My Work for Sale
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Roses, Mostly
My most popular canes – cane and bead sales wise – are always the roses. So this weekends production was mostly roses and black & white canes, which I posted yesterday.
The less monochromatic bunch are here:
Some of these are refills on what’s sold out of my web shop, the rest will appear in there this evening. And some lovely sets will be available in the Claychicks Boutique beginning next week!
Year of Clay – Black & White Canes
I like the stark and simple look of items made with only two colours. It gives you the chance to work on form and function more than colour schemes. The emphasis is centered on the design.
This even extends to making black and white canes – which is some of what I did this week like these:
I did make other canes. It’s an addiction I tell you, once I start, it is hard to stop! I’ll pop the pictures of those up tomorrow, I’m guessing.
My Cane Palette
When I make canes, I cut them into several 2″ pieces to use in my various web stores, selling them. After that there is usually a few inches on each end of good cane that I trim the warped pieces off and save for myself. These used to get tossed into the Plano storage boxes I use for canes.
The storage boxes are almost 3 inches deep. Perfect for holding the nice, neat cane segments I cut and wrap. Not so good for actually using the little odd pieces I keep for myself!
So last week I went through about 4 years of accumulated bad habit, pitched the majority of pieces into the mix up pile (for swirls and Natasha beads) and lay the rest out in two large, shallow plastic containers by loose colour groups. They’re not neat but they’re somewhat organized and easy to use. It has made all the production work of the last week so much simpler, I could kick myself for not having done this much earlier.
More ‘Green’ Hints for the Polymer Clayers
It’s Earth Day again! Last year I posted some tips for clay crafters that use the reduce / reuse / recycle strategy and here are some more, extended a bit to small biz and jewelry makers:
- Improve your skills and be creative with what you have. Creativity does not require every item and tool for your medium.
- On the flip side, use the most efficient tools and supplies for your medium. If there are genuine energy and resource savers that you can take advantage of, do so. For clayers, this includes items like bulk amounts of clay and a good oven thermometer!
- Reuse scuffed bakeware. A lot of my older cookie sheets and pans have moved to my craft studio for use as trays. Sturdy but also ’second hand’ so a little less concerned about drips and damage.
- Reduce shipping materials by using packaging that is saved from your own boxes. For customers that would be offended by clean but used cardboard, use post consumer recycled materials boxes where possible or the least dyed cardboard versions possible.
- Incorporate existing supplies and materials into your displays for your shows where possible. I’ve used scrap woods, existing wire supplies and so on – a good coat of paint and decent workmanship keeps it looking like a whole instead of a mishmash.
- Use thrifted or old orphan jewelry pieces for embellishments and additions.
- Learn how to use your office and studio tools properly – software and paper generating items especially. It may be frustrating but it’ll save money and time down the road! This includes things like using email for correspondence or batching your shipping labels and receipts.
- Recycle the stuff you can – regularly. That includes the extra packaging, jars, bottles and so on that accumulate in studios and offices. It’s great to think that you’ll reuse all the jars for artwork but sometimes it doesn’t happen. Don’t let them accumulate till they get tossed out in a decluttering fit.
- Make the library your friend – do research, read trade magazines, pick up inspiration. Save the money and the paper. Take advantage of your guilds library for the same reason.
- Establish or join an artist’s co-op for use of larger or specific studio equipment – clay is relatively small and inexpensive as far as equipment goes but for kiln related crafts, this could be a real saver.
- Sell online where possible using places like Etsy or Ebay
Some measures I use in my own place – which is a small apartment shared with a 9 year old and housing both my studio and office space (where I do web development) – are:
- using old attractive wine bottles in my artwork
- flyers and newspaper as drip catchers and table liners
- tin packaging and bakeware for baking or varnishing racks
- using old mason and condiment jars for paint waters and storage of taller items like paint brushes, pens, colouring pencils, wire mandrels and so on. I then put the jars on old trays so that they stay corral’d
- a box beside the trashcan in my studio space and in my office space for papers to be put in (and recycled to)
- jar lids for bead and paint mixing
- active recycling center in the kitchen: bottles, tins, jars, boxes, papers, notes, plastic bags, milk jugs go out weekly before they take over.
