Desktop, December 30, 2011: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year's Eve' Eve! I couldn't be more content. All creature comforts are taken care of and I plan to enjoy my libations while in my studio. No power tools allowed. It's a hand tools kind of weekend anyway.

I have posted earlier here about my polymer clay goddesses. I made them last summer, finished them and had nothing to do with them. I just liked them. I have been thinking new year, which takes me to spring and, maybe goddesses are ready to evolve. Here you can see how I have started my "hand tools only" weekend. Happy New Year, my friends.

December 23, 2011: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Christmas eve'eve. Tree is done, presents are wrapped, goodies are on the buffet. I've been noticing how calm the holidays have become. I'm totally enjoying the season. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Desktop: December 20, 2011

I'm sort of in idle, focusing my energy on "need to be done right now" tasks. I sit at my work table for a break from the holiday activities.

I don't feel stressed and pressured anymore during the holidays. It's a little disturbing to reflect on what the holidays once meant with jobs, kids, school events, grading, and taking finals,lack of money and time. I recall, distinctly, being relieved when the holidays were over.

The week between Xmas and New Year's was like decompressing for the whole year...just before it started again by hitting the floor running.I'm not complaining. That pace was necessary for everything I wanted...it takes what it takes, right? As wonderful as all that was, things do get better, or I'm getting in sync with my situation. Yeah, that's it.

Desk Top: December 10, 2011

The holiday craziness takes a little more of my day as each day passes. Everything is under way but, fortunately, the urgency that always accompanied the season while I worked full time and had two kids at home, is no longer part of the mood. I enjoy doing as much as suits me and, then getting back to work in my studio.

I have been finishing beads I made recently and rediscovered my goddesses while fishing through jars of polymer clay objects I've made periodically. I have some joining and constructing issues I need to work through, as you can see in the purple/green ensemble.

When I am just looking at my poly clay collections of beads and doodads, I am drawn by the color. I can't help not gathering matching colors, even when I know I want to create better beads and doodads for my goddesses. It's something like playing with colors in kindergarten...y'know?

Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you! These are the first three full size Christmas ornaments made with polymer clay canes. Each one a different experiment, a new experience. For the big REVEAL, please, join our Blog Hop and visit each participant's blog, listed below, to see the Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop 2011 handmade ornaments.

Humblebeads
Suburban Girl Studio
Spirited Earth
Garden Path Beads
Life in the Lyon's Den
Blog by Salla
It's Been a While
Sue Beads
Artist At Work
Modern Nature Studio
WireWorked
Too Aquarius
Artfully Ornamental
Gem Rose Designs
Jewels by Ine
BeeTree by M.E.
Islandgirl's Insights
Angela Lund-Logan
Gem's PC Corner
Summers Studio
Sandy Volpe
The Next Bend
Skye Jewels
Janina Grigore
Elysian Studios
Art Bead Scene

December 4, 2011: Christmas Ornament Blog Hop & My Birthday

Posting today is special for so many reasons. One is that it is my birthday! WooHoo. I am so grateful to be here to celebrate it. Three years ago, some of you know, I was fighting for my life. A coma had me by the short hairs for 22 days.It was the beginning of a journey through the rest of my life. An, oh so, grateful existence. The event, actually, surviving the event, has added another realm of thought and feelings to the mess of it all. One certainty, my priorities have realigned themselves. I once sought recognition for being a talented visual artist, for being in exhibitions around the world, and for being a respected author and lecturer. What was that about? I can't tell you today why that was once so important. Like I said, it's a new way of being and I'll share any breakthroughs as I break through and, actually, recognize it. LOL Today is also special because I am participating in an Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop. I would love to tell you more, but I am learning as I go. I want to share the finished ornaments. Put the final layer of sealer on today.

I posted them finished but still raw. The only way I knew how to keep them safe til they were baked.

