It's been a long time......

Apologies to anyone who might be following this blog.  I have been undependable, lazy, lax, absent, distracted, and generally out of touch.  I've been distracted from clay by a number of projects for my upcoming 40th (cough, cough) college reunion.  I just took photos of all my record albums from that period as well as lots of other memorabilia for use in a slide show.  Everyone is supposed to submit photos, no matter how embarrassing, so it should be fun.  Whenever I think of gin and tonics, I thank my lucky stars that cell phone cameras didn't exist back in the day.

Despite all these other projects, I haven't been totally absent from clay.  I made 12 Bottles of Hope and I've been working on some other things.

Is this better?

I took the photo of my pendant into Photoshop and flipped the dancer so she is facing the other direction.  I think is better.  It seems to have a better rhythm.

Ancient Dancer

I have been away from clay for quite awhile, first because I was ill with some nasty flu-like virus that wouldn't go away and then because I had to rush off to Florida to find an assisted living home for my father.  That took most of May, but now I'm back home and eager to spend time in the studio.

An image for a pendant popped into my head one day and I managed to create it in clay.  Now I can't decide if I like it.   It is an image transfer on an inner layer covered by faux sandstone.  The window is supposed to look like it was chiseled out of the stone.   Please tell me what you think.

Vestiges

How about "Vestiges" for a line of jewelry I was originally planning to call "Relics"?

Big Hollow Beads

I'm taking an online class from Christine Dumont at All Over Creation who also does Voila! She has done a great job with the videos, and the forum discussions with other participants have been terrific.  We are all doing the class at the same time so we can learn from each other.  Here is my first big hollow bead:

It is about 34mm or 1 and 1/3 inches

My Brilliant Sister

My sister is a wonderful lampwork artist and she's also very smart.  She came up with this terrific idea for holding cords and ribbons, and I'm using it to hold chains.  It's a pants hanger!  The arms swing out making it very easy to put items on or take them off.

 

Here is a link to my sister's Artfire store:
http://www.artfire.com/users/Laurel_Mountain_Glass

Faux Metal Necklace

I'm working on a line of jewelry (jewellery for Canadians and others) featuring distressed faux metal and other ancient-looking materials like faux stone and ivory.  I was planning to call it "Relics" but an artist recently featured on Polymer Clay Daily is already using that name so I'm searching for another title.  Here is a prototype for a necklace - the top layer of "copper" is peeled back to reveal woven strips of faux silver and brass.  The copper chain is real but everything else including the screws is clay.