Yes, Virginia, You Can Clay With Nine Fingers

I sliced my index finger to the bone on a new stiffy blade (those things are wicked sharp when new) last week, and I was not supposed to touch the clay for another week, but I couldn't help myself and gave in to the muse Saturday and made a few new pieces.



The beads are taking on a decidedly reptilian look, more organic and "looser" than my first attemps. You do not know how hard it was for me to resist naming this series "Later Gator" or "Faux Snake." I was not sure how some of my customers would take to wearing gator or snake beads, however.



I do not know why, really. It may be the other side of my Gemini personality emerging. I am almost obsessed with my finishes, especially on my image transfers, but I have sort of let myself "go with the flow" with the focal beads. I am letting the stampings guide what I do with them. It has been a kick to experiment. I have also gone through a brand new, 75ml tube of Amsterdam Burnt Umber in the past month. I just cannot leave the little beadies naked. They must be antiqued and textured. Who knows, next month we may be back to high gloss image transfers, but right now, I am having way too much fun being the "queen of fauxtiquities."



My new favorite toy is a new pebbled texture sheet I got from cooltools.us. Cooltools is the coolest site. I love their texture sheets because, for one, they are small and manageable; and two, they go through the pasta machine like a snap.



Yes, I have discovered I like running the clay and texture sheet through the pasta machine better than trying to get an even stamping on a flat surface, so I spent the better part of a day last week unmounting my mounted rubber stamps. They are so much easier to store unmounted, and you can't put a block of wood through the pasta machine.

So here are a few photos of what I was not supposed to do Saturday.