My wonderful customer that won the Mother's Day basket is an Easter egg collector. To add to her collection of eggs, besides the ones she has already bought from me, she commissioned me to make these new eggs for her. A whole rainbow of goose and chicken eggs. It was my pleasure. She needed the pick me up. Thanks again, Boonie.

We have a Winner!!

I am so excited!! The winner of this super excellent Mother's Day gift basket was on of my customers! I know she is going to love all the great gifts she won.
Thanks Bonnie!!

Spoil your mom or yourself for that matter! Win a Beautiful Basket Full of gorgeous Polymer Clay items. No Purchase Necessary. To be entered into the drawing, either purchase an item from the stores below from April 11^th to the 25^th or send an email to laurelsteven@sbcglobal.net with your name and email address.

What better way to honor your mom than with a handcrafted, beautiful item from the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy members? Shop handmade on Etsy. Shop at the stores listed below to enter!

AlisonEKurek.etsy.com

11BOLDStreet.etsy.com

Beckysuecreations.etsy.com

Higirls.etsy.com

JKollmann.etsy.com

Kellyplaysclay.etsy.com

Marcympc.etsy.com

NKDesigns.etsy.com

Peggers.etsy.com

Polymerclaycreations.etsy.com

Ashpaints.etsy.com

ThePleasantPheasant.etsy.com

November Monthly Challenge

The theme for this month's PCAGOE Challenge is "Seasonal". We were asked to create entries depicting either the Fall or Winter seasons, or in the case of our members residing outside the U.S., the climate season they are currently experiencing in their part of the world. In the alternative, the members could choose to create an entry celebrating one of the holidays observed during the Fall and Winter months.
I chose to do an Autumn themed project. I love the golds and coppers of the Fall. The colors are all so warm and rich. My daughter-in-law also loves pumpkins and fall, so I created these pumpkins for a birthday gift for her. They are made by first sculpting a pumpkin shape over a glass Christmas ball. Next I made a mokume gane sheet with gold, copper and pearl premo metallic clays that I stamped with a leaf design. I then covered the pumpkin with the sheet.
The voting started November 1st and goes through midnight Eastern of the 7th. Go to our Challenge Voting Page to cast your vote. Just for voting you are eligible to receive a great prize created by one of our members.

PCAGOE October Monthly Challenge

The theme for this month's Challenge is "Southwest". I thought long and hard about what I might want to do. There are so many great colors in that part of the US. Turquoise, coral, bright yellows and golds. When I think of the Southwest I also think of Indians and their culture. I was googling "southwest" and came across some gorgeous Indian blankets, and so that is how my creation was born.

I first started by building a box. I covered an ordinary square jewelry gift box with scrap clay and baked it. After it was baked I popped out the gift box and wah-lah, had a handmade box. While the box had been baking I was making a Bargello cane to simulate a pattern I had seen in one of the blankets. After the box cooled I covered it with a sheet made with my new "blanket" cane. I smoothed it on, then extruded a rope to afix to all the edges for a more finished look. Next I drew a picture of a Kokopelli in the center of the lid. Then I cut out the drawing with my exacto knife. Next I backfilled the Kokopelli shaped hole with black clay. The tee-pees are slices of a cane that I had made for another project about a year ago. I just cut out the shape of the tee-pee and then inserted a slice of the cane. Baked, then sanded in 5 grits of wet/dry sandpaper. To describe the process doesn't take long, but actually doing it took me the better part of two days. I'm really happy with it. In my humble opinion, I believe it represents the Southwest pretty good.

The entries are all in...see them here. Voting starts on October 1st and goes through Midnight Eastern of the 7th on the same website. Five lucky voters will win one of these great prizes donated by fellow guild members and I. My contribution is the purple millefiori pendant in the second row.

It's Fall Here in the Great Northwest

Fall has officially made it to my neck of the woods. It seems as though we hardly had a summer and it is already over. This time of the year seems to go so fast too. Before you know it, it will be icy and cold. One good thing about this time of year are all the wonderful colors. The leaves all turn the most gorgeous shades of yellow, orange and red. The fall flowers are all blooming too. My garden is full of mums in beautiful shades of lavender, crimson and gold. And don't get me started on all the gorgeous sunflowers. All the beautiful colors inspired me to created a few fall themed things.

First I made a few borderless canes in some fall colors. Here is a charm bracelet made with a yellow sunflower cane.and some buttons with a caramel brown sunflower caneThis is a barrette made with Autumn colored leaves. So many things to make and so little time to do them. It is almost time to start thinking about Christmas too. Lots of ideas swirling in my head.

August Monthly Challenge, Time to Vote!

This month our members were challenged to create an entry incorporating paints, foils, leafs or inks into their polymer designs. 21 members took the challenge this month. They had the option of including one or more, or all of the required elements. The only other rule is that their entry must be at least 50% polymer clay. The entries really showcase the amazing versatility of polymer clay and how it can be enhanced, embellished, and even manipulated into something which looks completely different than what it is.

