Great News!

These last 2 weeks have been a real whirlwind for us. Dave was in the hospital a little longer than normal due to his body wanting to reject the new kidney so his doctors gave him the "kitchen sink cocktail" treatment to really force his body to accept the organ. Dave is now home from the hospital and as of today his doctor gave him a clean bill of health (no more signs of rejection).

We would like to thank everyone for their prayers, good wishes and good vibes. We're sure it all worked together to give us today's answer.

Besides all of this, we're still getting jewellry orders coming in at the same rate (2 or 3 a week) which helps us take our minds off of the present problems and ease the stress -- AND I have a probable contract with a ceramic tile retailer to do large orders of custom designer tiles. I just did up some samples for fun (designer tiles and electrical outlet covers for our house) and a friend (thanks John!) showed them to his tile retailer and they are very interested in custom orders so WOW! what a 2 weeks! You never know what is around the next corner -- I may get my arm twisted and end up doing a lot of custom designer tile work which I didn't even imagine doing one month ago.

On top of all this, we had the pleasure of entertaining our daughter and grandson this past weekend:

2 airline tickets -- $540

3 blocks of clay -- $ 12

Claying with your grandson -- priceless!!

  

A new lease on life...

I have good news! Last Monday Dave received a new kidney! We received the call late Sunday night to go straight to the hospital. It totally caught us by surprise. We knew it would happen sometime soon, but I don't think we still would've been mentally prepared.

It has been a long haul these last 7 years with him on dialysis. It still isn't over as now we have new challenges to face but the future does look a little brighter. So far the surgery was a success and the kidney is working -- the next phase is to prevent his body from rejecting his new organ and build his health up again.

These last few years have been hard on us -- so many ups and downs -- but Dave probably wouldn't have started working with the clay and designing jewellry if things were different. I know that sounds strange but I will briefly share how he got involved.

It all started when he was feeling the smoothness of my finished clay pieces and asked if I could make him a "worry stone". He didn't want it perfectly round but just the right size and shape to fit in his hand. He said he didn't care what it looked like but more how it felt in his hand. I wanted it to look nice as well of course so I decided to do a mica shift pattern to add some depth and the look of texture but still have that smooth feel. The worry stone was sitting on top of my sanding pile and Dave picked it up and felt it and suggested he would try and sand it. He then proceeded to buff it and really enjoyed the whole process. He enjoyed it so much he asked for more sanding and buffing and finished my pile of beads and other accessories. We never noticed until afterwards that his worry stone turned out to be kidney shaped -- which made it even more special!

Later on, Dave had an infection in his arm resulting in surgery and a weeks stay in the hospital. When he returned he was still trying to recover but started looking at the piles of beads I had made for a bead show that were left over. He then started to put some pieces together and when I came home from work one day, he had several necklaces strung! I couldn't believe my eyes because I thought he did some beautiful work! (okay -- maybe I am a little biased, but can you blame me?!) So things just seemed to go on from there. Now he is even dabbling a little in the clay and has had a hand in designing some men's beads and necklaces. I like his choices and of course I think he is a better judge of what men might want -- although we found some women really like them too! ---

So now we are on to a new chapter in our lives -- hopefully one that is a little less bumpy -- but praise God -- His timing was so perfect and we know He does care and is still in control of everything!

More Flowers

I can't believe a week has gone by since I last posted. Here is another kite bead necklace with flowers I had been working on. I don't think I will make more of these for the next while (unless I get a special order) since they take a lot of work and time. This one took about 9 hours to complete and the shorter one (in my last post below), without the flowers, took 7 hours, so they are very time consuming. We love the way they look though and have had a lot of positive comments and feedback.

Below is one of the new designs we've been working on -- fairly basic but very classic. These clay beads took some time to create as well since the flowers were applied to each individual bead and then hand rolled. There are professional bead rollers on the market, which I have to admit I have never tried. I had considered getting one, but decided they weren't for me as I have developed my own method of measuring and forming each bead, but most of all, I love the feel of the clay in my hands as each bead is formed. We really like how this one came out and plan to make some more in a variety of colors and designs.

