Turquoise Necklace

This big, beautiful turquoise pendant had caught my eyes and I just got to have it and make something special with it. I made this for my favorite customer who had been regular at my booth for years. I hope she came by next Saturday.

I used the Fimo Peppermint and a bit of gold to make those beads. Twisted and turn, cut into pieces and put them back together to mimic the pattern on the pendant. They turned out darker after baking. Not bad, but next time I will add a bit of white into the clay, I think. Real Turquiose piece with Pepermint color clay beads, Red Coral, small (real) turquoise, and small beads made with Indian Red clay, small golden beads, I am pretty happy with the outcome.

Want to see more of the jewelry I made, click on "My web album" on the right hand side.

FUN FACT & TIPS This Sunday, May 13, is Mother's Day. In Thailnd, Mother's Day is on August, 12th. It is also the Queen's Birth Day.

Indiana Bead Society Workshop

I had a privilege to teach a class at IBS Spring Workshop today. I had 9 students in my class. The most I ever had so far, so I was pretty nervous. I tried to condition the clay and leach the clay before hand, but it was so warm in the room, the clay was smoochy. Most of them had never use clay before. That's why I conditioned and mixed the clay for them, so we can get right to the technique. I only had 4 pasta machines to use anyway. I taught my Mokume Express technique because it was easy, almost no mistake and the result is stunning. There were a lot of Uh and Ah because everyone got different result according to the colors they had picked. We all had a good time and made enough beads for a necklace or two. One lady was wearing a bracelet she made with my beads. She was so excited to learn that I made those beads, and I love to see what people made with my beads.

I had to pad myself in the back, I did good and pretty happy with myself today. I had decided to seek more opportunities to teach, so more and more people can have fun with clay. I think I just added 9 more clay addicted to the PC world. :)

Texture Plates How-to

I posted the tutorial of how I make my texture plates today. You can read it at http://www.polymerclaybeads.blogspot.com/.

I also posted how I measured the amount of clay to use with the Bead Roller.

Just for your information, I am so addicted to the CD film technique that I cannot stop making them. So, Scott, my dear, you are the one to blame. I put more picture on my web album, if you want to see more. :)

Organic Necklace

This necklace is very earthy looking. The ceramic donut came from Greece, Red Jasper from India, wooden piece from Australia, glass beads from Czech, and, Polymer Clay beads from Silastones. :) LOL

I am full of myself lately, but I have 3 shows line up for next month, so I need to get busy, busy, busy.

Fun Facts; As many of you'd already known that I am a President of Indiana Bead Society, this Saturday, we have a Spring workshop, and I will be teaching Polymer Clay class. It's kinda funny, isn't it? My class is full!

CD Foil Technique on Polymer clay

My friend, the Great Scott has given me the idea of using foil on the cover of a CD with Polymer clay. The results are these beautiful pieces, and tons of light bulb ideas that pop up in my head.

P.S. I'll ask Scott if I can write the tut. for this one. You can ask him too.

Fun Facts: Thailand has a custom where when there is a marriage the couple moves into one of the families houses. Saves mortgage, and when you have kids, you have a live in baby sitter. Too bad I did not take advantage of that free service because I have all 3 kids here, although grandma and granpa did come to live with us for a couple of years.

Click on MY WEB ALBUM to see more picture of my pieces created with this technique.

Cane Ends

Tips: These little beads were made of either cane ends or the end of the cane. I usually don't make a lot of cane, but do some jelly roll here and there. What I did was, I rolled it in a small log, cut it in half, length wise, laid both side curve side down and flatten it. Then I put them back together, back side to back side, smooth the seam, rolled it back in to a log, then cut in pieces and roll them into beads. This will work for the unwanted (or my case; an ugly) cane too. Don't be afraid to slide it open. You will be surprised to see what is inside the cane.

Fun Fact: In US, when you meet someone, you greet him or her by saying; "How are You?". In Thailand, we also ask the same question and follow by asking if the person had already ate, or feel hungry. We then go out to eat or invited the person to stay for dinner. It is polite to say yes. So, come visit me and stay for dinner anytime. :)

For sale

Now you can buy my bead and pendants here. Go to www.polymerclaybeadsforsale.blogspot.com and read more about it. :)

Ear rings on the Fruit Stand

I feel a bit Fruity (LOL) lately, must be the weather. I have a couple of shows line up for next month; Zionsville Country Market in Zionsville and Butchertown Art Fair in Louisville. I still have customers who like my jewelry and I still enjoy making them. Now that I make my own beads, I don't have to wait for the latest trend. I just set my own. I also like to add some pretty little Chez beads on my design, especially the small flowers.

My daughter will be graduated from Indiana University this month. I don't know how we did it. She does not have any student loan. This month, she received $5000 scholarship from Goodwill and the rest from Grandpa. So, she is free to go, but she will be moving back home first. I am so happy.

Fan Fact & Tips: Shop Goodwill! Good cost and good cloth. Another way to recycle the goods so they won't get dump into a land fill.

The Great Scott

Scott is on his way home while I am writing this blog. I was so happy to finally meet him in person. We had a guild meeting and went out to lunch. Scott and his friend had joined us. He gave us some goodies and we got to look at some of his works; the Peeking Duck, the egg, etc. It was a short visit but it seems like we have known each other for a long time. I'm glad that his talent is being recognized. With his connection to the Amaco, I'm sure I will get to see him often.

Scott got a lot of hugs today. One from each of you guys, Scott Girls.

Fun Facts & Tips: "Sawasdee" (Sa-wut-dee) + "Ka" for females or "Krap" for males (crop) is a formal greeting (hello and goodbye) much like Aloha and Chow. You say this while putting your hands together chest level and slightly bowing down. Practice practice!

Sherbet Beads

You must know by now how I love to make swirly beads. These ones are more subtle than the ones I've made before. I used to put the colored clay on black, but I ran out of black today, so I added white on the blue and played with it. DH even likes them. They look fun and yummy. I am pretty happy with the yellow ones because I got a request for the mustard colored beads and those are really close to it. It has a bit of gold in there. I like the green the most, what's your favorite?

Fun Facts & Tips: The King of Thailand, King Phumipol was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was attending the Medical school at the time. So, we can say, he is American. :)

P.S. My friend at PCC gave a new name for these beads. Thank you, guys. For your information, I used Fimo soft. Just add a ribbon of white clay to it. I like to add a bit of silver in the blue, some gold to yellow and copper to the red.

Spring Color Beads

A customer had asked for more spring colored beads last week. So, during the Indian Winter (I'm not sure there is such a thing, LOL) when the temperature had plunged from 70 degrees down to 24 degrees, I made these beads and felt a bit cheered up with all the bright colors. The tulips in front of my house look so sad. They got beat up by the sun, rain, strong winds and even snow.

Fun Facts & Tips: April 13th, is the Traditional New Year's Day in Thailand. Since it is the hottest month of the year, we celebrate by throwing water at each other. It is a week long celebration called "Songkran". We would load the pick-up truck with all our friends, drive down the busiest street and get soaking wet. After that we visit the elderly and went to help clean the temple. We go down to the river bank, get the bucket of sand and bring it back to the temple to fill up the yard.

It is also my brother's Birthday. Can't imagine how my mom went through labor during the hottest day of the year. HAPPY BIRTH DAY, Bro. :)

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.