Eye Shadow and Other Fun Stuff

Using eye shadow on clay is something I've done for a long time. I love the way it looks and there is usually a great selection of colors. So, I was looking at Etsy the other day and found this site. www.colorfuldesigns.etsy.com. Hmmm, maybe it has 2 L's? Anyway, this nice woman named Gail makes all these grand eye shadows and other make up products. She has a sampler packet that is perfect. Not only does it make super color on clay but it is fabulous eye liner! Here are pictures of 2 things I made using Gail's pigments. Now I have to go find the correct spelling of her site and add it to this blog. :D

A Cool New Mokume Gane

I got carried away and made another one of these scrap mokume "canes". I love this one. What do you think?

Angie's Crochet Hook

My pal Angie had a bunch of crochet hooks she needed to be made fatter. So, I volunteered to clay them for her. Then I got the bright idea that I could use my brand new cane to make it! I forget whose leaf cane this is but the poor little flowers are mine. :)

My Cane

Everybody on the forum has been ragging me to make canes. Yikes. So, my pal in South Africa, Kay, forced me to make this cane. It's the very first flower cane I ever made. Most likely it will be the very last one, too. I also made this silly plug from the green/blue blend that is posted below... a few posts ago. I am very proud of myself. Pat, pat, pat on my back. :) How silly is that? I spend hours making this thing. I now have one long skinny cane of a mediocre flower. I could have made dragons! :D

Bead Extravaganza!

Oh boy. What fun! I am putting lots and lots of very inexpensive loose bead sets on my Etsy site. Today it's mostly pinks. Wow, do I have a bunch of beads. Loose beads are just great, methinks. I love to buy beads from people if I don't want to make them or just want something totally different from what I make. It's inspiring to see what others make to sell from my beads, too. I have read that some folks don't seem happy to see their beads in a piece for sale by another. I love it! To my way of thinking, that's why people buy beads, mostly. To sell in their own piece. I think it's super. Anyway, here are a few pictures of some of the beads I have. Thanks for looking!

A Pen

So, you see those two blends a couple posts below? Well, I took the pink to purple one and made this pen. Came out nice, no? I like it. The first pen I made was a study in violence. I had to get out my mallet and whack it into submission to get all the parts together. My poor friend who got it will never be able to refill it. :( This one went together MUCH easier and when I sell it, it will actually come apart to accept a refill. I have one more set of pen guts to go. :D Now, I had NO idea people till bought pens. Really. I thought this was the electronic age and people didn't buy pens. SUCH a shock to find out I was wrong. I guess they are the perfect gift for men. My pal in Buffalo just loves his. :D

Putting Off Cleaning

So, we are having some friends over for dinner tonight. Cook? ME? We are all familiar with the term "Fat Chance!", right? So, we toddled off to Whole Foods. Or, as we call it, "Whole Paychecks". It's kind of hard to realize there is a bad recession happening when you go into a place that charges $8.00 for lettuce and find dozens of people shopping, isnt it? Anyway, we gave WF our hard earned savings and drove home with our dinner for tonight. Here in Hawaii, when you have people over and you're not really having a meal but still offer lots of food, you call it, "heavy pupus". That's what we're doing. WAY easier than a meal... meal. So.....

We have these kitties, as you all know. Allie and Ipo. The two of them can make enough fur overnight for full sized duplicate kitties... daily. I decide I ought to Swiffer up before our guests get here. They have cats so they might not even notice but still... it's only right and proper. I get out the Swiffer which immediately sends the cats into a frenzy. They think that something evil is about to happen to them. I think, we'll as long as they think that, let's cut their nails. Ok, I catch Ipo and we cut her nails. Aliie has done her vanishing act. This involves knocking over several boxes of my jewelry that was sitting out because I has an impromptu "fair" yesterday. Allie finally reappears and I catch her and we cut her nails.

It seems that when cats are displeased, they shed as much fur as they can without being bald. I now have to re-swiffer. See? I made a new word. Now I have clean floors. So, I decide to put away my jewelry. Cat hair by the ton in the bottom of the wicker chest I keep it in. HOW did this happen? I just wiped it out with a wet towel! A wet Sham Wow. I'm telling you that everything New York Vince tells you is true. I am still using the same Sham Wow that we bought about 7 years ago. How cool is that? I get distracted easily, as you can see. :D Mine is so old it still reads, "Made in West Germany."

