Hope-on-the-rope

Here is the picture of the Hope-on-the-rope necklace that got me into the winner circuit. I won the Best use of Fimo category. It is a fun necklace. I connected 2 little bottles together to resemble the hour glass, then fill it with tiny little hearts. If you flip it over, the little hearts will fall through to the bottle below. It is designed with kid in mind, just like a toy that a child can play with while getting a treatment or waiting for the doctor to come in. The name of the necklace is Time & Love will heal. It is a perfect theme for Valentines' Day, Isn't it.
You can view the top 25 winner's necklace at www.amaco.com
Congratulation to all the winners. We did good, didn't we? And all for the good course.
Happy Valentines' Day everyone. May peace and love be with you at all time.

Synergy, here I come

I just sign up for Synergy, the conference in Baltimore. First, I'm not sure if I should attend, but when my Green necklace was featured on Polymer Clay Daily, I felt like Cynthia Tinapple was calling me. I should go. This is a chance to put myself out there with other polymer clay artists whome I had been admired for years. A chance to display my works in the same room, same table with "those famous names". I consider myself a beginner compare to those famous names, so this is also a chance to learn, to explore and find out how far I can stretch my creativity, my imagination, and my ideas.
So, go to my Etsy store and buy something, so I don't have to live on cheese and cracker while I'm there. Thanks for you support. :)
Hugs.
Thank you. I would like to sincerely thank the Synergy staff who had worked hard to make everything ready for next week. I like the fact that all my e-mails and requests have been taking care of on the same day. Did you guys ever sleep? :) I think I will give everyone a big hug when I get there.

Ada in Paris

My daughter is in Paris. She went to visit her boyfriend who came over to visit her last August. I told her that if he ever gets himself all the way here across the Atlantic ocean, maybe he really loves her. Remember when we were young and stupid and in love. LOL. I let her go, follow her heart, so at the end of this romantic story, there won't be any "what if" or "I should have". She is happy and David is very nice to her, I like him a lot. She will be back, I think, I hope. I miss her a lot.

Sitting pretty

My old friend in Thailand bought my necklace for his wife. He actually bought 2 necklaces for her. What a lucky lady!

She makes my necklace look good, doesn't she. Relaxing in her white shirt at the balcony of her condo, near a golf course, on top of the hill, in Phuket Island, Thailand. I envy her.

It mush be 85 degree there, with a nice warm breeze from the ocean and a nice sunshine. What am I doing here, in a freezing cold, in the frigit 19 degree? May be I should go home.

Will you miss me?

The morning after

Last night, I stayed at the restaurant until 2 am. We open up the wall between the existing dinning room and a new bar area. It was excited. Dust flew all over the place. We have to wipe all the counter, table, chairs and wash all the dishes again. The construction guy broke the saw at about midnight, so we have to call his supervisor. Then he slipped and fell off the ladder. He was OK. The next morning we patch up the wall, put paint on and start wiping the white dust, again. Around 5 o'clock, my boss decided that we will let people sit at the other side, so we all on hands and knees cleaning up the room. We did not think we are going to make it today but all the guests wanted to sit in the other room. Here's why. I think it looks really nice. The bar is not quite finish yet, still a lot of work to do. More pictures and wall decoration will be hung.

The last picture is the view from the existing dinning room. We rearranged the furniture, added some new decoration and this restaurant will be "the place" to dine in Broad Ripple area.

Now I can go back to my clay table. :) Yeh.

Life coach

This is a note that my friend, Cheryl, wrote for me. The first time we met, I was waiting her table at Thai resaturant. She gave me a compliment on my bracelet so I told her that I made it. Cheryl and Mary were about to open the new Bead Store at the time and she asked me if I would like to work with her. So we became friends. Fast forward to later when I was struggled with what to do with my 3 tray polymer clay beads and jewelry, Cheryl quickly mapped out what I should do and told me not to come back until I got part of it done. And I did.

Last year, we volunteered to be on the Board of Director for Indiana Bead Society together. She always email or slipped me a note before the meeting to tell me what to do and what to say. When I want something done, I called Cheryl and Mary. During the last 2 month when my life was such a mess, Cheryl came over with a note to tell me what to do, step-by-step. She is not only a good friend, but my life coach, my mentor and I cannot thank her enough to be there for me when I need her.

My commitment with Indiana Bead Society is done. Thanks to my team: Mary, Cheryl, Bonnie, Joyce, Francie and Carol. Now I can focus more on Polymer clay. I think I will ask Cheryl to map out what I should do this year. I know it is going to be a great year.

Under construction - Part 3

The construction is moving along slowly, but we are happy with the outcome. The wall and ceiling are painted, track lights were mounted, now if we finish putting stain on the bar and cabinet, then we can cover the floor. Last night, with a little bit of my elbow grease, Austin and I stained the bar and tonight we will work on the cabinet. We already laid out the equipment behind the bar, and, wheww...., everything fit together like it meant to be. I got a permission to decoupage the big table at the far end of the wall. It shapes like a lip, so I will have fun with that, (thinking about Mick Jagger), if I have time to do it. Work is crazy everyday, but I get up every morning and want to go to work, that's the good sign, right?

I still clay during the night, since I don't need much sleep like I used to. Funny how I always wonder why my parents can get up so early in the morning.

Here are some painting I was working on. They are small round discs that I will put frame on and turn then into pendants.

Thanks for everyone who email me and asked some questions. It is nice to know that someone actually read my blog.

Leather stamping tools

I stopped by at the Leather Craft Store and bought some new stamping tools for my texture sheet. There are so many to choose from especially the leaves and flowers which I intend to use the most. For those of you who do not have a store near by, I will put these tools for sale on my Etsy store soon. Let me know if you are interested.

