Belated Happy Birthday to me!

Hi everyone,

   I know I haven't posted lately but I haven't been doing anything that would be exciting to anyone......I have been trying to organize my studio and my thoughts!  To that end, I have designed a project planner for myself that I can add photos and color samples and texture ideas to along with cost and time quotes. I can then fold up the planner to go in a file box until I am ready to work on that project. I even found some plastic cases that will hold all the supplies and beads that are needed for the projects and keep them all together.  Normally when I design, I work on 20 to 30 ideas at a time, since one idea leads to another....then I wait for a few days and look at them again...the strongest ones are the ones that get made.  I am hoping that I won't feel like I am working in a tornado.....although fun, I am sure I can get more done if I organize myself!  

   I am wishing my self a Happy Birthday so those of you who don't follow Facebook will understand what I am talking about when you look at the photos I posted.....they are some of the lovelies that I got yesterday when I went out to celebrate my birthday with Debbie and Carol....we went to a huge antique mall and then when we were shopped out there, we went across the street to Savage Mill. It is kind of like the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Va. but with more than just art studios. There are antique shops there and french bakeries and hair salons and clothing boutiques and of course, The Queen's ink, a fabulous rubber stamp store....lots of great stuff.  I did a lot of damage to my wallet in the antiques shops and Debbie did hers in the Queen's and Carol did hers in the antique shops too....although, to be honest, she was looking for a dining room table set....I think she won!  I got some great old postcards for resin work and of course, some great spoons.....if I could play the spoons, then maybe I could understand my obsession, but I don't......although, I am planning some fun small box beads to use them with, so maybe that is the obsession.   So, I will be playing in the studio some more....

     I still have more celebrating to do....my son, Brandon is coming up from DC for dinner tomorrow and then I am going out with Gloria and Terresa sometime next week and I am also going to be seeing some friends at the bead show in Newark(Delaware) this weekend for dinner ....and there will be cake!  Morgan and I have been having Moroccan food a lot this month...all good...one pot cooking, easy and flavorful!  how can you go wrong...I am having couscous tonight made with the broth from the tagine we had this weekend....yum!  Ok..well, that's enough about me...how about some about you?  comments, photos of your work....hello's......anyway, take care and have fun in the studio, Kelly

    Just a quick note....Carol, Debbie and I will be teaching a three day class at the polymer clay retreat next summer that happens prior to the MCWC in Chicago. The first photo is the project we will be teaching....Carol will be teaching how to do the metal clay frame, Debbie will be teaching how to do the enamel work and I will be teaching the polymer part and showing everyone how to put it all together. 

    The second photo is a idea I am playing around with.....I made the copper sheet in Gordon's class back in Feb....

    And the last photo are some of my new birthday toys.....aren't they lovely??? I did get more but I shouldn't show you everything, should I????  Anyway, have fun, K

some new stuff.....

Hi everyone,

    I am still in the hiding mode but I am playing with a few things.....some polymer ideas I have been thinking about and wanting to see if I could make them work.  I saw some beautiful gold brocade fabric that I thought would be beautiful as a polymer plate. Well, I am still experimenting to get that look.....what I thought would work ....didn't!  and I was kind of surprised at that! So, I thought about it some more and changed directions a bit, but I still didn't get the look I want....and number three and four didn't work any better.....but I think I may have a winner with idea number five (although, I thought I had a winner with idea number one!), so we will see..... 

     I also wanted to make something fun out of PMC just for myself to wear. I don't normally make anything for myself but I got these great stones at Bead and Button and the PMC Conference so I decided to use some.....and I got a beautiful tiny spoon on the way to the conference when I was driving with Debbie and Carol.  I wanted to make a little steampunk kind of piece...I love the look....Victoria's swirls and frou-frou with scientific lines....kind of like experimental artwork for the body....at first, I was just going to make a sweet little charm type box bead with the bullet stone rising up from the center but when that didn't quite have the feeling I wanted, I started doodling and came up with a frame for around the frou-frou part. I was going to cut out the back of the frame to make a skeletal type frame with the curvy part suspended in the center but I was afraid it would buckle in the kiln so I left the back in tack. I was thinking about cutting out the back(after firing) in a fancy type design and filling it in with resin so it would appear light and glass like. I decided against all of those in favor of the beautiful butterfly wing I found in the studio. I sealed the wings in resin and set the stones...a total of 9 layers of resin and drying times.....I am still trying to decide if I should lightly sand the resin behind the curvy part.....I wonder if it is too shiny....I think I may be trying out this bead in different ways to work out some of these questions....working in a series again, always useful.

   I hope everyone is having fun in their studios whether they are hiding or not....Kelly    

   P.S.  the first photo is the front of my steampunked piece and the second is the back with the opal. The third photo is one of the polymer experiments I tried and didn't work.  It is kind of cool, just not what I was working towards....time for more playing with polymer.....hope you like them...K