I've always thought that I could improve my finished polymer clay jewelry by learning some wireworking techniques. These videos are a good start for absolute beginners. I already know how to do most of these things, so I'm hoping they produce a few more advanced tutorials sometime.

I found this link via Cyndi Lavin's bead blog (I almost said Christine Lavin, but she's someone else entirely, LOL!).

Now, if you have a moment, please send me "patience vibes." I'm supposed to be having a happy, carefree day, wearing my new skirt and enjoying turning 36.  Isn't that how birthdays are supposed to be?

<rosy filter on>
I always envision myself breezing through the day, looking lovely, relaxing in my spotless house, enjoying time with my perfectly-behaved children, maybe meeting some friends for a casual get-together, where I am radiantly effervescent and ever-popular... 
<rosy filter off>

Instead I'm losing patience. Patience with my internet connection, patience with son #2, patience with the state of my house... I need to relax.  Maybe I should just pretend yesterday was today - yesterday was *almost* like I envisioned.  My friends surprised me with a spur-of-the-moment breakfast get-together at Starbucks.  No kids involved (woo hoo!).  I wasn't radiantly effervescent (I spilled my tea on myself twice) but it's not like I *ever* am.  The best I get socially is comfortable-yet-slightly-bumbling.  I'm ok with that. 

Boy, I wish I could get a haircut and an eyebrow waxing. And then come home to a nice relaxing shower and an hour or two catching up on my favorite feeds... blissfully alone - just me and my Dr. Pepper. LOL!   Ah well. I guess there are worse things in life than shaggy hair and having to stop typing every 30 seconds to answer a question about I Spy Fantasy, right?  At least I have my Friendly Frank to look forward to later...

Lisa

Painted shoes were mentioned on Polymer Clay Daily today, and it reminded me... have I ever shown you my funky sneakers?  I made them last fall, when it was getting too cold to wear my fuzzy flip-flops, but I was still in the mood to have some fun on my feet. 

I used fabric paint on a pair of cheap canvas Walmart sneakers to make the sneakers brown with a handful of blue and green polka dots.  I made "laces" by finger-knitting some fuzzy yarn.  There are three polymer clay tiles that I made and threaded onto the laces as I put the laces on the shoes.

I felt weird wearing them at first, but now they're a favorite of mine, and they made it through the winter surprisingly well.  I like them best with cropped pants.

Lisa

One of the things that I got out of this past weekend's Arabesque Caning workshop was an opportunity to learn a method of cane-reduction that I hadn't employed before.  My canes are normally 6-8 ounces and I can get away with a pressing/turning/stroking routine to reduce them.  This weekend I reduced a cane more than twice that size and used a "slamming" method to do so.  I was impressed with how well it worked, and now I don't think I will shy away from larger canes so much.

This link takes you to a movie that shows Kathi Gose slamming a really big cane.  What's funny is that Kathi reads this blog, but I didn't get the link from her - Robin Milne sent it to me (thanks, Robin!  and hi, Kathi!)

Lisa

Sculpey III: the polymer clay serious artists love to hate. When a newbie comes on the scene, the advice from the veterans is always the same: "Get rid of all of that Sculpey you bought before you knew any better and get yourself some real clay, like Fimo, Premo, or Kato."


It seems that most people serious about polymer clay, particularly those who do caning, prefer the stiffer clays. Newbies are warned off of Sculpey as "too soft for caning." Well, I'm here to tell you that it is certainly possible to make appealing cane designs in a soft clay. If you don't have super hot hands, if you can reduce with a light touch, and you use a strong clay for the structural elements of your design, then Sculpey III is a perfectly legitimate option. I have made hundreds of Sculpey canes, mostly in repeating patterns. Many of my canes are several years old, and when I slice them they are still as fresh and as supple as the day I made them. They stretch beautifully in the pasta machine and they meld seamlessly with the slices next to them when forming a clay "fabric."

This, my friends, is a very complex, very detailed precision cane made entirely out of Sculpey III:



And just for kicks, here are some items that I made from that cane this afternoon:



All of these items encase the paper-thin Sculpey cane slices in a sandwich with a thick slice of Premo and a layer of liquid Kato clay so they won't break easily.

I'll be the first to admit that caning with Sculpey isn't for everyone, but I do think that it deserves a far better reputation than it gets.  I'm looking forward to playing around with Jana's technique and encorporating ideas from it into my own work.  I see a Paisley cane in my future...

