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Working with Nature

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It’s been such a ‘birdie’ beginning of summer!  We had Western Tanagers migrating through our area and they are such beautiful eye- candy that all one could do was stop and look at them.   Unfortunately, one of the males flew into my neighbor’s patio door so hard that it obviously had a concussion.  We tried to revive it with diluted orange juice in a syringe.  My neighbor, Phoebe, and I emailed each other through the day. “Henry is safely installed in our AZ room in the aquarium with a small maple branch, water, o.j. and seeds.  He hasn't taken more juice, but has moved around, out of the box a couple of times. Keep the fingers crossed!”  Sometime in the night our patient (Phoebe named him Henry) gave up the fight and he was buried in the yard under a rock.     This was the first time I had the privilege of actually holding a wild bird.  He was so light and his feathers were such beautiful colors.  Quite the nature experience and of course, sad.  Soon afte

Making Faux Glass Beads

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Glass Lampwork Beads are among my favorite eye candy.  When I saw this tutorial on faux lampwork beads I decided I had to try it!  This is the link for the tutorial:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/176555759/faux-glass-polymer-clay-tutorial-pack-3?ref=related-6 It is very well written, nicely illustrated and a pleasure to follow.  I recommend this! I love these beads and can't wait to make more with this technique First I started collecting the supplies and naturally I needed to order some things!  I did not have Kato liquid polymer nor did I have a heat gun.  I love tools so here was another excuse!  Now I have a heat gun!  I bought the Ryobi 11 Amp Variable-Temp Heat Gun that was suggested in the tutorial.  It is great – easy to hold and the temperature is easy to adjust!  The Kato clay I bought came in a bubble wrap envelop and the lid was loose.  Ick! What a mess.  Amazon refunded the money and I was able to salvage enough to do the project.  Finally ready! I m

Strawberries in the Spring!

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    Strawberries happen to be one of my favorite fruits.  I especially love them combined with rhubarb, but         really, fresh strawberries and cooked strawberries; straight out of the field or frozen…they are all good!     When I mixed this red polymer clay with gold and yellow and added green, of course, strawberries came      to mind.  This is my interpretation of a strawberry fruit with its goodness inside and out!      I've never used the manufactured paper balls that I bought somewhere (guess we all know about that!)     and started reading about them.  https://www.etsy.com/listing/115947922/cotton-paper-balls-for-polymer-clay?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted&utm_campaign=supplies_low&gclid=CKTouvLDhL4CFQpgfgod0jYA3A      First I wrapped the cotton paper ball in foil to keep it from sticking to the clay.      I cut triangles for the petals and placed them on the ball keeping in mind that it needed to be flower l