Rivoli Pendants, Shawl Pins, Other Stuff, Oh, MY! (Or: Holy Lotta Pics, Batman!)

Holy lotta pics, Batman!

Okay, okay. I've been working my butt off (not literally, unfortunately) and not posting any pics. Here's some of what I've been doing lately. None of these shawl pins are completely finished. The first one, even though it's all pretty and coated in Magic Glos, is unsanded on the sides and bottom.



I made color chips after Jodi's demo at last month's Clay Guild. I had a TON of little leftover bits of the grayed colors, so I rolled them into snakes and decided to make a shawl pin with all of them. I'm not pleased with this yet. We'll see what miracles some Inca Gold paint (from Folkart--my FAVORITE gold color) can do. Oh, and Rose, that's my paint color. Hopefully you'll read this.


This is my most recent shawl pin. I love it! I did it with my jade mix. Although I'm pretty sure that this particular jade mix isn't what I usually do. I can't wait to sand it and buff it! Well. I can't wait for it to be done. Maybe I could enter a temporal vortex (subspace rift?) or some kind and exit after the sanding and buffing were done. Oh, if only Star Trek were real.


Random cane slices on a base.


More little cane slices and some old strips of mokume gane.


My current pride and joy--this beautiful necklace I finished at Clay Guild yesterday with 14kt gold filled wire and a bunch of Swarovski. ^_^ I love the little pendant, which is that technique I'm going to write an article on for Polymer Cafe. That will be my third accepted article. I'm really excited about it!


Lynn did this awesome demo yesterday at Clay Guild. These are shown in the order I made them. The top left was made yesterday after the demo. The others were made at home, late at night, and early in the morning. ^_^ They're so fun! The only thing that stopped me was running out of Rivolis. Although I like the cabochon look, I really, REALLY love the crystals. Oh, and because I'm kind of kooky: I made super tiny ones out of 6mm drilled Rivoli drops (cleverly concealing the holes) for earrings. They need to get finished a bit better. I used the FolkArt Inca Gold acrylic paint for some of these and some FolkArt Warm White, I believe.


Since I started my blog post, Adam wisely started playing a video game. (Star Trek Encounters for PS2, in case anyone was curious.) I was already planning on making this pendant with a long cab into a necklace. I may just do that now. I need to sand and buff this one, too, though. Dangit.

Earring Swap/Card Exchange

Busy, busy, busy. But it's good!


Here are my card exchange cards for May. I've got to go drop them off today. (They're due every month on the 15th!)


And here are my earring pieces for the guild swap on Saturday. I kind of had this total freak out over the last week when I realized that I had 15 pairs of earring pieces AND 8 cards due on the same day this month. LoL. But it's been kind of fun, I suppose. I've watched a lot of Hercules on Netflix while crafting. You can laugh all you want. That show is so lame, but I love it.

Yeah, I really love being able to set my laptop on the desk next to me and have it playing something as I work. It really helps me concentrate! I know sometimes I look rude in church, too, as I flip through my bible looking for various things that I think of as I listen, but the extra activity somehow allows my brain to focus more on what's going on. In various meetings I attend, too, or other things, it's helpful to me to be working on things while I'm listening, then I can focus on my work and on what's said. Otherwise, I find myself daydreaming. It's like my brain really needs something else to do in order to focus. It's an extreme right brain thing. It helps me understand my son, Thad, too. We're so alike, it's weird.

Yeah, like, on Sunday, Adam sent him into his room to get dressed. We already have him pick his clothes out the night before to help. He was in there for 10 minutes doing nothing. Just standing there, spacing. Adam had to remind him again that he should be getting dressed. Then, Adam came into our room as I was getting ready and asked, "Is it possible that he actually just spaced for 10 minutes?" And I said, "Totally. He could have seen something on his desk that reminded him of something and he thought about it, then a stream of a million other things, and he just has no idea how much time has passed." Adam said, "Weird. I just don't understand that." But I feel mushies at him because he's so sweet. Even though he doesn't understand, he recognizes that, and he's a really good dad. And a darned fine husband. (Like the bible says, "Dwell with your wife in understanding..." It doesn't say they'll ever understand us. LoL.)

Anyway, anyway... This was fun. I put some tips on the cards included with my earrings, too, and described color mixes and whatnot. So guild people are getting a treat. Even if my earring pieces aren't as good as Bonnie's or Lupe's (Lupe's post made me feel like crap, lol!), maybe people will enjoy my tidbits. ^_^

YAY!

They said they want it, so I'm sorry that I can't share the info here. ^_^ But hopefully it will get into the mag soon. So look forward to this technique and my upcoming Zen Garden article which is to be published at some unknown date in the (hopefully) not to distant future. ^_^

My experiments!!!!!