I'm sure I will have some new links to other participating Art Bead Scene artists handmade ornaments for 2011. I really can't wait to see all of them myself. Stay tuned. Birthday girl over and out....for now! LOL

Desktop: Dec. 2, 2011: Polymer Scrap Goddesses

I am kind of amazed it is December. There is always an excitement that comes with December. It actually begins to grow in strength during the planning and process of Thanksgiving. It is ON! December 4th and 5th are mine and my son's birthdays, respectively. Sort of a "so it begins", meaning at any time it is convenient, it is time to begin the Christmas ritual. I complain but am lost if I don't get some of my December traditional routine fix. Tomorrow is a good day to bring up the trees. None too soon, either. Being Daddy's little girl, my birthday week was a good week to get find the freshest tree. And, currently, living surrounded by Gatlinburg"s Winterfest light extravaganza, numerous scene's of bears at play and work, etc. One is even of a bear's whiskey still. Did you know the mascot for the elementary school is a "hillbilly laying on the ground, against the tree, drunk"? Really. Essentially being neighbors with Dollywood where they pull out all the stops, it is truly a Christmas fairy land, we're already a couple weeks late! Mwaahahahah.

Another routine ingredient is having a new experiment, a new idea or a question that sketching just doesn't satisfy. Like Richard Dreyfus in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and the mountain he was obsessed with. Well, it happened. I started to look over all the bronze jewelry findings and beads I've been collecting to buy in to BNS/BNR treasuries over the Thanksgiving weekend for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I tried that method of promotion and I'm maybe breaking even for advertising. Now, I'm curious about hosting my own, with a team. But, I digress, I have put together a little collection of findings and have rediscovered my scrap goddesses. I made these in one sitting with the left-overs collection of canes...tiny ends. Here they are, staring back at me while I write this post. LOL

November 27, 2011: National Diabetes Month

I haven't paid any attention to November being the National Diabetes Month. Until now,I didn't realize how much of my life revolved around maintaining blood sugar, blood pressure, and my weight. I started gathering the paraphernalia I use every day...to simply manage "myself". It sounds scary but it really isn't. It's lots of things though. The numbers aspect of every function I monitor can get to have it's own life. Like, the weight game of numbers was the worst. I would jump on the scales every morning and often it influenced how I felt about myself. I've worked my way out of that game by, first, putting the bathroom scale in the trunk of my car, knowing I would be too lazy, too tired, or too cold to go to the car just to have bad news. It has worked really, really well. I don't own a bathroom scale now and the doctor lets me know every six months how I'm doing. Good news each time, even if it is only a pound, it's going in the right direction!

I manage my blood sugar best by making better decisions on what I eat. The diabetes itself helps me maintain a little bit. If I'm "listening" to my body, the diabetes itself lets me know rather quickly what I need. I keep orange juice in the fridge and sucrose tablets in my purse, the drawer by my bedside and in my desk. I only need them once every few weeks. I'm not insulin dependent but I am on two oral medications to help me maintain. Being diagnosed with diabetes in 1994 has been a journey. I've developed a better relationship with food sans dieting that has allowed me to lose 67 pounds since. I have achieved a weight loss without the numbers problem. The numbers for my blood sugar and even my blood pressure are all about little decisions that add up to little life style changes that add up always. If I get too hard on myself I tend to become anxious, frustrated and angry at myself. Totally the opposite of where I need to be and how I need to feel about myself. I read Diabetes Forecast, www.forecast.diabetes.org,published by the American Diabetes Association and Diabetic Living, www.DiabeticLivingOnline.com, a Better Homes & Garden Special Interest publication, front to back a little bit at a time. A couple of stories everyday. I skip a year once in awhile, just to catch up on the reading. I just realized, I have accepted diabetes and it teaches me how to adapt to my body. Most importantly, it has been because I have been blessed to live long enough to make it my life style, in my own time. Change is always difficult, "myself" is so interested in what makes itself feel good that I either need to distract "myself", pray for the strength or just simply talk to myself, no, yell at myself. LOL But because I gave in to myself often as a younger woman you can see the monitors and medicines I use every day, some twice. The bag is full with today's prescriptions, five more than shown. Yep, that's ten, and five or six are twice daily. I'm not sure I could have done things differently. It takes what it takes.

November 22, 2011: Black Friday Sales

I'm on the fly this evening. I learned how to add a treasury widget. To your right. I love making treasuries. It definitely satisfies the gallery director in me. The following quote is from Etsy's Help section. It describes the treasury process.

"Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery comprised of lists of items. Lists contain 16 items. Members can feature their favorite items, items selected on a theme or whatever they like. Any Etsy member can create a Treasury list, and there is no limit to the number of lists you can create. You can edit your lists as often as you desire, and post comments to other members' lists. The number of views your list receives as well as the number of clicks the items featured in your list receive are displayed in the list's Stats section. Treasury is not intended for self-promotion, but instead to acknowledge and share the many cool things for sale on Etsy."

This treasury, at the top of the right sidebar above has been made by another Etsy seller and an item from my shop was put in the treasury. I want to add treasuries that I have made as well as those that have selected one of my pieces to be featured. This is my learning post. LOL

I make several treasuries a week and often concentrate on a team and it's members. It helps me get familiar with the team and it gives me the time to search out the fine crafts and fine arts. I suppose I will learn more about vintage and supplies when I begin the big destash. After understanding what it's like for all this to stop...y'know, breathing, beating heart stuff...I want to destash. I'll be using the treasury tool to learn about that, too.

For now I'm sticking with what I know. I'm a little bit of a snob because the treasuries I make are handmade by the artist and Etsy sellers as members in a team. At least for now. I still feel very new as an owner of an Etsy shop. Keeps me busy every day all day. I'm thinking about adding a second treasury widget for the treasuries I make. I think they are pretty good, even if I say so myself. :D

Okay, I talked myself into it. In the right side bar below the first treasury is a treasury I curated. It's members of the Top Treasury team. As far as my desktop, it is all business and paper work. I'm photographing, processing and listing new items in my shop.I have included the very newest items before I list these ASAP! Please, enjoy.

www.BillisPaperBatiks.etsy.com From 12:00 am, Thanksgiving Day, until 11:59 pm Monday, Cyber Monday I'm offering FREE SHIPPING on all purchases! There are two coupon codes available for you to use at the time of purchase.You'll be asked to enter one code, your choice, on the PayPal invoice. Remember that's for free shipping! BLACKFRIDAY or CYBERMONDAY

November 18, 2011: Featured Etsy Blogger

I have joined a couple teams on etsy and volunteered to write a post about the monthly featured blogger for the official Etsy Bloggers Team. Selected for November is Pamela Baker from New York. As I perused her shops and blogs, listed below: http://www.MagdaleneJewels.etsy.com http://www.MagdaleneKnits.esty.com http://www.MagdaleneJewelspjk.blogspot.com http://www.MagdaleneJewelsblogs.blogspot.com I discovered she has another love beyond her online presence...theater. She is into costuming, make-up and does a little acting on the side. With that in mind, I visited all her links and became increasingly impressed with all that she is doing.

In her Etsy shop, MagdaleneJewels.etsy.com, I found lots of beaded pieces. I especially liked her use of flowers in the wedding items but I loved the necklaces made with a polymer clay flower as the focal bead.

Next, I visited her other Etsy shop. MagdaleneKnits.etsy.com, and looked in awe as I realized how much time it involves for her to crochet her inventory. Beautifully done sweaters, booties, scarves that made me ooh and ahh all the way through. But my favorite, cause, y'know, it's about me :-D, was this beautiful and cozy looking shawl!

Of course, I had to visit her blogs and found delightful offerings in both blogs. Each one has a personality of its own. The first one I looked at was www.magdalenejewelspjk.blogspot.com. I found a variety of very interesting artist posts, treasuries and best of all, shop/artist reviews. I was mesmerized by the review about these dolls. Haunting, right?

Needless to say, I didn't want to miss the last link to her other blog at www.MagadaleneJewelsblogs.blogspot.com. And I wasn't disappointed in the least! I'm totally bookmarking this blog featuring a "Wordless Wednesday" photographs. I like the "make your own caption" option. This one makes me laugh out loud! I can just hear the excited toddler running towards the toys, "O boy! TOYS!", just before he tumbles. All in all, my trip hopping through cyberspace getting to know Pamela Baker was interesting, educational, telling and, sometimes, downright funny! I recommend taking the time to take this trip yourself.

