Steampunkery!

Today's mail brought Christi Friesen's latest polymer clay project book: Steampunkery.

When I pre-ordered this book, I paid no attention to the fact that it was more expensive than her previous books, so I was pleasantly surprised when instead of the 50 page booklet I was used to, this was a nice thick 100 page volume. Twice the steampunkery I had expected!

Christi makes good use of these extra pages. Not only are there lots of projects, but many of them are a little more complicated and involved than the ones in previous books. And there's quite a bit more eye candy, including stunning works from guest artists.

One thing that I love about these books is that Christi not only guides you through specific projects, but she always adds new skills to your repertoire, which you can then apply to completely different projects. At a glance, this book introduces various ways to patina metal, and how to use texture sheets with polymer clay.

My favorite project is probably the Pocket Protector Gargoyle. I'd like to make one for Chris to go in a vest pocket when we steampunk it up.

And of course, since this is a Christi Friesen book, it's filled with whimsical little steampunk touches, like fake advertisements and newspaper articles. I'm certainly looking forward to sitting down and reading it at length, to make sure I don't miss any of the humorous anecdotes and informative sidebars.

Why am I so tired already?

It's only the second day of gem show and I am so tired! But I guess it's probably because in addition to spending a little time at To Bead True Blue, I also took Maggie to doggie class and went grocery shopping and more importantly, watched a very boring movie, which almost put me to sleep (yes, even MST3K couldn't save "First Spaceship on Venus."). Nothing saps my energy more than sitting on the couch, in the dark, with a puppy in my lap, watching a dull film. Oh well. At least the puppy was happy!

To Bead True Blue was pretty good. I think I like the new location better than the Manning House. I'll be going back tomorrow, as Christi Friesen did not really have many steampunk beads, but was going to be making more tonight. I will not be denied! I did go ahead and pick up her Polymer Clay and Mixed Media book, which I flipped through before the movie and found to be most impressive. Lots of things I want to try!

My big purchase at the show was a whole bunch of pewter and a few shibiuchi pieces from Green Girl Studios. Nice mix of two of my favorite things: faeries and steampunk. While talking to Andrew from GG, however, I was disappointed to learn that there had been a faerie ball last night and Friday night, and I was completely unaware of it! What the heck, me? Stop living in a cave. Honestly, is there any place that I'm more suited to than a faerie ball? An excuse to put on my wings and dance? That's about the best thing ever. I will not miss the next such event, that is certain!

The only other thing I purchased was three little silver and blue enamel half-circle pendants whose vibrant cobalt hue really captivated me. There was other nice stuff, but nothing nice enough to compell me to buy. I think I'm saving myself for Best Bead.

What's in the oven?

A Christmas ornament is in the oven! Ok, it's not very Christmas-y, but both of my parents like dragons, so it's appropriate. And it's a nice Christmas-y shade of green, with gold (and also blue, but maybe the blue is for Chanukkah. It's a mixed-faith dragon). This picture was taken right before I popped it in the oven, in case it doesn't turn out. At this point, it has about another 20 minutes to go, so I won't know for a bit if it's a success or a dud.

I wanted to make more ornaments, and let my friends take their pick at the game tomorrow night, but the vast majority of my clay is rock-hard and/or crumbly. Next time JoAnn's or Michael's is having a good clay sale, I'll go restock. I might also pick up some more rubber stamps, since this was fun and relatively easy to do.

So, first I conditioned the clay by running it through my pasta machine a couple dozen times. This was the only annoying part, as the pasta machine has this seperate handle that goes in a socket, and it's loose, so it kept falling on the floor.

Once the clay was conditioned, I formed it into a semi-square shape and pressed down really hard with the dragon rubber stamp to make a really good imprint. I wanted to make a circular ornament, but I quickly discovered that I didn't have anything the right size to cut out a nice circle, and there's no way I could cut one free-hand. So instead I cut along the outline left by the edge of the rubber stamp. Then I used a tool to smooth the rough edges, and poked a hole in the top for a hanger.

Originally, I was going to just dust it with PearlEx powders, but I decided that it needed a little more, so I picked out a nice blue from my package of embossing powders, because I recalled reading that you could use them to make a cloissone-like effect. Of course, I have no idea where the book I read that in is, so I have no idea how to do it right. That's why I took a picture before baking. It may come out of the oven looking like some sort of mutant dragon freak. I had a little trouble getting the powder to just be where I wanted it, but nothing too bad.

After that, I dusted it with some gold PearlEx, and then used a paint brush to distribute it a little more evenly. I touched it up once more after taking the photo, because I noticed a couple of clumps. Now it has a nice all-over gold shimmer. Well, all over the front at least. I left the back plain.

All in all, including finding my supplies and cleaning up my mess, I think it took me an hour to make, and then 45 minutes in the oven. I'll probably put a quick glaze on it when it's done baking (another 5-10 minutes of work), and then it will be ready to go to my parents' house with me tonight. Yippy!

