Booth Utopia

I had a show today. It was called Feast of the Lanterns. They lit the lanterns all over the park at night and the show run from noon to 11 . I set up my booth a bit differently this time. I put more bright color shirts on the mannequins and lined them up at the front. In the back I have a table with my tree and trays of beads and earrings and bracelets. It seems to work this time because more people walked into back of the booth to look at my beads but I only sell one necklace. I think because the location of this show was different from the last show, more male than female this time so the jewelry did not sell well. In the evening it was crazy at my booth because I put out the lanterns and and they had stopped the traffic. Everybody just wanted one. They also wanted to buy shirts and skirts on the displays. I did the greeting, the smile, the I made my own beads, the I give you discount if you buy two, the this is one of a kind things, you know all that and they seemed to work this time. Thanks for all the advices I got from many of my PC friends.

But you know me, I might change the set up next time. Just for fun. :)

French Connection

From Polymercalydaily, I saw this technique used by a French Polymer clay artist, so I email her and she wrote the tutorial for me. How nice!
I tried it and loved it and did a demo at the Guild meeting last week. Everyone was excited about it. You can see the tutorial HERE.
This is a similar technique that I always use, putting different layers of clay together, stamped and slided the pieces. This one is different because the skinner blend gave out the effect that look like air-brush with different color. Also the pieces that were slided off will be used to make up another design, so you won't get the pendant that look exactly like the image on the stamp sheet.

Snake skin

These are cool looking beads, aren't they. I just covered the black beads with the cane. Oh, yes, I made cane. LOL Very complex cane I must say. It is my left over sushi rice cane, just trans. with white. Imagine the possibility of covering gold, copper and every color clay with it. Yum, can't wait to try.

TIPS: I used translucent clay made into 1" dia. log and about 3" long. I covered it with white sheet, reduced to a long, long log then cut into pieces and put them together into a big log, the reduced it down. I made base beads with different color clay, and cut a thin slide of cane and covered the beads, baked and plunged them into ice cold water.

My after-mid-night-love-affair

I haven't been sleeping well lately. There are so much going on in my life that I, not only spend my waking hour thinking about it, but also spend my sleeping hour the same way. So, what to do when you wake up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep.

See, I am having an after midnight love affair. I toss and turn in my bed thinking about it. Who to blame but myself, and a gentleman who is very dear to me. He sent me the pictures of the pretty flowers from his garden. I am crazy about flower, I just love them. I look at the pictures all evening and still dream about them at night. So what the girl to do. I got my drawing paper and a couple of the pencils and start drawing those flowers. I email the picture to Scott and went back to sleep. The next day he send me more pictures.

Now, before I go to bed, I just grab the pencil and paper and draw a flower, email it to Scott, go to bed and sleep well knowing that I had made someone very happy. This is going to be a long term love affair (with the flowers, of course), Scott just send me 300 more pictures. Sweet dream, Ponsawan, and thank you Scott.

Irvington Guild of Artists' Walk in the Park

This is a small art show I participated in but it was the best. The show shared the day with the Garden Club's Farmers market so we had our booth in the park under the trees. Not only did I, surprisingly, sell 5 necklaces, but also sold a few bracelets, rings and a bunch of loose beads. IGA also gave us breakfast, lunch, cold drinks throughtout the day and ice cream sandwiches from Dairy Queen for a snack. Many people came out despite the very warm weather and they were buying.

I borrowed wire form and fabrics from the Boutique. Since my neclaces are big, chunky and different, displaying them on clothing helped people visualize that they can actually wear them. I sold the Mother-of-Pearl, Africa and the Blue one (sorry, Jackie, I'll make you another one), all 3 of them were shown at the front of the booth. The customers did not really walk further into the booth, so those inside did not get much the attention, I guess. I have to fiugre that out before the next show (in 2 weeks).

People were surprised that I used FIMO. They had no idea that you can make these pretty things with Polymer clay. A few people asked if I teach classes, maybe I should start.

Purple fish & Mother-of-Pearl necklace

2 more necklaces today. I hope you are not tried of seeing them. May be a few more on the way then I will make something else. The purple fish was made using Barbara McGuire's rubber stamp that I bought from Bead&Button. Using hidden magic technique, I put thin sheet of black and green over the Skinner blend of pink and purple, stamped and shaved. Very cool design. I used the scrap to make matching beads. For me, by using FIMO to make all my beads, I am able to use beads that I made years ago with the new beads because they have the same shade of color.

The Mother-of-Pearl necklace is just lovely. All the white with a touch of pink. I add small sticks of different color coral to give it a break.

I have used up a lot of my old beads that I have. I still have a lot but I have not really buy beads lately, just some seed bead and small glass beads. It's nice to be able to make your own beads, isn't it

I will have a booth at Irvington Guild Art in the park tomorrow. Small show, only half day. I hope someone will be looking for a beautiful necklace.

Out of Africa

Most of the beads in this necklace are from South Africa and Kenya. My brown polka dot beads blend well with others. It looks crazy but interesting indeed. May be this is my style. Who know, I've been searching for it. There is no mistake either, I just keep adding more beads and it turn out nice. Amazingly fun for me.
FUN FACTS & TIPS: It is not polite to use your feet to point out something even though the object is laying on the floor.

2 new necklaces

2 necklaces done yeaterday. It was amazing how I've changed for the past 24 hour. First, I got a job, second, I have to be organized both at work and this. I found that coming back from real job, I sat down at the clay table and did not know what to do. So, I started putting pendant and matching beads together in sets, so after work, I can sit at the table and start working right away. Seeing numbers and counting a lot of money gave me a headach. I rather clay, really. I have 5 more necklaces waiting to be born. I put on a slide show of all the "Wild Thing necklaces" series at the end of the page, so enjoy it while I make some more.