Halloween Glow In The Dark Pin

I made this pin last year for Halloween and have been wearing the heck out of it.

It is made completely from air dry polymer clay which means it is extremely lightweight. Happy Halloween everyone!

Air Dry Polymer Clay

I made an attempt at porcelain-like shapes, but, it just didn't have the lightness and delicacy as the blues of yesterday. Ahh, yesterday when I was younger.

Polymer Fireworks

Today is my birthday! Happy birthday to me! I am enjoying every minute of it.

I sculpted these celebratory shapes from air dry polymer clay. They range in size from 8 x 10 to 10 x 14 and are extremely lightweight.

A Break from Halloween

Went shopping to IKEA to pick up a pot rack for our kitchen and snapped a couple of photos of their "winter" table setting.

So pretty. And no skeletons....how refreshing.

They have some unusual lighting, which reminded of a crystal ball I had taken a photo of when I was in Chicago.

This thing was huge. Gorgeous. And if all that wasn't enough, it changed colors from turquoise to pink to aqua to purple to blue. Wow.

Mold of Tissue Box

Lying in bed looking at my tissue box and wondering how it escaped a mold. It turned out great. Now I need to come up with some shapes. But I'm still playing with the shells and Sculpey Light.

Halloween Shopping

Went shopping to Michael's. I will probably cover this paper mache' skull with the rest of the Skeleton Crew cane.

More candy molds for polymer. I cut them up as soon as I get them home and throw them in with the rest of the plastic candy molds.

I don't know about spooky, but they're interesting. Someone stop me.

Textured Pin

Shell pin has a textured outer rim with the smooth center drilled out.

Shell Textures

Working with Sculpey Light is like working with marshmallow. But, it really took a beautiful texture and the pin and two pendants are extremely lightweight.

Coating With Magic Glos

I'm back in real time, but am going to work with my pre-posts until I am 100%. Everything went well and I thank all of you for your well wishes. Back to today's post...... I made a mold of a shell. Lightly spritzed the mold with water and lightly pressed the raw polymer into it. After releasing it from the mold, I pushed the center in to form a bowl shape.

I baked the polymer. When it was cooled, I filled in the bowl shape with Martha Stewart silver beads.

I squeezed a couple of drops of Magic Glos into the beads and stirred with a toothpick. I only wanted them coated, not buried under resin. I did not want a shiny, glossy surface but wondered if this would work. I cured it under the UV light for 15 minutes and it came out perfect. The beads are adhered to the polymer and have a dull rather than shiny finish. I love it.

Finishing Up the Halloween Table

I finished painting the candelabra black. Love it.

And happy with the napkin rings too.  It's coming together.

Skull Napkin Rings

I convinced myself I needed some polymer skull napkin rings to complete my Halloween tablescape. I made the skull and cross bones from Kato polymer clay. I bought a silicone skeleton ice tray from IKEA . I cut one off, cut the depth in half and used it for the skull mold. I hand sculpted the cross bones, baked them, made a mold of them and then attached each of the cross bones to the skulls with more polymer and completed the baking.

I painted some second hand wooden napkin rings black, sanded and distressed them, then attached the baked polymer to the wooden napkin ring with Apoxie Clay. It binds the polymer to the wood like cement.

I also use it to alter my creatures. It has a comfortable working time an air dries to a cement finish.

These are the second hand napkin rings, the ice cube tray mold and the mold I made of my polymer cross bones.

Halloween Necklace

The cross bones are made out of Sculpey Light.

I'm almost to the end of the Skeleton Crew canes. Yeah, I'm glad too.

Beads and Bones

Posted before 10/18:

I worked on making some lightweight little bones for my Skeleton Crew necklace.

I keep my manual pasta machine right next to my motorized pasta machine. So far it is working out. Back to the work table to string these.

Squiggle Beads

These are the Squiggle Beads featured in December's Polymer Cafe' magazine.

The fossils and arrowheads used in the display I have had 50 years. My dad used to take we three kids fossil hunting. He'd show us how to hit the rock just right, it would crack in two and reveal the most beautiful patterns; mostly ferns, but some bugs. The arrowheads I would find in my grandmother's cornfields after the tractor had gone through turning over the ground. I used to have a large collection, but these are all that are left after all these years.

Squiggle Beads

My article on "Squiggle Beads" made the December issue. Yay. I am so happy. It is good I have this excitement to balance out my extreme nervousness. I am leaving in the morning for major surgery and will be laid up 6 weeks. Again, I have the overwhelming urge to tell everyone how much they mean to me and how grateful I am to have them in my life. Including you guys. Thank you for following, visiting, commenting and being a part of my life.

Broken + Polymer = New Again

A badly chipped and cracked bowl from IKEA (my second home). It is such a pretty shape I hated to throw it away. I applied some liquid polymer clay and placed slices of raw cane on it. A little here and there. I like it. It's just for Halloween decoration-not for food so it will be fine.

My Beaded Bracelet Winner

Congratulations! Carol of Carol Creech Studio won! Her blog can be found HERE and her website HERE. Carol is an artist who specializes in pet portraits and also home portraits. There were 17 entries and the Random Generator chose #15. A big thanks to everyone. I had so much fun and am going to do this again soon.

My Beaded Bracelet Giveaway

Just leave me a comment for a chance to win this bracelet. Giveaway is over at midnight tonight.

Tea With The Skeleton Crew

I bought a broken ceramic teapot at Goodwill. Scratched, chipped, no top, but knew I could do something with it. I sculpted a removeable top out of polymer that works well so I was happy. It was just perfect for the Skeleton Crew.

Polymer and Pearl Ring

I shaped the polymer over the ring, wired a gorgeous pearl into it and cured it.

The beautiful fabric sculpted doll is from Goodwill.

What Did I Create Today?

......a bill. I fell in love with this antique Mexican sugar cone mold I saw on Geninne Zlatkis' blog "Geninne's Art Blog" (click HERE) and HAD to have it. Do I need it? No. Do I want it? Heck yeah. It makes me feel "artsy" and somehow connects me to the peaceful feeling I get looking at Geninne's studio.

It is so intriguing how objects connect us to something and at the same time create an emotion. How our five senses create our memories.

How our creative spaces become our sanctuaries.

Visit her Etsy store (click HERE) and her Flickr site (click HERE) for inspiration. Visit her blog, experience the peace, see her beautiful creations, marvel at her talent, sense of bliss and artistic purpose.