Finished Necklaces from Bettina Welker's Workshop

Joanne Caldwell and I got together today to finish our necklaces from the beads we made in Bettina Welker's workshop.   You can see the beads I made in an earlier post here.

We are both happy to see them finished and quite pleased with the results.  It was a lot more fun and less intimidating doing it with someone else instead of alone.

Necklace made by Carolyn Good

Necklace made by Joanne Caldwell

These certainly are real artsy statement pieces and now need a place to wear them!  Both our birthdays (as well as Dave's) are this month so already planning on where to go and celebrate!

And another exciting thing that happened this week is that Bettina's book I bought arrived in the mail yesterday!  It was autographed by her so will certainly be a nice keepsake with plenty of ideas and inspiration.

The New Hexagon Book - Find the Treasures Hidden in Hexagons!

Yesterday we stopped in at Katja's Quilt Shoppe to see how things were going and pick up our copy of Katja's book, "The New Hexagon".

This is not your typical quilting book.  Katja has combined the Hexagon pattern with English paper piecing with a modern twist.  Her easy to use methods on a traditional idea makes Hexagon patterns fun to create.  She gives 52 hex block patterns that can be combined in many ways and used to not only create a quilt but projects like wall hangings, table runners or even a mug rug.

The hex patterns can even be combined to make more intricate patterns as in this "Millefiori" quilt.

Starting in January Katja will be heading up a free online Millefiori quilt-a-long using shapes from her book.  You can follow her facebook page here for more info.

As an artist in polymer clay, I am always looking for inspiration and quilt block patterns are a great source to draw from.  The New Hexagon book has some really great inspiring ideas and patterns that  really gets my create juices flowing and can hardly wait to translate some of these ideas into my clay to create some new unique designs.

Polymer Clay Global Perspectives Book Arrived

Each year I treat myself with some new books for my birthday and this year I purchased Cynthia Tinapple's new book, Polymer Clay Global Perspectives.  As soon as it arrived in the mail and started reading, I knew I made the right choice.

The author, Cynthia Tinapple, is known for her blog, Polymer Clay Daily which is a morning read that many polymer artists look forward to in the morning with their cup of coffee to start the day.

Cynthia is a good writer and I love how she talks about polymer clay and it's history.  She has an interesting chapter on Assessing your work and how she discovered five categories that inspire artists:  The Experimenters, the Disciplinarians, the Naturals, the Socializers and the category I fit into, the Problem Solvers.

The photos are extremely high quality and a real bonus are some of the projects or tips from a wide range (125) of polymer artists from around the world.  I especially like the layout how she places the captions for the photos on the adjacent page so you get the full effect of the photos on the page opposite.

Over time I have had the opportunity to get to know many other polymer artists from around the world and so makes this book even more special to see them and their works displayed.

In you have any interest in polymer clay, I highly recommend this book.  You can order it here, OR, if you are in Canada, you can order it here.

Helen's Breil Book is Out

I have been eagerly waiting with anticipation for Helen Breil's new e-book, "Shapes: 25 Inspirational Jewelry Designs in Polymer Clay".   I am excited to announce that it is finished and now available to purchase.  This book is fabulous and packed with so many new ideas and techniques that make you want to just dive in and play right away.  Just click on the photo to see more info and photographs as well as to purchase.  At only $20, it is a real bargain!

I am also thrilled to have some pieces I created included in her gallery of artists.  We were asked to create one of her pendant shapes from the book in our own unique style.  This is my necklace that is in the gallery that I titled "Water Lily".  Both the necklace and matching earrings are based on Helen's Cotter Pin Series, Design #4.

I am sure this book will be a huge success and we will see a lot of new jewelry designs popping out from this exciting and inspirational book.  Thank you Helen for sharing your ideas and wonderful work with us!