Show &Tell

Beads on the top were made with scrap clay from the workshop. I told Grant, I'll make beads from his scrap and sell them on ebay. LOL

The bottom left are PS Beads with GD's Technique. With red, white and black color, they look more like my beads and I like to leave the texture there.

The bottom right are buttons I made for next week fiber show.

I think I will set aside the Metallic clay for a while. It's just not my thing.

Fun Facts & Tips: Dh suggests that I add tip of the day on my blog. So today's tip is how to say my name; Ponsawan - Pon-sa-wan, which means talent or gifted. So you can tell people who have talent, that they have Ponsawan in them.

Tropical fruits

I bought a strand of fruit beads and had to make something that match. I was thinking about my friend in Honolulu while I was making these little beads.

sand & buff

I sanded my new beads yesterday and I am so happy with them. I am not normally sand and buff my beads, but seeing how gorgeous Grant's beads are, I've changed my mind.

During the workshop, I sat directly across from Grant as he did the demonstration, so I had all kinds of debris flying to my face. You name it; piece of clay, chunk of clay, ribbon of clay, water, dust, etc. Most of the time, I really enjoy the view, but I was chocked to see him using the drywall sandpaper, yes, you heard it right, drywall sand paper to sand his beads. WoW!

I did make a few bead after I came back. It is like trying to make a perfect Thanks Giving Dinner, a lot of preparation had to be done before you put that bird in the oven.

And that acorn beads, Grant was patiently holding my hands while I learned the technique, but, it's like trying to learn to drive the stick-shift, I just cannot learn it in 15 minutes. With the right tools and (much) more time, I think I will be able to use that technique to make my own beads. Right now, I'm happy with my acorn bead. Grant's beads look a lot better than this, mine look like a walnut. :0

Beads - Diffendaffer style

I had a privilege to attend the workshop at Kentucky Arts & Crafts Museum which was taught by my favorite artist, master bead maker, Grant Diffendaffer. It was 2 wonderful days with great teacher and great students, who had become friends. Everyone worked hard and had fun at the same time. We even asked the museum to open extra early morning hours so we can all get extra time to work.

Grant's beads are amazing. Look even better in-person. It was such a dream come through to me. Now I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night wondering how the heck does he make his beads. LOL :0

We don't have time sand and buff these beads, so, against Grant's recommendation, I cut out the texture part to review the color underneath. (Sorry, Grant) I will sand and buff these beads later.

You probably can spot the two lovely beads that I traded my flower ring for. The ring is for his lovely fiance'.

I had a great time. Thank you Grant.

Scroll down to the end of the page to see the group picture.

P.S. I will tell you more about the acorn look-alike bead at the bottom right hand cornor later.

Flower rings

Spring is around the conner but my flowers are already bloom. The one in the middle was made from the cane. Yes, I do make cane but mostly a simple jelly roll one. :)

I also got the little leaves from Eva today so I put them on the rings. I also get a lot of other cuties from her, all the way from Denmark. :)

Flower for a friend

I made this flower for a friend.

Pendants

New pendants made with my homemade texture plates.

Yes, yes, I will post more tutorials on the blog. Thank you for asking. :o)

Yes, yes, I just posted the tutorial for Texture plates today, 05-04-07. www.polymerclaybeads.blogspot.com

Made to order

Thanks for all the comments and kind words about my works. If anyone want to have or want to purchase any of my beads, pendants, or any piece of jewelry you've seen on my blog, you can send me an email. I just added my email address on my profile and here it is silastones@aol.com

This Blue necklace I made for a lady who saw my work at the boutique and called me up. She had bought a jacket and wanted a necklace, bracelet and earrings to match.

And, the Oscar goes to.....

Not quite, but I do feel like receiving an award after my work was featured at POLYMERCLAYNOTES and POLYMERCLAYDAILY. So I would like to present an acceptance speech for that. Ah..... hm...

I would like to thank all of the polymerclay artists, who have shared their works and their techniques and make it available for me to try, to learn from and be inspired.

Thanks to all the friends I met on PCC; Jackie, Scott, Chris, Anita, Eva, Moe and many others who are always willing to answer my questions and encourage me.

I would like to thank Susan Rose and Cynthia Tinapple. Being recognized and put on the same page with all of those talented and famous artistes has helped me to work harder, think harder, and be more confident at the same time.

Thanks to my family who lets me work with clay all day.

Thanks to Laura from Beadroom, who takes my beads and sell them at the Bead Shows around the country.

Thanks to Joan who let me sell my jewelry at her boutique.

Wait, don't play that music yet. I still have more people on my list to thank. Fine! What ever.

Well, if I forgot somebody, sorry, but I do love you.

Here's the kind words from Cynthia Tinapple-Polymerclaydaily
Ponsawan Sila is on the move and she faithfully records her progress on her blog. She includes pictures of her workspace and step-by-step tutorials on this method, a twist on mokume gane.
What this generous artist takes for granted is her color sense and her knack for pattern creation. No muddy colors or uninteresting patterns on her worktable! Take a look at her homemade texture plates. Thanks for letting us look over your shoulder, Ponsawan.

And these kind words from Susan Rose-Polymerclaynotes
it is always fun to see what ponsawan is up to and i love that she adds a healthy dose of humor to her posts. look! she just posted a tutorial for these beautiful bubble beads - check it out here

Tutorial for the Bubble Beads

The tutorial is done!

You can view it at www.polymerclaybeads.blogspot.com

Try it, and enjoy. Let me know how it's go.

My Work Table (Please excuse the mess)

Here's are the pictures of my work table. It looks like the hurricane just went through, isn't it? DH lets me keep my table next to the store window. One side I have my beads and I do beading projects there, the other side is for clay. I switch back and forth between 2 sides. It's funny how people look through the window of the computer store and see me making beads, so they come in just to see what am I making. LOL

Curly-Q

Using one of my homemade plate and hidden magic technique, I got this gorgeous design.

I'm not sure what I want to do with it, may be a pendant. Any suggestion?

The Bubbles

Using one of the texture plate that I made, I get this bubblely design on my beads. Using the same technique that I always use, the Hidden Magic, I can used the cut-out, little pieces to make matching little beads. They are really cute and fun to make.

These bubble beads will go to the market in Florida this week.

P.S. The texture plate for the Bubble was created by pushing the different sizes of Sterling Silver beads on to the clay. SS beads, because they are round, unlike glass beads. Randomly arrange the SS beads on the sheet of clay, push them down one by one and leave them there until you finish with everyone of them, then lift them up one by one. This way each indentation will keep its round shape. Also, by using SS beads, it will be easier to lift them up with the needle because they have a big hole. :) Email me if you have anymore question.

Key-per

I got the idea from Susan Rose - Polymerclaynotes, about the French Tutorial for making key cover.The top part of my son's car key was broken off, so I covered it with Black clay and added some decoration. He thinks it is so cool.

Texture Plates

I have a big block of this Red color that I don't like because it'd changed color after baking. So, I'd decided to make some texture plates, and I had a lot of fun making them. I am thinking Spring, can't you tell? Flowers, leaves, trees, etc.

P.S. My bumpy beads sold pretty good at the bead show, as well as the red-pink and Black color beads .

P.S. The Bubble Beads were made using the plate on the second row.