After Burners

Christmas was good. I took far more joy in watching people's reactions to their gifts than anything else. The family dragged my uncle into this century with a 32-inch HD tv, a blu-ray player, and a bunch of dvd's and blu-rays - a far cry from the tiny 9-inch  screen that he was using from 1970-something. My aunt needed a bunch of new shirts and we found quite a few that were perfect. My sister, upon realizing she was unwrapping her space nebula bracelet, got very excited and took it around to show it to everyone in the room :-) It was a good day, and Husband did all the cooking and the food was DELICIOUS!

We have the pest control people coming again tomorrow for the wasps we keep finding. We were finding about two a day before they came last week and it's progressed to six or seven a day since they came and sprayed. I'm fairly certain that we either have a nest somewhere in the house that we can't find, or they're coming in around a window somewhere. Hopefully a full spray-down will solve the problem and we'll get a deep freeze in the next couple weeks to freeze any that are outside.

Today I was introduced to the awesomeness that is Spooky Time Jingle through a post on Polymer Clay Daily. It's all Halloween and Christmas stuff done in a Folk Art manner. Neat stuff there!

Husband has a few ship stamps coming that he'd been hoping would be delivered before Christmas, but they weren't. One in particular is for me to design the cover art for a book he'll be self-publishing in the not-to-distant future. The rest are because if he ordered enough he got free shipping from New Zealand. When they get here, I have some great plans for light switch cover art.

As for my finger, I made definitive plans to go to the doctor this morning since Husband will be working late tonight and of course it's made a miraculous recovery. I think I have a sinus infection though so I may have to go anyway.


So that's where we are. Now that the big holiday is over hopefully we can get back on track and make some progress toward other important projects. Thanks for stopping by, and may the new year find you and yours healthy, wealthy, and joyous!

Forever More

This is my newest piece - a switch plate cover with the Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven". Hand-cut feather detailing around the edges. 

Countdown to Launch

I haven't had much time or energy to post lately as I've been busy trying to get the house in order for Christmas at the same time as getting through daily chores. I have been experimenting with some new product ideas and plans for some other things if I can figure out the method for the base pieces.

About three weeks ago (November 30, to be exact) I tripped over a bird bath out in the front yard and hurt my hand in the process. It's still really sore, like it hurts to straighten out my finger or wash my hand or push on anything with that finger. I thought I'd probably broken it, but didn't go get it checked after I was assured that it's probably only sprained. Well last night one of my friends (who is a nurse) said it's almost surely broken or has some tendon damage. I probably should go get it checked but I'm afraid that my  doctor will end up putting it in a cast or something and I can NOT have my hand out of commission for weeks. It's my dominant hand. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So in a prime moment of brain overload (or maybe brain disconnect) I noticed this morning as Son was leaving for school that the gift I'd wrapped for his teacher had the label and the bow on the bottom. It sat on my desk for two days and I didn't notice! Oh well. Too late now.

Husband and I spent most of last weekend making homemade jams to send out to our family in South Carolina for Christmas. While they are done and ready, I still don't have the boxes to mail them out. I think Saturday is the very latest I can mail them by priority and know for sure that they will be delivered on time. So I think a trip to the post office and click-and-ship will be my project tonight.


Anyway. Here are some things I've been working on lately. A couple of them got scrapped (the blue and green tree switch plate covers, to be exact) and others are in progress or prototypes.

scrapped

lollipop dread bead prototype

fractal dread bead 

scrapped

purple glass beads

cabled scarf in red

this one is still on my desk, 1/4 done but temporarily abandoned

More Independent Art

I've got nine more independent artists / designers to share with you today. Links to the selected items will be under each picture.

Visit Patsy on facebook

Lisa Liddy on Etsy

Dangly Bits hair accessories on The Amber Wolf

Made to Order Rainbow Bracelet by Astrid Boyce

Golden Bead by Irene Giorgio

Emergency Preparedness Kit by Sarah's Saks

Sweater Coat by Carolyn Muir

Rebecca Lee Design on facebook

Willowroot Wands Metaphysical Shop

Feeling Festive

It's a whopping -11º in my little town this morning, so I plan to spend the day hiding inside baking cookies, sitting by the fireplace, and (hopefully) working on some new projects for my etsy shop. Don't know if that last part will happen, but I'm hoping.