You wanna know the coolest thing, tho? On TV the commercial tells you it's not sold in stores. Not true! What they mean is, it's not sold in stores UNDER THAT NAME. I forget the name of Sham Wows in stores but all you need to do is look for the orange color, if it says 100% rayon and "made in Germany". They are probably out of the old almost a Communist ones by now. Great product, tho!

Anyway, now that I am through discussing someone else's products, I have to go Swiffer again, most likely. I'm sure Ipo and Allie have left plenty of fur for me.

But, before I go... look at my Starry Night pendant. I don't know how the stars are going to look in this picture but it's really cool. It looks like orange flowers blooming in a sky full of stars.

Have a nice long weekend, everyone! :D

I Forgot

I was going to post this necklace I made from these giant beads my friend in Scotland made. I love these beads and I'm really happy with this necklace. I hope Chris is happy with what I did with her beautiful beads! :D

Hiya!

Well, all is back to "normal". And I made a couple blends. Now, you who know skinner blends can make these things in your sleep. I, however, was skinner blend challenged. Then my pal Kathi said, "ecru is your friend" and POOF! All is well on the skinner front. I am very happy with how these came out and now I'm dying to do more. :) Thanks, Kathi!

No Posts Today

I'm grouchy today so no fun posts. :(

Fire Alarms

Ok, it's Saturday night. Just about 9PM, to be exact. I'm sitting here minding my own business reading my emails when the fire alarm goes off. Now, I KNOW they aren't testing at this hour. My poor kitties went air born and have disappeared. The alarm rings loudly enough and long enough that the entire 5th Division could arrive. Naturally, there is no fire. I now hear the previously mentioned Manager Man out in the hallway glad handing all the catatonic people. I am NOT opening my door. He might sneak in and turn off my newly found hot water.

Now, what I wanna know is this: why is it that fire alarms have absolutely NO effect on anyone other than to piss them off? Did you ever, in your life, see or even hear of someone getting up and running out of their place because they thought it was a fire? I never have. Not at home and not when I worked downtown. Same thing with the Early Warning sirens. NOBODY pays any attention to them, either. Except that they scare the crap out of our kitties.

A few months ago the one across the valley malfunctioned and that miserable thing wailed at us for almost 15 minutes. But, do you know that not one single person stopped what they were doing to look for falling bombs?

Car alarms. Did you ever hear of anyone saying..."oh, listen! Some poor person is getting their car broken in to"? Never. You hear LOTS of expletives and many wishes that the owner of the car loses various essential body parts but nobody goes to stop the thieves. We are complacent.

One day Fearless Leader is going to send his nukes over and we will all stand around wondering what that bright light is. Jeez. All this because of fire alarms.

I'm going off and read my thriller. :D

Hot Water and Other Assorted Problems

What do you think? Most Americans have hot water? Well, I think so, too. Unless it involves this particular building in Honolulu. Almost 2 years ago they put in this new AC unit thing. It's a big hulking piece of machinery that lurks in the back of our building out of sight, mostly. Since it has been installed, we rarely have hot water. Now, why does the air conditioning hulk affect your hot water, you query. The answer is... nobody knows.

One fine day I turn on the water n our kitchen and lo and behold, the water coming out is lukewarm. So, I let it run a bit getting guiltier by the minute because Hawaii always has a water shortage. No joy. So, I get dressed and toddle out to the manager's office where I see him, sitting there unsuspecting.

Where is the hot water, I ask? He professes to be shocked that we don't have any and promises to go fix the problem. Ok, that's dandy. I go home. No hot water. By lunch I am back in the office along with half the other people in the building. OK, he'll call the Hulk people. You may as well know that this all occurred around last Christmas.

Fast forward to today. All this time we have had sporadic hot water. So, a few weeks ago we are going days without any hot water. Now, you gotta understand that this building has a maintenance fee that's more than the gross national average of most small countries. This is a building where the rents run from $1800.00/mo to $2500.00/mo. My friend in the midwest told me our maintenance fee is TWICE her mortgage for her 2 story 5 bedroom house. We are NOT amused.

