Look at these sweet treats! Would you guess that they're made of polymer clay? You can tell the scale by the dime in the photo. They are the work of Amber Dawn. Hop on over to her blog, Inventive Soul, by clicking on her name. She's having a giveaway, so you could maybe win one of these lovelies! To see them all, you must go to her blog, that's where you enter as well.

One Down, One to Go (And Some Things Acomplished)

Well, I did get the first of my tests done, an MRI. I won't have the results from that for about a week, but I'm not really expecting anything to show on that one. My next one has been pushed off 'til after Christmas. *sigh* By the way, that's not my MRI pictured there, I just didn't have a picture for today's post yet!

I did get a little work done this weekend. I finished two pieces that I had previously started before the numbness, tingling, and pain forced me to stop. :(

p.s. I'll replace that picture later with one or two of my work.

Waaahhh!!

Well, I seem to have hurt my wrists and maybe hands. This is very distressing. I kept waking up in the middle of the night with numbness in my hands. It started with just part of my right hand, then progressed to the whole hand, then my left hand as well. At first I thought I was just sleeping in a funny position, making my hand and/or fingers "go to sleep", but after several nights of that, I knew it had to be more. Plus, I was having a lot of pain, from my fingertips all the way up to my armpits! I noticed that the numbness would go away if I kept my wrists straight, so I thought, "Oh no! Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!"

As it turns out, I was wrong, not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It's a different nerve condition that has multiple causes, one of which is repetitive movement. So the doctor thinks I have injured my wrists/hands in some way to cause this. Maybe through repetitive movement, maybe something else. I have to get a tests run in a week or two. :(

The really sucky part is that I've been unable to do my art! And I have orders!!! After wearing the splints for days and nights non-stop and taking massive doses of anti-inflammatories, they are beginning to feel somewhat better, so I'm going to attempt finishing my orders on Thursday. Wish me luck!

Grrrr!

Grrr! I've been so busy working a new job that I haven't had time for anything! Working overtime. Even now I am at work (on break, of course). Then, when I came here to post, I discover that my blog has been hacked!! I guess that's what I get for not posting for so long. :( I have to confess that I'm not sure how "they" manage to do the spam posts. This happened one time before when I wasn't even neglecting posting! At that time I thought I had taken appropriate steps to prevent it again. *sigh. But enough of that.

Check out these gorgeous earrings that "fancifuldevices" made!

And these! She made them with some of Claire Maunsell's lovely pods and potterygirl's ceramic beads. She has other beautiful items in her shop as well. I say "she", but in reality, I don't know who fancifuldevices is, so "she" could actually be a "he". But I recommend checking out her shop.

That's all for now, back to work!

St. James Court Art Show

Ahhhh . . . October. October is my favorite month of the year, so many good things about it. For me it's a month that's jam packed full of events. The first of which is the St. James Court Art Show.

This annual show is held the first weekend in October. That's this weekend! St. James Court Art Show is in Louisville, KY in a very picturesque neighborhood that's full of huge old, Victorian era houses. It is a large show, this year there were 750 artists, and it is consistently ranked among the best art shows in the U.S. I usually attend two or all three days, it's that big!

Here are a few pictures from the show. These are artists whose work struck a chord with me. The first is Linda Chamberlain of Simple Works:

The texture of her work is amazing.

Then there are these wonderful journals by Teresa Merriman of Moind's Eye Journals:

I really loved these journals. Each one is different and unique with luscious, deckle-edged pages.

Then there are the lovely little faerie houses by Bell and Frank Barr. They are ceramic with copper roofs and "vines":

They even decorated the step-up to their booth!

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll have more from the art show!

More Little Houses

I think it would be fun to have a whole village of these little houses. Maybe I should keep a few for myself. Hmmm . . .

Here are the backs. Additional views may be seen at my Flickr page.

Coming soon: The Goblin King

Oops! I Forgot . . .

. . . to schedule this post! This was supposed to go up yesterday for Bead Table Wednesday. :(

Our family has been on trips for a couple weeks, and then I started training on Monday for a new job. Whew! What a busy two weeks. Whenever I travel I always take some sort of art supplies with me. I don't always use them, but I can't stand to not have them. I have figured out that as sure as I as don't bring them, that's when I'll want them. I debated taking along my "clay stuff" this time and ultimately decided not to, thinking I wouldn't have time anyway/ or want to. Of course I was sorry in the end. Oh well. I did take some of my finished pieces with me since they were listed on my Etsy site and I didn't want to shut down while I was gone figuring they wouldn't take much room, I could ship from anywhere, and I could show them to friends and family. As a result I came home with fewer pieces than I left with!

