Hmm, which would you rather have???

Since I have been trying to work more with polymer clay, my hands have been getting so tired of cranking the handle of my pasta machine...the worst part is that I somehow managed to lose the clamp, so it makes it even more challenging to crank that ole handle. Its not bad if you just have a few crankings to do, but when you have to condition Kato clay, it takes forever to condition. Trust me, I have experienced the challenge of conditioning Kato clay..love the stuff..but wowsa!

So, I did the hunt...and found a set of pasta attachments for my kitchenaid...(gotta love Amazon!) OH ME OH MY...I LOVE IT!! If you are a polymer clay artist, I would definitely invest in this handy tool. I hooked it onto my kitchenaid and turned that puppy on..and within minutes my clay is ready to play with. Even the Kato clay is easier to run right through the machine...Ahhh, what a relieve it is!

My hands are so much happier. It has all of the same settings as the old hand crank pasta machine...and its easier to use. You just pull out the knob a little and it pops into its place. I can say that this is my new best tool... Its not cheap mind you...but you have to consider what your hands go through. Trust me, your hands will be so happy when you decide to give up the old hand cranking pasta machine...

Ooopppsy!

Well, I kind of forgot about the awesome blog hop, GROW YOUR OWN BLOG...and I knew I was forgetting something...and you know how it goes...I think I had too many things going on at the same time...and poof..time flew and next thing I know I got booted from the hop! Im not angry or anything like that...its my own fault. But I am still going to keep the link on the side bar and hope that you will be able to take a peek at the hop. Some blogs are even offering free give away's. I think next time this hop is offered I will need to put a huge post-it notes on my forehead, my calendar, my laptop, maybe one or two on my cats...Hehehehe Happy Saturday!!

Bead Chat by Artisan Whimsy Digital Magazine

If you have never seen this magazine, it is a MUST! First time I saw it, I was in LOVE..really, it is so loaded with wonderful creations from phenomenal jewelry designers. I feel so honored to have my necklace included in this magazine. You can find me on page 18. I have a long ways to go to be in the same league as these designers but someday I will be there in the spotlight...LOL Enjoy the amazing magazine, and you can see older issues on my link Art/Digital Magazines You will also see another amazing digital magazine from ZnetShows where I have some of my designs and tutorials shown...

Reveal Day of 11th Non-Blogger & Blogger Challenge

Actually the reveal date for the WINTER FOREST challenge was yesterday, but you know me...always a day behind.  I decided to join this challenge because I fell in love with the painting which we had to get our inspiration from.

I thought it would be great to sort of recreate the painting and turn it into my own.  I have been interested in learning more about working with polymer clay and making pendents and when I saw Dini's painting I just had to do this.

So I made a simple drawing, then got to work.  I made the cab from polymer clay.  I then drew on the cab and added some soft pencil blending to help deepen the colors once I started painting them on.  I first sprayed the pencil with Flexatif spray so the pencil wouldn't rub off.

I then misted the piece with water and added the paints little at a time and heat set in between the layers....

Next, I drew darkened the shading with pencil again, and wrote Winter Forest on the bottom with permanent ink, then heat set that.

I then painted white acrylic paint blops to create the snow and drew more lines for texture.  I sealed the pendent with 3 coats of high gloss spray.

See the snow...and the fun heart on the trunk? 

Then it took me a day or two to decide on how I was going to finish on the pendent.  I have done beaded pendents before, but not using the embroidery beading technique.  So I challenged myself a bit when I decided to learn to do embroidery beading.  I made a quick pit-stop after work on one of my crazy days...lol...and picked up some leather scraps at Joann fabrics...ran the rest of my errands and when I got home, I got to work.  I had all the beads on hand so that was the easy part.  It took me, well, lets see, maybe 3 or 4 attempts before I finally got it working smoothly.  Im still not 100 percent happy with the results of the bead work, but I think it turned out ok.

Then, today, when I got home and logged onto facebook...there it was!  The reveal post...and my mind was a tad on overload!  I was not finished yet with the piece.  I didnt have the bail beaded, I didnt even have the chain or rope or what ever I was going to use to hang it onto!  Then, suddenly, the light bulb came on...I had made a rope with denim one day for fun, before Christmas, and it was sitting in my kumihimo box.  That is what I needed..that is why I made that rope!  So, once I got that all figured out and put together... it was time for the photo shoot.  Thank goodness that was a quick ordeal.  I loaded up photoshop and did my quick crop and sharpen and any other little fixes and posted the final picture on the challenge page.

