Time and Tide

Time and tide wait for no man ... and this pendant couldn't wait any longer to be made. Incorporating the inner works of a vintage watch, a polymer clay moon face given to me by Judith Skinner, and various beads, stitched onto a leather backing, the pendant is 2-1/4" wide at the widest point, by 2-3/4" tall, including the beaded bale. I haven't had time to make a proper necklace for it yet, but it still looks great on the antiqued ball-and-chain one where it temporarily resides.
Click on the image to embiggen it! (borrowed that word from Rice Freeman-Zachary, thanks Rice!)

Demo Day at Copper Shade Tree Gallery

On Saturday, December 1, Gerald and Debbie Tobola had a Demo Day at their Copper Shade Tree Gallery (http://geraldtobola.com/coppershadetree.htm) in Round Top, Texas. They invited Patricia Daugherty, Jerry Potenza, Dave Hardin and me to spend the day demonstrating our various art techniques to the patrons of their gallery. It was a cool, windy day, and the Christmas Parade brought out lots of folks for the day, so it was a lot of fun.

Above is my little demo table with my beads. Along with my Bead Journal Pages that I'm doing for Robin Atkins' Bead Journal Project, I also brought a few of my beaded dolls to show ... "The Fishwife" and "Red Hot Alien Mama". "Tiny Dancer" is just visible inside the polymer clay-covered box.

Above is Dave Hardin with one of his smaller, portable looms. He makes gorgeous scarves on this little loom (I have two of them myself).

Jerry Potenza, above, did some beautiful leatherwork, and both Patricia and I were also interested in his vast array of specialty tools. He displays and sells his work in the gallery as well.

Patricia Daugherty, above, is demonstrating her method of "mokume gane" in polymer clay. She had lots of admirers, and even made some sales of some items she hadn't intended to sell!

Patricia and Denna, near the end of the day. Denna was sweet enough to go home and make up a poultice for my bee sting ... thank you so much, Denna! (I thought of posting a picture of my sting, but it was too gross!)

After Demo Day was over, Patricia and I drove out to Dave & Denna Hardin's A Light Unto My Path Retreat (http://www.alightuntomypath.com/) to see the new patio gate that they had had specially made from the bottoms of old wine bottles. It is gorgeous! I made Dave stand in front of it for a picture.

Grant Diffendaffer

Oh, and I forgot to post these few pics, from a class Patricia and I took with Grant Diffendaffer, courtesey of the San Antonio Polymer Clay Guild. He specializes in lathe-turned beads ... http://diffendaffer.com/





Grant is an excellent teacher as well as a visionary clay artist, and even took the ribbing from all us "older ladies" very well.


me, Grant, and Patricia


Patricia at the River Walk in San Antonio


Dinner at the River Walk

Art Unraveled, Part III

Patricia and I both took a class with Barbara McGuire (http://www.barbaramcguire.com/), "Matchbook Pendants". Barbara was so professional, she had most of the pre-work done, so that we could spend our time learning the important parts, rather than doing the "grunt work". After a short evening class, we each walked out with a completed pendant necklace that we were utterly proud of.


My sweet friend Patricia, at Art Unraveled in
Phoenix, AZ, August, 2007.


Patricia took this picture of me at the airport as we
were getting ready to leave for Phoenix ... sketchbook/journal
in hand, I couldn't wait to get started!


Barbara McGuire with one of her tiny matchbooks, which is
about to be magically turned into a fabulous pendant.


Here's the one I made, with an image transferred onto the
polymer clay.


The back of the pendant, showing the impressed stamping
and distressed painting, as well as the imported metal belt parts
that were used as findings.

Clay Play Day

A few weeks ago, 4 of us Art Girls had a get-together to play with polymer clay. Patricia, our resident Mokume Gane expert (because she's done it before and was willing to teach us) came with a lesson plan and hand-outs! She even went so far as to create templates and cutting mats for us, and showed us how to make a "guillotine" for making perfectly straight and even cuts in the clay tiles and tubes.

Here are some pics from that day ...

Linda (me), Martha, Patricia, and Mary Ellen.


Martha & Mary Ellen, with ME's Diva Art Doll


Mary Ellen's Sister Shrine


Mary Ellen's Box Shrine ... for some reason, Mary Ellen was the only one with Show & Tell that day.


Our sweet teacher, Patricia.


At last! The 4 Mokume Gane Tile Bracelets ... it only took us 5 hours, LOL!