Once we were home from our trip I really wanted to get to work on more pieces. As a result I finished the hollow beads I had started and made smaller beads to go with them.

And the other side.

Tomorrow I'll post other new stuff (hopefully my brain is working right now!).

Yet Another Bead Table Wednesday

This past week I actually did get around to making some beads. Yay! Claire Maunsell posted a great tutorial over on her blog, the next bend, on making her hollow strata beads. I have had fun trying her technique the past few days. Here's the first one I made. Top view:

Here's a side view showing the layers:

I used phthalo blue to stain/highlight the bead, but don't think I'm too crazy about how it turned out. Way too intense. I had to sand quite a bit to remove as much colour as I wanted with the result that my bead became more smooth and shiny than I planned, especially after polishing. You may need to click on the pictures to see the shininess. Here's the other side:

I have others that aren't quite camera ready yet. I'll post those here or on my Flickr account as soon as I'm able. Bye for now.

Holding On to Inspiration

I find that I'm still thinking about the subject of inspiration. But this time it's not finding it, rather, it's about keeping it. As I said in an earlier post, it's relatively easy for me to find inspiration. My problem seems to be sorting through it and holding on to it. Sometimes I have so very many ideas that I can't possibly use them all. Sometimes I have great ideas and then . . . I forget them. So, a little (big?) confession here. I have ADHD and short-tern memory issues. I've had to find ways to cope. My way of doing this when it comes to ideas and inspiration is to write it down. But I can't just write it down on any old sheet of paper or in a plain notebook, oh no, I'd lose those. My solution is an art ideas journal.

I love to do art journalling, but I'm not very dedicated and I often seem to lose focus at some point. But if I give myself permission to just do a journal and let it be "whatever", I can do it. It's not an art journal, it's not a writing journal, it's an Art Ideas Journal. In this (these) journal(s), I write down ideas for projects, I write poems, my own and others that have inspired me, song lyrics, my musings, my to-do lists, etc. I do some art journalling, practice techniques, and so on.

I used to buy small sketchbooks or blank journals to use, but now I make my own. I use recycled cardboard from food or other boxes, watercolour paper, and cardstock weight paper. I bind them with a Zutter so they lay flat while I work in them and they will also have room to expand (since they always seem to get fatter).

I find that writing down my ideas helps refine the good ones and weed out the bad ones. Sketches of varying quality may or may not accompany the notes. I also keep a separate, larger sketchbook that is just for sketches and drawings.

 

I also have a couple of back-up plans when I don't have a journal with me, my iPhone and my iPad. I can just type a note into either, snap a picture, make a voice recording, or make a digital drawing (iPad). Then I try to remember later make a journal entry from that, but if I don't, I still have my ideas :)

 

If you're interested in seeing more of this particular journal, click here to go to my Flickr page. There are more pages as well as more construction notes.

If it's Wednesday . . .

. . . then it must be time to show what's on my bead table. I'm afraid the pickings are rather slim today. I've been trying obtain a certain elusive shade of turquoise/aqua. And I have to say that I'm ever so grateful that Cynthia Tinapple tweeted this colour mixing chart for Kato clay back in May. I printed it out on glossy paper and it's been very helpful. Thanks Cynthia : ) However, I didn't get the turquoise beads finished.

Here are a couple of funky long beads that I'm making into earrings. They're actually made from scrap.

Then I got tired of working on beads and worked on these instead. Fred and Ethel Mae. There's one more, Lola, but she's not done yet. Fred's not quite 2 1/2" tall, Ethel Mae about 2". Hopefully Lola will be done tomorrow.

Toodles.

What Inspires You?

Where do you find your inspiration? Have you ever thought about the different types of inspiration? What about that sometimes elusive muse? I find that for myself, there are two main types of inspiration. There are the kinds that come from things seen or heard or even just glimpsed from the corner of the eye. Then there are people that inspire you.

The first kind, seen or heard, is usually pretty easy for me to come by. Maybe it comes from a song that evokes an emotional response or a conjures up a particularly strong visual image in my mind, or both. For instance, I once made a book based on the song Ruby Tuesday, but in that case it wasn't inspired by the Rolling Stones version, although that is one my favourite songs. No, what inspired me in that instance was the actress Katey Sagal's version on the TV show Sons of Anarchy.

