Season of Giving and Making

I hope that everyone reading this blog has had a wonderful holiday season! And my best wishes to everyone for happiness, health and prosperity in 2016!

Because it was such a busy month preparing for the Christmas holiday in my home, and making gifts, I didn't get time to create a new piece for the PCAGOE January challenge. Luckily, I had an older piece that suited the theme, which is 50 Shades of Gray... no, not associated with the infamous book, but a study in value! I chose an older necklace that I had created with my silk fabric dye transfer. Here are a few shots of that piece:

 So, what was I so busy doing that I couldn't create a new piece for the challenge? Making gifts for family and friends. First on the list was a stocking that my hubby had asked me to make for him... which, at the moment, I do not have a photo. Basically it's a red stocking edged with candy striped trim, super simple.

The second project was a pair of slippers that I made for my mother-in-law. She loves these slippers that I make, and she will wear them until they have holes in the soles all the way through to her toes!  So I decided it was time she get another brand new pair. This pair is triple reinforced on the soles and upper is made of neoprene, so hopefully they will last a lot longer than her previous pairs have! Here's what they look like:

 About a week before Christmas I decided that I would make and send out origami stars, which I made out of our Land's End holiday catalogs, to my family and some friends. I generally skip sending Christmas cards because of the thousands of trees that are destroyed to make all of the paper for them. But my traditionalist hubby grumbles every year that I send out a Christmas email in lieu of Christmas cards. So this year I decided to compromise with the origami stars, getting the last minute idea to upcycle my holiday catalogs, which was an added bonus! I made about 70 (give or take a few) stars. And here's a sampling of what those looked like:

Last, but not least came the polymer gifts. I needed a little gift to give to my personal trainer, who gives me the gift of her creativity twice a week, to create challenging and always varied workouts that keep me wanting to return and wishing I could work out with her daily(which is a miracle in and of itself!). And I wanted another special gift for my friend and soul sister, with whom I knew I'd be spending New Year's Eve. In addition, I wanted to create a special gift for my parents. A month beforehand, I had the foresight to start a homemade lavender essential oil, by steeping a jar full of lavender buds in carrier oils for a month long, this was the idea behind the 2 gifts that followed, for my trainer and my friend. I created for Angel, my trainer, this polymer covered bottle which I then filled with my homemade lavender oil:

I created an inro necklace for my dear friend, Susan. Inros are small vessels, this one was created from a perfume sampler bottle, complete with the wand attached to the lid. After the polymer for this piece was cured, I then filled it with my homemade lavender oil:

And finally, I upcycled a chandelier light bulb into a cardinal tree ornament for my parents. My mom has always loved birds, but especially birds on her Christmas tree. As a matter of fact, her parent's always had the old-fashioned glass birds on their tree. As such, my mom has gifted her children and her siblings a glass bird ornament every year at Christmas. The glass bird she gifted me this year was this sweet owl:

Here are two of my other favorite bird ornaments that my parents have given me over the years:

These bird ornaments, with their fibrous and feathery tails, were the inspiration for the cardinal ornament that I created for my parents. He is quite large though, I'd estimate that he measures about 7" from beak to tail, and about 5" tall. I created him with the red glitter Premo accent polymer, with some black and a little bit of an orange mixture. The legs were made by covering an armature of wire with polymer and baking separately before inserting them into the body of the cardinal. And the plume of tail feathers and comb feathers was created by integrating some sheer red fabric strips into the polymer at those points. My parents both loved him. My only wish is that he were lighter in weight. The bulb was a pretty heavy glass to begin with, but then there was about 2 to 3 ounces of polymer added to him. Here he is:

I also created some polymer gifts for 3 of my PCAGOE guild mates, using my handmade texture plate from a previous PCAGOE challenge, for the the gift exchange the guild offers every year. I forgot to take my own photos of the pieces, but these are the photos my guild mates took of the pieces I made for them:

Here are the lovely gifts I received in exchange, from my talented guild mates (in order, from Linda Riopel of NKDesigns, Susan O'Neill of 11BOLDstret, and Jackie Sieben of JAE Jewelry and The Pleasant Pheasant)

So, with making all these gifts, getting my house decorated for Christmas and baking a couple batches of cookies, I did not have any time left to make my challenge piece, thus the older piece that I've entered for this month (above). For anyone who might be interested, that necklace is available in my createmyworld etsy shop here. 

Whew! That was quite a lot to post about! What do you think of all the gifting creations I made? Do you like handmade gifts to give and receive? What was your favorite handmade gift? I'd love to hear from you, leave me a comment below!

Voting is open for the January challenge, and you can cast a vote for your 3 favorite entries at the PCAGOE blog. Remember, you could win a prize! Voting closes on the 7th of January at midnight EST.

