Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Studio Time: The Green Necklace

Here is the green necklace. I'm finding I'm reverting to my old style before I made jewelry...small beads and elegant and simple. I also have some wild and crazy brooches and pendants that I plan to incorporate, but I haven't figured out how to put them in a design without it being too jarring. Anything here is the elegantly silvered green with the silver clay pendant. The pendant design is from my own hand-carved design in polymer then stamped into the clay.


A splash of silver ink covers the beads to add elegance and tie into the pendant.




I also made a long necklace to go with the shorter one when I felt like wearing more jewelry.





Sunday, August 29, 2010

Studio Time: Style Whiplash - but I hope in a good way

Here is the style whiplash, but I do believe it's a tamer version of the some of the other pieces I've made lately. I've started working with fine silver clay a bit. I created my own stamp in polymer and used that on this pendant. I've also made the beads in hand-mixed Fimo polymer clay in variable shades of coral and painted them in silver ink.


I have a little green one that I'll show soon. As as the "Green Lady" (my favorite color) I'm keeping the green one. But, this one is available for $75 (including the earrings) if anyone is interested. I think I'm going to call this series "Artifacts".

Friday, August 27, 2010

Hong Kong Chronicles: A New Installment for my Future Book, "Memoirs of a Klutz"

It is important to have read this post to understand some of the things I will describe:

Swinging Like a Monkey

The double-decker buses have narrow, steep, circular stairways that go up and down. I had a friend with me and we were sitting on the top deck of the bus. Unfortunately, I realized we needed to get off the bus at the next stop. There is ideal timing for ascent and descent of the steps and they should be between the major lurches (Stop Lurch and Start Lurch). I started down the stairs in the Start Lurch where the bus has just spit out passengers and the driver basically stomps on the gas to get back into traffic. One thing I did do (learned the hard way) before I go down the stairs, is adjust my two bags so the straps are firmly on my shoulder and tightly clutched under my arms. I also employed my Four Point Death Grip going down. The stairs face backward on the bus and this is what posed the problem for me because I started down the steps just as the bus was heaving forward. My feet came off the steps and I was basically swinging like a monkey from the railings until the bus settled into it's driving rhythm and my feet swung back to the stairs.