A Birthday Card

Made some birthday cards last week but never got around to uploading them so here is one I have done today.  It is also my submission for Lots to Do Challenge which is hats and or crowns.

I love these 20's ladies and these stamps from my friends Roy and Alison just beg me to use them.  The background of the lady (who was masked) is Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey with a crackle stamp over the top using Archival Sepia.

The mount uses Tumbled Glass with the Wild Honey to bring out the blue in the dress.  Painting done as usual with my Twinkling H2o's.  I was going to use my Promarkers, well give them a go, but cannot find where I have put them.  Ah well, must have a tidy up and find them for next time.

As Promised - the Talented Sue

Remember the young lady who took hold of the mallet from Danni at the auction?  Well her mother is Sue and I fell in love with her work.

Perhaps I should explain.  When you go to the PPD's you are encouraged to take some work to sell.  You put a price on your items and, if you are good and your things sell, you make up most of what you have spent on the course.  Needless to say, my work is not good enough YET to sell but this year I am determined to do more claywork.

Back to Sue - she had some necklaces for sale and I fell in love with a turquoise one.  Also liked a brown one.  Dilemma!  I bought the turquoise one because it had a matching pair of ear rings.  Wish you could see how beautifully it shines and glimmers:

When I saw Chas that night I thanked him for buying me the necklace and ear rings and he handed the monies over.  What a guy!  That meant I had money in my pocket for the brown one:

Yes, I know they are similar but I just love them.  Not to say I didn't love other people's work - I wanted lots but had to draw the line and these were amongst my favourite pieces.

If only Marta's bracelets had fit my large wrists .... they were exquisite ... maybe I should email her and get her to do a larger one.  Mmmm.....

Found My Bracelet

I thought I had lost my Chrysanthemum Cane bracelet but when I went to take a photograph of something else it was in the bottom of the box.

This was the cane we did with Allison - should have had red in with it but I missed it out as I wanted it blues and greens.

My very talented friend, Irene from Chester, showed us how to do the Sutton Slice and this is my little square using one of the moulding mats.

Sorry it is a bit blurry

Irene had some fabulous BIG rings for sale but the one I wanted did not fit on my finger so in a matter of two or three trices she made me one.  I have tried to take a photograph of it but I keep shaking with only having one hand to use on the camera so I have taken it on its side.  It really is a perfect oval in reality.  Recognise the stamp all you rubber stampers?

Tomorrow I will show you the fab necklaces I bought that had been made by the talented Sue - I just fell in love with her work.

My Stuff

Still need to polish some of these but it takes quite a while and I don't have all the grades of sandpaper I need.  Ah well!

Spent today re-baking these pieces as they needed to be stronger so it meant a trip to the local tile centre for some more tiles to bake on.  I needed a large one for the strips as they were too big for the tiles I normally use.

Can't remember what these black and white ones are called - similar to Chinese Eggshell work.  These two need sanding to within an inch of their life.  The heart in the front was one I did last year and never got around to baking.  Shows how well polymer clay holds up doesn't it.

These are my Spongia beads made with Natalia.  The back one is a bracelet and the one to the right is a pin with a couple of small beads on at the base of the big bead.  Think that bracelet will be the first thing I repeat but in a different colourway.  We had to use what colours we were given but I am longing to make one in a different colour.

The other two are pendants just using up the clay that was left over from my cane.

These four strips are from the class with Lindly - the two dark ones from the dark piece we did and the two light ones from the light piece.  I have cut them out as sheets like this because they will lace together and have magnetic strips inside so becoming blade keepers.  I just wanted to save as much as I could to remind me what it looked like.  Making these was great fun.

Pendants from left overs as above

Pendants from the light leftovers

These are my favourites but next time I will put more circles on and maybe some other shapes as well.  We just didn't have the time in class but it was all about getting the technique done.  Maybe the sheets will be the first things I do - mmmm.....

Now to tidy up a bit in my craft room as I have some birthday cards to make for Saturday when I go to Vicky Stampers.  Doesn't mean the clay will not be out for a while - I am hooked!

People Photos from PPD

Got to rebake my pieces from the Polymer Weekend to make sure they are STRONG and then some of them will need a lot of sanding to get a polish on them so they won't be ready until tomorrow.  In the meantime here are some of the friends I met up with - in some cases "again" and in some, new friends.

Irene, Nina and Ciska

Having a break

Danni, Lindly, Donna, Sylvie & Alison

Me with Lindly (USA)

Me with Alison (UK)

Me with Danni

(not a good photo - don't know what went wrong)

Me with Donna (USA)

Me with Natalia

Me with Sylvie (France)

This looks as if I am drunk

and she is holding me up

The Crazy Spanish Gang

(how did Sylvie get on?)

Day 3 - Boo Hoo It is the Last Day

Day three - sessions with Lindly and Donna and then a Party in the evening.  Sadly last day though!

We kicked off with Lindly - I had not met her before and what a fantastic class it was.  Quite a lot of colour theory which I am hoping I can remember as we made some amazing stuff.  I actually produced a blade keeper (still needs lacing together) and some pendants got cut out of the clay that was left.  I will upload these tomorrow as I need to empty my bag yet because by the time I got home I was shattered and slept and slept.

This is a picture of Lindly's necklaces

The colour graduation in these is fantastic - and you do not buy clay in these colours.  You mix it.  I wish I could afford to buy one of these.

Next class was Donna's and we were making spinner rings.  Unfortunately the ovens were not baking to the correct temperatures (perhaps they had had so much use they were giving up) and we did not manage to finish ours.  Mine was about one of the only ring bases that did not break but guess what?  In the second firing it was touching the tin base and it broke.  Now it is a big repair job so you will have to wait for my photograph.

In the meantime - here are Donna's samples

The rings actually spin when you touch them - quite a clever idea.  We worked with black, white and red so I wanted to be different and did mine in red and black with white underneath.

That evening we had a party and it was hilarious.  Hilarious because Danni acted as Auctioneer and he was so funny.  I wish I had videoed some of the occasion.  Here is Danni with Sue's daughter, Lauren, acting as his assistant.

Lauren did not like the mallet banging on the table (you know, the one - two - three going - going - gone) and she would cover her ears.  But then she got hold of the mallet and it became a different story.

All in all a fantastic weekend (well, three days) so I urge you to get saving up for the next one.  Will upload more tomorrow when my bag gets emptied.

Day 2 Polymer Clay Workshop

This morning we had a workshop with Danni.  He had made these fabulous creations (they are from underneath the ocean but I cannot remember the name).  It was amazing what he did with polymer clay - these are baked in the oven (fired) and are hollow.

Look at the effect of the Translucent clay

They really are beautiful.  We had a lot of instruction on how to make various shapes and how to cut out the shapes within the structures so we did not get very far with our production.  However, the class that followed ours made some incredible pieces: 

This afternoon we had a class with Natalia, Danni's wife.  She made some organic looking pieces also.  Natalia was telling us she got the inspruiation from a felt brooch she saw in London.  Look at the bracelet we all made:

This is actually one that Natalia made, mine is waiting to be strung but is in purple and orange (it was dependent on the colour of clay we were given to work with).

She also showed us how to make these beads using the same technique

Again this is one of Natalia's samples and shows two different sizes of beads (orange ones) with some filler beads which she also showed us how to make.

These were the ones we all wanted to do

Cannot show you mine as it is still in the oven but aren't they amazing pins?

These are more of Natalia's samples.  Lots of thought provoking beads here - imagine these as focal beads in a necklace.  Now that probably explains why I have been buying clay in enormous blocks this weekend.  Roll on tomorrow to see what the two classes hold for us.