Warm Scarves and Tissue Bags

Nov30

This is my faithful companion, traveling everywhere with me these days, and keeping my neck nice and warm. My Mom loves color, too, and she picked out this gorgeous watercolor yarn and knit it in a knit one, purl one stitch so it appears all knitted from both sides. I love wearing these soft muted colors. As I see them everyday, I am beginning to be inspired to pull out my polymer clay and mix up these colors. Hmmmm, what shall I create?

Do you have a favorite piece of clothing whose colors, pattern and/or texture inspires you?

Every year at my show, I would bring tissue paper and stickers so I could individually wrap each item I sold from earrings to necklaces to bracelets. Well, this was a time consuming task, especially when the only surface I had to wrap on was a plastic molded chair. Also, my customers would have to wait in line while I wrapped each parcel. Not good for selling. I was trying to keep costs down by not purchasing gift boxes or bags so I could in turn have my jewelry more reasonably priced as well.

This year I sat and thought about this for awhile and I came up with the idea of taping the tissue beforehand. And thus, my tissue pouches were born. These pouches are easy to make and so much fun!

First, you take one layer of tissue paper and spread it out. You will see that it has natural folds. Cut along each fold so that you have a long strip about 3 inches wide or so. The folds already there make it super easy to know where to cut. Now fold your strip in half lengthwise so you have a shorter strip double layered. Now fold up the raw end side (lengthwise) to about an inch or so below the folded end side. Tape the sides with scotch tape. Be careful here because once the tape is on the tissue, you can’t remove it. Ask me how I learned this! I placed half the tape lengthwise on one side and then folded it over to the other side, thus sealing that side. Once you’ve taped up a bunch of tissue pouches, you can have fun with your paint. I used Lumiere gold and copper acrylic paint. Now paint over the tape on the sides to hide it and paint along the bottom of the pouch. You can randomly paint on the pouch (as I did) or leave it plain. Now hang your pouch upside down to dry. I purchased some festive stickers for closing the flap. It’s a perfect size for a small gift. For larger gifts just cut your tissue paper according to the size you need and make your pouch the same way.

Now I’m thinking that I could do this with fabric. Oh, the possibilities…

The personal life deeply lived always expands

into truths beyond itself.

-Anais Nin

Studio Wednesday

Nov12

We are now entering the late fall and I think that the darker bronzy colors of trees and leaf are making their way into my jewelry. I beaded these earrings today. The photo doesn’t do justice to the gorgeous antiqued gold black twisted bugle beads. I made a bugle bead ladder and then added the light orange and bronze beads along one side of the ladder with a 2-bead brick stitch. After beading that side, I added a tapered fringe on the other side, using the same beads and the russet glass leaves. I like the way the outline of the leaf veins matches the light orange beads.

A carpet of dark russet leaves lined the path on my walk the other day. I’m so glad to live in a place where we experience all 4 seasons. I’m ready for the weather to grow cooler at this time of year. In the evenings, I’ve been cozying up next to a roaring fire in our new fireplace insert. Wow, that insert really works great. When it reaches a certain temperature, a fan turns on and blows the heat (that normally would be lost up the chimney) out into the room. With the fireplace downstairs in my studio, we have set up a small fan in the stairwell to bring the heat up into the rest of the house. So, with my fire going and the house nice and warm, I am very content at this time of the year. I feel so blessed.

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
– John Muir

Studio Wednesday

Nov5

Last weekend I made some sterling silver eyepins and epoxied them into my faux jade polymer clay word charms. In my studio today, I finished each charm with a dangle and placed each one onto a stainless steel cable choker. These chokers are great. Finished with a magnet clasp, I am amazed at how easy they are to put on and take off. I tested the strength of the magnet by giving the choker a tug and it stayed in place.

From left to right above, the dangles are fancy jasper, turquoise, red tiger’s eye, pearl and a glass leaf.

I made the dangles with headpins I created myself with 20 gauge sterling silver wire and my micro torch. I have a confession to make. I’ve had this torch for years and today was the first time I ever used it. I’ve always had a fear of flames and torches. That’s probably why I don’t do more metalwork. When I took a metalsmithing class several summers ago, my heart would practically thump out of my chest every time it was my turn to solder. I always made sure my teacher was close by but I was still very nervous.

I’m happy to share that today I pushed past my torch fear and put my micro torch to work. After going over the directions quite a number of times (ok, probably 10 times), I went out on the back deck and filled the torch with butane. I was so elated when I turned it on and it worked. I kept telling myself that it was a big lighter and that helped ease my anxiety a bit. I rested the torch on the firebrick and turned it on. Then, with my other hand, I grasped a 2 1/2 inch length of silver wire with a pair of old pliers and lowered the end of the wire into the flame just beyond the blue cone. The best way to do this is to hold the wire vertically, not tilting it to either side but straight up and down. A ball formed on the end of the wire very nicely and I removed the wire from the flame. After resting the wire on the brick, I made the next headpin and so on until all pieces of wire had a ball on the end.

The balls were all black from the fire but they cleaned up rather nicely with some steel wool and a polishing cloth.

While I worked, Jack kept a close watch for bunnies and squirrels…

Studio Wednesday

Oct29

About a year and a half ago, I took a Talisman workshop at the Center at Westwoods in Westwood, MA. In the workshop, we did an exercise to find a word that would best represent the talisman we were going to create in PMC. The exercise involved choosing images we were drawn to from a large pile on a table and then meditating and journaling about a word that we thought of when gazing at those images. My word was “connect”. I then created a small charm for each letter and later made a bracelet with my letter charms. Whenever I wear my talisman bracelet, I am reminded of my word and its special meaning for me. It represents the authentic connections I have in my life, both inner and outer, and how important those connections are to me.

Here is the definition of a talisman from the Merriam Webster dictionary.

1 : an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune

2 : something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects

This past summer I found an old stash of faux jade polymer clay I had created years ago at one of my polymer clay guild meetings. I created a pendant with the Kanji character for “beauty”. When I sat down at my worktable today, I pulled out the faux jade again with the intention of creating some more Kanji inspired pendants. Instead, I thought of my talisman bracelet and took out my letter stamps and created some word charms. I also made one out of black clay and Pearl-ex powders.

The charms are pictured above before sanding. They’ll have much more of a green jade color once I sand away the red paint. Right now the paint gives the clay a pinkish cast. After baking, I drilled a hole in the top and bottom of each charm.

I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with my charms but creating them today in my warm, cozy studio next to a roaring fire lent a sweet magical feeling to my day.

Studio Wednesday

Oct23

Today in my studio I made some more citrus canes – pink grapefruit and lime. I was surprised by how much fun I had making all of these cane slice beads. While I’ve loved working with polymer clay for almost 15 years now, I have never had much interest in cane creation. Creating these canes opened up a whole new world for me. I love to create cane fruit!

This is the view from my worktable. Don’t those logs peeking out from the plastic remind you of…..canes?

I also got a little work done on my September beaded journal “Tree Spirit” bracelet. I love that twisty tree branch stitch.

My friend Amy recently started a new blog called “Exercise Diaries”. She asked me if I would like to be a guest contributor and I was happy to oblige. You can read my post here.