Poly-Clay Pendant and Brooch

Some more polymer clay creations. This pendant and brooch I sculpted on my own. Both were painted and the green/brown one was sealed with a gloss gel medium. I'm really getting to like working with polymer clay. It is so versatile and easy to manipulate. More than that, it's fun and reminds me of being a kid again - it's an adult version of Play-Doh.

Polymer Clay Earrings

Here are two sets of earrings that I made out of polymer clay. The wine/orange colored ones don't have earring findings attached yet. I'm thinking about giving them a nice coating of gloss varnish. The polymer clay used for both pairs was originally a pearlescent white which I painted with acrylics after baking. I sculpted/molded the clay by hand using a star-shaped cookie-cutter, a large flower shaped bead (this is what made the floral imprint), and a pencil eraser to squash the points of the star down. These were a lot of fun to make and I recently bought some metallic mica powders which I'm going to try out on the next set.

Paper Landscape

Here is a lovely little mixed media landscape I whipped up over the past few days. The background is matte and metallic acrylics, and the foreground hills and clouds are a variety of papers. I may add an image transfer of a tree to one of the hills, but I haven't decided yet. I have to say, it's just so hard to see the textures in this design from this picture - I'm not sure if it's our scanner or what...but it looks quite different from what I see when I hold it in front of me here. When you click on the image it's much more easy to see these details.

Skull Stamp

So, I recently got a copy of Paper Source's October catalogue, and I saw a skull stamp that I really loved (shown on top). The price wasn't bad at $7.50, but then I remembered - wait! I have my own rubber and tools to make stamps. So I drew up a similar skull and, well, made a stamp out of it (shown on middle and bottom). He came out pretty good if I do say so myself. I know there is copyright issues with things like this, so I purposely did not trace the skull - I just drew my own version.

Brown/Black Bracelet

Another bracelet. I wear a lot of browns but rarely design anything with browns and blacks - so I stepped outside of my comfort zone with this one. I think it came out nicely.

New Bracelets

Hello all - it's been awhile... I've gotten over that stressful period of time where I was taking 4 classes and working full-time (I'm back down to 2 and full-time), so I've had some time to make some jewelry. Here are 2 different multi-strand bracelets I've made recently shown from different angles. I love doing these multi-strands - there lots of fun and great for exercising those color theory muscles.

Charley Harper

I am frequently asked who my favorite artist is. I've often stumbled to find an answer, never wanting to commit; always supposing that one day it would hit me like a pile of bricks. Well, that day has arrived. His name is Charley Harper. I've seen his work here and there and I'm almost certain I read a book illustrated by him as a child, but it all came crashing down yesterday when I came across a huge oversized tome of his works written by the interior design icon, Todd Oldham. I just cannot even express how stunning these prints were. It is hard to capture in the pictures that I have posted here. His works at first seem decpetively simple; it is not until you look at them for a few seconds that you realize that you have come across a master of modernism. His paintings are whimsical and bold - sometimes joyous, sometimes bizarre. I highly recommend getting ahold of Oldham's book. It will brighten your day immeasurably.

Blue and Green Chunky Charm

I finally took some pictures of the second chunky charm I made. This one has a blue and green theme - perfect for spring. There's even some frogs and a fish in it. Can you see them? This one took a little longer than the first one. I struggled a bit with the composition, but I think it came out pretty nice. One of my favorite parts of it is the light blue plastic flowers that you can see in the first and second pictures (there are light green ones on the other side, but these pictures don't show them). They were part of a vintage necklace that I found at a thrift store. It was falling apart so I un-strung it and used the beads for various projects. This charm is about 4" long by 2" wide.

Good News

It's been difficult working full time while going to school and I rarely have the time to sit down and create anything, much less be rewarded for what I create. So it was a pleasant surprise yesterday to receive an e-mail from the Design Laboratory of the University of the Arts London (Central St. Martin branch) requesting to use my decoupaged shoe tutorial in their next issue of the school's Mix Interiors Magazine! I know, I know... that was a really long sentence with way too many embedded links, but I am totally excited. I'll be honest, I would love to go to London myself and teach it to them in person!

While this is a great thing, it is also frustrating to me. I want to be getting more opportunities like this - and I should. But in order to do that, I have to have more time to dedicate to my art. I am second guessing myself now. Should I be working on my art instead of college? Should a passion come first, and a favored career second? Or should it be the other way around?

Chunky-Charm

I've started making these little chunky charms. I took an earring loop and attached a bunch of beaded wires to it with one charm or bead in the eye. This is the first one I made and it now hangs from the rearview mirror in my car. I made another one recently out of blues and greeens but when I went to take pictures of it my camera ran out of juice. So I'll post it soon, just not today. This one is about 3" long by 2" wide when laying flat.