Swap Pics

Yea another swap is finished and you get some eye candy.

Fred

Leila

Mozelle

Julie

Luny

Janice Beads

Janice Ladies

Beth

Beth Close Up

I want to thank all the participants who were able to participate in the fun. I am sure the individuals who get our beads will feel like it is their turn at Christmas as it is for us when we open our swap packages. This time I want to thank you for donating your beads to the Beads of Courage Charity.

http://www.beadsofcourage.org/

If you want to join in on our next swap stop by City O Clay. Kick your shoes off, grab a beverage and stay a while just do not drink anything when you are reading one of Luny’s posts. If you do I am not responsible for any damage to your keyboard or computer.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CITY-o-Clay/

Have fun claying!

Next Swap Covered Tins

The following is the Covered Tin Swap announctment at City O Clay an online polymer community.  You will find several sites and videos to learn how to cover a tin it is pretty basic when you think about it. This leads to the question of a tutorial as was done with the rock purse tutorial.

http://bluedamselflyjewelry.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/rock-purse-tutorial/

I had a lot of fun doing it and it added to my online  polymer clay tutorials. With a tin I do not know if I have anything that I could add to it that has not already been done. I mean am I just going to be saying and showing what has already been done? How can I make it uniqe and MINE? Would anyone even want to see another tin tut? I will have to mull this one over for a while because I have to think of a cane to make sheets  wooo hooo!

Okay wait a minute I just went back and really read the rock purse tutorial…… read what I said months ago. Why am I still doubting my craft?

I mean what could my tut be that has not already been done, do I have anything new to say or do that has not been already seen? When I realized that was the fear in me talking (I could list 10 reasons for why not) I got over myself and just did it. I can tell you there were a couple of times I sat there looking at my clay table, or just after I messed up a step (mess up kept in BTW) I could have quit but did not. I encourage you to face your fear and just try something, anything you would not normally do. The sense of accomplishment you will feel will give you the power to succeed in life no matter what you try. As my clay mentor Nj says Baby Steps.

Now that I have worked out my artist issues here are some tin links!

Soooo you want to cover tins hunh? Well
let us think of a few things before getting too inspired by links of
others’ work or the crazy ideas already running in your head.

We will be sending these to the swap
mistress in a SMALL PRIORITY box so you will need a tin or tins that
will fit into said box. Please take a moment to focus on this before
going crazy and covering a bunch of tins that are too big to fit in
one. Another issue we need to focus on is that if we make 5 tins they
all need to fit into a small priority box. Those of you swappers who
like to make one for each participant will not be able to do so this
time as you need to get it to me in a small one and I need to return
to you in the same size box. Now if you want to fill up a larger
priority box and send the correct amount of postage to return the
same size box to you that is an option for you if you want to make
more than five.

As far as the tin you can use it is up
to you just make sure that it (or how many ever you will send in)
will fit into one small priority box.

So now that we have the pesky details
out of the way we need to get inspired. Lets have some links.

Desiree as usual has a great tin tut

http://www.desiredcreations.com/howto_pjcoveraltoid.htm

e how’s version

http://www.ehow.com/how_2100257_cover-mint-tin-polymer-clay.html

I am not sure who put this one up but
it is based on the ehow version. I liked the therapudic benefits part
of the instructions in the tut!

http://slaglelsuhsc.pbworks.com/w/page/6944944/Polymer-Clay-Memory-Tin

Zuleykha has one too

http://zuclay.blogspot.com/2009/04/covering-altoid-tin-with-polymer-clay.html

Squido has a video tut

http://www.squidoo.com/altoids-tins

This is a U Tube video that is almost 9
minutes long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK99NWVGLLQ&NR=1

This is not a tin but a wooden box. No
step by step here but some valuable information can be found.

http://domestikgoddess.com/spiral-trance-treasure-box/

This page is about wooden beads but I
put it here because it has more infomation about wood and its
properties. Wood is a tricky object to cover because of the water
that it can contain, which will lead to problem solving you will not
find when covering glass or metal.

http://www.jewelry-and-polymerclay-tutorial-heaven.com/wood-beads.html#axzz1Mqh9bWmQ

There is always the motherload of
information on this site

http://www.glassattic.com/

Be careful you will get lost there so
make sure to get food and drink before going!

I could go on and on positng links but
I really think these give you the basic foundations needed to cover a
metal or wooden tin. Now I think we need some flickr overload with
tins!

I started by enering in my Flickr
search

polymer clay covered tin       and came
up with this

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=polymer+clay+covered+tin&f=hp

polymer clay covered wooden box
brought these links

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=polymer+clay+covered+wooden+box&m=text

The thing I did notice is that the
wooden boxes were mostly only PARTIALLY covered in clay. I wonder if
that has anythig to do with the unique prperties of wood when
covering with clay.

Polymer clay covered box    and these
pop up most of them you have already seen if you looked at both of
the previous searches.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=polymer++clay+covered+box&f=hp

You now have the fundamentals of
covering a box and some eye candy to hopeully get you inspired all
that is left is to sign up for the Tin Swap! Further informatoin to
follow in the Tin Swap Announcement and the General Swap Rules.

I Hate Sanding

 

This week we had a wonderful occasion on Saturday and my intention was to make a nice jewelry piece to wear to the event. I hate sanding and I really mean I hate it that is why I own tumblers that I use when I have time to. This week there was not enough time to throw the beads in the tumbler so I began sanding.

Of course I had to make sure that I didn’t sand my nails down ( you have done that too right?) but while focusing on not ruining the nails I ended up sanding my hand raw. This is a picture of said hand 4 days later.

My son is holding the picture of it on the day when I sanded it raw hostage on his phone until I beat him at Words With Friends which is a Scrabble game. So until I beat him (Or don’t let him win) this is all you get of my injury.

All in all I ended up with a lovely necklace and bracelet simple, elegant, and I got a lot of compliments on it.

And a shot of just the bracelet close up so you can hopefully see the detail in the cane.

I just love-making something for me!

Next week you can expect the next swap pics to be posted as the donation swap is now closed. Can not wait to see what they vote on for the next swap I am off to post the poll now. They never cease to amaze me with their choices.

Take care and have fun creating try to make something just for you!

Children Polymer Clay Birthday Party

The birthday party was a huge success. Each child was able to make something and take it home with them. Last week when I posted was packed up and pretty much ready to go. Hubby was so sweet he cut a ton of pvc pipe so each child had a clay roller. What is funny is most of them chose not to use it which took a while for me to get over.  They let their muse guide them. .

When I arrived I was so happy to see Ahmad there to help me carry everything to the back yard. I was even happier when he stayed and helped cut the kids’ canes for them as there were way to many for me to do it all myself.

Here is the table set up and ready for the little munchkins.

The birthday girl had a wonderful time creating as did her friends.

Here are their creations with some thick cane slices, joints that are not smooth, areas where the is no clay covering their piece, but it is theirs, they made it and they are super happy! I started by taking the picture on the ledge knowing they would be great shots. I soon realized they needed to get in the oven so there was time to bake before the kids had to leave.

Only catastrophe of the day was a frame that was covered on the wrong side ekkk.

Her dad said he could fix it so the crisis was averted. You can expect more kid related clay parties with one project choice and better cane cutters@