Happy Mother's Day

I don't make my geckos as much as I use to these days except for custom orders.  This set was specially made for a mother's day gift by special request in a rich denim blue.

Happy mother's day to all the moms out there and hope you are having a special day.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Today is Cinco de Mayo (Mexico Independence day) and Dave and I began to reminisce of the time we lived in Mexico.  We have so many fond memories of our years spent there and with so many wonderful friends we made that were like family.

I was going through our photos and found a few to share with you:

This is the "Rio Caliente" that we loved to go and spend the day to relax.  It was basically a river that flowed directly from some underground hot springs.  The water was extremely hot in some areas and very comfortably warm in other spots.  Our dogs, Chewy and Rufus, went everywhere with us and they especially loved the warm water.

We lived in the interior of Mexico but loved taking our vacations to the coast.  Here is a photo of Dave and I with a friend's pet iguana.

And here is a new family of clay gecko's that are not like the real thing of course but in a fun amethyst purple and lime green.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Some new pieces from Julie Picarello's workshop

Here are a few pieces that I made at Julie Picarello's workshop last weekend.  Mokume gane is one of my favorite techniques and Julie teaches a method where you have more control over the design.  I love that part of it as I don't like surprises and when I make something I want it to turn out like I imagined.  The center piece is a pendant and the other two are brooches.

Another technique Julie showed us was creating a design that looks like a lizard's tail.  Of course I was most intrigued with this part with creating some new style geckos.  I had to play around with it and make at least one.  Dave says he almost looks too real (and maybe a little creepy) -- but I think he is rather cute --.

   

We're on Facebook

The weather here has cooled a bit.  We still didn't get any rain which is desperately needed to help put out the huge forest fires that are burning.  We are getting air conditioning installed today so should also help with the heat and I can go back to claying some more again.

We now have a page on facebook where we have updates on new items, advanced notice of future sales or offers and other fun type stuff.  Just click on the link in the sidebar to sign on as a fan.

We have a lot of new and different items we are working on and it is really exciting.  Whenever I create a new piece I generally make one or several "prototypes" and wear it for awhile to test out.  I don't feel good about selling anything unless everything is just so.  I usually end up with a lot of pieces I get to keep for myself this way which I don't mind!  A girl has to have something to wear! 

I had a cute dark blue peasant blouse that I made some new buttons for in a fun flower design.  I wanted a pendant to match and for something different, I strung it on a cord I created from organza ribbon that slips over the head with a bead at the back that cinches up to adjust the length.  I discovered I really like this style as it is so simple and easy to wear.  It is more comfortable as well, especially in the scorching heat.  I can't wait to make (and wear) more of these!

  

I've also been experimenting with some carving and back-filling like in the gecko brooch which I first covered with a skinner blend.  I wanted some gecko earrings to match my Cinco de Mayo Necklace.  These are done in a matching variegated green, backfilled with some chili pepper red and finished off with sponge coral beads.

Fluorescent Fun

Our oldest grandson was visiting us this week and so between our swimming time in the lake we squeezed in some clay time.  When he was here last summer we made some things together for the first time.  You can see those here.  This time we decided to make a switchplate cover for his room with a gecko on it.  We made the lace cane for the gecko which turned out pretty good. The whitish outline part around the eyes and on his back glow in the dark.  I tried taking night photos of it glowing but I haven't figured out that setting on the camera yet.  Anyone have any tips?

He extruded some clay for the vines and picked out some flower and leaf canes from my boxes and sliced and positioned them where he wanted. The neatest part I like are the flies he made from a little mould I have and placed them on the gecko's tongue and vine!  Something I wouldn't have thought of doing and I like the sense of humor he is developing - takes after his grandfather!

     

I also had him make a ball of clay and place slices from the cane ends on it and then showed him how to make a lentil swirl.  We were wondering what to do with it when we decided it would make a great glow in the dark fan pull for his room to match his switchplate cover.

He is really into music and has been playing the bass clarinet in the school band and originally wanted to make some musical notes from clay.  I happened to leave a comment on Angela's Crafty Goat's Notes Blog a while ago about some new clay she was trying out by Sculpey called The Bake Shop.  She was kind enough to send me a block of clay to try and it just happened to be black which was perfect for Adam to experiment and play around with.  He really liked it since he could condition it in his hands easy enough and he said it was nice and soft yet it didn't seem too sticky -- especially since our house was a little warm.  The muscial notes shown above was one of the pieces he made with it.  I can see where polymer clay and kids just seem to go hand in hand as our two grandsons love to play with it and it is one of the things they look forward to the most when they visit.  Maybe that is why I like it so much as I can feel like a kid again but still create adult type things!

Our New Image

You might have noticed the new banner above on our blog and in our Etsy Shop and Art Fire Studio.  I decided it was time to update things a bit.  I was tired of the pink background but still wanted to keep the gecko theme.

The geckos in the new photos are some pieces I made for myself to wear and you can see them better in our flickr gallery.

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!