From pendant to necklace

Here is the necklace put together from the pendant and beads that I made last week. I hope you enjoy the tutorial and try this technique for yourself. I do not wish to call this my own invention because it was the combination of techniques I've learned through my journey with Polymer clay and still, there is a lot to learn and explore.

I also made this Red necklace early this month. Shown, how I prepare the pendant and matching beads.

This necklace I sold to a gentleman who bought it for his wife. I sold 2 necklaces for another gentleman who also bought them for his wife too. They are all Red necklaces.

Now that I got this technique down to the science, it's time to explore a different one.

Here's what I am working on right now. Still, the technique needs to be refined but I've gotten a good result so far.

This one is a drawing from the book that my son gave to me as a present. It is a book with pretty photographs of the fishes and animals that live under the sea.

Sad to tell you that I bombed this pendant in the process, so it will sit in a jar until I figure it out what to do with it.

Oh, well, that's how we learn from our mistakes.

Questions & Answers

Q: What kind of rubber stamp sheet that I use?
A: I used Barbara McGuire's rubber stamp sheet. www.barbaramcguire.com She is also on ETSY, you can order her stamp from there. Her stamps have deep grove and thin lines, perfect for the technique that I use.

Q: What kind of varnish that I used?
A: If I am using Metallic powder on my beads, I put on one coat or two of Fimo Gloss varnish. I used to put varnish on everything until the customer asked if I can make it Matt, so I stop putting varnish on my beads. I don't sand and buff my beads, occasionally, I brush on a thin coat of Future floor finish.
Sometime I sand and buff my pendants. It depends on the design and the look that I want. Most of the time I just rub it on my pants, or a piece of carpet to make it smooth and has a little bit of sheen on it.

Q: If you have any questions and want to ask me, what can you do?
A: Feel free to email me with any questions that you have. www.silastones@aol.com I am on-line all the time.

Q: You want to buy my jewelry, how?
A: I have my jewelry on consignment at Lilly's boutique in Zionsville. I also sell at craft shows and art shows around town. If you see something that you like, email me. First come, first serve, because most of my works are one-of-a-kind. I am also trying to put more stuffs on my ETSY store. My friend also sell my beads at Intergalactic bead show.

Thank you
Hugs
Ponsawan

Pendant 101

I just post the tutorial on my other blog of how I made my pendant. You can see it HERE.
For the sake of the argument, many people had called it "Hidden Magic" technique. For me, there is no magic there because I was the one who hide the treasure underneath that Black&White sheet, so I know exactly what the result is going to be.
There are many different ways to do it and it is "Magic" because your will get the image that is unexpected, just like the techniques used by many French clayers.

***The rubberstam sheet that I used is from Barbara McGuire's. www.alteredartsource.com ***

What to do with a slab of Mokume Gane

I really like this technique of layering the different color clays together, poke it with different kind of objects, then slide it with the thin blade and hope for the good. Rule of thumb that I use is to alternate the darker color with the lighter color, for example; dark blue, pearl, dark green, then light blue. Also sliding it in an angle will give you the pattern that looks like waves with bubbles.

Now what to do with it.

For this slab, I make the cuff, which was part of the claypen project then I covered the Altiod box. After shaving it for a while, with the bottom layer, I got myself a perfect pattern for the pendant. So I got 2 necklaces out of it and probable 2 pair of earrings and a ring that i am going to make next.

This way when I do the show, I can group my jewelry into a set with similar design and color. Now that I have Blue&Green, next will be Pink&Purple, Red&Copper, Brown&Orange, etc.

Under construction part 2

The construction project is underway. I feel like myself again, walking through the construction site, checking the drawing, the dimension and picking out floor material, wall color and furniture. You can see the counter bar is taking shape, the liquor cabinet behind the bar with space for the big screen TV, the ceiling is ready for the track light and the floor is ready to covered with dark brown vinyl, wood look alike material which will prevent slippery when wet. All the materials used are soy sauce proof. You should see the contractor's face when he saw me pouring soy sauce on everything. LOL . After all, this is a Sushi restaurant and soy sauce do stains. Now, up stair will be the banquet room, I called it the "Red Room"

As you can see, it is RED, very red. I picked the color and love it. The dark brown color from ceiling and floor should tone it down. The utility pipe will be copper. A couple of Geisha paintings would definitely gave this room a talk of the town. I asked my boss if i can do Mural Painting upstairs. What do you think? We will cover the windows with Bamboo. My boss will visit Ikea next week to pick up the lighting and lamp shades.

We should have fun decorate the place. My boss totally trust me on this, which is nice. I hope we get it done in 3 weeks so we can have our New Year party in the "Red Room"

Recycled artwork

Inspired by the post on Polymerclaydaily, I was looking for the way to alter these discs that I painted sometime ago. Not that it is ugly, but not good enough for me. Throw them away or do something with them. I started out by wiping them with the wet paper towel, some paint came off but left the nice blend of pastel color. With the Speedball carving tool in hand, I started carving it. First, the leaves, then swirly pattern. Not bad, ha!

I still have a box full of clay pieces that I made and don't know what to do with them. Cut them into small pieces and cover a counch, not a bad idea either.

Here are some discs that I put the frames on them. The "Sunset on the rough sea" is leaving to Paris with my daughter. The other were send to Thailand to be auction off at the Class Reunion along with a necklace, a bracelet and more pins. All the money will go to the good causes.

Gingko box

More Altered Altiod boxes. This one I stamped the Black clay with Gingko stamp sheet which gave me a deep impression. I used another one of my Beauty Supply Store finds as paint.You are right! I was using the nail polish. The result is breathtakingly and stunningly pretty. Of course, inhaling the toxic fume from nail polish kinnda make me felt like I was using drug or something. :)

May be I should wait for summer so I can do this outside in the open air.