Grandma And Grandpa Koeper

Last week I shared pictures of our “cousin” reunion in Florida.

I want to share a few pictures of our grandparents that we enjoyed looking at last weekend.

This is our grandmother Matilda Gruenwald Koeper on her confirmation day.

This is  our Grandpa Casper Koeper. It is probably the earliest one I have, although I have no idea how old he was.

This picture shows the two of them in their house in Milwaukee. None of us remember them being this young. We all remember the house and so many details from it.

Here are the three cousins – Jim, Kay and Mary.

Do you see any resemblance between us or to our grandparents?

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane

Don't know when I'll be back again.....

Leaving you with a few of the 48 pictures of the train on my way home Thursday....

One Last Look at Current Polymer Clay Jewelry For Now

I am concluding the posts showing some of the jewelry I’m made with polymer clay for the time being with these pieces.

This is another piece that seems to go with just about anything. The pattern looks like it has been woven.

This shaped pendant was strung with semi-precious beads and vintage beads. It is also one of those pieces that goes with almost everything.

I have added those little “fans” to the surface of this pendant to give it a true 3D design.

These large earrings were made from the same palette of polymer clay as the pendant. I don’t expect someone to wear them together as they each have more impact when worn alone.

An assortment of various sizes, colors and designs of earrings. Many of them have a Swarovski crystal on the bottom.

This is one of the smallest earrings I make. You may be able to get an indication of the size by looking at the crystals.

Key chains have been one of the most popular items I make as they can be used by men and women and all ages. The colorful “beads” make it easy to find your keys. the brighter the better!

If you look at the work I have shown recently you will see a certain similarity between some of the pieces. This could be because I was using the same base color,. because I was using the same canes, or I was using canes made from the same colors. Working in a series in polymer clay is quicker than working in a series when I make quilts.

I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse of one of my other “ART” expressions.

Fabric Dyeing–Value Scales For Three Color Families - Rerun

This is another one of my most popular ever blog posts – close to 5000 views.

This Value Scale is for the Basic Color family.
I have taken several fabric dyeing classes from Carol Soderlund. I have blogged extensively about them before.
Color Mixing for Dyers: Part I is Carol's class where you dye over 1000 color formulas. With these samples you learn how to mix any one of these colors to create the exact color on your fabric.
We each made a book with all of the colors samples.
After you paste the samples in your book you still have little bits of each color left so Carol created this page where we can paste up a value scale with the colors we have dyed.

This is the value scale for the bright color family.

This is the value scale for the earth color family.
I can not recommend Carol's classes highly enough. If you want to learn to dye accurately and SAFELY take a class from Carol. You will NOT be sorry you did.
http://carolsoderlund.com/

Carol is a wealth of information and you learn much more in this class than just dyeing the samples. You will learn how to apply the knowledge and you will enjoy every minute of her classes.

Still More Polymer Clay Jewelry

This pendant was also made with the colors that were used in that favorite Blue Fish collection.

This was part of a class collaboration from a class I took years ago. I forget who taught it.

If I am not mistaken I used the left over pieces we make in the class to make this bead.

I strung this pendant with polymer clay,  glass and semi-precious beads.

I made these round beads from polymer clay. I strung them with vintage spool beads.

There is no end to what you can do with polymer clay.

I do use a lot of the same color sense and design sense I use when making quilts.

More Polymer Clay Jewelry

I have made a lot of pendants and they are very popular as they can dress up a simple tee shirt, shirt or sweater.

This is one I designed with colors that matched one of my most favorite Blue Fish collections ever.

I use no paints in any of my pieces. The colors and designs are all in the clay. I also mix my own colors from the colors of clay I buy.

The colors in this 2 section pendant make it a winner to wear with just about any color.

This is another 2 part pendant. It is strung with semi-precious beads.

Of course as I share all of these pieces it makes me want to get back to working with the clay.

But at this time I have some higher priorities on my schedule.

Another Palindromic Number Of Views

As of 4:09 p.m. EST on 5/13/13 there were 381,183 views on this blog.

I know you don’t care, but I do!!!!!!!

Polymer Clay–It’s More Than Amulets!

My cousin Mary asked to see my polymer clay jewelry but we ran out of time. I decided if I posted it on the blog she will get to see it!

I have made most of the bracelets on this display stand. You also see some commercial ones I have purchased. I have these arranged in color groups I can wear together.

This is a Potato Chip necklace, named by Pier Voulkos since it is shaped like a potato chip.

 

This Potato Chip necklace was made with gold metallic clay.  The gold metallic clay can produce some very exciting results depending how you put the design together.

I learned to make this style necklace in a class I took from Lindly Haunani. It is such a fun necklace, just like Lindly herself!

These are just a small part of the jewelry I have made from Polymer Clay. I will be showing more of them on a future post.

Many pieces I made have been sold and I didn’t get pictures of them.