Giveaway and Spam

For the One World One Heart Giveaway I thought I would temporarily disable comment moderation and the annoying 'word verification', but what it is getting me is spam on several different blog posts and I have to remove these 'get your rolex watch here' kinds of comments. Sorry everyone...back to word verification...ugh

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Polymer Clay and Resin play

I've tinkered with various types of resins for my polymer clay jewelry and until now have not found the right product for me. I've tried Envirotex and some other 2 part resin that my husband likes to use and while he is very good at mixing 2 part resins, I am not. I think my equal measuring with specific cups is not working out too well, but apparently temperature is a factor also. I've ended up with sticky pieces that ended up in the garbage bin and was not too pleased because I didn't do it on a 'test' piece, ahem. No wonder I didn't do so well in High School Chemistry, lol. I've tried Judikins Diamond Glaze and DG3 Art gel and Glossy Accents which are dimensional glosses. Since they are water-based however they do not stand up to a lot of wear. I've tried UTEE and I do like it for 'round' objects, but for tougher wear I need something stronger.

Most of you know about the 1 part resin, Magic Glos, by Lisa Pavelka. I like it a lot, but it is a bit pricey. I'm glad it is available in larger bottles now which does bring cost down. It cures wonderfully under my 9 Watt UV lamp, but I find I have to do two steps and sometimes two layers to get it right. You can see my post about it here
About lamps...I just ordered a larger lamp, a 36 Watt one like this one. I'll be able to cure more pendants at a time (instead of 2 or 3) and with a quicker cure time.

Anyway...last year I had some UV resin sent to me by a manufacturer in the US. I'll have to dig out the flyer and info they sent me and tell you more about who, where and what, but I finally used it and WOW! am I happy I did. If you saw my last post you saw one of the pieces I did with this.
Here are a few more pics

 

This stuff, which is an Epoxy, cures relatively fast, about the same time as Magic Glos. What I do is a thin layer at first, cure and do another layer. What I found so far is that:

• it does not recede from the edge
• after curing it can be baked (if you need to add to your piece)
• it can be sanded (and I've got to do a bit of that)

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Ancient World meets Future - Myriad Polymer Clay Pendants

While working on these polymer clay somethings, including some spirals (not shown), the first thought that came to mind was Archimedes. I was looking for a name for these pendants to be and had to ponder why that word would jump out like that.

Archimedes was a Greek astronomer, inventor, engineer, physicist, and mathematician.

The watch gears hint of steampunk, and yet the pendants don't look anywhere near Victorian which is a major criteria for something to fit into the Steampunk genre. I know that a lot of people stick some gears and bolts in some clay and call it Steampunk, however, true Steampunk does not contain an iota of plastics, only metal, glass, leather or the kinds of things that were around in the Victorian Era. And frankly, polymer clay or PVC was not invented until 1933 in Germany by Semon B.F. Goodrich. Check out this interesting time-line of polymers.

So what do I call my pieces that are more inspired by 'Ancient World meets Future' along with gears, nuts and bolts, resin, inks of the now...I was trying to guess how many pendants I have created since I started claying, beading etc and a wild guess would be in the thousands. 10,000 is a Myriad in Greek...A Myriad of Polymer Clay Pendants, or just a few.
Stay tuned...I'll be blogging about a wonderful new one component resin.

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One World One Heart - Polymer Clay Heart Giveaway

I'm giving away my heart! Well, two Polymer Clay Hearts.
Welcome to this wonderful event where you can find new blogs to inspire you (click on the above image to visit other blogs) and perhaps make some new friends with like crafting interests. You do not have to be an artist/crafter etc to participate! If you want to join and feel you're not artistic, you can still participate by giving away a CD, a Dvd, a book etc...we all love 'stuff'.
To win one of my hearts simply leave me a comment. Tell me what you think of my blog, my work, what you'd like to see next...etc. I will read all of your comments! Draw will be random by using the random number generator.
Please make sure I know how to contact you by leaving your email address. Contest runs Jan 25 to Feb 15th.

My first giveaway is "U Rock my Heart" which is a polymer clay faux rock pebble.

The second giveaway is for a crackle "Heart upon Heart" pendant

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Sunshine Blog Award

A few days ago I was bestowed by Carolyn Good with the Sunshine Award and am very honored as this award is to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world.

I'll be hard pressed to pass this award on as I haven't had much time to look around and the people I already thought of, already received this award also! Would be an easy way out to give it back to them, including Carolyn, lol as I consider her extremely sunny, positive and inspiring.

When I saw the award my first thought was it strikingly resembles my Windows Avatar, from a different angle... haha I think a lot of us have this daisy tho.

Anyway, the rules for accepting this award is a bit of work and apologize ahead of time as I've got my hands full these days...I may only post a couple of links over the course of a week...

- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.(I'm so sorry I don't have time as I'm getting ready for a show, but promise to come back to this)
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

So here are the first 5 bloggers I am passing this award to and something special from their blog that I found inspiring ...

Andrea Herrera of Tiny Crafts
check out this link on Tiny Tool boxes (sorry, cannot post image here without Andrea's permission and she doesn't know she's getting the award yet, lol)

The second Award to Betty Jo of Knightworks...(shucks just discovered she already has it too!!) Girls, you're not making this easy for me...

Michelle Adkins of Creative Critters. (I couldn't figure out how to post a picture from someone elses blog, but I like the valentine hearts ;)

Here are two more:
Bounette who is a french blogger. I like her work very much, especially her flowers

Sandy of Simple Inspirations
Sandy has been caning up a storm as well...I can't get over this one, made with scrap??

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Tofino Beach Drift - Polymer Clay Pebbles and Rocks

Been hiding in my studio to work on some new polymer clay jewelry, namely my beach pebbles. Filled with new inspiration I'm giving my 2010 line a lift, by including some driftwood pieces. The recycled glass looks like beach glass which of course goes well with stones and driftwood.

Among the beach pebble jewelry are a few Inuksuits (plural of Inukshuk) which were re-requested by a local gallery. The Inukshuk also forms the basis of the logo of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. You may want to google some interesting facts about this symbol. I'm having another idea on how to incorporate this into some work.

These pieces will be among others that I'll be taking to an upcoming Wholesale Show near Victoria. Stay tuned for more Tofino Beach Drift...

 

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