Keeping time in style ...

For as long as I've known Dave, he has never owned or worn a watch. He must have some sort of built in sensor as he always seems to know what time it is and never late for any appointments.

I, on the other hand, can't get by without some sort of timing device. There is a clock in every room of o

ur house plus several kitchen timers. I also feel totally lost if I happen to go out and forget my watch.

I like bracelets but never found them very functional like the watch that I would always have on my wrist. I thought about combining the two in some way so I made several beaded watch bands turning my functional piece into a very attractive bracelet. When I discovered polymer clay I saw some beautiful bracelets and the wheels in my head started to turn a little faster. Why not make my own watch band links out of the clay to create designer watch bracelets? So I went to work right away and have since made an assortment of watch bands, some of which coordinate with the necklaces and other accessories we have made. You will find some photos posted on our flickr site.

Some people have asked me how I make them and so I will be sharing my technique at our next meeting with the Vanouver Polymer Clay Guild. Hopefully by the end of the day, everyone attending will go home with their own designer watch band.

Below are an assortment of watch bands we have made.

My gecko friends

I happen to like geckos. Some people think they are creepy like snakes but I think they are quite cute. We use to have them inside our house in Mexico. They would hide behind the bookshelves or pictures on the wall and in the electrical sockets which were always a little smaller than the holes cut out in the brick. They mainly came out at night but every so often we would see one come out of their hiding spot. We never minded them hanging around since they were very beneficial as they would eat any annoying flys and mosquitos. Some of the geckos were so transparent you could almost see their little hearts beating like crazy.

We also had larger and more colorful lizards in our yard. They use to run pretty fast and our two little dogs use to have fun chasing them. They always managed to run just fast enough to tease them but stay out of their reach. We could always tell if our one dog, Chewy, managed to corner one when we would hear the little yipping sounds he would make.

Because of these fond memories, I decided to have fun with making geckos out of polymer clay. I started out with some gecko brooches and then decided to put some on top of pill boxes like the one shown below. So just like the real ones in our home in Mexico, you never know where my little clay friends will come popping out from next. We will keep you posted!

A Stringing Challenge

Honey, I want to enter this contest!
-- Say what??
This contest in the magazine you bought the other day.

I looked at the article and was still in shock as we had never even thought of doing anything like this before.

The theme was titled "Fun in the Sun". Sounds like we could have some fun with this. Maybe it would give a little more exposure to the many uses of polymer clay.

We threw a few ideas back and forth and went out on a hunt looking for the right "findings", but all we came up with was a pineapple charm. Well, I guess I could make some out of clay. After all, we need to use more clay other than just a sunhat pendant. Maybe we'll start with some sunglasses and some flipflops. How about a palm tree? We have lots of shells we collected from our few years of living in Mexico. A beach ball could be fun. What else? How about a glass of lemonade or pina colada? -- A what? I can't make that! -- okay, I'll give it a try.

Well, we arranged our necklace but decided it needed one more thing --how about suntan lotion? I never thought I would ever be making a bead shaped into a suntan lotion bottle! Well it did make sense and what do you know, it fit perfectly in that spot. But now there was still one more thing. We had all our findings made out of clay except one lonely metal pineapple! Okay dear, I'll try and make a pineapple!

Now what about a clasp? (I had just discovered how to disguise a barrel clasp inside a bead.) Could you do a fish clasp my husband asks? A fish? Why not!?

So now you have it -- a rundown of how our Fun in the Sun Necklace was created. And they even accepted it in the Stringing Magazine competition! In case any of you want to see the many wonderful entries there and even vote on your favorite (ours is #31 hint hint - lol) you can check it out for yourselves.

Hope you all have a sunny, fun or at least a funny day!

Happy Valentines Day

                  So where do we begin? 

Well it is Valentines day and I remembered that one of the first clay pieces I made last year was this heart. And that is when I found my second love -- creating with polymer clay. (Of course my husband Dave is still my first love!)

It all began with fooling around with beads. Any kind -- stones, seed beads, crystals -- who doesn't like them? I even joined a beaders group to learn more on what to do with my beads. Then I thought, what if I could make my own beads? The lampwork ones that some of the ladies created were just awesome but that was way too hot for me as I didn't want to have anything to do with torches.

I then went to my first bead show. Wow! There were thousands of beads there! It was so hard to restrain myself! But there were some classes offered -- one was making beads from polymer clay! I never thought of that before. The instructor was Joan Tayler, who is a very talented artist. After spending only a few hours in her class and playing with the clay, I could sense the beginnings of my new love affair.

I began to read more and study up about it. Then I started dreaming about it and all the many exciting things I could make! I even joined another group -- the Vancouver Polymer Clay Guild. I learned even more about polymer clay such as some new techniques and what I could do with it. By then I decided there was no turning back -- I was definately hooked!

The first heart pendant I made represents the love relationship I've had ever since with my clay. Since it is Valentines day, I thought I would share more valentines with you.