Possible Postal Strike

Canadian postal workers have given notice yesterday to go on strike if they do not settle.  This could mean our postal system will come to a standstill as early as this Thursday.  As of today, we will not be sending any orders out in the mail until we know they have settled and the mail is back on track again.  This is a real inconvenience for not only us but for those who need to mail items to Canada as well.

In the meantime, we have deactivated all our items that require shipping in our ArtFire studio and Etsy shop except for our tutorials, since they are sent via e-mail and delivery will carry on as usual.

I haven't posted much these days as we have been busy getting ready for summer -- Here is a quick update on what has been happening:

These Kamloops Trout pins went to the Kamloops Museum gift shop to sell along with our Marigold Pins we delivered earlier.  The museum has a large section on the history of fishing here in this area which is very interesting.

We are making more buttons to go to some quilting and wool shops.  Here are a few sculpted flowers ones with wire shanks:

I'm making an assortment of blends for more bargello style creations that will go into the summer art show:  (I show how to make these six-step color blends in my Clay Color System Tutorial.)

And these little buttons are for something special -- I will show you more on this later -- with a free tutorial coming up!

Gone Fishing

I finally finished a bunch more Marigold flower lapel pins to sell at the World Masters Indoor Championships.   The city of Kamloops is surrounded with lakes and rivers that are great for boating and fishing.  The most popular and famous fish is the Kamloops Trout.  It is revered around the world by anglers as a great sporting fish.  It is know for its beautiful color as well as its "fighting" nature making them very challenging to catch.  Apparently it can jump more than three times its length straight into the air, sprint as fast as a racehorse and empty a fishing reel of line in seconds.

We made some Kamloops Trout lapel pins to go along with the Marigolds.  I came up with three different styles and we couldn't decide which one we preferred the most and so went with some of each.

Each fish is individually hand sculpted which took a little bit of time at first but once I got a few under my belt I found it a little easier.

My good friend, Joan Tayler, is my mentor in clay.  She is the person that first introduced me to it and  she makes fantastic little animals of all kinds.  I've watched her during her creating process and she makes it look so easy.  Sculpting things doesn't come to me as easily and I find it a bit of a challenge.  Sometimes I surprise myself that the project I'm working on actually turns out somewhat recognizable!

Now I need to finish up the new jewelry pieces I've been working on -- I will hopefully have photos of some to show you by tomorrow.