There was such raw, powerful emotion in her voice that went along with what had happened to her character. Sometimes though, it can be as simple as something like the shape and colours of these oxygen tanks all filled up and ready to go.

I saw these at the dive center where my daughter and husband were taking scuba lessons and thought they had their own unique beauty. And sometimes I feel inspired by the written word, poetry or books. Robert Frost, Neil Gaiman, and T. S. Eliot come immediately to mind. I am often inspired by the work of other artists, too numerous to mention here, and it makes me want to work harder and raise the calibre of my own work.

There is another way, however, that people sometimes inspire me, and that is by their actions. For instance, back in 2004 I had nearly given up on polymer clay altogether. I would see the work of polymer clay artists and really love the things that could be done with the medium. I would see artists on TV demonstrating various projects and techniques. One such artist was Donna Kato, I saw her on The Carol Duvall Show. She made it look so easy that I had to try it. Well, it wasn't hard for me to make things, but my things kept breaking or getting air bubbles in them or otherwise going wrong! All that work just for nothing it seemed! Then in October of 2004 my daughter and I were at the St. James Court Art Show in Louisville; Leslie Blackford was one of the exhibitors.

We got to talking and when she found out that I liked to work in polymer clay, but was was feeling discouraged, she suggested that I come to the first ever Clay Carnival in Las Vegas. She told me about the instructors and classes that would be taught. She was one of the instructors, as was Donna Kato. Leslie was so encouraging and so generous with her time and advice ("I think you should try a different brand of clay.", "Come to Clay Carnival, you'll learn so much and have so much fun!" "You should join our guild.") that she inspired me to not give up. Of course Leslie isn't the only person who has inspired me, but I mention her here because I feel that sort of inspiration is important. I mention Donna also because she inspired me to to try polymer clay in the first place, even though it was via TV. So what inspires you?

Note: The lovely bird sculpture above is one of Leslie's works that I purchased from her at that initial meeting at St.James Court. I have affectionately dubbed him "The Jackdaw."

Bead Table Wednesday, for the First Time

Inspired by Claire Maunsell's "Bead Table Wednesday" post last week, I decided to check further into what Bead Table Wednesday was all about. I had seen it referenced before, but without really looking into it. I like the idea of showing what's on your table beadwise. I never feel like I have enough beads on hand when I need them. The result is that I'm slowed down when I need a bead or beads and have to stop and make some, or worse yet, go buy some. So I decided to join the group. Maybe this will encourage me to make beads more often or buy them when I'm buying other supplies.


These are some beads I made awhile back. I made a prototype of the big focal bead first, then refined it with this version. Then I thought if I made it into a pendant, I should have some beads for earrings. Then I just made a few more, But now I can't decide exactly how I want to use them. In a configuration like this, with some of the small red and black beads between?


Or do I want to drill them vertically and dangle them? Or use the the focal bead by itself with some of the smaller beads on a bracelet?

Oh, decisions, decisions!

Bedraggled Little Owl

Oh dear. Look what flew out of my studio today, or I should say, tried to fly out. Grimwald caught him pretty handily. I mean look at him, spindly little wings, stubby tail. He has a button for one eye for pete's sake, and I'm not too sure he can see very well out of the other! He's about a whopping inch and a half tall, but I'm telling you, those talons are sharp! I think he'll have to be kept in captivity for his own good.


I think we did take a bit of a risk taking him outside long enough to photograph him, but Grimwald did seem to have him well under control by that time. Thank goodness.

Now, what to call him?

Brass, Copper, Bone (and a short rant)

This past weekend I didn't really do a lot in my studio. I still had a lot of pain from my treatment on Wednesday, particularly in my hands. So mostly just busywork, but I did make this. I imagine this to be a small collection of little trinkets a world traveller might have collected in his or her wanderings, a lucky number 13, an ancient brass pyramid of uncertain origin, and a carved and inlaid bone heart.


I had fun experimenting with faux treatments/looks and patinas. However, I can't seem to get a decent photo of this piece. I'll have to try again tomorrow with the good camera (the battery's dead today), they are a bit better if you click on them though.


Now for the rant. You don't have to read this part if you don't want. I'll keep it short. This is how much it cost to fill my car with gas the other day. This makes me angry. Oil prices are down, but gas prices keep going up! Grrrr! And that's all I'm saying 'cause this isn't that kind of blog.

Happy creating!

Where I Spent My Day

Note: After reflection, I thought this was a pretty depressing post and I wanted to delete it, but I decided to leave it up. However, I did edit it slightly.

