Some beautiful art finds

First of all thank you all for being there for the live event, it was a hoot! I just wish the chat was sound, I wouldn't have so many problems keeping up. It is so heart warming for me to see more and more people coming to be with me, it already feels like a meeting of friends.

Now, on this post, I just wanted to share with you a few of my discoveries I made while searching to make sure that what I intend to present wasn't already presented by someone else.

Now, you probably know more of these beautiful blogs than I do, considering the long break from art I took, but hey! you know what? Think that right now I'm like a child discovering the world. I've been a hermit for quite a few years and lived in pain and sadness, now I'm out and can only marvel at the beauties I discover. So please enjoy with me.

This French artist - she has some of the most beautiful mokume gane works I've seen. Also, the blog is 11 years of work worth. Plenty to feast your eye on beauty. And lots to learn from.

Another artist with beautiful work and she knows Jeff Dever!!! Personally!!!! OMG! Sorry but he is rapidly climbing towards the status of God of all delicate and wondrous things made out of Polymer Clay in my world lol

Also, someone definitely inspired themselves from polymer clay art when they created the print for this dress.

Pretty isn't it? I would love to get clothes with prints from my works! You know my spiral jelly roll mokyme gane technique, wouldn't that one be absolutely fab?

Look at the 3D effect on this! I've been mulling over something like this.

Ok done for now. I'm tired and I think I need to lay down a bit.

Sunday

Well, Sunday has come and is almost gone. I did have an amazing day. I barely started to feel a little tired in the past 15 minutes or so.

Woke up a little after 5 am. Ingested the required insane amount of coffee so I can function - this is no joke. I am one of those rare people who have LOW blood pressure as a norm. Even at 56, I still have low blood pressure. MY normal is anywhere from 100 to 110 systolic and 68 to 76 diastolic. When I wake up it's in the 90s so I do require a large quantity of caffeine and liquids before I can walk and move around without getting dizzy.

After which I was actually able to put together 3 of the pieces that were laying around waiting. Took photos. Only got one of them uploaded in the store for now but getting ready to upload the other two as well. I do think that I will make a video though because on these specific pieces it's hard to get a good photo. And I'm not talking about a photo that would do them justice and show all the nice 3d effects, but a good photo - exactly because of the 3d effects and layers the photos look like if they're blurry! Take a look

You know these from the "3d ripple blade effect" tutorial

This is the "Key to my heart" necklace. It's got a purple cat's eye opal bead and this heart key charm - take a look in the store to see it better!

See what I mean?

Anyway. Also did some varnishing on some focals and beads that needed it. Worked on the new piece with the "barbed" cane and did the last two beads on one of the assymmetrical necklaces. Sanded everything I worked on today (well except for two).

Had the live event - which was a lot of fun. And it looked like everybody was enjoying themselves. The piece I worked on came up cute as a button, but I will not finish it today. In my mind (crazy artist mind) it requires a combo of chain with very large links and smaller (medium) links of various shapes and patterns, to do justice and keep the whole spirit of the piece as it came out. For me always pieces are like they are waiting to come into existence, and I'm there just like some kind of tool who helps them get born. It is true that about half the time I do plan my pieces, about 90% of the time I start with something in mind. But the truth is that about 90% of the time what I had in my mind/planned is not what comes out.

So, here's a glimpse of my work today

From top left going right - 2 beads that just got out of the oven, part of an asymmetrical necklace; beads that got varnished, part of a summerish necklace. New ear rings. A mokume gane abstract pendant; part of another asymmetrical necklace

Beads from today's live even (doodle canes - a symphony in black and white) and beads of the new piece I am making with the "barbed cane" of yesterday's tutorial/ I just finished sanding all of them

A closeup of that long bead. I thought you might want to see it better

Top: set of bracelet, pendant and ear rings that got first coat of varnish, need to apply second coat. Bottom: focal of the new piece. I think I'll call it "undersea lair" haha

As you can see, busy busy. I think I will call it a day though, because of being on the chair at the work space too long, I started to get really bad painful cramps in my back muscles (that area where they took out the largest muscle and the remaining ones can't compensate for the lack of that one). So I learned in the past years to not push it, because if I do, I will need at least 2 days to recover.

There's always a tomorrow, isn't it?

