Totem necklaces

We enjoyed spending time this past month with family and we were fortunate to have our oldest grandson stay with us for the past week.  Between dips in the lake and water balloon fights in the yard to cool off we managed to find some clay time together.  He wanted to make some "Totem" symbol necklaces -- an eagle totem for himself and a bear totem for his brother.

We ended up creating a mould for each one from a drawing and then created the pieces from the moulds we made together.  We then added mica powders to highlight the details.

I think they turned out quite well and here is a picture of him and his granddad (Dave) wearing them....

Mokume Gane Buttons

I created some buttons from the mokume gane sheets I made the other day.  I love the look of them and think I will make some more....  In the meantime, these are available in our Art Fire Studio and Etsy Shop.

Mokume Gane & CaBezels

We've been busy with family visiting this past week and so I finally got around to finish off a few pieces I'd been working on.  I love working with the CaBezels and this time combined it with some mokume gane.  I saw this color combination on a table cloth in a restaurant the other day and had to mix some up while it was still in my brain.

   

I decided to make some beads from the mokume gane sheets and created this collar piece as well.  I love how the colors and pieces turned out that I am so tempted to keep this piece for myself ... we'll see....

New Textured Beads for Sale

I just listed some new beads in our Etsy shop and Art Fire Studio.  These are also available individually in our Art Fire Studio as well in case you don't want a set of 6.   These have a deep leaf texture on them and they are identical on both sides.  These beads were created using the same technique as in my Double-sided Textured Bead Tutorial I have available for sale.

They are available in the colors of golden olive, olive and copper patina, golden moss, emerald green and antique copper.  The bead shown below is in the olive and copper patina mix which is my favorite.

Some pens for autographing....

I finished covering some new pens the other day.  They are a twist style pen that I ordered from Boston Craftworks where they go together quite easily without the need for a pen press or other such tools.

I love covering pens and these were not only fun to clay with but feel really good when they are put together and have a nice weight to them.  The first set below I used the same "seamless" method I use to make my textured tube beads and my fan/light pulls.  I discovered it works great for covering pens as well!  I'm writing a tutorial for this and should be published in a few weeks.

There has been a lot of talk on the net lately about covering pens.  Surfingcat did some experiments with different pens that are good and not so good with claying and melt when heated.  Then Angela from Crafty Goat created an interesting blog post on the top four pens she discovered are oven safe.  I really like the Bic retractable one and think I might try some of those next for a more affordable and practical type pen to sell to replace the typical stick ones.

Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts

Well the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts started today.  This past week has been a real blur with so many things to do to get ready.  Between all the rush, my "claymate" (hubby) Dave was in the hospital and is now recovering from several surgeries.  I am so glad to have him home again with me now.  It is a real relief.

I was in such a rush last week I turned my piece into the juried art show and had forgotten to photograph it!  I took some photos of it today to show you and to my surprise I discovered it was sold.  It is a vase that I titled "Tidal Pool" and I used a combination of mokume gane and gold leaf crackle techniques.

I will be demoing again this year and will be set up tomorrow from 10 until 1.  You may want to stop in if you are in the area.

Fan/Light Pulls to Match

One thing about me is that I have this real matchy matchy thing.  When I use to sew more and made almost all my own clothes (I just don't have the time right now anymore) I had this thing about using every bit of left over pieces of fabric to make a matching handbag, hair bow, etc.  My friends told me they could always tell if I made it because it all coordinated.  Now when I make my own jewelry I have to have the whole matching set -- necklace/pendant, earrings, watch bracelet, hair barrette and even sometimes buttons for my shirt or sweater.

The same goes for my home.  Of course things don't match all the same there -- they just have to  coordinate well -- I like a mix of textures and colors as long as they are within the same theme.

So I decided to make our new fan/light pulls to match .. uh hum .. coordinate with .. our switch plate covers and cabinet knobs and here is the design I came up with.

More Sunflowers

I had some cane pieces left over from making the sunflower wall plaques and decided to cover a couple of cabinet knob/drawer pulls.  I tried them out on my kitchen cabinet doors to take a photograph and loved how they look.  We have brushed stainless knobs which I like but now thinking that ones with flowers or a similar design could be a lot of fun and brighten the room a bit.  Will have to think about what I want to do now....

Something different -- Sunflower wall plaques

I was commissioned to create a series of three sunflower tile wall plaques.   I had a lot of fun creating these 3-dimensional style pictures and quite pleased with how they turned out.

Each tile is 5x5" square.  I found my inspiration for two of the designs from some sunflower paintings I came across on the internet which you will find here and here.

The most difficult part in creating these pieces was how to finish them off so they could hang properly.  I finally settled on using picture wire embedded into the clay and then finished off with some cane slices.