Floral Cascade Necklace

This is one of the jewelry pieces I entered into the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts.  The reason I like to create pieces for various challenges is that it forces me into areas I normally wouldn't go and to experiment and try new things.

I find that while working on each challenge I seem to end up at some point with an ahh hah moment.  With this one in particular, I wanted to totally disguise the clasp.  I've created many of these hidden barrel clasps before, but this time I didn't want any of the wires to show and because it was going into such an important event, I wanted it to be perfect.  I played around with it for a while until I finally came up with a solution and everything then fell into place and fit perfectly!  At that point it was very exciting for me and a real feeling of satisfaction!

I find that in each challenge piece I create, inspiration for more new projects evolve out of them and it drives me on to try more new things.

WooHoo!

The opening ceremonies of The Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts was last night.  My heart skipped a beat when I saw the blue ribbon on my mosaic tiled table!  This is the first time I've entered a juried art show.  There were two categories -- 2d  (photographs, paintings) and 3d  (glass work, sculpture, clay, wood, etc.).  I entered four pieces -- 2 necklaces, a hair barrette and my year long project of refinishing and creating a mosaic tile surface on an antique table I had found.  There were more than 400 entries in the show with many beautiful works of art as there is quite an artist community in the area, so I feel honored to have received such recognition for my work.

Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts

I am participating in the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts this year so our Art Fire Studio will be closed until July 21.

There is a lot of beautiful work, all from local artists, so you may want to consider dropping by if you are in the area.  I will be demonstrating my millefiori canes on Saturday, July 11th from 2:00-4:00 pm.

I will update you on how the show is going throughout the week.  In the meantime, you can view our entire collection if you click on the "Wearable Art Gallery" & "Jewelry for the Home" links on the right.

A New Challenge in Pastels

Our Art Fire Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild is having another challenge -- this one is to create something in pastel colors.  There are a lot of participants this time and some great entries.  Check them out and vote for your favorite!  (Just click on the link above) Voting closes midnight on Friday - July 10th.

Color Blending

Last week I showed you how I mix my colors.  Now I will show you how I take several colors and gradually blend them into one another like a rainbow.

I first make sheets of each clay color with my pasta machine so they all come out the exact same thickness.  I cut them so the colors match up at an angle.  This is so the red and blue will each blend into the white.  I then take my clay and run it through my pasta machine so it comes out as a solid piece.

I take that sheet of clay and fold it in half, keeping the lines all going the same direction, and then I put the fold sheet of clay through the pasta machine again.

I do this many times -- fold in half and run through the pasta machine until the colors start to run together and create a gradual blend.  Here is the sheet that is blended.  But I want to stretch the colors out more so I fold the sheet in half but this time the opposite direction.

I then run that clay again through my pasta machine so it comes out in a long strip.

Next time I will show you how I turned this blended piece of clay into these flowers:

Was seeing fireworks last night -- outside that is!  There was lots of celebrating on Canada Day everywhere and last night ended with a concert and fireworks in the park on the beach which we enjoyed from the comfort of our own deck outside our home.  Most of the fireworks were behind the trees so they looked like they were on fire and throwing sparks.