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Etsy
Scarecrow
I have a stack of bead orders waiting for me here but I jumped into another project of course. Here’s my little scarecrow art doll:
It’s almost 9 inches tall which makes it the biggest non vase item I’ve ever made out of clay. The head was originally hollow, broke and got stuffed and fixed (the poor guy has been decapitated twice in his short life).
NOW back to regular clay life!
Oooh! Morning Coffee!
This morning I woke up to see that my interview with Lisa Clarke of Polka Dot Creations had posted! You should read it and you should visit Lisa and tell her she is awesome, too!
Meet PositivelyCharming
The Smoosher of the week is PositivelyCharmingThings. Niki, of Phoenix, Arizona in the US, is a long time crafter though relatively recent clayer. She’s a great fan of Christi Friesen’s work and has a fondness for cutesy beads as she says in her bio.
Some of my favourite pieces in Niki’s studio includes the little blue bird earrings:
or this non-clay paua shell set:
Niki really DOES make absolutely adorable “cutesy” beads though:
Visit their studio at:
http://www.artfire.com/users/positivelycharmingthings
Follow their clay journey on their blog:
http://www.positivelycharming.com/
Meet FantasyClay
This week’s ArtFire Smoosher is Susan of FantasyClay from New Jersey, in the US. She’s been working with polymer clay for around 10 years she says and while most of her work is sculptural she tries to avoid being boxed in and attempts different techniques like beadmaking or caning.
FantasyClay is best know for her little custom Agricola pieces:
Myself, I’m always impressed with people who can sculpt and actually get something resembling what they set out for. FantasyClay has a studio full of cute critters, dragons and little figures like these guys:
Visit FantasyClay’s Studio
Join her clay journey on her blog
Follow her on Twitter
Time Away from my Studio
It seems that I most want to dig my fingers into a bowl of beads or a chunk of clay when I’m nowhere near them (or this week, as I teach). I suspect that’s human nature. Or Elaine-nature at least. I’m a contrary person like that sometimes.
We spent the weekend Not At Home – visiting my family in Calgary and getting errands done in civilization (hello WR Display, you make me happy). Visited Ikea, Springbank Cheese company and other delightful places my wallet is happy I only get to see occasionally. Apart from boxes to mail goodies, I found a guillotine and a hand cart for my studio and shows respectively. Note: the hand cart was appropriated for use before it could pose here.
I made sure to do SOME fun things. Every year there’s the Taste of Calgary and I’ve gone to most of them. My daughter has her favourites like the mini melts but we do always try to experiment a little too.
This year we tried nifty little appetizers from Tango and perfect little pakoras from Delice and some amazing bacon wrapped prawns and stuffed Yorkies from Halo… er, yeah. Lots of good stuff.
Of course, this is a note that you don’t really need to whip out your wallet to relax… you just need to stop and smell (or, in my daughter’s case, eat) the flowers.
Meet Tamed
This week’s ArtFire Smoosher is Tamed, from St. Bee’s in the UK. Her passion is creating scale miniature replicas of animals as a a sort of pet portrait. Her studio is a collection of sweet creatures using polymer clay and felted fibres such as alpaca and merino.
Here’s a cute, TINY guinea pig:
An adorable Husky:
Tamed also has several listings for custom pet portraits. If you’d like a little keepsake – a mini-me of your pet – check out:
You can visit her shop at:
http://www.artfire.com/users/Tamed
And follow Tamed’s clay journey at:
http://timetamed.blogspot.com/
The Shop: Stimulus
If you’re up for a fun bargain, many of the vendors on ArtFire are offering goodies at seriously reduced prices until August 31. To take advantage of the specials search AFSS or AFSP.
In my own studio I have a few little pieces up for the stimulus sale:
Weekend Sunshine
The theme of this weekend was sunshine. As in: too much of it. Here’s a few highlights while I hide in the basement with water all week.
When not being used at outdoor shows – which is oh… most of the year – my little pop up gets used for family parties!
The party house has a big pool where we spent most of the day but we had few guests that were not impressed like this monster. By this point in the summer, they all look like helicopters to me.
And then because one day being in the water and sun was not enough for me, we did it the next day too. Out on the lake with friends, their boat and a ton of sun.
Some of the company was pretty darned adorable though, I have to admit!
Now, back to clay in my nice, shady cave. How was YOUR weekend?
Meet Haffina
The Smoosher of the week is Haffina(other shop), a polymer clay artist from Mt. Barker, Australia. With five children and a ton of other commitments to online communities she helps organize or coordinates, Haffina STILL makes scads of beautiful beads and beaded pieces!
Here is a lovely focal (I’m a sucker for beads) with a sweet, sweet glossy finish:
Or what about this impressive beaded piece:
Not all of her pieces have clay in them. These pretty earrings have lovely artist made lampwork glass:
If you’d like to follow Haffina’s journey, check out her blog:
http://haffinacreations.blogspot.com/
And don’t forget to visit her bead shop:
http://www.artfire.com/users/beadsbyhaffina
Or her jewelry (and other nifty items!) shop :
http://www.artfire.com/users/HaffinaCreations
The Shop: Slices
This week, the shop has the Ode to Slice Beads as a theme I swear! There are my little 25 cent slices and the larger, more complicated ones I use in my charm bracelets. There’s a selection in my ArtFire shop to start – take a look:
The larger slices will be a dollar a piece or a dozen for $10. AF allows me to easily list multiple quantities, so if you need more than what’s there, do let me know. For example, my bracelets use between 10 and 30 of each flower type in them. I will probably make larger, mixed, quantities available soon.
And these will roll out to my Etsy shop in the coming days or weeks. Just have to start somewhere.
