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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.