Where have all the leaves gone?

This is the right side of my front yard. Lots of trees as you can see. They keep the house cool in the summer, but lots of leaves to rake around this time of year. So we just pile up the leaves in the back yard and forget about raking it. There are more trees in the backyard and still some on the trees, so there will be a couple more raking before it's all clean up.

I like to rake leaves and look for the perfect leaves on the ground. I like the crispy and crunchy sound when I step on them. The smell of dried leaf reminds me of the time when I was young. During summer, my dad will take me and my brother to the tobacco plantations around northern part of Thailand. He worked with the Tobacco Company. My kids used to do front flip on to the pile of leaf. Each year, we have more and more leaves, and the tress are getting taller and taller. We barely have a sunny spot on the yard, so not much grass to mow in summer.

And we have 3 doggies who roam the yard. There is a patch of sunny spot near Ada's room. May be we can fence that area away from the dog and we can have a garden for Ada, I wish.

I also make White&Blue beads for the bracelets. The Indianapolis Colts has won all of their games so far, may be, may be, some Colts' fan want to buy a cute bracelet.

My last Dahlia is still blooming. It is small and does not have a perfect form but Scott is jealous. Last month the temp. in Chicago area had dropped down below 32, so Scott lost all of his Dahlia. He was sad.

More time to clay for Scott. can't wait to see what he will WOW us with.

Mushroom

I started making these mushrooms after I came back from the IPCA Retreat in Chicago. The inspiration came from the odd looking stuffs and creatures on Leslie Blackford's table. They are beyond my imagination. Only Leslie can come up with such things.

I start using left over skinner-blend for the mushroom cap, my flower cane for the gill, and I can see endless possibilities.
How about orange-yellow mushroom?












How about Witch-Hat-Halloween Mushroom, with tiny pumpkins. Cute ha!









Then come along Christmas Mushroom, with tiny tree.




Or Easter Mushroom, Patriot Mushroom in July.

Last week at Claypen chat, Jackie asked us to make something for Breast cancer Awareness, so here's my Pink Ribbon Mushroom.

Fall color

I mixed up a plate full of fall color clay and wonder what can I do with them.

Fall color acorns

Fall color acorn earrings.

More tutorials

@ http://www.polymerclaybeads.blogspot.com/

Flower necklace

With the Flower cane I made, I came up with the design of the necklace shown here. I am not satistfied with it yet, so it will sit on my table for a couple of day. But I finished the tutorial for my flower cane. Nothing fancy, but I am sure the beginner would enjoy it.

Here is the link to my EASY FLOWER CANES.

Here are some of the earrings I made using the flower canes. I will post the tutorail about that later.

My first Dahlia

Finally, my first, my very own, Dahlia is in full bloom.

You might have seen pictures of beautiful Dahlias from Scott's garden. Among other things, Scott is the Dahlia Master. This spring, Scott sent me a box of 20 dahlia tubers, so I can plant them in my garden. Unfortunately, my yard is very shady under tall tree's canopy and Dahlia loves full sun. I found a semi-sunny spot and plant 15 of them, only 10 sprout. Gave a way 2 to my friend and send 3 with my husband so he can grow behind the shop. They were eaten by the rabbit along with other flowers

In the box, came a page long instruction, a bag of slug bate and a bag of bone meal. I also got instruction via e-mail, something like the use of Vaseline and tie to the pole, ;), etc. It was a lot of work but something for me to do in the morning after getting out of bed before I go on with my daily routine.

By the time Scott was cutting his first bucket of Dahlia from his garden, I got my first, little, tiny bud. By the time Scott was cutting his third bucket, my first Dahlia is finally bloom. I told him about it and he said YEH! Scott's dahlias was about the size of dinner plate,about 6"to 8" to 12", mine is about a size of Barbie's dinner plate, about 2". I have about 25 buds waiting to open and I hope they bloom before winter.

I also got a lot of inspiration from pictures of the Dahlia that Scott sent me. Two years ago I was lucky enough to get a vase full of flowers from his garden when he came in town. They are so beautiful and so elegant. The form and color of each one are so seductive, I just want to grab a brush, paint, canvas and pretend that I was Georgia O'Keeffe and made those flowers came alive on my painting. Only in my dream.

I put a tutorial about how I made my EASY LEAF CANE on my other blog, and I will show how I make the flower cane later on. This is very funny because I used to swear that I will not make cane. I changed my mind then. LOL

I am in the process of putting those flowers and leaves into a necklace. Will show that later.