Okay, okay, okay. I'm finally sharing this! I was inspired by the shimmering batik stuff that everyone has been making, but I was too cheap to buy the demo and I came up with my own thing that doesn't really look like that, but still looks really cool!

I just submitted this stuff as a possible article for PolymerCafe, but if they don't take it, I'll tell everyone how I did it.

These are coated with Magic Glos, too. I really am proud of the way they turned out. I don't recommend trying to do something like my third one, though. I had SO many issues with the Glos running down in that little crack. If you look close, you can see some of it is still there. I'll have to figure something out for making cool shapes like this in the future. But I still love it, and that is the one that most people really ooh and ahh over when they see it.

Steampunk! And other things...

I've gotten really into Steampunk stuff lately. I've been making jewelry and whatnot. Adam and I are also working on a clock, which I will post pictures of once we're finally finished. We're altering a store bought clock to make it Steampunk. If you don't know what Steampunk is, you should google it.

Ugh, Elliott just poured juice on my shoulder when turning his cup over to show me that it was empty. LoL.

Anyway, I've been making some things, but not updating as much. I'm doing clay a lot lately, trying new things, and eventually I'll have some huge post with 20 pictures, so you can wait for it. I went through a Silpada catalog and took some inspiration from a lot of the pieces in there and am making some fun new things with my clay. ^_^

I'm also doing shawl pins, buttons, and stitch markers for Tempe Yarn and Fiber, which is super, super cool and exciting. I'm going to have my stuff in there on the first of June, so yarnies can look out for it.

And... I suppose that's all... I've got dishes calling my name and laundry that needs to be switched over and a child who apparently needs more juice/attention. I know art must be served, but real life must be served sometimes, too. Ah, well.

I HATE Mohair! I HATE Mohair!

Does anyone remember the scene in the Disney movie, "Sword in the Stone", where Mad Madam Mim is bested by Merlin and they have her in her house and let sunshine in to help her get better? She pulls her hair over her face and starts shrieking in the best fit voice ever, "I HATE sunshine! I hate horrible wholesome sunshine!"

Anyway... I mention this because any time you me saying that I HATE something, I'm doing it in my head in this voice. And I HATE mohair! I hate horrible, hairy mohair!

I'm just having issues with a scarf right now that is very soon to be made a muffler. A LOT of my scarves are turning into mufflers lately. I can't imagine why.

Oh, and in case anyone is curious, here is the link for the video of Mad Madam Mim's fit on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJ8JGfuCAw

They don't let it carry on as long as it should. :( And it starts at about second 30, in case you want to skip right to it.

Varnishing tips... And, uh, where the heck have I been!?

Hey, all! I just thought I'd get on here and update just a bit and explain why I haven't been posting anything lately!

In a word, I've been BUSY. Here's some of it:

-I have two kids. And a husband. And my husband and I really love each other and like spending time together. So there's that pesky family that really takes up most of my time.
-I've been teaching a lot more at JoAnn lately. People are actually taking my classes! Yay!
-I've been potty training my younger son with much success and very few horror stories which I won't share because, you know. Ick. Although my day is frequently punctuated now by the ever interesting quest for the underwear which always begins with the running of the little streaker.
-I've gotten involved in www.ravelry.com, which is like Facebook for knitters and crocheters. And I'm actually using up a lot of my stash yarn now because I'm finding great patterns specifically for my yarns thanks to Ravelry's huge pattern database.
-I have a new business opportunity. I'm selling metal buttons, fine silver stitch markers, and polymer clay shawl pins at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. Exciting!!! But I'm also busy making a million things and not blogging about it as much.

Overall, it's all good stuff. Hopefully soon I can post about the shawl pins I've been making.

And... for the VARNISHING TIPS!!

I discovered this while varnishing a shawl pin. I use a super cheap water based varnish that I buy out of the acrylic paint section at JoAnn--it's called Duraclear, if I'm not mistaken. I squeeze a bit of the gloss varnish out onto my surface and dip a paper towel into it. I then proceed to build up very, very thin layers of varnish on my clay, wiping it almost completely off each time. After four or five coats, on the last coat, while little streak marks are still visible and the varnish isn't quite dry, I lightly buff the surface with the paper towel to remove the marks, then let it dry. This leaves a virtually flawless surface, and looks really quite natural! Like, it's not a big, glaring plastic coating. It honestly looks like it was buffed. This was an exciting discovery for certain techniques I'm using in the shawl pins that really can't be sanded.

I've also picked up some Renaissance wax for my copper and brass buttons and am looking forward to trying it on my clay. If anyone out there has used Renaissance wax for clay and had success or horror, let me know.