Year of Clay – Little Bowls Spring 2008 Edition
The closest to spring I am getting this weekend are the little bowls I made to prepare for the craft show that got snowed out.
These little guys are pretty much my favourite non bead items to make – enough space for a good selection of cane slices but not enough that I am cursing every slice by the end of it. Likewise for finishing – big enough to hold to sand, small enough that it’s only a few minutes a grit.
At the show yesterday one of the brave souls who ventured in picked one up, told me it was lovely. I thanked her and she asked well, what do you DO with them?
I guess that’s a good question 
They’re only about 2″ across. I use mine for holding rings and change on my night table. A friend uses hers for the dry spices at her raclettes and fondues.
I Still Can’t Get Over It
That sounds dramatic but every time I bake an item with the little translucent floating canes on them and the canes go from being foggy, smudged pictures to clear little graphics I’m in love again with the technique. Today, I made pens.
These pens, with plenty of foggy pre-bake translucent on the cane halos and the mg:
And the same pens after baking and a bit of ice water! Magic!
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Claychicks & Tooaquarius Weekly
Wow, we did it. The Claychicks are back! And the Tooaquarius Shop on Etsy has launched! I reloaded the Claychicks Etsy shop with clay canes and added a few beadsets to the new Tooaquarius shop as well as the webstore.
Some features from the ‘chicks include:
and 
And in the Tooaquarius Shop and Tooaquarius Etsy I added quite a few sets of beads, all at $10, including:
and 
To get a good look at the Tooaquarius web shop’s collection, try here for sets in black & white, purple, blue or a warm tropical set.
Year of Clay – Beads
In the end, what I love best is beads. It’s why I started with polymer clay nearly ten years ago and pretty much all my canes are design with What Beads They’ll Go On in mind.
So last week I got to whip up beads and finish some that were sitting here waiting for their finishing. Here’s some caned beads made from canes I did in February:
I do love my beads! Some of these – in sets of six – will be in my store tomorrow.
Upcoming Shows!
I just had a show at Tom Baines Jr High yesterday, in support of a local breast cancer patients group at Wings of Hope. The students who were the bulk of the organizing and fundraising committee were fabulous – there were jugglers, lots of student crafts and just generally a lot of creativity. This is my assistant (Hi Mom!) at my table / booth.
In the next few weeks there’s more of these coming! Next weekend I have a two day show. Raddison Heights / Albert Park (my community) is having a big craft fair / spring tea / garage sale event on April 19 and 20th from 10am to 6pm.
I get a week off before the next show, at Abbeydale Community. That one’s on May 3rd and runs till 3 pm.
Then, at the end of May, I have the Lilac Festival. This will be my first Really Big Show. The Festival is actually the 4th St. Street Fair (a community near the city center of Calgary) and it brings more than 50k people. Last year, I think they said more than 80k. It runs 10 blocks or more and for a show that size the fees for individual artisans are very modest. That runs 10-6 on Sunday, May 25.
Saturday June 14 is the Village Fair @ Village Square Leisure Centre. It runs from 11-3 and the one last year was great, not just as a seller but as a fair goer. There were food samples from the local communities, all sorts of dance groups, reduced rates on swimming and other activities and the attached library had programs as well.
All of these are in Calgary – I have one slightly out of town show coming up in the Fall but I’m not that brave yet!
Another Bangle Design
I made a whole slew of bangles last year using polymer clay over a metal core and this year looks to be the same trend again in my work. While I really like the contrast between the edging / backing solid colour with the complexity of the cane section I was looking for some simpler designs that would have fewer steps.
This one is the first try at that and I have to say that I quite like it. I have a few more in the To Sand tub so that I can have another bangle stack! I wonder if I could texture the whole deal and skip that sanding step…