So this is where I spent my day (on Wednesday, this went up after midnight). Do you recognize what it is?


You can probably tell, that's an IV drip. I spent the day hooked up to that. Ugh. I have a blood disorder that requires several treatments a year.  Good times. :/ And they pretty much take all day long. But enough about that. When I got home, look what was waiting! A package in the mail that contained these! A complete set of all 55 Kemper cutters!


They were a Mothers' Day gift from my family. Of course they weren't loose in the box like that, I did that. The only Kemper cutters I had previously was a partial set of the circle cutters which went missing on a trip a year or so ago. So I'm pretty excited about getting these.

I also got a Dremel workstation :) Yay for no more vibrating hands!

The Heartbreak (sometimes) of Polymer Clay

This past weekend I was working on some more faerie houses. Some were teeny-tiny, like this one. Which strangely enough was purple before baking, but it's coloured with alcohol ink which sometimes changes in the oven. But wow, hot pink?!


I photographed it with my awesome new glasses to show the scale. Ok, so you're thinking an unexpected colour change is not that upsetting, and you're right.

Here's the upset. After the tiny ones, I started work on another, larger faerie house, it's in scale with with the earlier houses on this blog. It started life as a night light bulb thoughtfully modelled here by my assistant, Grimwald.


This is what it looked like after the first layer of clay was applied. Oh, and aluminium foil was wrapped around the base of the bulb first.


After more work and another layer or two, (that Grimwald is such an attention hog!) it looked like this from the back.


Do you ever have those days in the studio when it seems like nothing is coming easy? Things are working and coming together, but with difficulty? And taking longer than they normally would? That's what I was experiencing this past weekend. So finally after more work and detailing, etc., here it is, oven ready.


I popped it in the oven, set the timer on my phone, and walked away to take a break, very happy to finally be done with that part of that house!

I'm always excited to see my stuff come out of the oven. It's a rewarding moment, a "Yes, I did it!" moment. Of course sometimes it doesn't go as planned, but even that is helpful because I figure out what doesn't work. This time though, was neither of those things. I took it out of the oven to discover a great big crack running vertically most of the length of the roof! And I hadn't even done anything wrong. I didn't have the oven temperature wrong or the clay too thick or anything that I could think of, but sometimes cracks happen. I was so bummed. It was too big to easy fix so I waited for it to cool and back-filled and re-textured and re-baked, only to drop it taking it out of the oven. And of course the clay being still soft from the heat, you can guess what happened. I wanted to cry! So to shorten what's becoming a long post, I recovered the entire roof, adding filigree 'cause I wasn't happy with the swirl on top. And it still has a little flaw. *sigh* It's a good thing I don't want perfection.

Anyway, here it is, finished.

No Work *sigh*

I didn't get to work yesterday :( My husband sold one of his motorcycles to someone out of town so I spent a large part of the day on the road (I picked him up after he delivered the bike). And today just didn't go as planned so I didn't get to do much today either. Oh well, tomorrow is other day.

On another note, since I didn't have anything of my own today, here's a picture of one of my favourite charm bracelets. It was made by jewelry artist Robbie Moriarty. I also have a wonderful Dia de los Muertos necklace and earrings made by her, maybe I'll post those sometime as well.

I'll be contacting people about the charm swap tomorrow.

Bye now.

More Charms

As promised, here are more charms. Hearts this time.

They are all made from translucent clay, colored with alcohol ink. And I really didn't mean to make that one look like it had a bloody stake. Or did I? Me on Polymer Clay Daily (link fixed, oops!). Really it was just a serendipitous accident. The wire embedded heart has a hole at the bottom so something can be dangled from it.

Here are more hearts, not charms, they're pendants.

'Til tomorrow.

Happy International Charm Day!

I have decided to give away five charms to whomever asks. If I get more than five requests I'll do a drawing. If you're interested just comment or drop me an email (link in profile). You have through Friday. If you want to trade a charm, you can do that, too. Same thing, comment or email.

First off, here's the first part of the batch of "voodoo" charms I'm working on. The hearts will be posted later today along with whatever else strikes my fancy.


The teeth charms were inspired by these vintage Black Forest Charms that someone sold on Etsy about 2 1/2 years ago. Yeah, I kept the pictures that long. I have a file titled "Inspiration" where I keep pics of things I find inspiring. Unfortunately, I no longer know who the seller was, but I really love these charms.


And here's a sneak peek at a work in progress that I'm currently working on.

Happy Charm Day!

Check back later!