Lisa

So, it's after 2:00 in the afternoon and I'm still in my pj's.  I got up at 7:30 to help my younger son in the the bathroom, crawled back into bed and didn't emerge until 3 hours later.  That's so unlike me!  I think I really needed the sleep, and as it turns out, I have needed this lazy day, too.  Today it's been a month since we lost our baby, so the last 4 weeks have been an uphill battle in terms of getting my emotional footing back, and catching up on everything that I had let fall by the wayside when I was at my worst.  Add to that a craft show and a class to prepare for last week, and it's just been a nonstop whirlwind of Things To Do lately.  Add to that the late late night I had last night chatting with clarkesworld, and I think maybe I'm thoroughly worn out.  Pooped, in fact.  Surprisingly, I am welcoming the excuse the current Nor'easter has given me to stay inside and kick back a little.  I'm not going anywhere today.

As far as the craft show goes, it was a combination Basket Auction and Vendor Night sponsored by the local school district.  Last year I had some encouraging success at their Vendor Night event (minus the Basket Auction) so this year I tapped my sister to lend me a hand and I sprung for an extra table.   Wouldn't you know it, I sold less than half of what I sold last year, plus I had the added expenses of the extra table and my "hired help."  I had a decent time, chatted with some friends, garnered plenty of compliments and unloaded a whole pile of business cards, so it wasn't a dismal failure.  It just would have been nice to have ended up with more than $50 in my pocket after expenses were paid.  I'm considering taking one of the organizers up on her offer of hosting a home party.  I am not a great salesperson, nor am I particularly outgoing, so the idea of being the focus of a party is a bit intimidating.  Still, after all of the prep work I did last week and minimal payoff I received for it, the idea of having another outlet right now is pretty appealing.

That was my Friday night.  Saturday morning, I hopped in the car & drove the nearly 2 hours to Phildelphia for a workshop with Jana Roberts Benzon.  Very cool.  I made my first (two) Arabesque Cane(s) there.   It was a complicated process that took the entire day, but she had excellent written instructions in case I want to try it again at home.    I reduced one of the canes this morning into two different kaleidoscopic squares that are very attractive.  I want to apply them to something - a pen, or a barrette maybe, and then I plan to scan everything and post about it over in the Craft Room of the Polka Dot Cottage.  Or here.  Hopefully later today.  Since I tend to work quickly, I had brought extra clay with me to the workshop so that I could work on a second version of the cane.  I wanted to try one in Sculpey III and see if I could handle doing something *that* precise in clay *that* soft.  So far so good - I was able to construct all of the components with no problem.  I have yet to try and reduce the cane, though.  That will be the real test.  I do all of my caning in Sculpey, but most of my patterns don't involve much precision and are very forgiving.   An Arabesque cane is a challenge to do in Sculpey.   I'll try and post some of the results of that experiment later, too.   The best part of any workshop for me is when something that the instructor shows us sparks an idea that I can use in my own work.  I was lucky yesterday in that one of the components Jana showed us gave me an idea for something I'd like to try.  The best part?  When I am through adapting it, it will look nothing like her work and everything like mine.  That, to me, is worth the price of admission (and parking, and 4 hours in the car).  That's another thing I'll have to post when I'm through.

So, what I have done today?  Reduced a big triangle cane, defrosted and ate an everything bagel from the best bagel place I know of for lunch, cracked open a Dr. Pepper, read all of my email (although I have yet to reply/deal with most of it), caught up on the blogs, tweaked the settings on my own blog a bit, and then sat down with some rainbow goldfish to munch and post.  Basically, if you say I've been snacking and geeking all day, you'd be right on target.  I've decided that is all I'm going to expect of myself today.  Tomorrow I can get back to the business of processing orders and cleaning the house.  Oh, and a BIG CHEER to clarkesworld for his bang-up cleaning job while I was out all day yesterday.  You wouldn't believe me if I told you what a disaster area we've been living in lately, but I was just so busy last week with everything I was trying to accomplish that I just couldn't find the time for housework.  I spent all week whining about how I hated to live in those conditions but I didn't have the time or energy to fix it.  And when I came home from my class yesterday, he had made a sizeable dent in the work.  Yay!  What a nice husband.  There's still a lot to do, but it seems a lot easier to deal with now than it did a few days ago.

Now, if I can peel myself out of this chair, I have a big Sculpey cane to reduce.  Either that or I'll stay in the chair and see what other geeky things I can do.  I suspect I'm going to have to get up, though - it's the only way I'm going to get a piece of candy out of son #2's easter basket, which he so innocently left here in my room.  Good thing he doesn't keep track of his candy inventory... over the last week, he's incurred several losses

If you've made it this far, you must have been really bored today - are you in your pj's too, by any chance?

Lisa