PCAGOE December "Re-do" Challenge Vote

It's time to vote for the PCAGOE December Challenge! Here are all of the entries for this month's "Re-do" theme:

Black and Red Drop Crystal Earrings No. 175 by Susan of 11BOLDstreet 

The "before" earrings were an entry for another PCAGOE Challenge. I was never really happy with the lower, translucent element. It seemed too dull and clunky by comparison with the upper focals. So, cut sleek slices from the same rich red as was used in the nugget beads, sanded, buffed them and added a sterling spiral, then re-hung as the new lower element - MUCH better!!

Fancy Soap Dispenser by Lisa of HiGirls 

This pink and blue soap dispenser just needed a little bit more. Gray trim with a white wash makes it a little more special. 

Emily by Marie Young of MarieYoungCreative

I loved "Emily" when I first created her 2 years ago, (see "Emily" Before) but my skills have improved so I decided to give her a makeover. I sanded her down and added a new layer of clay to give her features more definition (including sexy eyelids!). I also changed the color palette on her skin tones to provide more contrast.

Steampunk Fish by Freda of  FredaK

The first one was made in 2010 and was covered with extruder cane flowers and the other one is steampunk made last week.

Pod brooch re-do (revised design) by Beth of CreateMyWorldDesigns

I never quite liked the red outer rim of the original brooch, so for the December PCAGOE "re-do" challenge, I decided to change the original piece to something I'd like more, the black and silver outside is the result. To read more about this project, please visit my blog post: http://createmyworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2015/11/simple-brooch-re-do.html

To cast your vote for your 3 favorite entries, please go to the PCAGOE Blog. Remember, you could be our lucky prize winner, just for participating in the vote!

Simple brooch re-do

This month's PCAGOE guild challenge is "Re-do", or basically to revisit an old idea or project and improve it by changing the old piece or re-designing a new piece based on the same idea.  I didn't have a whole lot of time for this challenge, because as usual, I left it to the last minute and in that last minute I was sick with a cold. But I didn't want to mess up my streak of consistent entries (I think I've had an entry every month for the past 2 years + 2 months!). So I grabbed one of my older pieces that I wasn't quite happy with and quickly did a revision. Here's the original brooch design:

The original piece was designed around a piece of metal window screen that I had moulded into a dome using a jewelry block tool. I never quite liked the red on the outside of this piece, and as you can see above, that red portion ended up breaking... so I decided to pry it off and redo the outside of the piece. Unfortunately, when I pried off the red outer layer, the 2nd pink and purple outer layer also came off, so I lost more than I had intended.

I decided that a nice glossy black would compliment the purples best and I set to work with one layer of black, then added another layer. I decided that I wanted to make the edges of these new layers more organically shaped. I then added a touch of silver ink to give contrast to all of the edges. A coating of verathane added that glossy shine that I wanted.

I do like this version better than the first. I like that it looks more pod-like, but I'm still wondering if it needs something more... What do you think? Leave me a comment below. Voting opens for this challenge on December 1st and is open untill December 7th at midnight EST. I'll post a reminder here on the blog! 

November Vote!

Well folks, it's time to vote! The PCAGOE November challenge is open for voting until midnight on November 7th (EST). Check out the wonderful entries the members came up with this month:

Remember to go vote at the PCAGOE blog. You could win a prize, just for taking the time to vote!

Boho Beach Glass Necklace - a back-up plan

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you think they will. This month's challenge project for the Polymer Clay Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) was one of those occasions. I had whittled away the month focusing on household issues and only began to work on my challenge project on Friday.

After spending the better part of the day, conjuring up my fabulous (if I do say so myself) idea... after the first baking of the surface design layer, my intended project was in ruins. The piece I had been working on is a mixed media piece, (I'm keeping "what it is" a secret for now, because I feel certain my blog readers shall see it eventually). I will say that it is a large item, about 14" by 12". Although my oven is large enough to hold said piece, I didn't have a large enough substrate on which to bake the flat piece. I opted to put it on parchment paper, then on top of the largest flat board I could find in my studio that would fit in my oven, but still the ends were about a 1" overhang. This, plus (probably) a failing oven thermometer led to the demise of my glorious idea. When removed from the oven, areas of cracking appeared because of my 2 previously mentioned issues. Reminder to self, it's time to purchase 2 digital thermometers. The cracking was all over the key surface design, which I had painstakingly mapped out in polymer over the course of a couple hours that day. The ruin of which, rendered the entire surface utterly destroyed. I had to then peel off the "design" layer, which is now contained in 2 ziplock baggies for potential future upcycling, to at least preserve the base of the piece which I had put together over the course of that morning. To start over with the design layer again would take too much time and the other problem is, it was A LOT of polymer, almost a whole 1 lb. of clay! To say I'm very unhappy about that is an understatement. But, lessons learned... I went to the thrift store and now have a piece of glass to bake on that is large enough for this project, and I will be getting a new thermometer to resolve the other issue. I didn't have enough time (or frankly, clay in the right colors) to finish my original project, so I had to come up with something else quick. Luckily this month's challenge theme is wide open for interpretation, the theme is "Personal accessories", and using up previously made jewelry components to create a new piece would fit the bill.

