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.

Hidden Treasure - Wm Spear Design

While walking down the streets of Juneau, I  happened to see a bunch of pins displayed in the window of a small eatery.  I was very excited as one of the pins was a platypus.  I have liking for weird and unusual  critters (being one myself), so I excitedly went in.  I was told to take the stairs around the corner.

A bit daunting, but the walk up the flight was made more enjoyable by all the positive messages posted along the way.

I got to the top, were a very nice lady greeted me.  I was a bit disappointed to discover that what I thought was a platypus was actually a mole (I must get my eyes checked soon).  But I was NOT disappointed in what I did find!  I had discovered the shop of William Spear, a very talented designer who has produced hundreds of enameled pins.  Each pin is enameled by hand, each glaze having been placed and fired separately on copper which has been electroplated with gold.  I was totally blown away by his creativity and the fact that the prices were SOOOO reasonable.

Those that know me in real life, know that I work in a clinical laboratory, so that can explain why I was so excited to find pins that had been designed with the lab in mind. Of course, I could not decide which I like best, so bought several (did I mention that the prices were good?).

My favorite pin. This is how I feel most days LOL!!

I plan on wearing this one on my lab coat.

Some people might think this kinda gross, but I LOVE it!

Lest you all think that I am totally bonkers about my work, I did buy something "normal". The colors in these earrings are gorgeous.

And I found my penguin!  Every trip that DH and I make, we make a real effort to bring back a penguin for the collection.  Sometimes it is a real challenge, but this time I found a lovely addition

  More of Mr Spears work can be found on line at http://wmspear.com/ if you are interested.

Juneau

Our second port of call on the Clayditarod Cruise was Juneau, Alaska's capital city.  Once again the area the ship docked in was full of jewelry stores all designed to part us from our money.  I thought that Skagway had  way too many jewelry stores for its size, but Juneau had it beat.

 

The reddish building is where one could catch a tram to the top of the mountain. Lord Opuson was all for trying it, but I am chicken when it comes to high places.  Besides, the mountain top was covered in clouds that day so the view would not have been worth it.  Had it been a clear day, he *might* have talked me into it.  

Me in all my glory.   I really liked the decorations on the building behind me.  The metal pieces were installed in such a way that the shadows they cast produced the totem images you see.

Remember the TV show M*A*S*H?

The shop behind this sign post sells the best smelling soap.  It is so pretty and smell  yummy that I don't want to use it.

The biggest thing I got in Juneau was Diet Pepsi!!! I had to pay almost $3 a bottle but it was worth it. The ship only carried Coke products and I just couldn't stand not having my Pepsi fix!

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

White Pass and Great Yukon Railroad

I signed us up for several shore excursions when we where in Alaska.  Even though I knew that we would be "seeing" Alaska from the cruise ship, I didn't really think that was really SEEING Alaska. I wanted mountains and forests, not just the ports of call.  Several of the excursions had train rides into the interior. I chose the one what looked like it went the furthest  into the wilderness - a train ride with a real steam engine up into the Yukon..  Here you can see some of the train cars from Spirit's upper deck.

People really do look like ants from up here!

The views were amazing!  And there was a platform that we could go out on to take pictures.  It was very crowed most of the time, so I only got out there twice during our 3.5 hour trip. The only complaint I had about the ride was that the seats were built for the butts of people from the 19th century - they were a lot small than Lord Opuson and me then!

View of where we had been.  That is Skagway between the peaks
with just a hint of the water.

A river runs through it.

Can you see the trail in the rock?  According to our guide, this was part of the footpath used by the Alaskan Gold Rush miners to cross the mountains to get to the gold fields.  She said it was so crowded that if you had to get out of line for any reason, it could take up to half a day to get back in line.

Clayditarod Adventure Classes Day 1

The first day of the Clayditarod was a jam-packed one.  We had been divided into 4 groups, and each group would rotate through the classes.  I was in Group D.  Our first class was with the talented Julie Picarello and, believe it or not, she did not teach Mokume Gane.  We learned how to decorate bezels that have a hole in the middle. (can you believe I was up and in class at 0830? - this cruise played havoc with my sleep schedule)

Julie hard at work. She had sooo many cool findings
Still Drooling.  Funny how PC ladies get all ohh and ahh
over hardware, isn't it?

 Here is my finished product.  The findings are being held in by a plug of clay placed in the hole in the middle. The holey plate changed color in the oven.  I hope to be able to do something to brighten it up.

A bit of bling in the center

After a very hurried lunch on the Lido Deck, Group D trooped off to another room just off the main dinning area (with much better lighting).  I was really excited to to be learning about silver metal clay. I have had very little experience with it as it is so expensive. The instructor is a master in the field - Jackie Truty of Art Clay World.  She had us do what I thought would be impossible:  we carved a design in tile and then used it as a texture plate to impress the silver clay into.  I was so frustrated at first until Jackie showed me the RIGHT way to hold the carving tool.  My piece curled up a bit, due to my not getting a uniform thickness, but since the design was a salmon, it resembles a wave in the water, so I meant to do it that way (my story and I am sticking too it).

Not too bad for my first try.

And now for another moment of Zen

Tracey Arm Fjord. Christi and I were wondering just
what the  formula would be to get the water's green color.

Back to Reality

What a wonderful week I had.  How to begin to blog about it.  I am sure that I could just go on and on talking about all the sights I have seen, the wonderful people I have meet and the experiences I have had ... not to mention the food that I have eaten (way too much food, I might add).
   I have so much to share that I will have a lot to write about every day, rather than overwhelm with one huge blog to slog through. I wish I could have written about it as I experienced it, but Internet access aboard ship was sooooo expensive. I think Christi told me she paid $99 for 4 hours of access!!!