An awesome housewarming gift

I don't quite have a house to warm yet, but that didn't stop my dear friend Deb of Bead Indulgences from sending me this awesome dragon! The base appears to be a mirror, but it's mostly hidden under the beautiful poly-clay dragon, smooth pebbles, and perfectly clear crystal points. There are a lot of great touches that you can't really see in the photo -- the slight sheen on the pebbles is from green mica powder; there are coin pearls and amethyst beads between the dragon's feathered wings; her tail is curled around yet another crystal point. And the entire thing rests on feet made from more pebbles. In short, it's a stunning sculpture, and I feel blessed to have a friend who is talented and generous. I can't wait to find a special place to display this!

Another awesome person is Christina, who gave me a helpful tip which allowed me to make a hassle-free bezel today! Woohoo! You should definitely head over to her blog and see the lovely wrapped butterfly that she made from the class she took at B&B this year.

And now it's time to go pack more beads. Moving day is less than a week away!

I want to play with clay!

I'm not going to talk about more house stuff, but this is a picture that I took outside of the house. Isn't it a pretty flower? I should really learn to use my macro mode, so pictures like this would come out even nicer.

Today I received my copy of Christi Friesen's Down Under book, which shows how to make lots of Australian-themed polymer pieces. It was fun to read, and now I want to make an echidna. I fell in love with them years ago, when I read about them in some school book. I really don't have a good spot to work with clay right now, though. Maybe once I get things a little more cleaned up.

I'm feeling pretty tired. I'm glad that it's Friday, so Chris won't be getting up early and phoning it up all morning, so maybe I can get some good sleep. We also don't have any gaming, so I think we'll be home-bound for most of the weekend, other than a couple nearby errands. I have a lot of things I want to do around here, including hopefully some work on Locked Away, which I haven't touched since I posted the last update on it.

Faerie Stones and Faerie Tree.

This necklace features a bead by one of my new favorite artists: Michele Gabriel. I bought a much Gothier tree pendant from her, and then after I got it, I realized that I should have bought one which would go with these pretty mottled Czech glass beads... so I did. When it arrived in yesterday's mail, I saw that it was the perfect match, so I put the necklace together before I went to the game.

The Czech beads were among the stuff I purchased at gem show and then forgot to photograph. They're a lentil shape with a mottled, stone-line look. They're also matted, but it's a very smooth etching. They feel simply amazing. I want to make myself a bracelet with just them and some small spacers, because they feel so nice against my skin. There's also some amber-topaz firepolished beads, some copper-lined olivine faceted beads, and some dark turmaline Swarovski crystals.

Because the pendant was named "Fairytale" and the lentils look like magical stones, I've named the necklace Faerie Stones and Faerie Tree. Now I just need to decide if I'm going to sell it on Etsy, on my website, or greedily keep it for myself!

While I'm here and blogging, I'd like to wish a belated happy birthday to my favorite blog* Art Bead Scene, which turned one year old yesterday. Woohoo! To celebrate, they're having a mega-contest with a new prize every five days. I've entered a few of my pieces, and I recommend that you do, too!

Now, as I said last night, I finished reading Perdido Street Station on Tuesday night. I did have a couple of quibbles with the ending, but over all I enjoyed the book and I hope to pick up The Scar next time I'm at a bookstore. I enjoyed the sci-fi/fantasy fusion. And contrary to the rumors I heard, things did happen in the book. They just took a really, really long time to happen. My next order of business, of course, is to circulate the book among my friends.

*In all fairness, ABS is tied with my other favorite blog, InsectPOD. There's enough room in my heart to love both of them!

The Gem Show Recap -- in photos.

Ok, I've somehow lost the ability to change my font, so we're going to have to live with this one. That's alright, though. The main attraction here is bead photos!

First, the above image. My vintage haul from East of Oz! In the center, some really wicked Japanese beads, black spiderwebby lampwork. They're actually hollow. I've had just a couple of these in the past, in light pink and light blue. To have a full set of graduated black ones is really cool.

On your left, some huge green satin drops. I forgot to ask where they were from. I'm going to guess maybe they're Czech or West German. Even though I buy a lot of vintage, I am not any sort of expert on it. I just love green satin glass, and these look like the antwerps from the old Quest For Glory games, which is funny.

On your right, some opaque green Czechoslovakian drops. They have a really cool deco look to them, and they also remind me of cicadas. I think I'm going to hang them from some sort of collar... Maybe something inspired by Flaming Teeth.

