The Gift

Garden frog had a gift for me. Thank you frog...you made my day!

"Kiss of the sun for pardon. Song of the birds for mirth. You're closer to God's heart in a garden than any place else on earth." -- Dorothy Frances Gurney

Bead Table Wednesday

I haven't been making too many things lately. On a whim, I decided to make some pendant beads. Here's what's on my table today...Bead Table Wednesday. These beads have inlaid components and have been distressed and then painted.

A Few New Bead Sets on Etsy

I've added a few sets of beads to my Etsy store. Above is a picture of one of the sets. I hope you like them!

OMG, ladies! Thank you so much for buying my beads...and so fast!! I am truly humbled!

New Beads I've Been Working On

I had planned on making a pair of earrings a week. I did try! While I was trying to make some beads for a pair of earrings, I got sidetracked and started just making beads. The earrings group has been good for me though. It started me thinking about bead designs again. Here is one of the sets I've made. Looks like I'm still enjoying the grungy look! Wish I could take a good picture...sigh. When a make a few more sets, I'll try putting them up on Etsy. I guess I'll have to do some real catch up to make 52 pairs of earrings this year. Maybe I'll make one pair a month...twelve pairs is still good, isn't it???

P.S....the sun just came out, so I took another picture (the one on top). What a difference a little light makes. You can really see the colors better.

Best Tip I've Found All Year

A short while ago, I found a pin on Pinterest. The pin was about a tip from 2 Good Claymates' blog. Carolyn Good  posted about how she uses dryer sheets to clean up her pasta machine blades. This sounded like a good idea to me, so I started saving my old (Kirkland brand) dryer sheets. Wow! I now use these recycled sheets for all kinds of clay clean up! I am swiping them over my pasta machine rollers. I clean up the crumbs off of my work surface. I wipe my cutting blade. I use them to clean up my glass rolling pin. I'm sure I'll find more things to wipe with them as time goes on. It's amazing how they pick up debris and make the surface sparkle! Plus I feel good about being able to reuse these sheets! Hope you find this tip as useful as I do!  Thank you Carolyn!

52 Pairs of Earrings Week #3

It's week number three for the 52 Pairs of Earrings A Year Flickr group. Here are my earrings for the week. I really like these new leaves that I made. I think I'll even make more! I also like that these earrings make a little noise when I move my head. I like noisy earrings for some reason???

What I learned this week:

• 1. I'm happy that I joined this group. It has (so far) kept me motivated to make new things out of polymer clay.

• 2. I learned that I agonize over every step in putting the earrings together! (Oh to be Lorelei Eurto, and to be able to make so many beautiful  pieces of jewelry in one session AFTER WORKING all day!)

• 3. I am putting some of the ideas that swirl around in my head into something that I actually make!

• 4. I can't take pictures worth BEANS. It took a boat load of taking photos in different areas of my house to finally get one that I wanted to use. I still had to doctor it up in Photoshop!

If you feel like making lots of earrings this year, join this group. Or you can just look at what other are making. 

P.S.  My ears really bother me when I wear brass ear wires. I really like the look of the brass wires or wires that have had a patina added. Does anyone have any suggestions about types of wire to use? Am I the only one with this problem? I know I could use sterling silver, but I'm not crazy about the look of silver.

New Earrings! Woot!

I guess it's been a long time since I've posted here! Life always seems to get in the way of bead making for some reason! Usually I don't make New Year's resolutions, but this year I have a few. There are a few things I really am planning to do ( I hope to, anyway). I want to make some jewelry from some of the copious tutorials I have purchased online or that I have in my hundreds of magazines and books. I plan to (try) and use the supplies that I have on hand, instead of making more and more, and MORE supply purchases. Also I joined a Flickr group that was started by Anke Humpert. It's called 52 Pairs of Earrings a Year. Here is the group's challenge:

"In 2012 I will challenge myself: I will make more art - regularly!
To stick to it, I will make a pair of earrings each week (mostly polymer clay, but not exclusively!).
So 2012 is going to be a year of 52 pairs of earrings for me....! Earrings are relatively small and who does not like to have more earrings, right?
Like to join the challenge??
Just come in and show what you have made each week!"

So these are my plans! I'm already late with the 52 pairs of earrings. It's week two, but I got one pair made! Hooray!  I think they look like pizza slices in this picture! The pizza and the flower are polymer clay. BTW, it's not too late to join the group! If you want to stay motivated to make "something" each week, come join the fun!

Polymer Clay Tutorials Galore

I've been busily working on all kinds of things, but no polymer clay. If any of my blog readers are interested in finding or trying a polymer clay technique, here is a wonderful list of tutorials that can be found online...and I think they are all for free! Hooray! The picture above shows just a small sampling of the great variety of tutorial links that can be found on a wonderful blog called Iratirita. The blog owner lives in Spain. Not all of the tutorials are in the same language, but most are accompanied by lots of pictures of the technique.

Here they are:
Part 1: Tutorials for all kinds of polymer clay canes and miniatures

Part 2: Tutorials for all kinds of polymer clay techniques. There are beads, boxes, jewelry, surface techniques and more!

These lists must have taken a lot of time to put together. What a great resource though. There are several things there that I may just have to try! Enjoy.