A simple landscape cane...

Hi Everyone,

We had a clay day with a lovely group of women the other day.  We each brought our own items to complete.  It's been a while since I've done any serious caning and I thought I would try something out.

I started with a skinner blend plug going from white to blue to dark green to dark blue.  The plug was about 1.5 inches wide, 3/4 inch tall, and 1.5 inches deep.  Then I sort of started cutting random shapes using cookie cutters into the plug and reassembling them.  I wasn't really happy with the reassembly and was very disappointed - it's the second cane I've tried in the last while that hasn't seemed to work out.

I thought for sure that I had just generated a lot of scrap clay.

But then that magic happened - for the caners, you know what I'm talking about.  It's when you slice off the raggedy end and the real image reveals itself.  I chortled with glee and a couple of the women at the table went "ooooh, aaaahhh" as well.

I'm actually very happy with this.  Total time including conditioning clay, mixing colours, creating skinner blend plug, and marginally reducing it, about 1.5 hours.

Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but might have to try it again.  Maybe this time with Caribbean colours since winter is here and I'm longing for warm beaches and turquoise seas.

Cheers,

Sandy

Earrings for Karen...

Hi Everyone,

A couple of years ago when I was in Santiago, Chile, I bought the pair of earrings you see in the top photo.  I almost didn't buy them since I had already bought several other pairs and these were more expensive.  But they called my name and the call got stronger the further I walked away from them.  So they became mine, and I love them.   They're some sort of fired clay, about the size of a quarter.

Anyhow,  I've been wanting to see if I could make something similar in polymer clay.  I had also found some clear glass beads that I really liked in New Mexico and it seemed that it was the perfect time to play.

Here's my attempt.  I'm happy enough with them that they went to one of my friends, Karen.   She seemed to be pleased, but she's always gracious in receiving gifts.  They're a dark navy clay finished with a bit of Perfect Pearls interference blue and then antiqued with white after indenting with assorted indenting tools.

I really enjoyed making them so I'll have to experiment some more.

Cheers,

Sandy

A Thank You to Tripadvisor and Happy New Year

Hi Everyone,

Happy Belated New Year!  My husband and I somewhat spontaneously decided to spend some time traveling at Christmas and did a road trip through New Mexico.  It was a wonderful journey and the compilation photo above only shows a small portion of the trip.

We were fortunate to have a lot of help from the excellent New Mexico Destination Experts at Tripadvisor including CasaAzul, bleicherblog, KthSch, NM_Photojournalist, Tet14, and others.  Some of these people were also so very helpful a couple of years ago when we were planning our amazing Arizona trip and it felt like I was reconnecting with old friends.  The recommendation to spend Christmas Eve in Santa Fe was spot on as well as many of the other pointers that we received.

I cannot say "Thank You" enough to the Destination Experts.  Their help makes the memories as wonderful and magical as they are and continue to be long after the trips have been completed.  The journey would not have been the same without them.

If you'd like to visit the New Mexico forums, click on the link here.  In those forums if you go back a couple of weeks you'll see some trip reports from sw123, those are my lengthy tomes of our journey.

We had more snow and colder temperatures in New Mexico than where we normally live in Canada, (almost 3000 km away) but it certainly added to the beauty.

There were many sights that we didn't get to see due to time limitations while we were down there and we do hope to return.  The southwest has a particular draw for us and it didn't disappoint this time.

In the mean time, if you're curious, here are the links to some of the places we went.  There were many more, but these were places that were the big draws for us.

• Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument
• White Sands National Monument
• Bosque del Apache
• El Malpais

Feel free to read the trip logs for more information.  And if you're ever planning a trip, do consult with the Tripadvisor forums.

I've already been claying in the New Year, but haven't been taking pictures yet.  I must do something about that.

And last night I discovered that I might have to journey to Croatia and Slovenia.  All because of a photo that I saw of Plitvice Lakes.  Turns out we've got our very own Croatian experts at work who are already planning my must do itinerary even though it might be a couple of years before we get there.

Cheers!

Sandy

...And to All a Good Night...

Hi All,

Created this piece this morning.  It's about 2 inches tall, and 3 inches wide.  It's going to a friend and I know it's going to be a surprise for them.  It's got a hole drilled in the back and through the top so you can't see the hole from the front, but yet it can be hung like an ornament.

The leaf cane works very well with it.  The background is some of the bits that I had left over that I was mixing together and fortunately stopped at the right moment.

It seems so peaceful and I'm very pleased with it.  

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night.

Sandy

Six snowflakes

Hi Everyone,

I subscribe to Polymer Clay Smooshers on Facebook and always enjoy what they highlight. A few weeks ago I saw some ornaments made by Kael Mijoy and I knew I had found my inspiration for my Christmas ornaments, particularly once I saw this one.  So off I went to make snowflake ornaments.

Actually, first I tried one of her tutorials on making a beautiful flower cane which looked simple enough.  Since I hadn't done any caning in a while, I thought it would be a great start to getting back into caning.  Surprisingly, I had a difficult time (through no fault of Kael's) and gave up with that cane and went my own way once it became apparent that it wasn't going to work for me. 

But, it turned out to be a great snowflake cane as you can see in the detail below.  I also loved her leaf canes and decided to make one of my own.  I think this leaf cane is one of my all time favourite canes that I've ever made.

Anyhow, thanks so much to Kael for helping me (though she doesn't know it yet) create a series of ornaments that have been very well received by family and a family friend..

 This is likely my last posting of the year, so Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,  Season's Greetings, or however you call the finish of 2011 to everyone.  May 2012 start off with magic and continue to get better.


Cheers,

Sandy

Simple Santas

Hi Everyone,

Here are a couple of ornaments that I've made for one of my nieces and her best friend.  They're rooming together as they attend university (so far so good and they're still best friends) and I wanted to make them something flat that was easy to ship.

I'm happy with them and I think they will be, too.

Cheers,

Sandy

A trio of tiles

Hi Everyone,

As I mentioned previously, Wendy of the famed Cabezels gave me a Cabezel prototype that she wasn't particularly happy with.  I promised that I'd post my journeys in experimentation with it.

I love it!

I think it's a great opportunity to keep things grouped within a bit of a theme.

Here's my first Christmas trio.  There definitely was some experimentation going on and I really like the potential variety in the frame that can be done.

The one on the right I've decided to give to someone who has been particularly kind but I've never met in person.  I hope she likes it.  The other two I'm not sure about yet.  The one in the middle (starting to sound like a Johnny Cash song) is OK, but a bit plain and the one on the left is too busy and I don't like how the lettering on the outside frame isn't perfect.  But I do love the colours and the theme.

Anyhow, I do have two other themes that I'm working on and I'll post those later.

Cheers,

Sandy