Back when I created my faerie light house, I made extra pieces of faux sea glass, that I had in reserve to use for jewelry. I also had just recently dabbled with a tutorial and created these organic shaped pieces that are meant to mimic bits of coral and a shell. Both the sea glass and the organic shapes were created using the tutorials (Faux Glass effects and Organic beads) from Ginger Davis Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree. Ginger's tutorials are some of the best ones out there, all beautifully detailed in written instruction and photo examples. And perfect for all levels of experience. You can find the tutorials in Ginger's online shop, she even has 2 great bundles where you can get 3 tutes for less than you would have to pay for all of them when purchased separately! Here's a close-up of those handmade beads...

When I realized that I would need to resort to a back-up plan, my mind went to these previously  made pieces. I decided to create a boho beach necklace... sea glass, coral, shell, and matching silk fabric... these colors and components reminded me of something a mermaid might wear, or at least a bohemian beach babe. ;)   I have a stash of these lovely robin's egg blue pearl antique buttons that went perfectly with the colors, so I decided to incorporate some of those in this piece.

So, after all the frustrations from the original idea not working out, this challenge entry turned out quiet lovely (if I do say so myself) :)  To make a necklace was NOT as I had originally intended... but that's okay, I will revisit that other idea another day. For this day, I'm thankful to have created such a lovely neckpiece. I'm tempted to keep this one for myself, but do think that I will be posting it in my etsy shop.

What do you think about my boho beach necklace? Have you had projects that you just had to abandon to move onto another more efficient idea? Did you revisit the original idea eventually? I'd love to hear what you have to share... leave me a comment below! Remember, the voting for this challenge will begin on November 1st and will run through till midnight November 7th. I'll post a reminder here at the blog. And I'll leave you with the back side view of this piece:

PCAGOE October Inspiration Challenge

As of this posting, there are 2 days left to vote for the PCAGOE October challenge! Take a look at the wonderful pieces created, alongside the Wyatt Waters' paintings which inspired each piece:

If you missed the post about my piece (#6 in the above photo), go here to read about it. And don't forget to cast your vote for your 3 favorite challenge entries at the PCAGOE blog.  Remember, you could be the lucky (randomly selected) voter to win a prize just for voting, so don't delay!

Sun Dog - an exercise in polymer painting

My husband and I are owned by a canine sun worshiper. I love to take photos of my fur-faced baby, and one of the photos I took just this week spawned part of my inspiration for the challenge piece of the month. I have been wanting to do a portrait of this guy (and one of my dear departed cats), and this challenge gave me great opportunity to tackle the idea, at least of my pup... kitties to be done at another time!

This month, our theme is "Interpretation". Our guild's challenge coordinator (Arlene Harrison) chose the artist, from whom we would all chose a painting and then create our own homage. Arlene chose one of her favorite artists, Wyatt Waters, a watercolorist. Waters' style is that of realistically rendered images, most of his subjects are everyday life or small town America, and his color style I would describe as a vibrant primary-based mixed hues. You can find Waters' Facebook page here to check out more of his lovely paintings. 

Waters' painting of my choosing, was one which he did of his dog, and it is entitled "James". I've taken the liberty of posting a copy of his image of this sweet painting, which you can also find in his gallery of paintings on his Facebook page.

James Watercolor painting by Wyatt Waters

This challenge piece was a bit rushed, it all came together, from inspiration to final product, in 2 days.  I'm in the midst of another studio reorganize, and busy with the garden, among other things... so, I almost wasn't going to make a piece. But, I really hated to break the now (I think) 2 year running streak of creating a challenge piece every month. I had decided that if I was going to tackle this challenge, I wanted to do a polymer painting. I wanted to take my inspiration from the subject and style of Waters' painting, but I wanted to use my own image. I had just taken some great photos of my fur-baby, while he was sitting in the sun on our lounge chair, and thus the idea for this month's project was in place. 

I used a piece of glass, covered with LPC to block out the colors of my puppy, and his chair, in alcohol inks. After baking the first layer of this, I peeled it off the glass and realized that I liked the clarity of the side that was against the glass, so I placed it back on the glass and built up more layers on the side that was originally supposed to be the viewing side. The only problem with this is that my painting is now a reversed image of the original. I used artistic license to omit certain things from the original photo, to simplify the image (also because of my time constraint).

Because it was rushed, I'm not as happy with it as I had thought I would be, especially the fact that it is the reversed image of the original. But all-in-all I am pleased with the lessons learned in this project. And as always, I hope to do more with this technique in the future. Here's a close-up of my sundog:

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this project, leave me a comment below! Voting for this challenge opens on October 1st and will run through to the 7th at midnight EST. I'll post a reminder here on the blog... Here's one more shot, from an angle, of my sundog:

Voting time!

As of this posting you have 3 days left to vote for the PCAGOE September Letter themed challenge! The entries are all so varied... check out all the beautifully done pieces:

Remember, you could win a prize just for voting! So, head over to the PCAGOE website and choose your 3 favorite entries...  Voting closes on September 7th at midnight EST.