Starting 2016 on the right foot

I see that I resolved, back in January 2015, to post more often.  And I see that I didn't do that!  Procrastination certainly played a part, but it is more than that.  I haven't been happy with my artistic direction over the past year or so.  Not that I didn't make some pretty things that I'm very happy with, of course.  But nothing has been particularly satisfying.

To try to figure out what would be satisfying, I took a wonderful course by Debora Mauser, http://www.deboramauserdesigns.com/2014/12/11/fqxbxykc4oymwvcwpfbe8sxwt27ui6.  It was held at Wild Acres, the Southeast Federation of Mineral Societies' retreat in the NC mountains.  Debora taught us cold connections and torch-fired enameling.  I enjoyed every single minute, and Debora certainly packed a lot of information and technique into every single minute!  I still can't believe how much she taught during the week.  I came home and applied the techniques, but that still wasn't it.  It did feed into my objective of learning a lot of techniques so that I can mix and match them as the creative urge requires.  Debora teaches a lot of workshops, so check out the link above.

The other thing I did was purchase a tutorial from one of my favorites, Eni Oken, https://www.facebook.com/EniOken/.  Not only is she talented in jewelry making skills, but she is one of the most entrepreneurial people I know.  I have purchased over the years all of her Creative Journals and her Think & Design series, so I knew when she came out with The Crossover Method it would be worthwhile.  It turns out that it is a great tool.  It is complex and a challenge and is not something you can get result from overnight.  I'm still working on it.

However, just this week I stumbled upon the Flickr site (https://www.flickr.com/photos/auntgriz/) of an artist that I have seen previously and admired.  She has numerous tutorials on her blog, http://knighttwork.blogspot.com/, that I have used.  I particularly like her border canes.  What I found recently was something I hadn't seen before, her combination of polymer clay and wirework.  These are 2 of my favorite mediums and it is a combo that I've been thinking about for several years but haven't quite wrapped my mind around.  I found her pieces very inspiring and have spent the last couple of days knee deep in polymer clay.  Next step is to see what I can do to make a finished product, hopefully with some wirework.

I'll post some photos of the polymer clay pieces I worked on in the past couple of days and will post those with wire when I have them done.

What have I been up to?

I have written my first tutorial.  Seems simple enough.  Just tell someone else how to do something you know about.  However, it wasn't quite that simple!  It is free, so take a look and let me know what you think. I hope it will be useful to work with polymer clay.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/117cxf-57YzNfjLACdQIAxIDaUOzMIxka3A8F2ccjkM0/edit?usp=sharing

A New Beginning

My resolution for the new year is to keep up my blog posting.  I'm always trying something new, some of which works and some not, but I should share both.  Either way, I'm having fun and you might get some new ideas!

Oops, forgot....please visit this site to see all the beautiful pieces created during this blog party!

http://www.prettythingsblog.com/2014/05/welcome-to-8th-bead-soup-blog-party.html

My Bead Soup Product!

Here's what I made with what Candi sent me.  Using the lovely copper handmade focal, I created a freeform peyote around it, incorporating some of the tiny copper charms and pretty Swarovski crystals Candi sent.  I love the facelted green opal beads she sent, so I made some copper coiled beads and strung them with the small and large green opal beads, as well as some of the copper spacers and more of the crystals to tie it together.  I used the lovely square copper toggle clasp she sent.  I'm happy with the way it turned out and will definitely wear it!  I wanted to make a second piece, but ran out of time.

what Candi sent me!

Here's what Candi sent me!  I love it.  How did she know I love copper and earthy colors?  The focal is handmade by an artist local to her, Glen Levent.  She picked out everything else at her local bead store.  Each type of component was in a little gauze bag and she included a label in each bag as to what the component is (see the little squares near the leather, front and back).  I've got a lot of ideas that I'm sketching out and plan to get started this week.

what I sent Candi

Here's the beautiful soup I sent to Candi.  I love all the purples and magentas!  She emailed that she loved it.  :)