Tag: 2018pcc

Week 12: Forget Me Nots

My weeks are running a little behind because my whole world is. Our planned kitchen renovations got moved up a little early and as a result my whole schedule is a little iffy. That said, I’m still cranking out the clay… it’s just the related actions like photographing and blogging in a timely manner that have gone to hell.

Forget-me-nots are such pretty flowers and I made a few extra large, flat ones for pins. Luckily they’re also one of the more popular designs in my shop so I get the chance to make them reasonably often

Week 10: Bunny and Carrot

Maybe 2/3 of the beads I make are flowers or flowery. There’s no particular reason for it other than I like to have a theme and that it’s a forgiving sort of design to do. Variations on a theme require less thought than completely new designs. When I make a design I tend to then do a whole slew of variants. My bird canes? I think I have a half dozen versions now with several more to come. The new tulips? Yep.

Then, sometimes, I get asked to make seasonal canes and beads. Years ago I made a bunny and carrot cane. Turned out the carrot became one of my standard, reliably purchased bead offerings (who would have guessed?) but I hadn’t taken another try at the rabbit design until last week when I made a cane and then slice beads from it. They’re fairly adorable and have a Velveteen Rabbit / Peter Rabbit vibe going which makes me happy.

I will have instructions written up for the carrots as a downloadable tutorial fairly quickly. And I turned some of the canes into earrings because why not? Also, Easter is coming right up.

Week 7: Making Pens

I don’t make pens very often anymore and I should. It’s such a nice little project that creates useful items. I had stopped because it was harder to find good, cheap pens that worked. They changed the formulation for the Bics that were my go-to and I was stuck experimenting with random discount brands afterwards.

I know you can buy great pen kits or even use better quality refillables for this. These were always a bulk, inexpensive project for classes or smaller shows, for me.

Anyways, I tried another dollar store brand this week with some success. I’ll probably make a few more with one of my upcoming classes so they can give some for Mother’s or Father’s Day gifts.

This is an in progress for this batch. I slice a pile of canes and then start placing the slices. After I have what I want, I smooth them in. After baking, they’ll get a little sanding and buffing. These will also get their ends painted out since I didn’t cover them with clay.