Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

From OUr House to Yours Prescott AZ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

What is the story this elf is writing? Storytelling has always fascinated me and I’ve attempted to tell stories throughout my life in various ways.  As a child, I listened to stories told by my parents and my grandparents.  I listened to stories told by their friends and I learned much about my family, my culture and formed my dreams. Many years ago (30+), my niece was just the right age to have one of my dolls.  As I did not want to just give her the doll, I created a story for that doll with doll clothes for different activities.  She could take those props and make her own stories. As a photographer I try to catch an image that makes you wonder or want to know more! Why is this American Kestrel hovering? As an interior designer, I had many shelves and pot ledges (high shelves popular in the southwest homes) to create.  I created stories that reflected the interests of my clients in an artistic manner. As I created the props or visual cues for the stories,

One evening I was searching for a small project to make, something easy to create and something for the holiday season.  Outside my window the pine trees swayed in the wind and caught my attention.  I wondered how I could use some of my old polymer canes with a holiday tree theme and this is what I came from that evening of play! Plain sheet of polymer with edges trimmed and the patterned canes above. Patterned canes sliced and graduated in size to make the tree ornaments I'm learning to use Instagram  #brittdesign2 and decided to post my first attempts and actually got an order for more of these.  What a nice holiday surprise!  They can be used as ornaments, as gift tags or anything else that you think of.  A Sharpie is good to write a message or a name or date on the plain backs.  I have to make a few more for gifts to close friends and then hopefully I'll have a few in my Etsy shop!  www.etsy.com/shop/lindabrittdesign Finished gift tags and ornaments

I'm one of those people fascinated by the textures, shapes and patterns of  bugs...  dead bugs - not live crawling bugs!  When I found stylized bug stamps in a glitter store in Cottonwood AZ, I ordered them all in small sizes.  http://www.artglitter.com/   I could use the stamps as a starting point for the silver bug series I've been creating in my head. My first bug is done.  It has 2 orange CZ's in the antennae and a larger orange colored CZ in the center for some bling!  I dried the stamped clay on a round form with a flat piece for the back.  There is shape, texture and dimension in the silver. Bug #1 My second bug is at the firing stage.  I stacked layers of silver clay for the wings on the back to give this one dimension and interest.  There is an aqua CZ in it's head and I can't wait to see it come out of the kiln. Starting to cut the layers for bug #2 Back of Bug #2   Bug #2  not fired.   I think this series will be my spring colle

Does a change in the weather affect my creativity?  Apparently it does!  I’ve been deciding what project to start, what project to finish, what project to put away. The result is a clean work station!  And I’m still thinking about what I want to do.  Polymer canes - waiting! Silver and stone design - waiting! Prescott weather has gone from warm and sunny to cold and snowy to crisp and clear.  I’ve gone from wanting to be outside to wanting a fire and cup of hot tea to cleaning!  All in a week’s time.  This is the result of the cleaning and I’m sure it will not look like this in a week’s time.  I just wanted to capture it for the moment to show how organized I can be when I’m not excited about anything else! This also means I'm ready to start something new!  So be on the watch for it! Silver Pendants in the works.

Canes - long rolls of polymer clay set in patterns If you design and make polymer canes you probably have boxes of them stacked in shelves like I do. And if you sometimes look at all the cases of canes and wonder "What am I going to do with those rolls of patterned polymer clay?" then we are a lot alike! One of many boxes of canes - waiting! This week my attention span was just long enough to take a few of the canes and put them together in new ways and make some beads and buttons.  The color choices were blacks, gray, white and a little rusty red wrapped in thin black casings.  The canes needed a little massaging to activate the clay since they were older. unfired buttons The buttons are 1/8" slices with the pattern going through the button.  Be sure and notice the color change from the unfired clay to the fired clay.  I try to make a couple of sizes of each pattern. fired buttons     The beads are made of thinly sliced canes applied to scrap

'Petals"  finished pendant Experimenting with different metal clays involves risk, creativity and knowledge.  The risk is about the price of silver and not wanting to waste it.  The creativity is about an idea and the knowledge comes from experience.   In this project, I wanted to used fine silver bezel wire to hold a unique cabochon and I wanted to use FYI clay.  I knew from experience how to cut tabs in the bezel wire so that some tabs go into the clay and some are perpendicular and lay flat on the clay.  When the clay fires the wire and silver clay setting become one.  What I did not know was what the higher shrinkage rate of the FYI clay backing would do with the bezel wire.  Would it all come apart (I've had that happen) or would it shrink with so much curvature that the stone would not fit? Typically I use the  Art Clay brand of silver clay that does not have so much shrinkage.  This time I wanted to use the FYI clay because it is much less expensive and