7 Things About Me
What better way to spend the last twenty minutes before supper is finished up… a meme! Connie sort of tagged everyone who read her post. Some of the items on my list are inspired by hers ’cause it got me thinking.
- I don’t watch TV almost at all. Less than 2 hours a week, most weeks.
- I have a minor vocal cord defect. Therefore I spend a LOT of time online where that doesn’t matter.
- I’m a single mom to a 9 year old.
- I don’t drive. I do live in a city with decent public transit though.
- No makeup, never dyed my hair and I don’t really follow fashion much. So of course I make beads and jewelry. Figures.
- My mom is a ni dan (second black belt) in Karate. It was a fabulous threat to my boyfriends in high school.
- I have more than 100 pounds of clay here. Somewhere.
I hate tagging people but if anyone has little personal things they want to share, fess up!
Making Candy Corn
I’ve never tasted the stuff. Yes, I know, I am missing a significant cultural part of my life. But I did MAKE some this week - clay candy corn that is. I wanted another quick, simple motif to add to the fabric of some pillow beads and this was just about my speed.
You need a lump of off-white, a slightly bigger lump of orange, and a little larger lump of yellow. I used Premo! for all three - white with a crumb of ecru, orange with a pea of ecru to dull it down and yellow with a pea of ecru for the same reason.
Welcome, Fall
Lisa from Polkadot had this great idea and I figured I’d join in. When I was little I thought it was called ‘Fall’ because the leaves fell.
It’s still pretty much how I feel about it.
In Calgary, the leaves often fall from the trees in August because the climate is arid - the trees lose their leaves in the summer because of the drought. This year the spring was wet but mild and the summer was wet enough. It hasn’t even really gotten chill and while the nights are hovering at freezing the days are lovely, summer like still. However, the leaves have started to fall and so it’s definitely time to welcome Fall.
My veggies are long picked and eaten because the plants have “We’re cold.” damage by the end of August here but I have kind of fall toned beads! Those count right?
This Week in Beads
Half the pile of beads I made this week are completely finished and photo’d - an exhausting process I tell ya - and here’s a sampling mosaic of it:
1. Blue Green Swirl Lentils, 2. Swirly Lentils with Flowers, 3. Swirly Lentils with Flowers & Foil, 4. MORE Swirly Lentils, 5. Blue Green Rounds, 6. Jewel Tones Swirly Lentil, 7. Blue Green Lentils, 8. Cheery Happy Swirl Lentils, 9. Swirly Lentils with flowers
I have this many again left to go but the routine is smooth now. Eat, sleep and live beads. Gotcha.
How Many Beads in a Tumbler?
Last year I invested in a double barrel Lortone tumbler - this model. I love it. It’s blessedly quiet compared to the little kiddie one and best of all it lets me tumble a whole lot of beads in one go. You can go one barrel at a time and place the other barrel on the rack with water in it to balance it (though the sales rep told me this was unnecessary, these machines are built to last). The specs say up to 3 pounds per barrel but you have to remember that 3 pounds of clay beads takes a lot more volume than 3 pounds of rocks and sanding grit.
What I usually do is get my bi-weekly load of beads going in the one barrel, then finish off the other barrel full while the first goes through the first two grits. That way I’m not faced with 400 beads needing varnishing at once.
Most of what is in this pan will fit in the tumbler for a run. I find that I get the best results if I pack without too much extra space left - that way everything is grinding together. There isn’t very much left after i fill up and layer with sandpaper, see? That’s about 150 small beads - I usually have more variety in sizes but this week the orders were for mostly the same shape of bead.
I start with 400 grit sandpaper for my first tumble and go for 18 hours or so. The next grits go for 8 or 10 hours. For beads that I intend to varnish, I go up to 800 or 1000 grit and a final spin in the tumbler with lots of white felt to shine ‘em up.
Cute as a Button
I recently got tapped to teach a basic polymer clay class to a local fiber arts guild. I’m excited about it and I suggested buttons as a beginner project (well, buttons, beads and all sorts of good stuff but for this exercise we’ll say buttons). I used to make buttons for sweaters my grandmother would knit so off I went searching for some of those. And I found none.
They’re probably here somewhere - and I always say how hard it is to lose things in a small apartment - but until they show up I made a few more.
These are all caned based ones - either cane slices, cut from cane sheets or cut from cane sheets and coordinating bases - except the two swirlies which would make great toggles for those felted handbags. I don’t suppose that shocks any of us. I have a few in a laundry bag to go through with the jeans to test them out but they were fun to make up!
I wonder if the fiber arts folks would teach me how to sew them on?
The Shop: Friendly Promoting
Etsy Treasuries are a little addictive! I lucked into one today - they were having server issues, so LOTS of people lucked into them - that I got to set up with two favourites: Blue and Clay. You can see the treasury filled with all sorts of blue-toned clay items by clicking the piccie:
Of course, with all the extra treasuries floating about someone kindly put one of my Claychicks canes in theirs. Thanks Bam!
This week my Tooaquarius Etsy shop is also featured on Winklepots blog. Winkle makes some incredibly adorable handpainted lil’ kids wear. I told Chloe she needs to be 4 again but she disagrees with me. Luckily I know other little people now.
I have beads chugging along in the tumbler now, so we’ll have some fresh stuff on the sites this weekend and until then I’ve begun adding beads to the webstore here. These will likely be beads made as they’re ordered and will include my regular themes in my usual shapes: pillows, rounds and lentils in blues, sea garden, sunshine, black and white, coffee tones, sweetheart pink, lavender field, tangerine. I will also add the sets I have on hand that one of a kinds but these mostly find their way to Etsy first.
Watch my Garden Grow
In my real, offline life I live in a small apartment. I container garden fruits, veggies and herbs but flowers have always been hit or miss. Before clay, honestly, floral stuff bothered me. It was unsettling to my tomboy geek self. Since clay I’ve actually reconciled with it a bit - I can admire and name flowers and patterns. It’s been fun to watch my clay garden grow. The latest additions from the weekend include some small periwinkle coloured, periwinkle (well, five petal flower at least) beads and a handful of canes. I am particularly happy with the shading on the red rose, it came out nice and velvety.
I have a stack more blends sitting in the box that are earmarked for more canes this week. Wonder what the garden will develop into? And it’s so nice that this one doesn’t depend on the weather’s whim!
Patchwork Orange Logo
On a message board I watch someone asked for logo beads with their patchwork orange design. I volunteered. The design wasn’t far off my usual oranges - replace the segments with little bits of ‘patchwork’ design.
I was happy with how it turned out! The artist who’s logo it is has an Etsy shop in the works at - no surprise! - a Patchwork Orange.
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