Please go to our challenge voting website to cast your vote. Voting begins August 1, 2010 and ends at midnight, Eastern U.S. time on August 7, 2010. The winners chosen in each category and the voter prize winners will be announced at http://www.pcagoe.com/ on August 8, 2010. Five (5) lucky public voters, chosen at random, will also win a beautiful polymer clay prize created by one of our many talented artists. Please note that winning voters will have one week from the date we contact you and ask for your mailing address so we can send you your prize.

Here are the beautiful prizes available this month.

My entry is number 12, the colorful watercolor swirls necklace. It is hollow lentils made with pearl clay, silver leaf, metallic mica powders, and alcohol inks. I strung them together with some colorful faceted crystals and finished it off with a Swarovski toggle closure. It reminds me of a Monet watercolor painting Please go to http://www.pcagoechallenge.blogspot.com to cast your vote before Midnight Eastern on August 7th to cast your vote.

I made it to 1000 !!!

Feedback at my Etsy store that is. I want to thank all my loyal customers who have come back to buy from me time and again. I truly appreciate each and everyone of you. Of course thank you also to you one time buyers. Couldn't have made it here without you all.

I am having a Mother's Day sale in my store to celebrate every wonderful Mother out there. From now until May 2nd I will take 15% off your total purchase and every order over $50 gets free shipping.

What Mother doesn't deserve a beautiful handmade gift? I have so much to chose from, anything from a 24kt gold accented pen and keychain setto a pretty purple and blue millefiori floral necklace and earrings set.Or maybe she collects eggs or trinket boxes. I have several of each to chose from. Here are just a couple.

I have all kinds of unique gifts, jewelry and more to chose from. Just for being one of my followers here, I'll give you an extra 5% on top of the 15% off your total order. Just let me know before you check out and I'll adjust your invoice.

Thanks again to all my loyal customers!!

More New Things

I have been claying for over 7 years. Don't ask me why, but I have never bought a "how to" book, until now. I finally bought myself "The Art of Polymer Clay, Creative Surface Effects" by Donna Kato. Now I'm asking myself why did I wait 7 years to buy it? I am loving it! I have hardly put it down since I got it. I have been experimenting with all kinds of new techniques, and expanding my repertoire of techniques I thought I knew. The first thing I did was make reverse images of all my stamps and texture sheets. I had never thought of doing that before. You get twice the use out of them all just by reversing them, who knew?

This heart was the first thing I made using my new found knowledge. It is faux cloisonne. It was made using one of my newly made reverse stamps. I used pearl-ex mica powders and gold acrylic paint and finished with a layer of liquid polymer clay.

The next thing I tried was a technique where you paint on transparent clay with alcohol inks. Then you put on another very thin layer of trans. On this layer you add gold leaf and stamp images with more alcohol ink. Then you add another very thin layer of trans to seal it. This barrette and bangle were made with this technique.

This tile bracelet and necklace were made by stamping black clay with a reverse stamp and then painting the raised areas with different colors of acrylic metallic paint. Then I flattened the sheet out and made tile beads. There is a method of making the beads in the book that is much easier than I had been doing. The beads have a coating of liquid polymer clay baked on the protect and give it a great shine and dimension.

I've already ordered my next book. Hopefully it will be as fascinating as this one.

What I've been working on lately.....

I was kind of missing working with my floral canes lately. A few days ago I worked on some millefiori all day. I made the beads for this bracelet, plus some hollow lentils and some buttons. After I got that out of my system, I went back to playing with the mica powders and alcohol inks. This heart is some black clay with gold leaf on it. Then I put one drop at a time of a whole bunch of different colored inks. Letting the ink dry between each color. Lastly I added a very thin layer of premo transparent over the top to seal the colors in.

This pendant started out with pearl clay and then gold leaf. Next I stamped it with a design to kind of crackle the leaf and leave some impressions. Next I brushed some red and copper mica powders on. Then I added some watermelon and salmon colored alcohol ink. After the ink dried I smoothed it out and then added a layer of transparent. Lastly I stamped it with an Asian stamp with the character for "peace".After baking, sanding and buffing, I painted it with black and gold paint to highlight the symbol.This bracelet was made for my sister for her Birthday. It is the scraps left over from the tutorial I worked on a couple weeks ago. I just took the leftovers and marbled them together then made a veneer to cover one of my premaid Ultra-light clay bracelet blanks. It looks really cool in person, the transparent and pearls clays really add a lot of depth. Hopefully she liked it.

Did you Spring Forward?

Sunshine and Rainbows
Originally uploaded by polymerclaycreations

Spring is almost here and I am so ready!! Even though we here in the great Northwest haven't really had too harsh of a winter, I still am looking forward to some warmer weather. I could live in the tropics so easy. Definately a warm climate person here. Must be in my blood. My Mother is from Rio de Janiero, and I have lived there a couple times, so I think it could be I'm warm blooded deep inside.
This photo is of a covered CD made into a suncatcher. I titled it Sunshine and Rainbows. Two of my favorite things :) It is my most popular picture posted on my flickr photostream. It has had 2880 views and is marked as a favorite by 60 people.
I have been told my art is so colorful and bright it just makes you happy to look at it. I hope it so. It makes me happy to create it.