March Crafts 7 & 8: Cane work/Lotus pendants/giveaway

Yesterday's craft time was somewhat rife with disappointment. I was inspired, in part, by the Asian looking blue and white china you see quite a bit, yet also by Victorian lace patterns. And I ended up producing something neither Asian nor Victorian, but rather a cane that looks a bit more like it belongs on a Mexican tile. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, and I like the cane itself. I just don't like how my beads and my pendant turned out. I sanded only with 220 on these and just couldn't take it anymore. It's the main reason I don't do a lot of cane work, really. Disappointment with wrong results is just a bit too acute because of how much work goes into it.

Oh, well. These things (except for the raw cane, of course) have now been thrown into my jar to await the day I pull them out and, by then no longer emotionally connected to my original vision, I can love them for what they are.


Today's craft was more inspired by the disappointment of yesterday and several of the crafts I've been doing lately. All of this trying new stuff is starting to wear on my nerves. LoL. I went back to the stuff I really enjoy, and the thing I seem to be most naturally inclined to do with my clay--mimic intricately carved things.

So I made a couple of blue lotus pendants today. They're a mixture of blue pearl and translucent. My future plans for them are for them to be sanded gloriously through all 11 grits of sandpaper I now eccentrically insist on using in all of my sanding projects. They'll be so smooth! And I'm going to fill in the cracks and whatnot with Inca gold acrylic paint. I can't wait!


The black lotus pendant above was made a while ago, sanded through 9 grits of sandpaper (this was before I discovered the last two, lol) and filled with silver paint. If you want to win this cute pendant, post about it on your blog with a link to this post, and you'll be entered in the giveaway (of the black lotus pendant).


Incidentally, here's my infamous jar. This is where my lonely, unfinished pieces await their future completion. What the hey? Look closely at this jar. Pick any one item that you can see in there and you can win that AND the lotus pendant.

Items of note visible in this picture of the jar:

-There's a lovely mokume gane rock purse kind of towards the bottom left there. It was sanded through all the grits I usually use now (220-3000) and buffed and it feels incredible. I just haven't drilled holes in it or anything because I haven't figured out yet how I'm turning it into a pendant. The colors are incredible. I really love it!

-My cute little octopus bead from several posts ago is visible in the bottom left of the jar, too. So you could win that. http://papersensei.blogspot.com/2010/02/polymer-frenzy.html

-The coffee bean beads featured in the post with the octopus are also visible in the jar. You can win the set.

-A beautiful gold colored pendant on the bottom right of the screen has several set cats eye cabochons in it and is actually quite intricate and lovely. (You just can't see the front.) We could call that a mystery prize, if you choose it when you win.

-The elephant and the diamond shaped pendant from a previous post are visible in the jar in this photograph. http://papersensei.blogspot.com/2010/02/ivory-pendants-elephant-beadnational.html

In general, there's a lot of cool stuff in there. I guess this is how people get people to follow their blog, and it seems like a great way to network! So, remember, here are the rules:

-Post about this and use this link on your blog: http://papersensei.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-crafts-7-8-cane-worklotus.html
-Leave a comment on this post.
-I'll leave this open until Friday the 12th. On Saturday, I'll announce the winner and post a picture of what they won.

You can win: the black and silver lotus pendant and one thing from my jar as seen in this photograph. You pick!