And along the bottom, some luminous foil-backed flowers. Look how they shine! Chris actually picked those out. Marie also had some in emerald green, but the darker glass didn't glow like this aqua does.
Next, my Green Girl Studios goodies! This grouping of beads didn't photograph well, most of the details just don't show up at all. Anyway, I've already got a plan for that mermaid ring. And the cool thing about a lot of these, mermaid included, is that they have words or even entire quotes on the back.
The dryad pony! She has a garnet eye and coral accents in her mane. I'm going to have fun matching leaves to her to make an awesome necklace. Because, of course, I don't have enough leafy necklaces already.
Mini-beetle! And matching spacers! Pretty cool, huh? This was actually one of the simpler and smaller mini-beetles. I almost bought a black one with green and black wings, but I am a real sucker for that green opal glass. Also in this picture, two ridiculously cute Japanese lampwork beads. They had all kinds of little animals, even a baby seal.
I bought way too many seed beads at work, there was no way I could photograph them all. Instead, here's the highlights! On the left, a very nice green-bronze marble. The most expensive seed beads I own. I didn't even add them to my database, because I'm going to be greedy and save them for myself. They're actually brighter than the photo. The middle two are Czech size 6 seed beads that have a mottled, stone-like appearance. I have some pressed glass leaves (and maybe some fire-polished) the same color as the blackish ones. On the right, magic-lined size 6! These dichro-like seed beads are unbelievably awesome.
And last but not least, some goodies that my friend Deb from Bead Indulgences gave me! Very cool ivory pressed glass skulls, a malachite cab, a serpentine donut, and Swarovski crystals. They have an official name, but I call them "dust grey opal." I was hoping for an opal version of shadow crystal, but they have a decidedly beigish cast. I've heard they look better if you string them on gold wire, so I'm going to try.

I forgot to photograph my rivolis and Czech glass, so I'll probably post those later this week. Also, I didn't photograph the crystals, because there's a lot of them. Most of them are colors that I already had anyway. And speaking of crystals, I'm going to try to put them all away before I crash tonight. I'd better get started!

Not entirely a vacation....

Recently, I've been unable to find all kinds of things. It's starting to annoy me. As such, one of my goals for my vacation is to do some serious tidying up and de-cluttering of this apartment. Of course, with dog sitting and CA coming up, it'll probably turn into a project for the between-semesters vacation as a whole, as opposed to this little break. Still, I'm going to get some of it done tonight and maybe tomorrow.

Another thing that I want to do is break out the polymer. I still haven't used my PearlEx powders yet... and I got them back in May! Plus I've barely used the cool tools that I got last holiday season. I'd like to make some gifts for a couple of people... Though nothing as involved as last year's Octopus from Hell. That's not something I'm likely to ever repeat. I was thinking about a cuttlefish, though. Freaky looking things that they are, they'd be interesting to make in clay. I saw a lampwork at To Bead True Blue in February who had cuttlefish, but I bought a dragon from them instead.

And I want to find time to DANCE! I miss dancing. This is good weather for it, as it's even cool enough during the day to do so, which means I don't have to wait until late at night.

With all of these plans, what have I actually been doing? Playing Guild Wars. I am so lazy.

Phoenix Feathers!

Well, I didn't get the website updated until almost 9pm because I wanted to finish Phoenix Feathers -- I think it was worth it! I love this necklace! Not only does it look nice on the black neckboard, but it is absolutely stunning on a neck. The fringes are long enough to really have some presence, without requiring you to wear a top that's TOO low cut.

Today's other new addition is Sacred Grove. I had hoped to have some earrings done today, too, but then I wouldn't have updated until 10. So right now the plan is that I will make some earrings tomorrow, and post them on Wednesday. This will be a double update week, because, after all, Christmas is coming.

Speaking of Christmas and other Winter Holidays, I will not be shipping anything after the 17th, so the ordering deadline is the 16th. I'm going to California for Christmas, so I probably will not be shipping again until at least the 27th... That means that if you want something to wear on New Year's Eve, you should also order by the 16th.

I'm now officially in the holiday mood, because while I was editing photos and updating the site, I was also listening to A Very Scary Solstice by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. Good times, good times.

Various and Sundry Things

Today I finally get to all of the things that I've wanted to post about, but have been too busy to collect my thoughts on.

First! Isn't the above Greenman awesome? My equally awesome mother made him for me a couple of weeks ago, and I keep forgetting to post a picture. He's made out of polymer clay, with a dusting of mica powder on the face. Eventually I'm going to hang him on the wall, but for now he's sitting on my desk, guarding one of the many stacks of books.

Second! As you may already know, I love to write. My work to date includes assorted novels and short stories (all of them unpublished, sadly); roleplaying gaming columns; reviews of movies, comic books, books, and whatever else that I feel I can get away with reviewing; some of the text on the LL-BFAC site; bios and artist statements for several of my beading pals; and of course, all of the text on my site and this blog. Armed with all of that experience, I've branched out into the world of writing website text and such for others. My first client is Hollyrose Aromatherapy! I had a lot of fun re-writing her product descriptions. Oh, and by the way, I highly recommend the Patchouli Woods scent if you decide to order anything.

Third! Art Bead Scene's challenge theme this month is "Gothic Queen." Needless to say, this theme appeals to me a lot, and of course, it's perfect for October. I am all kinds of jazzed. So far I've entered Dark Lady of the Depths and Devil Duckies! Be sure to look at the other entries, there's some great stuff up already and the month has only just begun.

Fourth! I am working on two other exciting things that I will post about as they develop.