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.

A Milestone Reached and a Giveaway

I was excited this morning when I checked out this blog to see that the view tally was at 9,999.  Now I know that is not a big number for a lot of those popular musings in the blogoverse, but it is a huge number for little ol' me.  Thanks so much to all those readers who actually take the time out of their day to puruse my ramblings.

I have decided to celebrate this milestone by having a giveaway of a pair of Artybecca inspired beads. And it is easy ... all you need do is leave a comment as to which pair you would like to win.  That's it.

   Since I am not a mega blog with tons of readers, I am going to give a bit more than the typical week for people to comment. I will pick the winner by random number generator on Halloween in the dead of night  (for those outside the U.S. that is October 31st at midnight PST).
  These are special beads to me in that I actually SANDED them ... yes, me sanding ... I had no fingernails left on my right two fingers afterwards, but it was worth it.  Just wish I could get into the Zen of sanding:  I really like the smooth feel of the finished bead, but it is soooo boring.

Thanks again to Rebecca for the FREE  tut on how to make these.  The
Polymer Community is full of very generous people.  Maybe that is why
I love this medium so much.

   There are two pair of bongo drum beads, blue and lavender, and a pumpkin colored pair to choose from.  I posted pix of earrings made from the other beads made from the same clay blends on my last blog entry, so you can get an idea of their size and how they can look made into something.  Just leave a comment as to which pair you would like to have, and  you may be a winner.

Back to my roots - Polymer that is

Finally, some polymer earrings to share with you.
I have been busy making earrings for the upcoming Artisan's Show in Edmonds next month, and slowing working on the massive beaded necklace project.  I am over half done with it, adding a few beads a day.  I remember a friend once told me that shovel by shovel full, she could move a mountain. This is the friend who is gluing seed beads to a door ( I blogged about her in August) so she knows about patience.  Me, I am not so patient ....
   Most of the earrings I have been making are not polymer.  I am trying to use up some of my stash in the hope that I can make more space for working with metal clay.  I have the kiln I won just sitting there, waiting for me, calling to me .... and I have no space to work in.  Mean hubbie won't let me expand outside my studio .... he actually gets upset when he wants to come to bed and finds me in it surrounded by my beads and findings, frantically trying to get get in "just one more pair, dear" before lights out.  Imagine the nerve of him!  Womans' gotta create and I NEED space....lots and lots of space ..... must have more rooooommmm

   Opps, back to earth, girl.
  I wanted to show a few of my latest.

Love Apple

This is my newest favorite pair of earrings, made with some of the tinted translucent from my huge necklace project.  Love the color.

  Remember a while back when Artybecca (Rebecca Watkins in real life) posted a tut on flickr and actually caused me to SAND my beads.... well, I finally got around to making them into Earrings.  When I first posted my beads on Flickr, Rebecca actually commented that they reminded her of bongo drums (hence the names I have given the earrings).

Babbaloo

Lucy... I'm home!

And finally, just in time for Halloween....

Pumpkin Spice

The Zen of Sanding??

I have read and talked with some clayers that really like to sand.  They say they find a "zone" and it actually is kinda therapeutic.  I would LOVE to feel that way. Instead  I find it wet, tedious and boring.  But I have to admit that I really like the end results. The beads are so smooth and almost sensual to the touch.

  Artybecca had posted on flickr a mini  mokume gane tut on using the threads on a large screw.  I did not have a large screw so improvised with a tracking wheel.  The first time I only went in one direction so ended up with stripes.  When I did the finish with LPC, I really didn't like the feel of the beads.  The veneer bubbled in places. That was when sanding, as much as I hate it, became something I had to consider. I really like the ones on the left but only had enough clay for two beads




The next time, I went both directions with the wheel and ended with squares.  These squares got larger when I ran them through the pasta machine to make the veneer,  I tried a new shape too.

These were the first that I sanded. The long barrels are almost 2 inches long.

Not sure I like the shape

These took almost two hours to sand, That amount of time is not good if I decide to start selling them. I hear that time is money.

My next beads are a combination of yellow and crimson. A very Holloweeny color.

Used my scrap pile for the next set, just to experiment with diagonal threading.  The resulting color was not something I would normally aim for, but I like it and am going to try to recreate it.While sanding is not something I think I will ever enjoy, I am very pleased with the results.  I just wish it were easier.