A Painting From Scraps

Above is the finished painting. I can just hear the curator now..... "I love the texture, depth, movement; it has an overwhelming sense of presence and an intense nervous vitality."

It's good I can entertain myself right? Above is a painting that didn't sell so I textured it with Golden gel mediums. When the gels dried I layered in some crackle and modeling pastes and put it in the corner to dry.

I worked on some smaller paintings and when I was done, for whatever reason, I could not bring myself to throw away my palette. All the years I've painted, I've never done this.

I just took the paper full of paint and smeared it all over the textured painting. It was really fun. Liberating. Just kept smooshing and smearing and rubbing until the green and blue were mud.

Slapped (technical term) a bit more orangey-red (new Pantone color) and viola! May not be your cup of tea, but I am ecstatic. Course, it doesn't take much these days.

Polymer Ceramic Beads

This was a bit of fun. Polymer coils, circles, logs, dots, textures, faux raku and scrap clay to create a look of earthenware.

It's all polymer except the two small metal bells and the red wooden bead on the right.

It is strung on buna cord, but I haven't decided on the closure yet. I'm leaning towards another coil bead with just a simple loop closure. Got tons to do, but took my mind off things by creating this little do-dad yesterday. It did the trick.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I bought one of Joyce Kent's "Old Tea Bags" the last time I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Those are my polymer clay clovers and horseshoe and my tea cup set up for St. Paddy's Day.

I love how Joyce Kent captures every wrinkle. She is an amazing artist.

I had to have it as soon as I saw the beads around her neck.

I only have three cups and saucers left from my teacup collection; this being one of them. It is from Germany, bought it on Ebay about 18 years ago. The rest were given away before we moved from Chicago to Arizona. May the luck of the Irish be with all of you today!

I Won Paris Gal's Giveaway!

I bead embroidered on the pattern of this small swatch of material. I won one of Rhonda's (of "A Little Bit French" blog) Friday giveaways and this little piece of gorgeous material was in it along with lots of other goodies.

The colors were beautiful and so different from what I usually do, I just had to try it.

It is still in process, but I'm really liking it. Thank you Rhonda for your generosity and beautiful packaging of my Friday giveaway present.

And most of all thank you for all of your handmade goodies. Your tags, labels, trims, materials, lace, ribbons and stamps are wonderful. It is no wonder you do so well on Etsy (http://www.parisgal56.etsy.com/). Visit Rhonda's shop here.

I received the material I embroidered and everything in the above photo. That's a fantastic giveaway! Thank you again Rhonda.

Polymer Necklaces

Oldies, but goodies. I loved them years ago and I still love them.

It is what is so insanely fun about polymer is that you can create any color to match anything to go anywhere.

OK, these are not Elise Winter's Fashion Week gorgeous, sumptuously wondrous necklaces, but, it is the pure joy of color and simple design and the endless possibilities of this material that invites the beginner to the most proficient master into an Alice In Wonderland/Avatar world of creativity.

I just watched Tory Hughes' DVD on Faux Ivory and when I heard her say that she spent months making stripes because she just loved how they looked; I could totally relate.

I'm working on finishing some beaded crocheted necklaces. Maybe I can post those tomorrow because they are turning out so pretty.

Native American Sculptures

I started this sculpture a long time ago and still work on him. It's an oil based clay over a Styrofoam and wire armature.

The oil based clay for bronzing never hardens so it can be worked on forever. It is harder for me to work with than the polymer clay. Harder on my hands, not as pliable; different tools also.

The above and below are a couple of poor photos of a polymer sculpture I did of a woman carrying a basket of twigs.  I made her shawl from my polymer canes. The only color on this piece was in the canes. I used a thick cardboard cone for the armature. The person who purchased it was so intrigued by the polymer canes. I love that about polymer.

Art Fair Preparation

This is what I did today. I sat and instructed the hubby how to set up my booth in my office area and he hung my paintings and boards of jewelry.

I'm not one of those that can just wing it on art fair morning. I have to set everything up ahead of time and get it exactly the way I want it, take a photo of it, dissemble it and reassemble it at the art fair.

I am checking the sides and corners of all the paintings to make sure they are perfect. Then I need to hang them, print out the price tag and I should be done with these.

The paintings in the above photo need to be worked on. And I have tons of jewelry I need to put the finishing touches on. But, the universe is telling me something different, so I will do what I can and put the rest on hold.

Alcohol Inks and Powders

I celebrated so much, I'm exhausted. But I did get a chance to experiment with the alcohol inks and metallic powders. Love them.

Still trying to get my faux jade exactly the way I want it. Plus the green is appropriate for the upcoming week.

I was looking for a piece of velvet in my swatches of materials and, seriously, this post card was tucked in between. Just in time for St. Paddy's Day next week.

It's a post card to her mother letting her know that she dug 18 bushels of potatoes from her garden and tomorrow she was going to work on the Dam for $1.75 a day and didn't know for how long. Makes me thankful for what I have.

Featured in Polymer Clay Daily!

Woo Hoo! Yippee! Yay! I have been dancing around all day! Cynthia Tinapple's Polymer Clay Daily featured one of my beaded polymer pieces.

I got an email from my friend Linda Moseley of Diva Designs Jewelry congratulating me and I thought "What???" Oh my gosh I was blown away. What a great feeling and honor to be featured on PC Daily!

-Thank you Cynthia for taking the time to write such nice things about my piece. I know I have talked about Polymer Clay Daily before, but it's worth repeating.

-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.”

-And about my friend Linda-she has a great blog called scdiva in which she shares her talent and experience in working with polymer. Her tutorials are fantastic. Diva Designs Jewelry is fantastic. This day has been fantastic and I'm pretty sure today's blog will be up tomorrow too because I'm going to bask in this one.

-Just like the Oscars--I also have to thank Robin Atkins for Bead Journal Project 3 (see sidebar) for accepting me in her project. I committed to one beaded piece per month for a year and each one has to be the same size for the year. I felt by joining BJP I would be able to combine my polymer with my beading and also process some issues in a positive way through creating.

Here's To Sweetness and Luck!

My no-calorie polymer candies and a Hallmark pin I have had since 1979.

I was reading some of the "discussions" from Synergy II (on Crafthaus) and one result seemed to be general consensus to drop "clay" from "polymer clay" and from here forward refer to it as "polymer". I like that very much and am all for it, hence the above reference to my polymer candies.

I have a small collection (gee, what a surprise) of old four leaf clover jewelry. Today I tried making some molds of them and will add some paint to them tomorrow and maybe carve a little here and there.

I've got our local art fair coming up on the 20th. I'm short on paintings and need to work on those this week. I need to finish all my polymer pieces and price them. But, oh how lucky I am and how sweet it is to have this time to create and feel "here" in the moment.