Valentine's. I will have quite the collection of Valentine hearts by the time the 14th rolls around. Since the Tory Hughes workshop, I am experimenting with the hinges and different surface techniques. My color transitions didn't photograph well, but they really turned out nicely (she said humbly). Happy with the faux turquoise too.

I have been having problems with the osteoarthritis and osteoporosis kicking up. It's affecting my hands now. I was getting shots in my knuckles, but am trying another route this time. I don't know what I would do without my polymer.

After my left wrist bones were removed (a rare disease only I would get), most of my physical therapy was working with their putty clays and I asked if I could start working with my polymer clay and was told it would be great for me. Another polymer clay bonus!

I digress again, back to the post. The above pieces are just lying next to each other. The coils are glued in the pieces, but for the sake of a photo, I pushed them together. The top two pieces are from the ragged edges of a mokume gane stack. After I evened out the stack by trimming all four sides, I took the trimmings and pushed them together and they looked liked sliced rock. Cool.

Bead Journal March

Struggling with my piece for March. I've started it several times and think I am going to start a completely new piece. Usually I will go with the flow of the piece and if it turns a corner, I will go with it, learning along the way.

I've torn it apart to the point where the base felt is compromised. I did not have any Lacy Stiff Stuff and bought a sticky backed felt at Michael's. Thought I could deal with the sticky but it showed me who was boss. The sticky material caught on my needle with every pass through. I couldn't pick up beads because they stuck to my sticky coated needle. Frustrating.

I've since ordered enough Lacy Stiff Stuff to last the the rest of the year and will be starting over. Don't know if I will still go with the "The Flow" because I sure couldn't get with "the flow". Think I need to go back to the sketchbook and try something different.

Tory Hughes Workshop Part II

On the second day we took a look at Tory's hinges and how they are created and used as design components.

This one was my first attempt at a simple coil wrap in nickel silver.

Above photo is a close up of the Mokume Gane I made for the hinge workshop. Below is my first tube hinge.

I wet sanded and buffed the Mokume Gane pieces before adding the hinge. They turned out extremely smooth and shiny; almost like fossil stone.

What I like about adding hinges as components is the unexpected movement it gives a piece. The fact that they can be used in so many different ways is an extra bonus.

Tory Hughes Workshop Part 1

Tory Hughes' workshop was wonderful! She had many of her beautiful pieces arranged on two tables so we could put them in our hands and examine them. The appliques, inlays, prebaked inlays, painted pieces, the embossed, molded, sculpted, carved and found object pieces. Pieces where she had perfected the photocopy and tearaway transfer techniques, clay body manipulation, metallic foils, powders, mokume gane and wire additions. Exquisite pieces.

They were heavenly to touch and examine up close. I mean, it was such a treat I can't put it into words. She graciously signed my book, "Polymer The Chameleon Clay, ArtRanch Techniques for Re-creating the Look of Ivory, Jade, Turquoise and other Natural Materials".

I brought wire, clay, paints, inks, stamps, texturing tools, powders and glitter. The first day we covered photocopy transfers and tearaway transfers and discussed many surface techniques.

My workspace at the workshop was spacious and comfortable. It started and 10:00 a.m. and went until 5:00 p.m. with an hour break for lunch. When I got home after the workshop, I made some mokume gane pieces for the hinge workshop the next day.

The hinge workshop was exactly what I needed to advance my jewelry construction. I've been wanting to connect pieces in a bit different way and this workshop was perfect.

The top two photos are one of my pieces I designed, textured and hinged. Appropriately titled," Growth". Part II tomorrow.

Baseball Bat Cushion = Organic Mold

It comes in black (above) and clear (below) and is made for baseball and softball bats to absorb the impact when the bat comes in contact with the ball. You know, when you are constantly hitting all those home runs, it can be hard on one's arms.  Anywho, it is the base for all my organic pins.

So, this little silicone ditty was invented to soften the blow (is there one for life?).

Cool huh?

My husband had to go out and buy the black one because I took the clear one. The minute I saw it I knew what I wanted to make.  So go raid the tool box, sports bag and garage cabinets....you just never know.

Painted Ladies in Polymer Clay

My interpretation of the famous row of Painted Ladies Victorian Homes. So far, there are 7 pins and two pendants. A bracelet is just in the sketching stage, but I'm hoping this will become an ongoing series for me.