Anyway, I'm feeling festive this morning, so I thought I'd share some links to some things made by people in my art guilds and my friends. As best I can, I will also put up links to contact each person if the item is still for sale. You can click the title under each picture to go to the page where the item is listed for sale :)

Butterfly ornament by Jill Kollman 

Snowman ornament by Peggy Reichenbach

Purple bird ornament by Marie Young

Blue geometric ornament by Beth Petricoin

 Red bell ornament by Angela Hickey

Blue Bird Brooch by FredaK

Set of two red glass ornaments by Tom Kies II

Winter hare cuff bracelet by Amy Kuczewski

Blown glass ornament by Beau Barrett

Glass peppermint candy necklace by Lezlie Foster

New Listings and Free Shipping

I have free shipping on all orders through December 31 in my Etsy shop, and I listed three new things today. You can click on the individual pictures to enlarge them, or click on the link under the pictures to see the listings for my new items :)

Listing HERE

Listing HERE

Listing HERE 

Butterfly Garden

This lime green and purple light switch cover is the first in a new line of custom plate covers I'm developing for my Etsy shop.

Also, another reminder that everything in my Etsy store is 40% off from now until midnight on Sunday! 

Lost Victoria

I have a new bracelet that I've recently listed on Etsy. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. Also, a reminder that everything in my Etsy store will be 40% OFF on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday! No coupon codes are needed because everything will be marked down automatically!

Click here to shop my Etsy store!

Black Friday Sale and Small Business Saturday

I'm really not into the whole corporate frenzy over Black Friday. That said, I am having a Black Friday sale in my Etsy store from midnight on Friday, November 29 to midnight on December 1. Everything listed will be 40% off, so you can still get great deals without ever leaving your house! No coupons or codes needed!

Click here to go to my Etsy store and save big!

Zebra Listing

I finally got it measured, photographed, and listed. The zebra bracelet is available here. As always, you can click on the picture to view it larger. Thanks for stopping by :)

Cuff Sale

Currently all cuff bracelets in my Etsy shop are marked down 33%. So stop by and take a look! I also have a new cuff to list in the next few days! You can go directly to the bracelet listings by clicking the link under the pictures!

Available here

Autumn Leaves here

Storyteller is listed here

The Raven

Available here

A Lack of Tact

I got a conversation on Etsy that said, in short, "I want you to make blank polymer cuff bracelets like yours so that I can draw on them with pen and ink and resell them because I don't want to make them myself".


How about no?

Newsboy

A couple exciting things to talk about today.

First off, I got a call from Son's school yesterday. The exchange was pretty limited and went something like:

School Office: "I'm calling about Gabe."

Me: "Uh oh. Is everything okay?"

School Office: "There's been an emergency. He's probably going to need stitches. We had to call an ambulance. I need you to come to the school."

Me: "Okay. I'll be there in a few minutes."

So as I was driving up, a fire truck was leaving and a police car was pulling in. I was taken directly out to the playground where son was on a gurney in an ambulance, looking perfectly relaxed like this was nothing out of the ordinary. His entire neck and shirt and both hands were covered in blood and he wasn't even phased. Turns out, he'd been playing tag with some other kids on the jungle gym and he'd been hanging from a bar, getting ready to drop into a slide and had thrown his head back and smacked it on one of the monkey bars. The assistant principal and the principal were outside on playground attendant duty and they said he reacted perfectly. He sat down and put his head down and covered it with both hands. All the other kids freaked out at the amount of blood, but Son was fine.

After giving names and addresses and birth dates to the paramedics and the cops, Son was taken to the hospital. The assistant principal drove me in her car and one of the Special Education teachers who works with son drove my car so they could go back to the school together. Husband eventually realized I'd tried calling him a bunch of times when his ringer was off, and he came to the hospital from his allergy shot appointment. The time in the hospital passed pretty quickly. A nurse taught Son a magic trick as a distraction, then cleaned up his neck and hands and hair. They numbed him and stapled him up, then we waited around for a while for discharge papers. I kept him home today because he prefers to run and jump and never stops moving and the more he moves, the more the wound oozes blood. He will have a shower tonight and will be back to school tomorrow morning.

***

My other exciting news is that I got accepted into the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy. It's exactly what it sounds like. Everyone has been very welcoming so far and generous with offers of help and advice. They have a monthly challenge for members and do regular charity donations (including donating to Beads of Courage!). I'm only a day in to the adventure so I don't have much else to say about it yet, but I'm excited for the opportunity to meet so many amazing clay artists and to learn a lot of new things :)

***

So that's all I've got for now. Hopefully new work to post soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Pendant Pandemonium

I made for tube beads yesterday just so that I could wire them into pendants. They may or may not ever make it onto Etsy depending on whether or not people on Facebook claim them first.

Watercolor

I'm experimenting with getting a watercolor effect in my polymer clay creations. This is a dreadlock bead I've made over the last couple of days. It still needs to be sanded and polished, but it's very close to what I was going for and I really like the potential. I have a lot of ideas that I can use this technique for.

As always, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Thanks for stopping by :)