P.S. The Vaseline will help prevent some bugs to climb up the plant by rubbing it to the stem, and dahlia plants are tall and slender so they need to be tie to a pole or plant stake, especially when you have a big, giant flowers like Scott has.

My old house

This is the picture of the living room of my nephew's house. He just turns 30. I was taking care of him when he was born until he was 2. I came to US to go to school and ended up staying here for 27 years. I went home every 2-3 years but did not have a chance to spend time with him. Thanks to Facebook, I am now reconnected with my nephew again. He follows our footstep and became an artist, a designer. He designed and built this house on the land behind our old house. Instead of living in the condo, highrise in the city, he choose to live on the ground. You can see through the window, on the background, my old house. It must be almost 100 years old, built with teak wood so it withstand the climate for 4 generations.
You can see more of his house Krit & Mariko's house here. Notice the Japanese influence in the design and the way he left the space for the existing tree. Love it, love it.
Also the dinning table was the one that we used since we were kids.
Next year we will tear down the old house, keep the wood, of course, and build a studio for him. I am so proud of my nephew, and can't wait to see what he comes up with the new addition.
Krit and I had agreed to do corroborated work for Synergy 2 next year. He asked what can I make with Polymer Clay, and I told him that I can make just about anything with Polymer clay. We will see.

First Tutorial after a while

I just finished posting a new tutorial on my other blog and realized how much I missed doing this. So checkit out.
Nothing fancy, just how to make a mold and used it for texture.

Shell texture earrings Tutorial

Ok, I give up

Yes I did. Why? Because the idea of me making up a project and send it to the publisher so it will get publish and I will be able to collect some money for my idea, seems like I have to do some work, lots of work and I just want to play. I have saved up a few projects, took pictures and wrote down the instruction, but I have never send them in. The though of holding it back for 6 months or a year till they get published seem like an eternity. Then the new idea became an old idea and I wouldn't care more or less about it.
I will dig them out and post them on my blog, just like before.

Sorry I have to break up my promises, but I have to follow my heart.

So I will start today with how I covered the tin at the retreat.

I covered the tin with a sheet of Green clay, then pinched out a tiny bit of clay (with finger nail)and rolled it into a tiny ball, rolled it into a tiny snake, and kept rolling on one side till I get a point. Then I used the needle to picked up each one and push it into the base. I called this "Katherine Dustin Wanna be" process.

Next, I made a dandelion (I'll show you how I made it later), some leaves, a tiny house, a lady bug, some stone path and stuck them on the base. Filled the entire surface with green grass.

For the tiny pebbles, I pinched out a tiny piece of clay from different color clay, rolled into tiny balls and flatten them lightly. Lined them up randomly. With my finger, I pressed lightly on to those pebbles (they will stick to finger), then pressed them on to the side of the base.

The Monarch butterfly is the cane made by my friend, Scott. I cut a thick slide off the cane, trimmed off the translucent around it, stuck a small copper wire into it, pushed the other end into the dandelion. Called it "The greener grass on the other side of the fence" and I won.

Maureen Carlson, my table mate called it "The Who's House". So I made a matching ring with a mushroom on top where the "Who" family went camping this summer.

I hope you like it. Now that I feel much better, please come back because I have more to share.

IPCA Retreat - Chicago

I had a chance to attend the IPCA retreat last week. It was a wonderful experience and I had a great time. This is my first retreat and it sure won't be the last. As you know, I haven't been able to sit down and clay and finish a project as I want to. The first day I was there, I was lost, confused and felt guilty that I left my daughter home. I sat down at the table in the back of the room, next to me was Maureen Carlson, whom I met at Synergy last year and Leslie Blackford.
As people start walking around the room, some familiar faces, some new faces stopped by my table and looked at my rings. I showed everyone how to make it and Christi F. wanted to buy one, then Lisa P. wanted one. I ended up selling and making more rings each day.
I have to admit that I can't sit still or stand still long enough for the demo. There are many artist who demo and shared their wonderful techniques. Most of the time when I saw other artist's works, instead of asking them how they do it, I like to figure out myself. The challenge of trying to figure out how they do it is more exciting.


I finally had time to sit with Leslie Blackford and she showed me how to make these bird. She grew on me. These two lovely birds I made while she was stepping out and told me to do something with it. LOL It is not easy to think outside the box, but I think I got the hang of it.

Speaking of box. Lisa P. gave us a small tin to cover. I just finished the pink and purple ring above so I decided to make some grass with a Dandelion (the official flower of my yard). The beautiful butterfly is a cane made by Scott.