It's a short blog this morning because I'm flying out the door to catch a ride to Chandler, Arizona (an hour away) where I will be participating in the first day of a two day workshop with Tory Hughes.

So, it's short, but sweet. Come on, you know you think they're cute. It's the cardboard cut-out that makes me giggle. All I need are some little polymer clay cars zooming down that road of life.

Still Playing House

I'm still playing with my house design. I sketched out a few designs and am loving playing with the mokume gane technique I learned from Julie Picarello.

Kind of nice working in the quiet of the night.

My husband will be cutting ceramic tile tomorrow to finish the step-down to our "new" old room, so it will be noisy. I need to gather my supplies together and condition clay for the weekend workshops with Tory Hughes. So looking forward to meeting her. But I must get busy now and get these things done and then get to bed or I will be napping another day away tomorrow.

Julie Picarello's Workshop

First of all, can I say I am still flying high after getting one of my pieces featured in Polymer Clay Daily yesterday. Gosh, that was exciting! OK, now onto Julie Picarello's workshop I took in Tucson on Tuesday.

It was fabulous! I MEAN it was fun, informative, entertaining, fast paced and Julie was a master teacher in the true sense of the word. If you get a chance to take one of her classes, don't hesitate.

Above is a photo of my table. Yes, I had the luxury of an entire table to myself and took over two chairs as well. What a luxury that was. I was the last to arrive and it was the last space. How lucky was that?

The two pieces at the top of the blog and the two at the bottom (and the clay sheet above) are my first attempts at Julie's mokume' gane technique.

Above is a picture of Julie working on one of her pieces (photo is from Julie's website). You can visit her website, Yellow House Designs here to see where she will be teaching next and to view her gallery of work.

The above piece looks like cork, but, of course it isn't. The gold accents are from the hardware store.

No, I don't know what this is going to be, but it just evolved during the class and will have something coming out of the bottom when I am done stringing it. I have been so excited all day long about the Polymer Clay Daily post yesterday, that I could not get to sleep tonight and decided to get up and enter my post for today. But, now, I am tired and am heading back to bed.

Thanks to everyone who commented, emailed and telephoned me to congratulate me. Thanks to subscribers and followers and the 48 countries that have visited my blog. What joy all my artist friends bring into my life. Thanks for being there for me.

I'm in Polymer Clay Daily Today!

I was just scrolling through my Google Reader, reading my daily blogs and, holy mother of all things nearly impossible, one of my pieces is featured in Polymer Clay Daily! My tooled leather heart made it in. I almost fainted. I swear I thought, "Hey, its happened again where I made an original piece and not ten minutes later, see it on the web--the same idea, almost identical piece." But no, it's mine. Oh, I am so happy. I'm doing the happy dance. Thank you Cynthia! Above is a sample of Polymer Clay Daily by Cynthia.

Context based from Polymer Clay Daily: “Cynthia Tinapple of Worthington, Ohio started Polymer Clay Daily in September, 2005. Polymer Clay Daily is a highly curated blog written by Cynthia to showcase fine polymer clay art and to serve as a portal to the polymer clay community.” Synergy2’s website states: “She continues to experiment and produce her own work as well as collaborating with her woodturner husband, Blair Davis. Together they create award-winning wooden vessels inlaid with polymer clay.” Bead Journal Wednesday follows this post.

Bead Journal February

Sculpted the little birds from polymer clay.

The inside is a rectangle of purple and greenish polymer clay glued to the Lacy Stiff Stuff. I did not cover the fold area with any polymer clay. I tried something different and covered that area with strips of embroidery thread applied with glue.

With a permanent marker, I drew in some darker areas in the embroidery thread to indicate a shadow, and then added some little purple beads here and there.

I printed out the picture from last Wednesday of the tree, glued it on the polymer and then drew me shooing away the birds of sadness.

Expressing my feelings through an art piece is giving me a visual affirmation (instead of a verbal). I'm finding that shooing the birds away is taking an enormous amount of effort, enormous. But working on January's and February's Bead Journal Pieces are certainly helping me start the process of accepting what I cannot change. Don't get me wrong, I have 99% joy in my life and I express my gratitude daily. But I don't want to ignore the pain from that nest of birds. When you ignore things, they don't go away, they get worse. When you reach 62 and your health is not that great, you take stock of your life and what is left. Taking stock and being accountable is not easy; especially when making amends is not possible. So, bear with me on the Bead Journal Wednesdays when I am allowing myself to shoo some birds.