Mucha Mucha Mucha!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite artists - Alphonse Mucha. Mucha was a Czech artist who painted in the Art Nouveau style. He is famous for his paintings of women with flowing hair, but also worked on other projects, such as stained glass murals for churches. The actress Sarah Bernhardt was enamored by Mucha's decorative style, and commissioned him to create many posters for her various stage appearances. He was big on series, and the above painting is from a sequence of 4 women painted to represent different seasons. This one is Summer.

Happy Birthday Alfie!

Dotty Pod Inspiration

A new earring design has arrived - my Dotty Pods! These are similar to my Peanut Pod Earrings in that the "shell" is the same form, but the inside is different. The shells are made of purple polymer clay that has been molded and baked around long wooden beads to give them their shape. Before baking the outsides have been textured. The middles are turquoise clay that has been textured and added after the shell has baked. They are attached with liquid polymer clay and the piece is baked again as a whole to ensure a strong hold.

What's amazing about polymer clay is that it's so light that even these large earrings don't weigh down my earlobes. Look at that middle picture to see what I'm talking about.

Zoo Inspiration

Here are some photos I took on my trip to the Bronx Zoo this past Tuesday. Images are from the Butterfly House and the Gorilla Exhibit. It was great to see those gorillas in such a well-kept large environment. They genuinely seemed happy in their enclosure and seemed to be having a great adventure play-fighting over a particular stick.

More Image Transfer Inspiration

Blue bird image from toile textile was transferred onto tablet-sized pieces of white polymer clay. Holes were pierced prior to baking and a varnish was applied to protect the pieces. The tablets were hung on kidney-shaped earring wires which were adorned with blue Swarovski crystals. I do not know who designed this textile, so I'm sorry, I cannot credit the bird's artist.

Summer Bloom Inspiration

Here is a new pair of earrings I made just this morning. They're composed of lucite and plastic flower components, Swarovski crystals and a silver-plated beadcap/earring wires. The creamy orange, bright fuschia, and juicy citrus yellow are perfect colors for summer - which is right around the corner. No polymer clay in this piece, but they're still quite unique.

Regretsy!

OK - maybe I'm out of the loop. A few of my friends already knew about this site and I can't believe I've missed it for this long! It's a blog called Regretsy and it highlights some of the wacky, crappy, tacky, and just plain horrible things for sale on Etsy. We've all seen them. Recyclable fabric toilet "paper". Pendants in the shape of vaginas. Dessert foods that look like poop. Well, now they're all in one place and accompanied by some of the wittiest, most hysterical commentary by the woman who runs the blog, "Helen Killer." Her repartee has made me laugh out loud more than a few times. She also posts bizarre Alchemy requests, like one for "cornhole bags." WHAT?! Please - go check it out!

Image Transfer Inspiration

Recently I found these really pretty floral file folders (tongue twister alert) from the dollar bin in Michael's. I loved the pattern so I made a color copy and did an image transfer onto thin white drop-shaped cutouts of polymer clay. I poked holes in them, baked them, varnished the cured pieces, and finally, attached earring wires. The result is these floral drop earrings. They're super light-weight and have nice movement.

For those of you interested, here is my image transfer process:

1. Start by printing your desired image onto plain white printer paper using a color laser printer. Lay a sheet of clay onto a tile before cutting it into the shape you want. You will bake the clay on this tile. Now cut your paper to size. (For these earrings I used my drop-shaped cutter to not only cut out the clay pieces, but also to trace the outline on the paper. The clay pieces and paper turned out the same size so I could line them up easier).
2. Next, lay your paper carefully onto the clay (image side down) and burnish lightly with a bone folder or your finger. Don't burnish hard enought to indent the clay; you just want to bind the clay and paper.
3. Put the tile in the toaster oven at the recommended temperature for 5 minutes.
4. Remove the tile and peel off your paper. I use a craft knife to gently lift the edges of the paper in order to peel without touching the clay.
5. Your image should now be adhered to the clay. Continue to bake your pieces for the remainder of the recommended time.

* If you're making earrings, don't forget to poke your holes before you apply the paper. * To make sure your edges are clean, sand them if needed. * You'll also want to protect your piece with some kind of sealer or varnish. I prefer Delta Ceramcoat varnish in gloss.

The Bead Goes On...

I'll be donating 5 of my Funky Chunky Flower beads to the Toledo Museum of Art for their "The Bead Goes On" project. They are working on a bead curtain to be installed in the museum itself. It will be composed of 10,000 handmade beads from craftspeople all over the world! Can't wait to see it. If you're interested, click here for more information and the submission form. The beads must be handmade, non-perishable and no bigger than 4" long by 1&1/2" wide. You can submit a maximum of 5 beads. The museum is accepting submissions until October 2010.

Quartz Inspiration

I've wanted to try making faceted polymer clay beads ever since I saw this woman's work on Polymer Clay Daily. Of course I wanted to give it my own twist, so instead of using regular opaque clay, I used a mix of translucent with a teeny bit of color added. What I ended up with was beads that looked like stones - perhaps rose and citrine quartz with a little jade thrown in? I mixed them with some pink shell chips and completed the piece with a duo of matching green Swarovskis and a copper toggle closure. I gave it as a gift to my mother who helped me with my taxes this year (again!). I think it came out really nice and I can't wait to make more...

New Flyer! (click on image)