We went out to dinner and I told people that I did not read Dr. Seuss books for my kids when they were young because it did not make sense to me. Maureen was talking about the "Who" so I made a tiny little house for the "Who" under the Dandelion. The title of the box is "The greener grass on the other side of the fence". I won 1st place and received a box full of wonderful things from Lisa P.

It was nice to get away so I can clear my head, gather some thought and feel good about myself again. Driving home during midnight hour by myself was quite a challenge though. So many clay friends who care about me and my daughter just filled up my heart over the weekend. Spending an evening with my best Friend and his mom was memorable. To be able to get out of the house and be sure that Ada will be very well taken care of is a good feeling.

Life is still good.

Wild things are back

Yes, "Wild things" is trying to make a come back. I am able to get more hours for the nurse to come and stay with Ada, so I can sit at my work table longer. There are a few changes even though I can sit and work as long as I can. My table is in front of Ada's room and I am still going in and out as she might needs me. First, I start making cane. Oh yes, if you know me, this is a big one. I am able to make a few flower canes to use in the pendants and beads. Love those skinner-blend and had to use the last piece of it, so I stacked them up. By using Mokume gane technique, I came up with another pendant. This is getting more fun.

Second, I am using the same design or similar one, this way I can make enough beads to finish a necklace or two using the same color palette.

Third, using the same clay so I can get the same color or same hues every time. I started using different clays and had to go back to Fimo because the colors does not blend in together easily. For example. if I run red and yellow through the pasta machine, I do not want orange line between them. Is that make any sense? Fimo is more firm and good for caning.

Hope you like them. More are coming up.

UFO-Unfinished Object

I have some free time today so I looked through my stuff and found some UFOs. Since I had made a whole bunch of small beads fro the bracelet, I am able to find enough matching beads for them.

Those "Bubble" pendants I made a few years ago. They were quite a hit back then. The copper components were made for decoration or using with scrapbook.

The donut pendant is the last stone I bought from Hong Kong. With a little bit of this and that, I finally finished the necklace.

You can imagine my work table is full of beads and things. I work better with everything at my finger tip. Bad habit, I know.

Stone pendant, pebbles, Polymer Clay beads and pendants, Czech glass beads, seed beads, Thai silver beads, waxed cord, copper components.

Pen and Paper

The last time I had to take Ada to visit the doctor , I grabbed a sketchbook and some pens with me. I started drawing a flower and kept on going. Pretty soon, I filled up the page. I used to bring beads to string, but one time I spilled all my beads on the floor. Not good.

These are flowers, not any thing in particular, but I like flower.

I felt peaceful and calm, almost like meditation. By keeping my hand busy, I stopped thinking or worrying. I have a few more pages and my friends suggested that I make a stamp sheet out of it. What do you think?

Premium recycled drawing paper, Micron01 pen by Sakura; blue. Faber-Castell - Pitt artist pen; Sepia.

My favorite necklace

I bough the orange Lucite beads from Natural Beads a couple years ago at bead&Button Show in Milwaukee. I went a few times with my friends and made friends with so many vendors that they will give me special discount. It is one thing I really missed.
Not sure what to do with the beads, I liked them and bought them any way.
Last week I went to the local Art shows with friends. My son told me to wear this necklace so I did. A few compliments and someone even asked whether I bought it from the show.
I usually don't hang on to what I made but I really like this one.
Mokume Gane technique, Fimo clay; orange gold, brown, caramel and a sheet of foil in between.

Re-strung

This is one of the two necklaces I have. In January I mailed all of my jewelry to Thailand so my friends would auction them off at Class Reunion. It was a hit. Everything went home with someone. It made me feel good that my friends, who were very picky, and most of my classmates still working as Architects, actually like them.

This necklace did not travel to the other side of the world. Call me picky, but I don't like the way it look. So today I decided to re-strung this necklace. By replacing the red cord with the brown cord, The necklace looks lighter and much better.

I haven't make any necklace for a while. I need more time to sit down at the table and gather all the toughs., to preciously execute the technique to achieve the result that I want. These days I just make tiny, little beads for the bracelets and ankle bracelets.

I am not sure anyone still read my blog. I will blog more often and show you what I made. Nothing totally new, but I still clay. Oh I did some drawing too. Will tell you later.

Mokum Gane technique, Fimo clay and Premo clay. Patterns were made with a piece of Medical divice.