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.

Koeper Cousin Reunion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Glenn and Mary were the first to arrive.

Marilyn and Jim arrived a short time later.

Fortunately Andy stopped in after he finished golfing so we enlisted him to take a picture of all of us.

We could not remember the last time we had all been together although we are guessing it was somewhere around 50 years ago.

I have seen both couples but each separately in the last 8 years.

We reminisced, ate and just had an all around pleasant visit.

The weekend ended all too soon as they each departed for their respective homes.

Mary and Glenn’s departure picture.

Marilyn and Jim’s departure picture.

We all agree that we hope to make this an annual event.

I am so lucky to have just great, fun, and special cousins.

In answer to Mimi's question about the pink beads: I give each of my house guests an hug and a flamingo necklace when they arrive. I am on the second series of necklaces. Jim, Marilyn and Andy are the only ones that have one from each series.

Sunrise - Sunset Quilt Tutorial - Rerun

This blog post has had almost 10,000 views since I posted it a little over 2 years ago.

That means there are still a few people out there who haven’t seen it!

I have lost track of the number of people who have made one of these – and some of you have made a lot of them.

I also call it the Potato Chip quilt since you can’t make just one! It is so much fun and so easy.

How many have you made Cassandra?

There has been so much interest in this quilt I thought I'd share how I did it with you.
As I said before I got the idea on line somewhere but I don't know where.
That is almost irrelevant as I "did my own thing" - just using the basic idea.
FABRIC REQUIREMENTS
38 different fabric strips. Each one should be 2 1/2 inches wide by the width of the fabric.
An accent fabric - 1/2 yard
SELECTING YOUR FABRICS
I suggest you choose fabrics that have something in common, but still have a variety of light, medium and dark.
I would also suggest you do not chose large prints with a lot of colors in them as they create their own set of design issues. Save them for something else.
TIPS FOR CHOOSING AN ACCENT FABRIC
1. Your accent fabric should contrast with each one of your fabrics. An example of that would be if you choose to use green and blue fabrics for your strips, you might choose pink or red for the accent.
2. It is also a good idea to choose an accent fabric that is more dramatic than the fabrics you chose for you strips.

ARRANGING THE ORDER OF YOUR FABRICS
1. Try to arrange your fabrics so the values and colors are evenly distributed in the order of the strips.
2. You can not preplan what is going to go next to what else so it is important you have kept this in mind when deciding the order of the strips. The finished quilt will be a pleasant surprise if you keep this in mind.
CUTTING
1. Cut a 2 1/2 inch by the width of the fabric strip from each of your fabrics. It is not necessary nor desirable that they each be exactly the same length
2. Cut 38 2 1/2 inch x 4 1/2 inch pieces from your accent fabric.
CONSTRUCTION - NOW THE FUN BEGINS!
You will sew all of the fabrics and spacers together to create one long strip which will measure approximately 1750 inches long.
1. Cut off 18 inches from the first strip and throw it in your scrap bin or the wastebasket. DO NOT USE IT
2. To the end of this first strip sew a spacer.
3. Sew the next long strip to the other end of the spacer.
4. Sew another spacer to the end of this strip.
5. Continue in this manner until you have sewn all the strips and spacers together ending with spacer.

6. Press seams to one side.
CREATING THE QUILT TOP FROM THE ONE LONG STRIP
1. Bring both ends of the strip to meet and place them right sides together.
2. Sew them together and you will now have a piece that is about 875" long.
Cut them apart on the fold at the end of the seam. (Do not press the seam now - You will do that later)
3. Match up both end of your strip and sew them together just as you did the first seam. This time you will only have to sew about 437 inches. Cut open on the seam as you did before.


4. Do the same thing 3 more times for a total of 5 seams. The last one will be about 55 inches.

PRESSING
Now it is time to press all the seams to one side.
I press first from the back with a dry iron.
I turn it over and press carefully from the front with a steam iron, making sure if there are any tucks in my pressing I press them out.
When all the strips have been sewn together I do a row of stitching less than 1/4 inch away from the edge to prevent any stitching that has been cut from coming undone.

All that is left is the quilting and finishing.
BET YOU CAN'T MAKE JUST ONE!

My Turquoise Is Green

This is the color I used to overdye the pieces I dyed strong orange last week.

It was interesting to see how different the results were on the cotton versus the silk.

On the silk the results were more of a  olive green shading to browns.

On the cottons the results were between a turquoise leaning green and a dusty green.

I am very pleased with this piece even though it was not exactly what I was trying to create.

