Bicoastal creation.

So we are just a few hours from the Gulf of California and the main inspiration for this comes from the Florida side of the continent. 

I have made loads of Beachy things, mostly stones, snaills, seahorses and fish, but the inspiration for this neck piece was directly from the west coast of Florida. We often spent Christmas vacations there while I was teaching full time and I absolutely loved beach combing.

The snail, starfish and white thing are simple hand formed polymer creations, but the scallop shell and faux coral have closer ties to the beach.  I made the scallop using a modified Skinner blend sheet which I coaxed along an actual scallop shell I collected many years ago. After I made the impression of the ridges, I used the inner part of the real scallop shell to make a backing.  For the faux coral, I made a molded impression of an actual conglomerate of whah might be coral ... Not sure... but it was plenty interesting with lots of texture.  I whipped up a small batch of "impromptu" coral colors and put it in the mold. Fortunately the impression took pretty well, and where it wasn't good, (there may have been some undercuts), I used a needle tool and pulled out some pipe work. 

I tempoarily have it strung on heavier waxed cotton cord.  Not certain how I am going to finish it.   Maybe I'll sleep on it tonight and have a few pipe dreams of how it is all going to come together. 

For the birds, continued

So yesterday was my first post in ages, and here I am today, with a bit of a follow up.  

This is what I am doing with the birdhouse cane.  The completed bookmark just to the left of center is for the neighbour who is the birdhouse collector. The others with flowers will be also become bookmarks, while the little one at the top left is a charm that I will use to embellish something. 

In my last post, I mentioned that that I had seen birdhouses on Cindy Leitz' polymer clay tutorials.  If memory serves me correctly, I believe that was also where she demonstrated the bookmark hook similar to what I have here. To see the way Cindy explains her method, here is the link: 

www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/?p=13064

Speaking of birds, when I went out with Daisy  this morning, We were greeted with the sweetest of bird songs. I guess that means  spring can't be far away in some places!

It's for the birds

Posting to this blog has been very lax lately...not that I haven't meant to write.  It's just that old nemesis  of time.

Yesterday was a fun filled day where we hosted a pot luck on the patio and then followed that with a little game night. It was enjoyable with Daisy providing half time entertainment with her spin the bottle antics.   Even though she has a dozen "toys", playing with an empty water bottle was just as engaging for her. 

Earlier in the day, I spent a couple hours doing some clay work.  Inspired by our neighbour's bird house collection, I thought I'd give making little bird houses a shot. I have made some three dimensional sculpted birdhouse before, thanks to "PCT" Cindy Leitz 's instructions on her weekly site.  For this effort, I thought I'd try a cane.

My cane is pretty simple and its shape evokes a bit of a hobbit house. I pre-baked some tiny perches and inserted them with a bit of t.l.s. close to the base of the abode.  In the cane slice, I inserted an eye pin, and will probably make this baked sample into a bookmark charm. 

The stripes were originally intended to represent planks of weathered wood, but was afraid the weathering details might get lost in the eventual reduced cane slices. So, they ended up like jailbird stripes. Maybe I'll assign each one a number!

What a day for a "Daisy" break.

So our little girl is five months old and she loves the kids in the neighbourhood. She doesn't mind the cold, if it's just around freezing and she adores shovelling the snow with her little nose. She's a little difficult to see here, but she's definitely out there. 

Today, while out for a mid morning stroll, the kids took a short time out from their street hockey game to stop to say hi to her.  I swear, if she knew how to hold a hockey stick she would play too. No doubt she could steal the puck in her mouth and could fend off the entire opposition if she was allowed off the lead. But that's not going to happen. 

She usually times her late afternoon outings to be in synch with the same kids when they're walking home from school.  She stands on her hind feet in our front yard watching for them turning the corner onto our street. They all yell "Daisy!" And she starts wagging her tail waiting for them to give her a little back rub. 

One more good thing...the kids play street hockey practically everyday for an hour or more while it's light out.  Since it's Saturday, they've been playing for nearly two hours already. Such a nice change from the run of the mill staying inside being occupied by video games as many nine and ten year olds are prone to these days.

A new beginning

So this is our new baby. She has been with us for three weeks now, and because she's just over four months, we've been kept very busy. The first thing I had to get accustomed to was that she could see. I was so conditioned into having to be the seeing eyes for Molly, that I actually did a double take when the little one, Daisy, narrowly avoided a corner by moving away from it. She's doing a marvellous job of going potty outside; but not such a great job of deciding which items are toys and which are off limits like the television remote. Hopefully those decisions will become clearer as the days go by.  She's growing quickly and is learning commands readily. She goes into her crate when I have to work on clay as she is so fast that it's impossible to keep an eye on her 100% of the time.  