So, I decide that I am going to go out daily and harangue the manager until we get some hot water. Each time I go there I get overwhelmed with stories about valves and shut offs and... get this... the weather makes a difference! We do not have solar heating, I bellow! No matter. He tells me that if it gets cloudy the Hulk can't make hot water. I guess it gets depressed when it can't get a tan or something.

I jump all over this. I tell him.. Manager Man, you seem to have forgotten that we live in HAWAII! It doesn't GET cold here. Or at least not cold enough to make our hot water disappear. Jeez. Ok, next day I get a different story.

Now it is because our unit is X number of feet from the Hulk and the hot water has to travel farther. WHAT! I smile sweetly and say, Manager Man, if I go out to the hallway and SPIT, I can hit the Hulk. Hmmm, I can see his wheels turning. He is out of silly stories for me. I go home and go back the next day where I overhear him telling another hot waterless person that it's because they are on the 8th floor. I can't stand it so I pipe in and say... hey! we're on the first floor! The neighbor is happy but Manager Man is most displeased with me. :D

The next day another neighbor is yelling at MM because she has to boil water to clean off her cutting board upon which she slices up dead things. I ponder telling her all about the joys of vegetarianism but decide that she is liable to slice ME up next. So, in the interest of good neighborliness, I keep my mouth shut. You all know how difficult that was. :(

Then the next day I wake up to find our two toilets happily burbling away with a zillion air bubbles. See previous post about weird toilets. MM tells me it is , no doubt, OUR plumbing problem. Mysteriously, the burbling goes away in 2 days.

Now it is a couple days ago. It's been beautiful hot sunny weather (so, where's our hot water, Manager Man?) I decide to go to the pool. We have this gorgeous pool area. The whole place looks like a fancy resort. Our pool is wonderful. So, B and I get into the water and... yep... you guessed it. The water is hot enough for a bath tub!

I start thinking...THIS is where our hot water is going? To keep the pool at 98 degrees? Yiikes. So, I go see MM. Oh, NO! The pool water temp had NOTHING to do with the building hot water. MM will fix the pool water. Miraculously, he does and the next day the pool is back to normal. And....I actually have some hot water. Of course this doesn't last long.

Now all this brings me to the fact that in one hour they are going to turn off all our water to fix the problem. Hah. And tomorrow, too. The sign says, basically, we're turning off your water for 2 entire days so MAYBE it will fix the hot water problem. Do you love this? Every day I expect to see hoards of angry neighbors in the lobby with their staves and pitch forks.

Good thing we don't live in England where they call pitch forks "garden forks". It's pretty hard to scared of a garden fork. "Watch out! Run! That guy over there is pissed and he will stab you with his garden fork!" Just doesn't have the same fear factor, do it?

Am I having fun yet?

Kitties!

Oh my! Do you love cats? And dogs? I just looked at www.nicolejahan.com. Go, now! Her pictures of cats are absolutely wonderful! She has tons of them and they are all absolutely darling. I want them all. She's in France but there is an English translation button to click. SOOOO cute. You just want to pick up all the kitties and pet them.

Col's Creations

Col's Creations. This is my niece's blog so go visit her, ok? What a talented person! Artsy, computer literate, and can lay hard wood floors. How cool is THAT? I mean, how many people do you know that have their own carpentry company and can build a website, too? No doubt she got her talent from her aunty. :D :D :D Well, ok... so I can't do anything on computers.... ;(

I am posting these light switch covers because Col has shown me her cool switch plates that she covered with tissue! I think they are marvelous but I just couldn't resist showing off my clay ones. :D Without further ado....

Pardo and Leaves

Ok, here is a picture of my oak leaf.  The only one that turned out even though the alcohol inks didn't separate.  I read on my clay forum today that someone had great success with their alcohol inks experiment.  :(  I don't know what I did or didn't do.  Poop.  

Anyway, here is a little steam punky heart I made with the new Pardo clay from Germany.  I love this color.  It's called Fire Opal and it's a great color.  

And then I made these cool brass earrings.  I love them!  Probably too long for an old lady but I still like them.  Maybe I will make myself a shorter pair.  

