Bummer...

Well, I worked today on part 3 of the mokume gane tutorial.

Unfortunately, a  brief power outage made me lose the footage of the first part of the video. I tried and tried and tried to recover the file (usually when the computer shuts down unexpectedly and you were just taping and hadn't saved the video, the file is damaged) but it was impossible - I only recovered about the first 1/3 of it which still made it unusable for the purpose of the tutorial.

So, I am finishing the part 3 only with the second part of the video. I will be re-doing that first part and make it in part 4. Maybe it's better this way, as part 3 with that first part would have been about 40 minutes long. Now we have a part 3 of about 15 minutes and we'll have a part 4 of about 25 minutes.

Yes, there will be a part 5 too. And then there will also be pieces made with all those pretty mokume gane veneers and at least one of them will be combined with some translucent canes.

So. I will be finishing this part 3 and posting it tonight. Because tomorrow I have a dr. visit, so probably I'll be super-tired by the time I get back home, so the part 4 won't happen til Tuesday.

I'll update this later with the link to the

video.

Good news

Well, my clay is in town and the tracking shows "out for delivery" so it will arrive sometime today. As the UPS site says "Friday before end of day". I hope it doesn't mean 11:59 pm haha

I finished the last tutorial on malachite jewelry for my sponsors - this one is a bracelet cuff with faux malachite on a base of faux (well yes, faux, encore faux, because it's polymer clay) so faux met

al mokume gane. It's a poem in gold, with a delicate chain fastening.

As soon as I upload that (which shouldn't take more than 15 minutes total) I will start working on part 2 of the mokume gane tutorials. The methods of stacking, layering, etc. I decided that Hidden Magic deserves a separate video for itself. In this one I will show you various methods of constructing the layers - and of course, deforming them.

Heh multitasking

I feel so much better now with the house looking tidier. Well it's not completely, I still have to finish pieces and put them away, but the rest looks good. I managed to sleep til close to 6 am, that's a record for me, and even if right when I woke up I was still tired, about half an hour and 2 cups of coffee later I felt so much better.

I've already been working on both tutorials - the public one and the one for my sponsors and patrons. If all goes well I should be able to post both towards early afternoon. I wanted to do this early, because, again, we're having a scorcher. Tomorrow too. So I wanted to get things out of the way before it gets too hot.

The public tutorial is a pretty necklace, with an amber effect obtained with alcohol inks and gold foil, and some delicate flowers on top. I hope you'll like it, it's not that hard to make.

For the sponsors tutorial, it's the bracelet base. It's got a few tricks, if you want to get it right, and not get the tiles mismatched. Nothing worse than do all the things and then realize that the tiles don't align properly, eh?

Last evening though I realized how addicted to claying I am. The idea was for me to get things finished and put them away, right? Right. Well late afternoon, I was checking the small folder with pieces of scraps - just a small organizer I have where I put bits and remnants of colors from various pieces - I found about a dozen small pieces of various colors, and I felt sorry about putting them in the smusher to make mud clay. So I went ahead and made a mokume gane, then with the metallic remnants all mashed together a mica shift. then I've put them together and made a full set, pendant, ear rings and cuff. Just one more thing to finish. Grrr. Addicted, I'm telling you.

They did come up nice, though. I only need to put a back on them and findings.

Pretty, aren't they?

Unfortunately I had a bad surprise too. I had made a long fat bead for one of the asymmetrical necklaces. It looked fine Sunday evening when I got it out of the oven all cooled off. This morning, when I was putting to the side things I have to sand, I noticed it was cracked. The only thing I can think of is that probably I should have left it longer in the oven to cool. Or maybe dunk it in ice water? I've never had a bead crack like this before. The truth is that the mud clay I used for the base was a very old sticky one. Maybe that was the culprit. I'm sorry for the bead, it was a very pretty bead, all with mica shift and appliques of leaves. I still have the leaves cane and it's not hard to make it again, but still...

Look at it

Oh well. Back to work. I heard the oven ding.

Update:

Here's the tutorial for today:

Third tutorial ready for upload and don't forget live event today

All right, I got the third tutorial that I had shot right before my fatigue episode all ready and it's uploading now. Should be up in one hour by what youtube says.

Here it is.

Don't forget the live event! Starts in about 2 1/2 hours.

On another note, after the live event - which will get recorded and published on youtube automatically - I think I will not make another tutorial until either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. My hands are killing me, we keep having all these storms around and that is not easy on me. On Tuesday I see my spine and pain care doctor and I will get a set of my cervical spine shots that usually reduce inflammation on the arms/hands nerves that are severely pinched in my neck, and that makes my hands hurt less and be more "responsive". Depending on how fast the shot works - the next tut will be either that afternoon (I go early in the morning so I have time to rest afterwards) or Wednesday morning.

Managed to get everything resined up last evening. Finally.

Now I need to get some more pretty cardboard to pack the pieces I made that are crowded on the kitchen table.

Uploading.

Ok, first tutorial finished is already uploading. Now I'm wrapping up the second - need to put things together, as they're finally baked, varnished and dried - then I'll finish editing and I'll upload two more. The next two will be about "Bargello-ed canes" and "Ancient brocade effect using 'hidden magic' technique".

Also started to work on the second paid tutorial (I called it "the butterfly effect") and continue to work on the raku one.

I hate it when these episodes hold me back and make me be behind my schedule.

In other news. I got 3 new colors of pearl-ex -thrilled about that; finally managed to get a more decent texture sheet, not a big one, just the Celtic designs of Lisa Pavelka. Waiting for gold and silver sheet to arrive in the mail and also some foils. And I didn't even start on moving the store on facebook.
So much to do so little time.

Here's today tutorial. Well, hopefully just the first.

"Quilted" mokume gane

This is the "Clay with me Sunday" today. I hope you like it. I will probably finish the piece in a couple of hours - just because it needs to bake two more times. I always prefer to just do an extra bake step if there is any chance of messing up a piece by shortcutting a bake. I hope you will like it. It's a little bit on the unusual side when it comes to mokume gane - well, not even sure if you can call it mokume gane to be honest.

Anyway. The event announcement is up. Was up last evening late but by the time it got uploaded I was already narcolepsied on the couch. So I didn't manage to put up the poll cards and review the close captioning til early morning.

As soon as I finish the video for today I will get back to working on the watercolor and on the first paid tutorial.
To announce it, it will be about... raku. What else? I am almost done with the necklace, just have to put it together, all the pieces are done, backs on, varnish where it needs to be, just to put them on their chain and the clasp.And the earrings. It's a necklace and earrings set.

Once I'm done with all that - and in the little break bits I will start the move of the store on facebook. I woke up early enough to take care of the other websites. So the rest of my day can be dedicated to polymer clay.

I am really looking forward to see the pieces that will be posted for the contest. I love seeing peoples' creativity. I will announce here, and on facebook, and on youtube when the contest starts.

I will update later as things happen, as usual.

Tutorial - use your scrap canes for "Hidden magic"

So yes. The story.

I am working on a piece that is (well, will be when it's done) named "Caribbean dreams". On it there's a segment made with the hidden magic technique - I couldn't find a better solution to show - yanno, ocean, algae, lagoon, that kind of thing.
As I was searching in my drawer for some little zipper bags my eyes fell on one of my scrap canes ziploc bags. In it, the only flower cane I've made in the last few months. The pansies one - yes I know that tutorial never came to be. What do you want, I am not very fond of making flowers. Yet.

And as I was looking at it, I realized that it can be used in Hidden magic. That ANY can that has skinner blend/ikat can be used in Hidden magic.

So I made a tutorial.

There ya go.