UFO Weekend

To those of us who are makers, the term UFO has another meaning. I am talking about the infamous Unfinished Objects.

I am one of those artists who just loves making the beads, but then am at a loss for knowing exactly what to do with them when done.  I have cubbies full of UFO's, beads I have made, projects I have started ... but I am trying to get more organized and actually finish something.  Lord Opuson was out of town, so I could just sit and play with my beads all day Sunday.  Heaven (so what if the weeds are taking over ... beads are more important, right???).

I first meet Christi Friesen on a Lisa Pavelka Clay Cruise out of New Orleans.  I think it was 2008 or 2009 (as I get older, the years blend together). I had admired her work and when I finally got a chance to take a class, I jumped at it.  She is such a dynamic instructor that   I begged her to come and teach in the Pacific Northwest. After about a year (her schedule is so full it takes a long time to get pencilled in) it became a reality. She presented classes in Everett and Edmonds, and naturally I signed up for both.

Her Everett class was a Firebird, that I FINALLY got strung this weekend.

 On the next Polymer Cruise I took when Christi taught, I was lucky enough to score a few of her heart pendants. She has told her classes, that whenever she gets stuck creatively speaking, she starts making hearts and soon her juices are flowing and ideas abound.  So that is why she usually has a plethora of hearts to pass on.  I finally found stones that matched her lovely heart pendant.

On this I made pendant, also Christi inspired that I made after her Edmonds class, I combined Steampunk and Floral elements. The large bronze colored section in the middle is actually a stone that I incorporated into the piece.

 Call it just one of those things, or perhaps the universe sending a message ... but I found this heart on a grape the other day.  Even if it was just a random bruising pattern, it still made me smile.

A moment of Zen

Sutton Slice

I was looking over some of the pieces I brought home from the PC cruise, wondering why I have not blogged about them before now.  I got very lucky during the door prize drawings to win not one, but two, of Lisa Pavelka's demo pieces.

 The first is a hollow bead she made as a demo of a foil and stamp technique.  The picture does not do it justice. It is soooo Shiny

 This focal is from her demo of the Sutton Slice.  She used a Skinner blend as the background and inserted a lovely crystal in the center.

 I tried my hand at a hollow focal, and made this shiny bead.  It has been a while since the cruise, so I don't remember if I used foil or mica powder to achieve the coloring.  From some of the smudgy coloring in the middle of the piece, it think it was mica powders.

I thought I would try my hand at the Sutton Slice Technique and just used a bit of left over clay I had sitting around on the table.  I wish I'd had more scrape, as I really like the look of these beads. Note the "bleeding" of the ecru into the purplish color on the second from the top bead. I LOVE that effect, have absolutely no idea why it happened and will probably never get it to happen again.

These beads were finished with wax rather than my usual Kato LC finish (unfortunately for me, I could smell the wax now that my cold is over)

Reminds me of Batik fabric

After this initial success, I tried another Sutton slice with different colors and texture sheet.  Again I used left over clay so these are all of this set. These I finished using Kato LC.

.

I liked the purple beads so well, that I thought I would try the technique again with green. Since the original beads made me think of batik, I decided to put faux stitches around the tops of the bead. Again, it used wax to finish, since I like the softer shine it gives. Just wish it didn't smell so bad.

Hey, not bad.  Two blog entries in a week's time.  Maybe I am over my slump.

This Friday I am going to visit my favorite show of the year - RAGS.  I have found some of my favorite OOAK pieces there.  Last year I meet another PC artist and had a great time talking polymer. I hope she is back this year.  And RAGS supports a great cause ... the YWCA's shelter for abused women and their children.

Polymer Paradise

I have been sadly neglecting my blogging of late.
First, I was cleaning and getting ready for my trip.  Having a house sitter coming in was great inspiration towards getting rid of all the dust and cobwebs that have accumulated over time. I am NOT a "good" housekeeper by any means. My mother was fastidious to the point of white glove clean, and as a result her children (being of creative natures) feel there are more important things to do in life than clean.  Needless to say, there were lots of nooks and crannies that had been ignored for a while.

Then, the second honeymoon and polymer clay cruise began.  Got back Thursday night. Spent Friday unpacking, and resting up. Vacations can be so tiring.  Today I was organising the over 900 pictures I took on our two week trip. My camera got a real work out.  If you had a chance to look at my photo album, though, you might wonder a bit about my subject matter.  Of course, I was taking pictures of the scenery, people, etc - the usual vacation pix. But, there are numerous photo of flowers, and trees, and houses, and textures, and artwork on the ship.  There was an historic cannon that I saw in San Francisco and my first thought was "ooooh, look at that PATINA!"

I wonder how I can duplicate this patina.....Swellegant, maybe???

