Chase Country Christmas

I cannot believe it has been three years since we moved from the Vancouver coast to the little Village of Chase in the mountains and right next to the Shuswap lake.  The first weekend of every December is the Chase Country Christmas which is becoming a real tradition for us along with all the other people who live here and in the area.


Candy Canes are the theme for this year which is what inspired me to make the candy cane beads to create our candy cane jewelry.  (To make your own, see the "free tutorials" at the top of this blog.)


We had some of our candy cane sets for sale at our first two Christmas markets we were in and sold out both times so had to make more for this coming market.

Besides the usual market, there are other activities throughout the weekend.  Small local businesses such as the grocery store, hardware store and drugstore sponsor different events which are a great way to get to know our neighbors.


Here is a schedule of events to give you an idea of all the fun:

We are hoping the weather cooperates for the parade Friday evening.  It has snowed on and off but fortunately none of it has stayed on the ground.

Peppermint Swirl Buttons

I had a request to make little peppermint swirl buttons in red and white so this is how they turned out...

Carla posted a photo of the finished sweater with the buttons.  She has a wonderful blog about her quilting and other beautiful projects which you will find here....

We are busy this week getting ready for our last two Christmas shows.  Hope you all have a good day!

Our New Button Packaging

Our new button packaging that was on backorder for some time finally arrived so we have been busy repackaging our inventory.  They are the crystal clear packages and show off the buttons better.  This packaging sure beats attaching hundreds of buttons to cards that end up coming off or tearing.  They also keep the buttons clean from all the handling.

We've been making our rounds to all the stores that carry our buttons and have been changing their inventory over to the new packaging as well which they are very appreciative.  They all like the new look as well and feel sales should increase even more.

My Polymer Clay Addiction

Even though I do not smoke or drink alcohol or coffee, I must confess I do have one addiction and that is to my polymer clay.  I do not eat it, of course, but I love to play with it sooo much I cannot help myself.  My friend, a fellow clay artist, Wendy, asked me if I ever sleep.  Well to answer that I do sleep -- actually I think I sleep a lot.  I get at least 9 hours each night and sometimes I even sleep in the day.  So other than sleeping and eating, let's just say a good amount of my time is taken up with my clay.

This past week we have been busy with other things such as catching up on bookwork (ugh!), making more Dremel buffing pads, and packaging buttons.

Speaking of Dremel buffing pads, I was having a hard time finding more of the material we like to use when we make them but I was looking for the same cloth in the dark yellow color.  I finally found some but it was in pink this time.  My claymate Dave must be a liberated man as he said he doesn't mind working with the pink ones as long as they still do the job.  (Grin)

Anyhow, all this extra stuff has taken me away from my clay habit and I was telling Dave I had these strong urges and was almost feeling symptoms of withdrawl.  He told me that there must be some sort of intervention for such a thing but then maybe my habit isn't so bad since it is at least productive!

Polishing Your Polymer Clay Pieces With a Dremel

For some time we had been searching for the perfect finish for our polymer clay.  We prefer a more natural sheen when a piece has been sanded smooth and then buffed with a soft cloth.  But after some time we found the pieces would go dull and look lifeless.  We started experimenting with various varathanes and glazes but were not totally satisfied.  We found if you didn't put it on just right it would leave streaks and if the glaze was too thick it looked too much like shiny plastic".

I then came across an article posted by Lindly Huanani titled "Stop the Glop".  As soon as I read it, I knew we were finally on to something.  The article was regarding how so many people try to add all sorts of glazes on their polymer clay pieces when you really do not need anything at all.  She went on to mention about using an archival type wax such as Renaissance.


We decided to give it a try and were amazed at the beautiful finish it gave!  This is what we discovered and how we prefer to use it.


1.  Sand your pieces first until you have a nice smooth finish.  You will find instructions on sanding your pieces in the "Polymer Clay Tips" section at the top of this blog. 


2.  Apply the wax to your clay pieces and allow to "dry or soak in" for a minimum of 10 minutes.  The longer you leave it, the better the finish.


3.  To remove the wax we use two different cloths.  One is a piece of a cotton rag for wiping off the excess wax .  The second cloth is used for buffing such as an old rag t-shirt or piece of denim.


4.  For a high shine, after (or instead of) the second buffing by hand with the cloth, you can buff your piece with a buffing wheel.


We use a simple dremel set-up in a drill press for easier handling (as shown).

We did not like the buffing pads that you buy for the dremel as they were too harsh so we followed Desiree McCrorey's instructions for making your own.  The most difficult part was finding the right material.  We tried various types of fabrics and discovered they are all not the same.  Some of them were so harsh they would actually damage the clay piece.  When we found the right material we could not believe the difference it made.  Our pieces buffed up to a high shine in a matter of seconds when using just the "lightest touch".


You can make your own buffing pads like we did, or if you would prefer to purchase them already made we now have more available in our ArtFire studio.  We sell them in a pack of three so they will last you a while.  (Just click on the  photo below to order.)

Introducing Katja's Quilt Shoppe

Our work has been slowly expanding into more stores and as of this week, our beads, buttons and shawl pins are now sold in 7 quilting, yarn and craft shops.


Katja's Quilt Shoppe in Kamloops is now selling some of our handcrafted buttons and we will be making some specialty items just for her store which I am quite excited about.  I will show you a hint of what I will be doing.  Katja has a quilt pattern logo that she uses throughout her store.  She had asked if it was possible for me to put her logo into clay so I wanted to give it a try.  Here is the cane I created before the final reduction:

And here is the store logo (I took a photo of the one on the store window):

And now here is a pendant I made with the cane for Katja.

I didn't like how the cane became slightly distorted when I reduced it so I am working on some ideas on how to get around that.  I would like to get into creating other quilt patterned items and this was a good jumpstart for me and I can hardly wait to do more.

New Home Decor Pieces

I made my first soap/trinket dish for a housewarming gift for some friends.  Their home decor is in silver, grey and black so decided to go with a leaf pattern in those shades.  This was actually my first prototype and I love how the design worked out and plan to make more in different styles.

I hadn't made any candle collars in a while but finally got around to finishing a new set in the chandelier style for a wedding gift.  Their home decor colors were similar to our friends so went with the same leaf pattern.