I will probably do the little "top hat caterpillar" tomorrow. I don't have a lot of time, I have the appointment with the orthopedist at noon, and that means that by the time I'll get back home I'll be pooped. Also, if they give me tomorrow the shots in the hands, probably won't be able to do anything anyway.

Tuesday and Wednesday at this point are inter-changeable. It will all depend how I feel Tuesday.

Yes, I will make another piece with the "barbed cane". I always do make a piece with a technique I just made a tutorial of, don't I? *smile*

I will also do the low-temp enamel test and review next week. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll get the ok to post it from the manufacturer. 

Don't forget, Saturday morning CDT (probably 9:30 or so) I will have a live event. I decided to do the "monthly wrap-up and plans for next month) live, so I can answer not just the questions I got in emails and messages, but also live questions. No worries, the Sunday Clay with me is still on.

You all have a great end of the week-end!!!

How to clean your pasta machine video

Well, that's for today. And of course, the live event that will be recorded and posted.

I have again a ton to work on. I have to remake the necklace for the lady as they failed to give me proper measurements and it hits somehting on her port. So you'll be able to purchase the one I posted yesterday on the blog.

I started also working yesterday on a piece that does NOT involve resin (ha!) that I had dreamed about the night before last. Calling it "Serengeti", here it is

So, I will be doing a little work then start conditioning my clay and get ready for the live event. See you all later!

Extruder strings tutorial this afternoon

I am about 1/3 done taping. I went ahead and mowed the lawn while the first part of the piece was baking. Going to take a shower, then head out to buy some fruit, then finish this.

Will update later. I gotta go. Don't want to be still out and about when it's 96F in the shade.

Update 12:30 pm

Finally back home. Put almost all the groceries away - had to stop, rest and allow for my pain pill to start working. The whole trip took again about 45 minutes longer than it usually does, because of the darn road work. I might rest until PCT's live event, being stuck in traffic and having to be in the same position made my back muscles really really spasm.

Still debating which stamp to use for the central part of the piece of the tutorial. AND what technique I want to use for it - isn't that terrible? I'm torn between chalk pastels and alcohol inks. Anyway, the whole tutorial is based on the extruder-strings-ran-through-the-pasta-machine technique.

You've probably seen it already in this form:

Yea, I clay-doodled last evening. And I could have sworn I had used turquoise blue but I guess the artificial light tricked me. That will teach me to make sure I put the clay in its designated color folder.

Anyway, yes, it's based on this technique, but it's not this. You know how I like to do the "think outside the box" thing, so it's completely different. Well, no not really completely, it still uses the strings thing. Well, You'll see.

As more news, I talked to my orthopedists' office this morning and apparently my hands should have responded better to the shot, so they scheduled me for another shot. And they told me once again I will, at one point have to go get surgery.

My hands have a double-whammy, in case I didn't explain it before. My cervical spine is very messed up - two pairs of vertebrae slipped (C3-C4 and C5-C6), almost no disks left between C2 and C7, the foramens (those little openings through which the nerves come out of the spine marrow) are very narrowed - that's where my loss of function comes from - and lots of osteophytes, the spine cord is actually compressed in several spots.
On top of this, I have osteoarthritis of the base of the thumb. I know, you can't see a thing, and my hands look normal. Because I have OSTEOarthritis not rheumatoid (inflammatory) arthritis. There's no inflammation. But I have on both hands bone spurs at the base of the thumb that cut into the tendons, making movements like pinching, grasping, buttoning/unbuttoning, etc very painful.

So, even if I'm not happy about the perspective of having to have spinal fusion in my neck sometime in the future, I really can't wait until they say "ok, no more shots, time to laser out those bone spurs in your hands". Seriously. I'd have at least that pain gone.

Will update later - not sure if new post or just update this one.

Update 9:15/ Sorry I'm so late. I'm afraid I narcolepsied for a while, haha.

Anyway, here's the  tutorial

Pods

It is uploading.

Sorry I'm posting so late. Been very busy, also went on a short "girls' night out" (well day out) with my BFF. We ransacked Big Lots.

I am almost done with the Raku necklace and the other one. Well I have no idea how to call it. The "Ocean" still needs the jellyfish and corals. And I need to wait for the 1st to get the leather strings and other stuff to finish the African one.

I narcolepsied a little early last evening so...

Btw. Look at these dolls. Look at them. Oh. Em. Gee.
No, I am not going back to dolls. My hands don't allow that. It's one thing to mess up a bead, and another for your hand to twich and destroy what you've worked for a day.

