it has been a long month....

Hi everyone,

   I hope this finds you all doing well.....I have been working thru the the passing of 6 people that have been in my life in one way or another. That is tooo many for one month!  I will be glad to see the backside of September. I feel for all my friends that are dealing with their loses and it is hard to know what to say to help. So all I can do is be there when they need me. 

    I have been in Virginia helping my friend, Carol Hamilton, with the loss of her mother. She had a big show to get ready for and then we had a class proposal to put together with our friend Debbie Taylor to do. We got our proposal done....metal clay, polymer clay and torch fired enamel in one project. We have some more little bugs to work out but it is looking good. I will post a photo soon. I had also made a small keepsake for Carol to carry a tiny bit of her mothers ashes but her sisters wouldn't let her keep any ashes so I will be adjusting her keepsake. Carol and I are thinking maybe some of the dried flowers from the memorial service. I will post photos of that later too.....

     Since I have been home from Va.  (I was there for three weeks out of the four)....I have been working on some ideas of my own. Right now I am waiting for the resin to cure on one of the pieces. I have set real butterfly wings into the open panels on my pendant. I still have to set the three stones and put on the front medallion. For a pendant that isn't but a inch and a half at best, it has taken a lot of work to make.  I am also redoing some sweet little angels that I made about ten years ago.  

     On a side note...I did get a wonderful surprise the other day....I had been talking to my dad and normally it is about a 15 minute chat about how we are and what we have cooked lately.  We try to out do each other in the ideas of what to make for dinner. My dad is a great cook, but there are a lot of ingredients that I would push to the side.....anyway, I was telling him that I didn't have a mixer anymore and he bought a KitchenAid mixer and sent it to me as a surprise!!!  He also got the attachment to grate down potatoes to make your own hash browns for Morgan.  Time to have fun in the kitchen!  

     I am going down into the studio now to add yet a bit more resin to my pendant....and starting a couple of new pieces....I am trying to take my time to get back to my real style and making pieces I love instead of what I think may sell. I hope you will like them as well.  So, have fun in your studios.....Take care, Kelly 

    The photos are (from top to bottom)...one of my little angels...to be made of metal clay and it will be a little tinier and a bit more detail in the wings and dress.  The second photo is the bottom of the class proposal piece that Debbie, Carol and I are working on. The design has polymer clay pressed into the opening for a slightly raised feel. And last, the third photo is the class proposal piece with the polymer clay "seed pod" set into the bezel and the torch fired enamel leaf set next to it....in the class we will be attaching the leaf before setting the polymer but since I had set the polymer by mistake, before attaching the leaf, I now have to make another leaf and figure out how to attach them.  The fun of creating!! Hope you like them, K

I am back...finally!

Hi everyone,

    So sorry I haven't written in a while....it has been crazy!  Last time I wrote, I was getting ready to have dinner with Joyce Scott, Kate Fowle Meleney and my good friend, the famous, Gloria Askin!  We went to a fab restaurant in Baltimore and had a 4 hour dinner....I think the chef's and the dessert guy should be on Top Chef!  Everything was great! It was nice to catch up with everyone, and we even had a show and tell....that was a fun bit to see what everyone was up to! 

    Then I had to make a bunch of new beads for the BeadFest Show up in Philly....I was sharing a booth with my good friend, Darlene. One of my friends from Mississippi came to see me while I was there. She moved up to Wilmington after Hurricane Katrina tore Bay St. Louis and Waveland off the map!!  I used to go to her antique book shop and buy lovely little odds and ends to use in my work. I even helped her re-design her house...and then it was sucked up into the bay with the storm waters. It was so fun to see her again (it's been ten years since I had last visited with her) and I was really pleased to see her. Darlene and I had a fun time....we are trying to figure out some kits to do together...some kumihimo with teeny crystals and seed beads with PMC bead caps and a focal point....or something like that ...or a couple of bracelets...or.....any suggestions would help!  Anything you would be wanting to take a class for??? Resin? Riveting? Faux Bone? PMC?  or bead work of some kind? Inquiring minds want to know.....

     While I was at the show, I had a call from my friend, Carol, whose mother had passed away unexpectedly. So, the following week, I went to Va. to help her get ready for her show that opens this weekend at the prison. Stayed for four days and came home and got sick enough to have my lymph nodes pop out on my neck like I was a baby Frankenstein!  Three days of sleep pretty much took care of it and I have been moving ever since. 

       I was going to work on something for the Saul Bell Award but I couldn't decide which idea I liked best for it....so, maybe next year....or maybe not.....I was thinking that the cost of creativity piece I wanted to do might be a little too much of a joke to be considered seriously. I am still going to make it though....it is a arm, a leg and a left nut!  I am going to torch fire the arm and the leg and the left nut is going to be Kuem-bo'ed and have directions written on it on how to loosen the stress....("turn to the left to loosen") and having all the parts hanging by either a chain or a thread....I am still on the fence about that bit.  Anyway, between working on that and the teaching proposals, I have been working on some polymer beads....the kind I used to do about 5-6 years ago. It has been nice to work with some of my old bits and pieces and make them into something new. I took some photos to show you....surprise, surprise!  

      I hope you like the photos....I found out that I did take some while I was at the conference...no people, just building bits and a few flowers...but I did find out where the hotels wash the guests from 6 to 12, and then where they store them afterwards....maybe to dry???.....it was a pretty fancy hotel!  Have fun in your studios.....Kelly

the beads are in the middle stages of being finished...some need the fancy border and then some need to be antiqued....I like that there is a image on both sides....K