Posts

Feeling like Alice in Butterfly Wonderland

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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...

Setting Stones and Reviewing a Book

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What have I been doing this week?  Setting some of the Mojave Stones that my dad cut and polished into my silver metal clay settings  I’m really happy with these two pieces!  I’ve also read an e-book that just might be of interest especially if you have an etsy shop or a website store.  When I received an email from Hunting Handmade asking if I would like to review the new ebook, ‘The Art of Audience Building for Etsy Sellers’, I said ‘YES, please!’  I’m always looking for ways to improve my two Etsy shops and I’m always interested in new ideas.  The book was written for Etsy sellers but after reading it, anyone with a business on the internet will find it interesting and  useful.  I also enjoyed their website and thought you might also:     http://www.huntinghandmade.com/ If you have shopped on the Etsy site, you know that there are thousands of shops represented.  It is so easy to get lost looking for some...

Making Sun Catchers

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Don’t you just love seeing colors change when sunlight makes the color sparkle?  When I decided to play with translucent polymer clay and use alcohol inks to make color, I had no idea where that would lead me.  I just started conditioning the translucent Pardo polymer and passed it through the pasta machine.  My alcohol inks were lined up ready to be brushed on the flat surfaces.  They dried and I started blending the colors.  Then I made shapes, all kind of shapes, stacked colors, made designs and cured them in the convection oven. I sanded and polished and arranged them in groups – still not knowing how I would use them.      Before curing After curing Holding the pieces to the light fascinated me by the color changes.  The more I looked at them in the light the more convinced I was that they needed to be hung by themselves and not worn as beads.  Sun Catchers!  Perfect use of shape and color and light....