Hello again!

Hello!  It's been so very quiet around the blog lately!  I'm sorry about that but it seems the Muse has been on vacation and didn't want to return.  But, slowly she's beginning to realize that return she must and so things are beginning to happen in the studio again.  Seriously though, my mojo up and left after mid-August, but with the coming of Fall I'm beginning to slowly come back to creating.  And, I'm so happy to be back in the studio.

The summer did provide two new things to put in the creative tool box.  Zentangles and Gelli Plates!
My daughter and I started learning the Zentangle method and  yesterday we took a class using the Gelli Plate.  We came home with two tiny books of papers we painted with the Gelli Plate.  I'll show those to you soon.  We both decided to use them for Zentangles.  We tend to do that sometimes, get the same idea independently of each other!  It's fun when it happens.  But, today I have something different to share. 

My dear, dear husband bought me a Speed Fire mini kiln for metal clay firing and I finally started working with some CopperClay.  I love metal clay.  It's magical to me that you begin with clay and end up with metal!  I had worked with PMC3 and BronzeClay before but never copper.  Well, along with the kiln he provided me with a package of CopperClay.  Here are my first pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

I found that CopperClay is easy to work with and the firing went well.  I used a floral border stamp as a texture plate and cut the strip of clay into rectangles.   I wanted a neutral combination so I chose some 10mm black fire polished beads from the stash to use with the copper.  I'm pleased with the results of my first attempt at using my own kiln. 

 

 

That is my first entry back into the creative world I love so much!  I want to thank you for stopping by.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  

 



New look and new earrings!

I've been wanting to improve the look of my blog for a long while and I decide this rainy Sunday  was the time to do it.   I have to tell you that I'm not very good at technology of any kind.  I know the very basics and that's about it and so I've been putting off doing anything to this blog.  But, I was dissatisfied with it and decided to take the plunge.  Well, it wasn't too bad, but it seems I've ended up with  a quick slideshow of headers fonts that I auditioned and I can't seem to get rid of it no matter what I do.  I'm hoping it'll sort itself out, or I'll stumble upon a way to clean it up, which is usually how I accomplish things on a computer!  Any suggestions for fixing it are greatly appreciated! 

But, moving on to something more fun.  I follow Kristi Bowman's blog.  Kristi makes wonderful copper clay jewelry componentswhich she sells on Etsy. Well, she was previewing some components she was getting ready to post in her store one day recently. I loved one set of earrings she had made.  So, I ordered them from her.  I already knew what I wanted to do with them.  I finally had the time to turn them into earrings this week.  Here's what they look like.

Isn't that copper fabulous?  I think it is.  And, I love combining crystals with the rustic copper.  I used some 3mm and 4mm crystals and wrapped them around the bottoms of the components.  I should mention that Kristi had already put five holes in the bottom of each component.  So, wrapping was easy.  You can see see the holes and how I finished the wire in the back in this picture.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  They are very comfortable to wear and the copper is so well done and light weight.  They're a fun addition to my ever-growing collection of earrings.  But, hey, a girl can never have too many earrings, right?!!! 

I hope you have a good day.  If you're in the East it's a very rainy day.  But, we really need the rain so we can't complain.  Take the indoor time to work on something fun!  Thanks for stopping by.