Playing with colors

I'm still working a regular type job (only part time though) -- so I'm always longing for more time to play around with my clay. I finally managed to take a few days off last week to complete a few projects but some are still waiting for finishing touches and assembly yet. I was mainly working on some new ideas and I'm hoping to take some more time off during the summer so I can work on them.

One of the items I did complete is a new Kite bead necklace but in a shorter choker style.  I made this one for myself as a prototype and in the colors to coordinate with my summer wardrobe.

One of the things I love about working with polymer clay is the endless mixing of colors. I discovered how one can actually create color "recipes" and I've made my own polymer clay color recipe book. Dave and I were also discussing how it would be nice to have a variety of our own "signature" colors for custom orders and so we've been working on those as well. The fun part was coming up with all the yummy names like pink grapefruit, kiwi, caramel, and lemon chiffon. All the names we kept coming up with that fit the colors best happened to be foods! I don't know why -- maybe the influence of being a nutritionist keeps rubbing off or perhaps just our love for food! In any case, we have come up with a good variety of colors to start and can build on them as we develop more new techniques and styles.

Flower Power

As you can see I've really gotten into my flower stage lately. This is a photo of one of my new barrettes -- I will share more on these later. Many people have commented on the "painted" flowers and are surprised when I explain there is no paint involved at all.

All the colors are in the clay and then mixed and combined to create new colors like paints, only instead of using a palette knife and brush, I use my hands and a pasta machine. For those of you who know me real well, you're probably surprised that I would one day use a pasta machine for my art rather than for cooking!  Anyhow, I shared with you how I made my Puffin cane and so now I will give a short demo on how one of my flowers is created:

I first made a gradient blend of blue so that it goes from dark to really light to give the flower petal a little more depth.

I then made a "plug" and added some details.

It is now ready to "reduce" by gently squeezing and shaping. You can see the size of my clay piece in comparison to my hand.

Here is the "plug" or what will be the petals reduced to a long thin snake. They are then cut and individually shaped.

Now I need to make the centre and then reduce it to fit my petals.

The petals are arranged around the centre. Another type of clay is then tightly packed around the petals so that when the cane is reduced, they will maintain their shape and not get too distorted. I packed this cane with a transluscent clay. 

  

Here the flower cane is reduced and then cut in half to see the inside.

I took one half of the cane and reduced it further and then half of that and reduced it smaller still. I now have my flower cane in three different sizes, ready for use. The last part to using a cane such as this one is to slice it very thinly and then carefully applied. 

I love making canes and you can make them as simple or as complicated as you like. Here is a photo of a pansy cane which is done in a similar manner but with more detail. Now I can't wait to make more creations using my new flowers!

Who's the emBOSS?

We really like doing up special orders for people - it sometimes forces you out of your comfort zone and try something different. This is a shorter style necklace with some matching earrings we did for a custom order. She told me she was really into teal and brown. I like those colors as a combination myself but never considered combining them in clay. We really like the end result but when I was looking at the lentil swirl pendant and disc earrings, I felt it was lacking something and then thought about the latest flower cane I made. Adding the flowers just gave it more of an embossed look and the finishing touch it needed. This could be a new trend for us -- we will see what kind of response it gets. 

We also did something special for her husband since we are starting up a men's line of chokers as well. Both of the necklaces have a hidden magnetic clasp in a matching clay bead -- something else we are experimenting with.

Flowers for Mother's Day

I have my parents visiting from out of town this week. It has been quite a few years since my mom has been around for mother's day, so I'm glad I was able to make something special for her this year. One of the things is the floral brooch here.

She's suffered with arthritis in her wrists and hands for years and therefore isn't able to wear a wrist watch. She wears her watch instead on a chain.

These are 2 chains I made for her watches. They have a lobster claw so can be interchanged with her watch faces.

For Dave's mom, she had picked out this "mokume gane" gecko brooch and some clip-on earrings that matched. She also wanted some earrings with flowers so I made her some to match a necklace Dave made for her birthday last year. I think she will be pleased.