Thursday, July 29, 2010

PC Testimony

The first time I discovered polymer clay was when I was a child and my mother bought me a sampler set of Fimo and a book. I was enamored with this stuff and the beautiful pictures in the book (always did lean towards the creative). Then I became frustrated and fearful.... I only had a small amount of each color. I baked a few things but mostly I horded the clay and dreamed of a day in which I could made the beautiful things in the book. Over the years the clay became hard and crumbly and it gathered bits of lint and dust. I threw it out when I went to college.
I discovered polymer clay for the second time about 2 years ago. Again it was my mother's fault! She was visiting us and we went out shopping. She doesn't have the craft stores that I have here so she wanted to go and look at beads. As she was looking at the fabulous strings of beads and drawing me into the magic of beads, I looked over and saw a display for polymer clay (huh, it's still around) and I started flipping through a book. "Mom, why don't you just make beads instead of spending so much time and money looking for and buying them." It sounded easy to me,  it sounded logical and look all Fimo products 50%. My mom laughs at me... that's not my thing... that's more your thing. And she bought me my first collection of polymer clay and tools for the second time!
Polymer clay has become my creative outlet. Sometimes I'm still fearful and horde but I have to remind myself what happened when I did that as a child and that art isn't about safety, it's about leaping....

Of course I give my mom the pick of the beads often. Sometimes I just sent her a package with all my new beads. It is the least I can do for the woman who introduced me to this media twice and gave me a lifetime to explore it.
This necklace is what I made my mother for Christmas. I loved the way the pinks blended with the coppery color!
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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A pile of beads

Well it's been a couple of days since I've written. I've been working.... rearranging the kitchen, cleaning the dining room/studio, setting up a lighting system for the turtle and their 55 gallon home and making beads...

These beads are beads I made awhile ago and have since been sold to a local bead store and I'm trying to inspire myself again. She wants bright colors and a set of beads much like the first set she bought so I'm going over the pictures that I have of them and evaluating...


It would help if I could give more feed back from others out there. What you like, what you don't like. How the colors work for you..... That would be fabulous....

Beads made from a spliced flower cane.... Love the colors
A few string of beads using a number of techniques...
The first string and fifth string are from kaleidoscope canes
The square beads are all pillow beads
These are made from a variety of flower canes.

Pretty in Pink - disc and lentil beads made from my own rose cane
More lentil beads .... some using scraps from a crackled leaf technique 




All the links are lead you to the wonderful tutorials I learned from at Cindy Lietz site... please check them out if your interested in creating your own or just knowing how!
Thanks for checking out my beads. I'll have more later... please leave your feed back!
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Friday, July 23, 2010

So Busy, So Tired...

I don't know how I always let this happen.... I'm so tired and frustrated and maybe even a little crispy around the edges. It's one of those weeks that my "real job" is really getting to me and I just don't want to go back....

BUT at least I have polymer clay and I get create and cut some of the stress!

.... here's a pretty little bangle I made using Jupiter beads, 12 ga wire and and a variety of other beads. Even the beaded S-hook clasp is specially made for this bracelet. Thanks Cindy for the generous sharing of your knowledge! This bracelet is also on sale at Etsy. Please check it out!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Slow start....


Here's a bangle I made using some tiny polymer clay poppy beads. They are so cute and fun to make. I learned how to make these from a Cindy Lietz tutorial: Poppy Flower Beads

Polymer clay has become my favorite pastime in the last couple years. I used to oil paint but my youngest drank my turpentine a couple years ago and the heart pounding fright and the day in the ER killed that for me.... :( So now I work with the fairly harmless PC and having a blast! My goal is to blog a couple times a week and maybe connect with other PCers out there!