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 visu...

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 Finish...

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.  ...

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 app...

'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 b...

Flowers in the Wind I’ve been experimenting and taking online classes again!  Terry Kovalcik has a great class on www.craftcast.com    called ‘Painting and Sculpting using PMC Paste’.  It is well worth taking because there is so much information on materials, tools and technique.  Terry explains and shows details and shares some tips.  After watching the video once, collecting the materials needed and deciding what design I wanted to paint, I watched the video again! Terry uses PMC clay but I had FYI silver clay on hand and used it for the foundation shape and PMC paste with lavender oil for the painting.  I was concerned about the extra shrinkage of the FYI silver but the two worked well together.  I’m sharing the stages of my creations with you but you need to take the class for the real substance.  Shapes and Designs - FYI Silver Clay Out of the kiln  This technique requires a steady hand and some patience....

As a child, I loved making bubbles.  As an adult I still love making bubbles. I love watching the sun hit the clear bubble and turn it into rainbow colors, I love watching the bubbles float on the wind.  I love watching them glide to a tree and disappear.  I can watch bubbles for a long time! On a recent trip to Walgreens, I found long tubes filled with liquid and a long wand for making bubbles.  I bought three of them.  One for me, one for a friend and one for a hostess gift!  The three of us made bubbles in the hostess’s back yard and laughed while we played.   I brought mine back home because the want could make more bubbles!  I found it again this week and yes! I made bubbles on a windy day.  It was so much fun to see them floating on the wind to neighbors yards.  I wondered if anyone else saw them!  Then I wondered if I could take pictures.  I had to try and this is the result!...

This past week has been about care giving to my guy.  Peter fell and fractured his ankle and needed lots of help with getting 'the boot' on and off and with icing.  So creativity took second place! One evening I looked for something in my stash of stuff to inspire me.  Like most jewelry artists, I have a lot of stuff and it is not all organized and comes from many places including a yard sale plastic box filled with all sorts, shapes and lengths of chain for very little money.  It's been sitting on a shelf since I bought it and that night the plastic box fell on the floor and everything in it scattered.  I had a choice - gather them up and stuff them back in the box or look at this as an opportunity to see what I have. I started separating the chains into gold color and silver color; then separating them in to types of chains and lengths and pretty soon it became clear that their was not enough time or space!  I really wanted to just stuff them back...

Largest exhibit in the U.S.  - Phoenix AZ   Picture walking into a large lobby and being submersed in large plastic butterflies hanging from the ceiling.  I was reminded of a time when I wanted to wake up in the mornings with sunshine highlighting butterflies hanging from the ceiling over my bed.  Now I know how that would feel and I am so sorry I did not hang those butterflies.  A friend and I joined a tour group with Master’s Touch Tours to Phoenix AZ in a very comfortable bus.  We arrived at Butterfly Wonderland to spend the morning enjoying and learning about a variety of butterflies.  www.butterflywonderland.com   They receive butterflies from farms all over the world.  They have from 1500 to 35,000 in any given week depending on shipments and hatchings.  I learned the difference between cocoons and chrysalis (moths make cocoons and butterflies make chrysalis).  Good to know.  We watched an exce...