You can see that whether the fabric was silk or cotton that STRONG orange was in control!

Although I sometimes know better to choose the colors I do when doing my dyeing, it always seems to be a pleasant surprise when I see the results.

I have taken Carol Soderlund’s Color Mixing For Dyers classes – both 1 and 2.

I do have the knowledge to control the results I get, but I am often a “by the seat of my pants” dyer!

Even being that kind of dyer the information I learned in Carol’s classes is something that guides me. I learned SO much in her classes.

My shibori techniques have been learned in Jan Myers Newbury’s classes.

Putting the two together has given me the skills and freedom to create some awesome fabrics I can create exciting quilts with.

If anyone wants to learn to dye fabric I highly recommend both of these instructors.

Silk Scarves–Orange Overdyed With Turquoise

When I dyed these silk scarves the orange was far to strong for almost anyone to wear.

I decided to overdye them with a turquoise. I didn’t have turquoise dye so I mixed my own.

No matter how much of the blue dye powder I added to the yellow it still was very green so I went with that.

It did tone them down somewhat but in the photo it still looks like a VERY strong orange.

I have a feeling the yellow in the mixed dye also did it’s work on the original orange.

These two scarves started out with a much paler orange as I used spent dyes to dye them orange.

I did a clamp resist on each of them and I am happy with them. They DID turn out very green.

Silk takes the dye quite differently than cotton and I will be sharing the cottons I over dyed soon.

What A Magic Weekend!

I just experienced a magic weekend. My friend Grace was here as my house guest and on Sunday afternoon our mutual friend Sally was able to come over so the three of us could be together again after all those years.

Grace and Sally are sitting in the rocking chairs I purchased almost 51 years ago to this day. Grace, I and our husbands went to a country auction in Ohio and I bought 3 pressed back rockers for $1 each to use on our porch. Grace remembers Jerry saying “And WHAT are you going to do with those Kay?”

Well over the years they have been navy blue, brown, green and now mint green and they are still going strong. I think I got my dollars worth although over the years one of them fell apart!

Grace and Sally at my usual photographic backdrop!

Grace and Kay

Sally and Kay

I wanted to get a picture of all three of us but I couldn’t figure out how to set my camera on the timer so these will have to do!

This is Grace’s farewell picture as she heads to visit another friend.

What a fantastic weekend. It is almost surreal that we were all together again. We are the kind of girlfriends who had no trouble picking up where we left off years ago and catching up on our lives.

Let’s not wait 50 more years to get together again!

Can It Really Be Almost 50 Years?

My friend Grace arrived yesterday for a visit. It has been almost 50 years since we last saw each other.

What an exciting get together. Today our mutual friend will be here so the three of us who were friends when we all lived in Ohio will be together again.

Grace and I had lost track of each other many years ago. With the aid of a friend and some sleuthing we made a connection a little over 3 years ago.

Color me happy, excited and so glad to see her.

Amulets–One Last Time

This is a small portion of the finished amulets. This shows the backs that I have signed.

Sometimes it takes me a while to decide which side to sign.

Some of them are just as lovely on both sides. On others there is no question which is the back.

I am ready for company now!

Peggy was just here so she got first pick from the new amulets!

211 Amulets

This is what 211 amulets look like several layers deep.

You can see there are a lot of acid green ones. Everyone wanted me to make some in those colors. I found it to be a neutral color that went with everything.

You can also see the pen sticking up in the bowl. I sign each and everyone so people will know who made them

As soon as I get them signed I’ll be ready for more company.

For anyone who still doesn’t know the story about them…..here it is.

When people come to my house they get to choose 2 amulets. They are to keep one and give one to someone else. It is my way of sharing my art with more people.

Each time they visit after that they get to pick one more. Some of my friends who visit often have quite a collection.

But this guy, my 7 year old grandson has the biggest collection of all!

He just lost his two front teeth and doesn’t look too happy about it.

I have had people ask if they can buy them and they are not for sale.

I have finished signing all 211!

Amulets–Acid Green and Deep Blue/Purple

It seems like so many people were excited about the prospect of my creating some amulets in acid green so I made a whole bunch of them. These are some of the ones I’ve baked and I have more waiting to be baked. I found Acid Green is a NEUTRAL….it seems to go with everything so I kept going until I had no more of the clay in that color!

Another person suggested the colors of deep blue and purple. I had a limited supply of canes in those colors. I used them all up making these amulets.

Today I will finish up on this project and get going on other things.

I have completed 176 amulets so with one more batch I will have completed over 200.