But before I posted the picture, my mind started playing games on me.  I was thinking...OMG, maybe Dini will think I was copying her painting...maybe I was in the wrong for making this.. So I asked for some advise from an awesome beading artist and she was kind enough to tell me that she felt the pendent was beautiful and if it was her painting, she would have been happy with what I have created from the painting.  I hope Dini feels the same...

Thank you for reading all of this...and I hope you go to the hop and vote for my piece... XO

My Tree of Life challenge to myself

Today, I decided to make my drawing come to life.  I drew this picture earlier this week.  It took me a few times of going back to the drawing to finalize the way I wanted to put this together.  I actually took a bazillion pictures of each step, perhaps making a tutorial in the future.  I still need to figure out what I am going to make to use as the bail.  I do think it turned out really close to my drawing and what I actually had in my head...

Please feel free to leave a comment on this piece, I would love to get some feedback.

Into the Forest Blog Hop Reveal!

Ok, so here it is...finally got all of my designs made.  Lisa Lodge, an awesome jewelry designer, offered this challenge to all us other designers. She gave us some beautiful beads to work with...below are my creations. I will admit, I had a bit of a difficult time figuring out something different with these beads.  I didn't want a typical necklace or even a typical bracelet.  I guess that's the fun of creating...LOL  

Here are my two pieces I created with the yummy beads...

I found these fun metal leaves at Joann fabrics.  I really like that I was able to add a little dangle of beads on the bottom.  I used Tim Holtz metal patina to add some fun to the leaves...

I used some sari silk strips and braided them and wrapped them around the loops.  I then used the seed beads to make simple rings around the wire which I wrapped to hold the sari silk on the loop.  I used copper wire through out to hold all of the beads together.

I didn't really have enough of the larger beads to create what I was thinking of doing, so I decided to do a crazy kumihimo bracelet instead.  I mixed in some black glass beads to add more depth to both my pieces...

THANK YOU LISA.....

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee

Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Christina Miles, Wings n Scales

Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion

Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

Art Caravan...

YAY... I did it again!  I just joined the Art Caravan by Tangie Baxter.  I love her style.  This is the last year she is doing this so I thought I would join in the fun one last time...  I had almost forgotten about this workshop, so I am quite lucky to have gotten the lower price since it is due to go back up. Tangie now has her own studio located in Meza Arizona.  I would love to visit her shop someday in my travels.  Check back often to see what I end up creating with her fun designs...

http://tangiebaxter.com/

HAPPY 2014.... and now for New Year Resolutions...

Well here we are another year down the road.  I will admit that 2013 has been an awesome year for me.  I have been going strong with my jewelry creations, been published in a major jewelry magazine, published in an amazing digital online magazine, twice,  won a few contests and many other fun things that came along for me. I am grateful for so many things in my life and hope all of my Guardian Angels continue to bless me for the coming years...

I have read on several blogs that people are making their New Year resolutions a little differently. Instead of going on a diet, eating less sugar...things like that...people are choosing a word. I will admit that I have done this before when I was participating in Tangie Baxters Art Caravan a couple of years ago...wow has it been that long?  So this year I think I chose a word that many of us artsy craftsy people want to do every year....  RE-ORGANIZE.  It sounds simple enough right?

To ORGANIZE - 

: to arrange and plan (an event or activity)

: to arrange or order things so that they can be found or used easily and quickly 

: to put things into a particular arrangement or order

: to gather (people) into a group that will work on something together

Well, below is a picture of my current organization situation...

So you see, I really do need to get my act together.  Most of the time my stuff is an organized MESS.  Generally I know where everything is, but if the average person would take one look they would say...OH MY!!!  The problem is...when I start creating...the brain wont shut off until the item or project is finished!  So, if I take something from this drawer and put it on the table..then I need something from another drawer or who knows where...next thing I know my table is covered.  Now the fun part is putting it all back...yea riiiiight!  I may need that item for the next project...so put it in a box...along with a few other things I will need...  So, now I have a little box here and a little box there...  UGH.  You see where this is heading dont you?  So, yes, an organized MESS is more like what I have.

SO, with all of that said....  I am going to work on RE-ORGANIZING my ORGANIZED mess...YAY Wish me luck!!!