The YART Sale is Back!

The 2nd annual Etsy Yart Sale starts today, June 10th and runs through Friday, June 12th.

This year, the sale is sponsored by the Etsy Supply Street Team (Team ESST). I participated last year and had great fun. I have lowered the price and reduced shipping on several items in the SCDiva shop, and I am going shopping for bargains myself! Last year, I was able to snag several original works of art for a song! So, if you are a lover of art and handmade artistry, head on over to www.etsy.com and search YART in the menu! See you there!

What I Did This Weekend

Here are a few of the pieces I worked on Friday and yesterday. I played around with some negatives in my image editor, and learned a few things.

Purple does not transfer well to clay, the more intense the color, the worse the image...don't know if it was me or the clay or what, but I tend to think it was the image. Red and royal blue worked pretty well, and black was super, but it was a no-go on the purple, which is a shame, because I wanted to do something in purple for my friend Linda, she of the Ultra Violet Treasury below, who loves purple. Linda, how about a nice blue or red? No? Okay, back to the drawing board.

I get bored easily, and it is hard for me to make two of anything, which is why I don't do sets of beads very often. I definitely would not make two necklace designs exactly alike, but I don't even like transferring the same image twice. I made an exception with this Japanese Cherry Blossom image. It has gorgeous colors, a teal green, cherry red, and a blush pink, not to mention the delicate white blossoms. I did this image about a month ago in a microscope slide size, and gave it to one of my flickr buddies. It keeps pulling at me, so I decided this weekend to make a couple more, but in different sizes and shapes.





And something to make the backsides of my pendants and brooches more interesting: I added an image transfer to the reverse sides. I usually stamp the reverse with a texture sheet, but wanted to see if this would work, and I like it.

My Lavender Hoya Brooch Featured In A Treasury!

And isn't it a gorgeous Treasury? I believe it is one of the best compilations I've seen at Etsy. All the items flow together very smoothly. My friend Linda Riopel, a/k/a NKDesigns, created this gorgeous treasury for her fellow PCAGOE members and called it Ultra Violet...All PCAGOE and included my little Faux Vintage Lavender Hoya Brooch. This is one of my favorite image transfers, and I am so happy Linda chose to showcase it with these hugely talented folks. Thanks so much, Linda!



Faux Vintage Lavender Hoya Brooch

Thursday Clay and Play June 4, 2009

I didn't try to do a whole lot last night, the weight of the work day was too much. I really only intended to make one piece, a pendant for my friend Angela Hickey, a/k/a polymerclaycreations, depicting the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina.

Angela is a fan of lighthouses and collects them, as am I. I am also a huge fan of her exquisite polymer clay millefiori technique. I don't work with the primary colors much myself, except red, but Angela has won me over with her happy, colorful creations. I asked her recently if I could purchase a set of her rainbow colored millefiori pendants and beads, and she surprised me by asking if we could trade instead. So this little pendant, and a few more surprises, are going her way! I can't wait to see the beads she is creating for me. I may actually get a wild hair and stop wearing basic black every day and start wearing yellow or orange!

I do not know the correct name for this funny-looking little flower, but it reminds me of a persimmon, so I named it Persimmon Flower. I'm so original! I embossed the Pearl clay before I added the image transfer, which has a blush colored background, to the surface. It created an almost damask fabric like look to the space behind the image. I am going to do more of these for sure.



The tea rose or heirloom rose images are some of my favorites of all the images I've purchased from Sabine Berg at SabineSydney. They are so delicate and sweet, and I decided to add some very fine antique gold embossing powder to the Pearl clay. I also pressed a piece of floursack fabric over the top, creating a canvas-like look, something I've done before, which really adds to the vintage look and feel of a piece, which you can see more easily in the closeup photo.

The Grab and Throw Method

I have been having trouble finding gemstones that fit the vintage Japanese landscape images I purchase a couple of months ago. Pearls were too blah, Swarovsky crystals too bright, a combination of pearls and Swarovski too...something. I bought rose colored stones and peach colored, but nothing grabbed me until I looked at my Jasper collection. I have a whole tray of various shapes and sizes of Aqua Terra Jasper, Apple Jasper, Fancy Jasper, Brecciated Jasper, Leopardskin Jasper, etc. The jaspers and agates are my favorite gemstones to work with because they are so versatile. I've mentioned this before, but it really amazes me how they can take on properties of other gems when you wouldn't think they would match at all.

Occasionally, when I get stuck and can't choose a gemstone palette for a pendant, I get a little crazy. That's when I clear off the work table, set the pendant down in the middle, open up all my bead trays, turn off my mind...and just start grabbing and throwing beads on the table. I pay for it when I have to sort them all again, but that's a whole 'nother story. It's crazy, but the "grab and throw" method works, with very little angst and indecision involved. It's a little act of rebellion on the part of my spontaneous gene. Every once in awhile, it just has to break free.

This pendant has a lot of color in it, but I still would not have thought to put the Aqua Terra Jasper with the Amazonite, but I am thrilled with the result. So what do you think, did the "grab and throw" work this time?

Thursday Clay and Play May 28th

I was in the mood to play with copper last Thursday night. I make my own copper blend because I like the copper kettle color of copper, and Kato and Premo are too dark. I mix 8 parts Gold Premo to 2 parts Alizarin Crimson Premo to 1 part Ultramarine Blue Premo, then add Ranger Copper Embossing powder for that antique, slightly pitted look. Fabulous!

I was very pleased with these, especially the "obelisk", which is not a traditional obelisk shape, but that's what I was reminded of when I started shaping it. It is sometimes very difficult to capture a simple shape. You can't hide any mistakes in a sleek line, after all. That is one reason I don't do many spherical-shaped pendants or brooches. It drives me crazy if the circle isn't perfectly round.

I've got some beautiful new turquoise beads to go with the pebbled copper pendant, and I can't to get started on a necklace design.

Red Hat and Blue Funk

I was in a blue funk yesterday. I think it had something to do with it also being my 50th birthday. I didn't take it well. Any remnants of my youth are now gone.

The first congratulatory (?) call I received was at 6:30 a.m. from a "friend" telling me I now qualified for membership in the Red Hat Society. Egad. The society's members wear red and purple in public as a symbol that they have reached an age where they no longer care what people think about them. Well, I already don't care what people think about me, but there is no way on God's green Earth I will ever not care that I am seen in public wearing purple and red together. Ain't gonna happen. Now, don't get me wrong, I love red and purple, red is my very favorite color. But I wouldn't be caught dead wearing them together. Said friend also fedexed me a Red Hat Society Hat to wear. She's SOOOOOOO on my list now. First of all, hats don't go on this bigass hair of mine. I don't spend an hour in front of the mirror every morning teasing and spraying it just to squish it under a hat. And besides, my ears are to high for a hat. I either have to tuck them under or let them flop out, so again, ain't gonna happen! The Red Hat Society will just have to perservere without me.

And then, I realized that my driver's license expired yesterday. Oh, joy, a trip to the DMV, the perfect birthday gift. Well, guess what? I almost failed the eye test. If the sweet little clerk, bless her heart, hadn't felt sorry for me and let me try EIGHT times, I would have lost my license. The poor thing, whom I've known all my life, was as embarrassed as I was.

I am officially old.

The day did get better, however. My nephew gave me a lovely little bouquet that brightened up my office and my disposition, and the birthday present I ordered for myself, a gorgeous zebra print and red leather pocketbook, arrived via the equally gorgeous UPS guy; and my favorite meal was waiting for me when I got home, fried chicken, tomato sandwiches and homemade chocolate cake with fudge icing.