Seattle from the ship

  So I will start at the beginning.  We left Seattle on Tuesday August 14th aboard the Carnival Cruise ship Spirit  ... a sunny morning in the Emerald City.
   Lord Opuson and I found our way to our stateroom in the bowels of the ship (deck 1 inside cabin - the theory being that we are only in our rooms to sleep, we will save money this way for shore excursions).

Small cabin but it had more closet space
than at my house!

Our first night we all got together for a meet and greet, and I forgot my camera!  So, no pictures.  We got to meet our instructors:  Katie Baum and Jackie Truty from Clay Art World - both master instructors in metal clay art, Julie Picarello - master at Mokume Gane polymer work, Christi Friesen - my fave PC instructor of all time, and our lovely hostess  Lisa Pavelka.  They let us know about all the classes and events we were going to have.

  And we got our swag bags!  WOW, I was totally blown away. The sponsors this year were excessively generous. That will be another blog all by itself.  AND there were daily giveaways with everyone winning something - AND a final big door prize of a KILN.  Jackie  had brought it on board to fire our metal clay pieces from her class and rather than shipping it back,  was giving it way to one lucky person. 

   I was planning to write about the trip in daily order, but I just can't now ... I am too excited to keep it in.

   I WON THE KILN!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am totally blown away about it.  I don't have any pix yet as I am trying to figure out were it is going to go.  My house is tiny and I want to be sure I set it up properly so I don't burn it down (proper distance from walls, heat precautions and all that).  I am going to touch bases with my old glass instructor as to the hows and wheres for proper kiln placement.  Then I will be off and running ... 

   And now for your moment of Zen

Folded towel art 

Latest earrings and the Clayditarod

Yahoooo!  My wrists haven't hurt in almost a week. Just in time for the Clayditarod Clay Cruise. I am almost entirely packed (even have room left for all the goodies I hope to be bringing back.) The boat sails tomorrow afternoon for a week of clay (both metal and PC) and sightseeing in Alaska.  I just checked the weather reports and it looks like I will be right at home - rain most of the days we are in port.  ***sigh***  But weather not withstanding, I am going to have FUN!!!!  I will be sure to take a lot of pictures to share with all my readers.  Hi to all those new people who just joined up during the Bead Soup.  I hope that you enjoy your visits with me.

I have been busy this weekend between all the last minute errands that need running, that it was hard to visit as many BSBP blogs as I wanted to.  Did not make them all - ran out of time.  When I get back,  I will take up where I left off.  I want to say that I am so impressed with all the talented jewelry designers and bead makers out there....I have gotten so much inspiration from looking at their pictures, and reading about their thought processes as they created their pieces.

With my wrists better, I was able to catch up with my earrings for the 52 Earrings Project. Two are similar and maybe both shouldn't count, but I am going to show them anyway. The third is a close up of the one I created for the Bead Soup.

These trumpet bead earrings
will go perfectly with a new
blouse I want to wear to
dinner on the cruise

Can't go wrong with Black and White

Bead Soup

See you all in a week.

Always running behind

I actually had feeling in the fingers on my left hand today!  Time to celebrate.  I spent the morning at Catherine's getting some new clothes for the Clayditarod.  It has been a long while since I last went shopping for anything other than T-shirts and work clothes. I was so happy to see that the popular colors this summer/fall are ones that I like.  I picked up some jeans, khaki pants, and a bunch of new tops that are soooo my colors - teals and limey greens, blacks and creams... so yummy.

Then off to the Goodwill to look for clothes for the Lumberjack theme night we will be having on the cruise. Lord Opuson is really looking forward to that.  Not only does he look a bit like Red Green, he can sound like him too!  Too bad he wants me to be Harold.  No way that I am that geeky (or skinny!).
    Did not have much luck though. Flannel shirts are not readily available this time of year and suspenders, well -  just forget about it.  I did find a lovely leather purse that was only missing a rivet on the bottom (so easy to fix!).  Will check out other thrift stores tomorrow on the way to work.

Home again to work on my BSBP while I still have a usable hand.  Got side tracked a bit by the idea that I was really behind on the 52 earring project.  No new beads,  but did find these in my stash.  They are from the days I was first experimenting with PanPastel Chalks.

Aye Bead Earrings (week 29)

I start with white clay, form into the bead shape.  I used kemper cutters to make the designs, and then painted the areas with the chalks.  After baking, I antiqued with tinted LPC.

   Now to work on my BS necklace before I go numb again!  So wonderful to be able to type again with both hands!!!

   

A Productive Clay Weekend

For once I did not sleep half my weekend away. I have been using my exercise bike for more than a coat rack lately and have found that I have more energy.  More energy = more clay time.  Win/win.
  I finally have my beads done for my Bead Soup Partner Melissa AND I made it down to ye ol' bead store for a cool clasp and some extra beads to go with them. That was hard ... when one mixes colors of clay to make a new color, sometimes it does not exactly match what is available in the stores.
  I also finally got started on making my charms for the Clayditarod Cruise.  I know that a lot of people already had theirs done a loooong time ago, but I could not decide what to do until this weekend.  I got 50 done in a marathon session Sunday.  Only 30 more to go!
  And I have my earrings for the 52 in a year project to share.
  I was too busy to post last weeks pair, so I have another twofer to share with  you.

These beads were made using the "scrapings" from a mokume gane stack.  I dangled some crystals from chains for a change of pace.

Since I was (and still am) so involved in finishing up my Clayditeron charms, I will not have the time this week to make any more clay beads.  I saw this ceramic beads at Michael's and just had to have them (I don't  know why pink is suddenly appealing to me ... I was never really a pink person before).  They went perfectly with the square findings and I found I only had 4 pinkish crystals in my stash.