Feeling accomplished--3 more presents done!

The last two days have been very productive.  I've finished Mom's, Lois' and Nizzie's Christmas Presents.  I still have quite a few to do, but every little bit helps, right?

Mom wanted an OSU themed necklace, so I made "O" necklaces with red and silver sculpey.  I used a thin layer of black to outline the "O".  I need more practice as it looks like a 4 year old made the beads.  I do like the effect of a pen outline the black made.

Next, I made Lois' necklace.  I made enough beads to make her a matching bracelet too.  The rose got distorted when I reduced the cane, but I think these beads look pretty nifty still.  I included pictures of the leaves & the rose before reduction.

Lastly, I put together Nizzie's rosary.  I really like how it turned out.  I have two more rosaries to make.  One for Cheez and one for my brother.  Those will be fun  :)

Progress as of Nov 8th, 2009

Yesterday and today I had the gals over for more clay fun. Tricia's rose came out pretty cool, though I forgot to get pictures. Croa was extra creative and came up with food stuffs. She and I now have a nifty hotdog/cheeseburger earring set!

The food trend continued tonight as evidenced by the next few pictures. I believe I am missing a few things, like Trishie's fries and Cora's Margarita

I was trying to figure out what to do for Bro's rosary. I came up with the canes below. They kind of have a stained glass look to them. The cross one looks more like a turtle shell. Oh well. All of the rosaries will use the cross one.

Next are the pieces (which still need to be baked) to finish all the beads I need for Nizz's rosary. It's hard to see, but I used the dusty rose and burgundy to make a windy design on the cross. I'm not sure about it. We'll see how it looks when I string everything. I may re-do it. :)

Here are the "Our Father" beads. I'm not sure I like how they came out. As usual, a work in progress. :) I may pick up some more of the burgundy and pink to make a gradient to re-do the cross. We'll see.

Part of me is afraid I've bitten off more than I can chew with this project. Though, I do have a good dent in them. I still need to make a ton of pens for the guys. Those I can whip out in an evening though. I did find that we do have jewelry boxes at Michael's. Score.

Oh yeah, I picked up a 2nd job at the craft store (Michael's). Subsidizing the craft habit is a good thing. Hopefully the extra exercise will be good for my back too. I barely made it through my shift this past saturday. That's why I like the crafting, it's easy for me to do, as long as my arthritis behaves. Hopefully keeping busy like this will keep it at bay too.

More to come soon!

A little more progress and fun with the girls

We had an impromptu craft night at my place this past Sunday. Cora and Tricia joined me to play with clay. We learned a couple of things:

1. The sparkly polymer clay is harder to condition. I'm not sure we ever really got it to work

2. I live in an icebox which makes it even harder to condition clay.

Since it's easier for me to throw on a sweater and warm up than it is for hubby to cool down, icebox it is. Oh well. :) We've started sitting on our clay to help warm it up. There were jokes flying about that on Sunday.

I taught both Cora and Tricia how to make a Skinner blend. Cora got far enough along that she was able to make a rose cane:

Cora's Rose Cane:

Tricia didn't get as far, she only finished her Skinner Blend:

While they were working, I was using the new bead roller and rolling out beads galore. I used remnant clay from other projects. I just smashed a bunch of it together and then rolled it out. The different colors swirled together to make a cool marbled effect.

Here is a close up on the burgundy rose beads. These are for Nizz's rosary. They are a little bigger than I planned on. I think for Cheez's rosary, I will hand roll the base and use the roller for the finished bead.

I really like how the beads are turning out and can't wait to see the finished product. It's slow going since I picked up the 2nd job at Michael's. So, that cuts into my crafty time a bit.

One of these days I will pick my quilting back up. I just need to get the Christmas presents done first.