What To Do While You're Waiting For An Escaped Convict To Be Recaptured

... and you are alone, in your house with your neighborhood on lockdown all day. Well, you jump at every sound, and think you hear him at the window every 5 minutes; and you try to go about your day in a normal way and don't even think about what you're going to do when it gets dark and he still hasn't been apprehended...

Yeah, that's the way my day has gone. It's 12:47 a.m. now and the idiot is still on the loose. Yesterday, he overpowered a deputy, beat him up, and escaped police custody while being transported from one prison to another. Now he is armed with the deputy's Glock and shotgun, and has managed to elude 150 local, state and federal police and 3 teams of bloodhounds, even though they surrounded him in a cemetery 2 blocks from my house at 7:30 a.m. this morning. He has tried to hijack two cars in the neighborhood and broke into a house to use the rest room and change clothes. The police think he is still in the woods behind the cemetery, which is way too close for comfort, or a good night's sleep, so here I am, sitting up in front of the laptop with all the lights on, inside and outside.

I actually managed to get some new pendants and earrings done today. Fear is a great motivator, apparently. I thought it would be more difficult to churn things out while looking over my shoulder constantly, but I am happy with most of them.

I went back to my comfort zone, playing with alcohol inks, translucent clay, and embossing powder. I started experimenting with layering colors, peeling back bits of each layer with a blade and then adding more translucent clay and either more alcohol ink or more embossing powder. I must say, I do like these, very much.

I bought some indigo blue and copper raku beads recently, and thought the colors looked really good together, so I tried making some blue and copper pieces. The black and turquoise whitewashed hashmark earrings are from a dab of scrap clay I had sitting on my table today. I have been trying to think of a way to use these tiny silver end caps, and they fit the horse eye shape perfectly.

I was supposed to be finishing three new tutorials for the shop today, but my mind just wasn't on that with everything else going on. I will have to do that tomorrow for sure, though, whether or not the idiot gets captured.

August ABS Entry - Ramsdell Art Nouveau Necklace

The theme for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge is inspired by Frederick Winthrop Ramsdell's Art Nouveau illustration for American Crescent Cycles, created by him in 1899.  

To be honest, I was not crazy about the art for this month's challenge when I first saw it. I was going to pass on the challenge because I thought the colors drab, and a little boring. 

Everything I had in the old gem box was too bright and seemed to make the colors even more dreary.  I looked at the image some more and eventually decided I didn't have anything that would suit, so I took myself shopping, cruising through my favorite virtual gem and bead stores.  Then I remembered that LimaBeads.com has a new line of Czech glass, and I bought all these and more.   The initial pendant size I was going to use was much larger, but the beads still made the colors seem awfully boring.  I decided to make the image smaller (much smaller) and see what happened.   I think it turned out okay.

Hangin' Out On Cloud 9 Again - A New PCD Feature

The first thing I do during the work week after I get up in the morning is check my email and then visit Polymer Clay Daily to see who/what Miss Cynthia is featuring for the day.  I got a nice little jolt this morning when I read my own name at the top of today's post!   As a result, I am feeling a little lofty, so if you need me today, hang a right at Cloud 9.  I may be here awhile.  Thank you so much, Cynthia, for taking the time to read my blog and peruse my flickr photostream.  It is an honor and a thrill to see myself on the pages of PCD!

I also have to take a moment to send kudos to Cynthia for all she does to promote polymer clay artists.  I doubt there is anyone in the polymer world who doesn't know her or has not read the posts at Polymer Clay Daily.  She is a wonderful ambassador for us all.  It really jumpstarts my creativity to see what everyone else is doing. 

Cynthia has a new endeavor aimed at helping inspire us, too.  She recently launched a virtual magazine called "Studio Mojo."  You can read more about it at PCD if you are interested.  It requires a paid subscription, and I signed up last week and spent a lovely afternoon via the web with Cynthia and polymer artist Lindly Haunani (from whom I learned a lesson in patience) and also reading through the back issues.  It is like being able to attend a master class every day.  I am really excited about the concept and the chance to see and hear the interviews in real time, so bravo to you, Cynthia.  Much good luck with the new website, and thank you again for the feature. 

August Blog Winner - Barbara Lewis!

We had 16 comments this month, and after spinning the old random number generator, #11, Barbara Lewis, is our winner! Congratulations, Barbara. I'll be contacting you today for your address and will get the pendant out to you pronto. I hope you enjoy the pendant as much as I enjoyed creating it for you.

Thanks again to everyone who played along this month. Next month, I'm taking a break from offering polymer pieces and will be offering some supplies to inspire you to do your own embellishing. Stay tuned!

August Blog Giveaway Prize

I thought that this month, I would give away one of my embellished Waterhouse image transfer pendants. This one features one of Waterhouse's paintings of pre-Raphaelite women, and is entitled "The Crystal Ball". It has a Renaissance look and feel and is part of my "Ancient Romance" series of pendants and bead.

If you would like a chance to win this pendant, please leave a comment after the post, either about the pendant, or perhaps how the dog days of Summer are treating you. It is hot, hot, hot and sticky here in the lowcountry of South Carolina.

As always, no purchase is necessary. If you won last month, you aren't qualified to win this month, but those are the only rules. I will leave the comments open until August 1, 2011, when I will draw a winner. If you do not have email enabled on your blog, please include an email address in your comment so I will know how to contact you.

Thanks, everyone, and happy Summer!

My Entry in Art Bead Scene's July Challenge - Rose Mallow Garden Necklace

The painting providing the inspiration for this month's Art Bead Scene challenge is "Morning in the Garden at Vaucresson," by Edouard Vuillard.

I created the cylindrical focal bead pendant from translucent polymer clay, using an image transfer technique. The image depicted is a rose mallow bush. The translucent clay was layered onto a base clay of soft butter yellow. The translucent clay makes it appear the image is floating on the surface, and it has a soft luminescence.



I kept to the Garden theme by creating matching rose beads from polymer clay, which compliment the centers of the rose mallow in the image. I embellished the focal with Vintaj Magnolia leaf bead caps and added Vintaj's Deco Vines Filigree components, which are appropriate for the time the painting was created; and faceted, round Swarovski crystal with an AB finish, to symbolize the sparkle of early morning dew drops.

Lorelei's Blog Giveaway Winners!

Lorelei has chosen the winners of the pendants I donated to her blog giveaway this week. Mosey on over to Lorelei's blog to see more.

Pendant #1 Black Line Transfer - Not Afraid
Pendant #2 Mauve Rose - Deb
Pendant #3 Butterfly Kingdom - Julz
Pendant #4 Klimt Embellished Pendant - Nena

I would love to see what you create with these pendants, ladies. Send me photos and I'll post them here for everyone to admire!

Thanks again to everyone who commented. I appreciate the response and all the wonderful Summer recipes, to boot!

Stay tuned for MY next blog giveaway, coming soon.