For those who are not familiar, Lisa Pavelka and her business partner, Lisa Lambright, organise cruise vacations that also include classes.  In this instance, the classes were in polymer clay.  They invite great teachers to accompany them and a fun time is had by all. This was my third cruise with them, and so far the best, IMHO.  The instructors this time out were the marvelous Christi Freisen, the legendary Maureen Carlson and the lovely Lisa herself.

Our trip to Fort Lauderdale went better than I expected.  It was long, but there was only about 10 minutes of bumpiness on the whole plane ride there.

We were put up at the Spring Hill Suites.  

I always try to plan for the unexpected delay (the last time we flew for a cruise, we got stuck in Dallas overnight due to weather. We would have missed the ship if I hadn't given us an extra travel day).  Because we got in a day early, I was able to meet a few other of the early birds, including the energetic Lisa Lambright.  It was nice to get to know her a bit outside the hectic pace of the class room.  

Christi Freisen and Lisa Pavelka checking in.  

Saturday morning -  we were off, a short shuttle ride to the ship.  I had heard and read about the Oasis of the Seas. I knew in my mind that it was big, but did not really grasp just how HUGE it was till I saw it.  

   There is an ice skating rink, rock climbing walls, and a zip line.  Not to mention the usual pools, saunas, stages, food courts, gyms, bars, casino and other cruise ship amenities.  Right now, it is one of  the largest ships afloat, until next year when the Quantum of the Seas is launched.  

  This was the first time that the polymer cruise was going to be held on a Royal Caribbean ship.  It was nice to have one big room with good lighting set aside only for us.  No moving from room to room every day. 

Can you get an idea of just how BIG this sucker is??

Faux Raku for You

There is still one more day to enter into my giveaway as detailed in my last blog entry.  So far, there have been only a few people who commented and hence are eligible.  I know that they are hoping that no one else   comments ... greater chance for them.  I will check immediately when I get home from work Halloween evening and let luck choose the winner.

I had a very productive Saturday.  I got a lot of beads made.  Unfortunately, the productivity was paid for the next day with a flare of the carpel in the right wrist and a new pain in my left shoulder.  Every time I complain to the SO about getting older, his response is "Consider the alternative".  Trite but true.

My newest kick is experimenting with a faux raku technique that Lisa Pavelka showed us on the Clayditarod.
She used foils and inks to create the look.

This is the piece I made in Lisa's class.  There was not much faux raku, so I put little tidbits here and there in the pendant.

Believe it or not, the same color ink was used for both of these.

 The piece on the left is the technique on a flat surface. I love the look and wondered what it would look like if I tried it on a rounder form.  The crackle is good, but the color of the ink seeped under the foil resist and colored the clay. I was hoping that when I sanded (yes, I SANDED), that the color would revert to white again...but no such luck.
   Then I wondered what other, non traditional raku colors would look like.

Using my favorite ink color, Stream

Colored with "Plum"

I love the effect and want to get the time to work with more colors and shapes.  I could do without the sanding though.  I watched a whole episode of "Upstairs, Downstairs" on Netflix while sanding 6 beads. I gotta get faster .... I did get them made up into simple earrings pretty quickly though, so at least in that aspect I am improving.

 I do wish I could figure out how to get

 my pictures to line up next to each other on the page. It would look
so much nicer.  Anything good on the llayout that does happen, happens by accident and I can not figure out how to do it again.

Working together

Sorry about no posts for the past several days, but I brought home more than a lot of memories.  Got a nasty  chest cold.  It was all I could do to drag myself into work over the weekend.  Off work today and spending it in bed. Thank goodness for Dayquil.

One of the highlights I remember from my last Clay Cruise (2009) was a collaboration between Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg and Christi Friesen, when they created the only existing Friesenberg dragon.  There was a lot of good natured battering about what to name the critter and everyone was hoping their name got drawn out of the hat so it could go home with them.

This time out, Lisa Pavelka and Christi decided to get together to create something special for one lucky person. They created a totem pole of one of kind critters and gave themselves a 40 minute time limit to do it in.  I am sorry that my pictures aren't so great - we were cramped in a small room with poor lighting.

Christi and Lisa hard a work.  See how jammed in we all were

Christi's moose. This is one loose moose, totally blinged.
Complete with hoop earring.

Lisa's sweet little honey bear

Dig the teeth on Lisa's beaver critter

They put it all together for closing ceremonies.  I was not able to get close enough to get a really good picture, but believe me, it was adorable.

Taken from a distance before we
were put up for display.

It was exciting to see the creative minds at work and watch as the totem took on a life of its own.

PS  Lisa P read my posting and was kind enough to send me a better picture of the finished totem. Here you can also see the flying squirrel that Christi made to complete the set.

Hello from the Great White North