I did manage to get a bit of claying done this weekend. Here's a sample. 

I have a couple of shows in November and December and am down to just one book so that inventory needs to be replenished.  I'm glad because books are one of my fave things to make.  Have the covers and signatures ready for a few more.  Just need to sit down and bind them. Hope I can tear myself away from the pup to get them done.  Wish me luck!  

Saying Goodbye

One of the most difficult posts...

On Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to our beloved Molly...I know I have written about her several times in this blog, but they were mostly about happy experiences, or at least ones that had a happy ending.  Sadly, this one does not. 

We knew that our little girl was fading, and that her health issues were becoming increasingly complex, but still it is terribly difficult to say goodbye to such a sweet and lovable girl.  She was such a cutie, and so nice to everyone.  She always had a smile for those who were interested in her.  Even in her golden days, as in this picture taken about six months ago, she looked like a cutie-petooty.

Over the course of her life, she faced many challenges and hurdles that she overcame.  From being tossed about from home to home over her first year, she fell into our laps and provided us with countless hours of enjoyment and entertainment.  From the first day when she leapt from the sofa to the loveseat, to her last days, where she modelled  her "Blind as a Bat Man" costume (two days prior to her demise), she was a bundle of love.  

She was an excellent travel companion, always ready for a road trip.  When we would pack up for an out-of-towner, she'd sit on a jacket or her travel bag (It said Princess on it), and we'd help her into her crate in the back seat.  Whenever we stopped anywhere, folks would always comment on how pretty she was, and there was that little smile on her face, as if she knew it was her people were talking about. She loved  our trips to Arizona.  She had plenty of friends there...and didn't miss freezing her tushie off in the winter! We always stopped in the same motels along the way; I'm sure lots of the clerks remember her. Even 'pee stops' were familiar too.  Despite her blindness over the past four years, I'm sure she recognized' that park in North Platte, just on the outskirts of the city, where we'd always stop for a picnic and say hi to the Canada Geese there.

We will always recall her beauty in the many pictures we have of her, but we are going to  miss her something terrible. 

The Big White-Out

So, it's the first day back at school for most kids all over...Sigh.  For me, it's a work day too, but not in the school of fish!  All my fish are done baking and the rest of my preparations for the Yorkton Sunflower Art Festival are tasks of putting together, sanding, buffing, staining, and other necessary finishing touches to make the work appear 'professional'.  Huh?  Well, maybe semi-pro!

That being said, I spent a while this morning typing up and printing some brochures on the home computer/printer/scanner thingy. 
Unfortunately, I cannot upload the brochure, but here's a little open fairy door just to give you a hint of what no-good I've been up to.

When I made the brochure, I did it on two pages, both landscape settings, and double columns each.  I started at the "end", which was column two of page one, (really the cover) which included a bit about my experience in polymer clay as well as a picture of my hands holding a finished object.  Then I proceeded to the other side of that page, which was actually the fourth page of the brochure.  On that page I wrote about where my art has been published, where it is available and contact information regarding special orders, classes, and related information. 

 

In the two page interior, I wrote about the nature of polymer clay, techniques, and what type of items I am currently featuring in my repertoire of compositions. For these two pages, I simply began in column one with characteristics about polymer clay and column two reflected the nature of items I make. 

 

Now, I digress a little.  A while back I mentioned that hubby was hosting a philanthropic fishing derby and he's been uber-busy (and a bit cantankerous) with all the preparations.  Needless to say, I have tried to be of assistance although my free time is very scarce.  For the last three weeks he has been trying to corral all the necessary information regarding sponsors etc. to have the materials like posters, brochures, and registration forms printed up.  A monumental task to say the least...and even after many hours of preparation  and effort, misprints and errors still happened. 

 

The above frustrating experience directed me to make my own brochures for the upcoming (and future) events in my own "show" cases.  I decided to make and print the brochures myself.  On my little Canon D-I-Y all in one.  I rely on it to print my sales tags, business cards...all the necessary doo-dahs that I include with my sale items.  To my delight and surprise, I had enough ink to print out one brochure, and saved the document to my little USB thingy, in case I need to print it and am not at my home computer. 

 

Two more things for all you back to schoolers...remember the orientation of the paper when you are printing stuff back to back on two sides of the same sheet.  And finally, save your first best hard copy for reprinting purposes.  On those sheets, mark them with a small dab of white-out.  . That will remind you that it's your "original", you will be able to see it, and the white out won't show up on the reprints. 

 

Hope this helps someone who is struggling out there.