Lutsenko dolls

Here's the teaser until the tutorial uploads. I will upload the "1,000 subscribers" event after that one.

Short video today - more later

As I am nearing 1,000 subscribers on Youtube, I feel the need of an overhaul because I start being a little swamped.

Don't get me wrong, I love making tutorials, and if it wasn't for the slowness of uploading, you'd probably get sometimes even two a day. But I realized I got some areas where I need to streamline the flow, so to speak, because there are hiccups and it stresses me out, and I hate being stressed.

1. I think I will close the online store and start selling on the Facebook page. For two main reasons: probably better market penetration and - most importantly - one less website to update. Right now I have too many places on the internet that I have to go update in order to have a good web presence. Eliminating some would be good. That would mean that

2. I can free the domain and apply it on the blog here. At least this one is directly connected with facebook - well, pretty much. I can install some gimmicks that will make it so that whenever I post something in one of them it will automatically post in the other. The Google+ is already connected here.

3. If I do that, I will be able to "bring in the circle" so to speak, the other ones - flickr, instagram, etc.

4. Yes, I will start to have paid tutorials soon. Everybody does. I will still keep a very decent proportion - probably like 10-15 free ones for every paid one. To be honest, what I've done until now is just... you know, not even appetizers. I'm way far from showing people the "heavy guns" yet.

5. I do need to catch up with my creations. I mean, making tutorials is ok, doing commission work is ok - yes I had to do a few orders, that was another reason why I'm lagging in posting tutorials - but I also need to have more actual good quality pieces out for sale (and show). A lot of the commission work I do I can't show because my clients (that I've had for years) want to be sure of wearing absolutely unique items. I have an understanding with them of never posting photos of what I make for them, so nobody can steal the idea or even get inspiration from it. That means that I do have to work on a few really good quality pieces. I should be done soon with at least a couple.

6. I have a ton of stuff to re-arrange and to pack. Still have a pile on one table since I took photos and never went back to actually pack them nicely so they'd be ready to ship. Also, free that table lol.

So....

I did the stamps for the mokume gane pieces I have in mind. They came up nice. Worth the trip to Target and falling prey to the desire for ice cream lol

The African necklace is coming up nicely. It's on the back burner for now until the leather cords I ordered get here. But yea, that second photo, that is a bead. With ground coffee in it lol

Not sure if the next tutorial I post will be the watercolor torn paper one or the pods one. Funny thing, I had these on the counter, friend comes over, and was extremely puzzled on "what kind of pods are those". She thought they were real. What better compliment?

here's today short tutorial

Organic jewelry

Today's tutorial will be about organic jewelry. It's a concept relatively new in polymer clay. I say relatively because the "organic"  as an idea has been long in the history of art. In the past few years, as artists started to discover more and more what possibilities polymer clay gives in terms of combinations with other media, the trend has been on the upwards, and has been received very positively by the public - the ultimate beneficiary of our art, after all.

So I decided to make a few tutorials also on organic jewelry and show a few of the techniques. This one is called "the apple peel" because in a way it looks a little bit like an apple peel. It's just one way of using it and hopefully it will inspire you to do more. Teaser soon and tutorial should be uploaded by noon CDT.

I will also make a few tutorials on "concept jewelry"

Teaser

Update 4:40 pm. It's still uploading. As much as it's true it's a 30 minutes video, I started the upload at 12 pm. Almost 5 hours ago. It doesn't say how long it has left as time. It's uploaded 45%. Now you see why I am waiting for the upload of the Navajo bracelet? That one is 40 minutes long, with all the shortcuts by speeding u p I tried to do. My Stormtrooper will be at it the whole day.

Why do I call my desktop the "Stormtrooper" you ask? Well, it's one of those super-duper desktops that most gamers buy, I didn't choose it mainly for gaming but mostly for computer graphics and video editing and animation power. I didn't buy it, it's a birthday present from an ex. Long story better left untold. It's an Ibuypower brand with a case that is called "Paladin" - and I chose the white one. It brings to mind the stormtroopers from Star Wars

8:30 pm 

Finally it's processing. I will post the link here and it should show once it's done processing. This was the worst ever. Calculating how long it took to upload vs the length of the video, it took about 17 minutes to upload one minute of video. It's getting worse and worse.