I was also messing around with canes.  WHAT!?  Moi?  Canes?  Oiks.  I will go post them on the forum so everyone can laugh.  :D

Mystery Miles

Ok, this is what I wanna know. HOW do I get brain dead between Barnes & Nobel and our condo? Anybody got an answer? I mean, this is what happens: we go to B&N where I read all the new magazines and books and, much of the time, wind up buying them. I am all excited and have a zillion ideas! Man, I can't WAIT to get home so I can try a bunch of stuff. By the time I sit at my table, my head has mysteriously emptied itself of all inspiration and I sit there like a clod wondering what happened.

Or worse: I will sit down and open a new magazine and decide to try a project. And it doesn't even come close. The most recent was the article on Ranger Adirondack inks in the new PolymerCAFE... the one with the hot air balloon on it. I thought... oh, cool colors! I have those inks, I will try this. So, I sits myself at my table and gets out my white clay. Oh boy.

Now, the authors used Sculpey. I don't have that so I used Fimo Effects and then Kato white. Ok, I didn't have the black ink but I did have eggplant and some of the other colors mentioned.

Now, eggplant is the color more famously referred to on this blog as PUCE. A generally revolting color and not even CLOSE to any eggplant I have ever seen. Although... it does resemble a petrified eggplant. Maybe. In a nightmare.

So, I jump in glee as now I have something to do with the EP/Puce color I thought about flinging out my window except I don't wanna get arrested for puce-ing Hawaii. They may have kept the death penalty for that. :( I can talk my way out of most everything but I don't think even my glib tongue could get me out of the Puceification Of Hawaii.

So, I sit there and dutifully follow directions and heat gun the stuff and everything. What happens? I now have a EP/puce colored Fimo Effect oak leaf. The ink does NOT separate and/or change color as the authors said it would. Ok, maybe this is the clay, I think. Nah... can't be, but MAYBE....

So, I change brands. I now have TWO EP/puce colored oak leaves. Swell. So, undaunted I think... ok, I have Premo. So, I gets out my Premo frost as I am not opening a new white to have more puce colored clay leaves. Two are 2 more than I want.

I follow the directions again. Heat gun. And what do I have? A third puce oak leaf. What is the problem?! she shouts to the uncaring sky! Does Sculpey have some mysterious ingredient clay force field that forces Adirondack inks to separate?

Cindy! Where are you? Cindy Lietz (oh, I hope I spelled your name right!) knows ALL about experiments and colors and stuff. She is our polymer clay tutor and has a grand blog... over there>>>>>>>.

I was making leaves because I actually retained this great idea I had about making a really cool oak leaf necklace. You know... lots of leaves in all those cool inks that had run and changed colors. :( Why oak leaves, you query? I have no idea. Not a lot of oak trees in Hawaii. :D Must be a hang over from a past life as a Druid. Although we NEVER ever had puce leaves. Really.

The upshot of this entire failed experiment is that I am now the proud owner of exactly ONE small oak leaf that is actually usable. Made of 3 colors that are not puce. What is it with me and puce anyway?

Beads From Gilly

My friend Gilly, in Australia, sent me these black and silver beads.  I had just gotten a new wire wrapping book and voila!  This is what I made!  Thanks, Gills!

Some New Things

It's summer and time for cute little critters and other various assorted non jewelry items.  I keep seeing Mother's Day reminders all over the place so I thought... maybe there are froggy loving moms out there!  :D

Some New Stuff

When I don't know what to make but just need to make something, I get out my beads and scrap clay.  This turquoise and chain necklace was made with random beads and some new chain I bought.  I made the hook on pendant out of some cool scrap clay that my friend Kathi gave me.

Then I decided I would try my hand at a Julie Picarillo (SP?) style pendant.  It sure isn't as great as Julie's but I like it.  And that turquoise one with the 3 little metal thingies is for wire wrapping.  No holes.  :D

And I have been messing around with basic wire work, too.  I love wire but haven't played with it for a while so I got out a couple books and began at the beginning.  Aren't I smart?  :)I made another cool bracelet with wire and beads but I didn't photograph it yet.  Later.  :D