November 11, 2011: Gallery Ready

This last week I have been getting new work prepared for the Andrea Wilson Gallery, located in the Arts and Crafts Community in Gatlinburg, TN. The economy and foot traffic fluctuates with the seasons and the next 6 weeks are all about Christmas. I was able to put together a nice collection of polymer jewelry to enhance her existing stock.
Next trip will be with Valentines polymer. This a good trip to get done. And, any trip to the mountains is great. I do miss living in Gatlinburg, but I don't miss getting snowed in!
You can see my desktop in full swing of sorting, pricing and taking inventory the night before my trip to the gallery. Enjoy!

Desktop 11/06/2011

I'm happy to say the two galleries that carry my work are well into the season, and both need more new work. So, I pulled the bead necklaces I want to finish and the polymer fan brooches that have been waiting for the right time. Now would be right. I'll be spending my time finishing and prepping for delivery to the brick and mortars this week. Here comes Santy Clause. :-)

Desktop: November 3, 2011

I mentioned earlier I was going to take a break from the Christmas palette. These mini bottles were the most recently cured. They will join my growing collection of polymer covered mini-bottles. I did a mini vase, too. I like greens, purples and magenta together. I indulged. See the stack of canes I made last week. Well, here they are covering a 4 3/4" and two 4" glass mini-bottles. The bottom of the vase is 2" in diameter, the tallest bottle is 1 1/4" square and the wide bottle is 2" wide and 1 1/4" deep. I plan to finish these with a buff finish. Now, that I have cured nine mini bottles I have to commit to setting up my buffing table. Uncovering that is another post! LOL Enjoy.

October 31, 2011 Happy Halloween

Handmade Halloween!

Desktop: October 30, 2011

I made the little faces and cured them. Now I'm trying another Christmas light design. I was thinking a Santa head but now I'm thinking about using the new canes I made, while watching Halloween shows! You can see a little of the new palette.

Desktop: October 29, 2011, Christmas polymer

I started to play with wrapping a light sheet of clay around the end of the bulb and a shaped paperclip as a hanger. I did wrap it and used enough clay to fashion a hanger of sorts. I pulled it apart because while it would hang securely, the whole thing was just too heavy. Back to the drawing board.

Here, I was getting a shot of the beads I had in progress and ended up with a shot of the Christmas light bulb cured. Still don't know how to hang it. Even wrapping wire around it seems visually clumsy. Maybe a cold solder technique? Anyway, I did fill the bead baking rack and ended up with Christmas colored lot of beads. They still need to be finished.

You can see the green beads w/ blue lines in the first set of beads. I really like the color. It was truly a break from the red and green palette I've been working with the last two days. I've started loading the baking rack with matching simple blue beads.

October 25, 2011: Desktop Figured It Out

I devised a make-shift stand to support the Christmas bulbs while I work on them. The gold face, leaf burst, blue bulb lost a little definition in the face while I worked on it. You can see the little face is a little flat in Sunday's post. I was thinking I would make some faces first and cure those to apply to the bulb and work around it. In the meantime I am using canes I have made for this Xmas season while I think about faces. Here you can see my progress on the bulb and the ingenious "stand". Why is it ingenious? Cause it works. :-) LOL

Desktop October 24, 2011

Spent the whole day on-line. Argh! Tomorrow in the studio!!! I did select work on etsy for a Craftcult Team Treasury. I like doing team treasuries, it helps me familiar with members. I usually look for the handemade...quality handmade if available. Handmade by the artists! http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NjgwMDM3MXw5NTY1NDAxMzA/craftcult-handmade-treasury

Desktop: October 23, 2011

I finished all the little Christmas polymer clay ideas I had floating around in my head. I have a few yet to tweak but I'm just done tweaking for a few days. I've been puttering around the house today. Y'know, clean a little this, put away that while I let ideas float through my mind. Did a little drawing before I experimented with the Christmas bulbs and polymer. Wasn't sure about any application or techniques, let alone if they bake. This is today's adventure. The polymer adhered perfectly to the surface of the bulbs. I can consider some more ideas. I wonder how I can hang them?

Desktop, October 21, 2011: Little Bottles!

The last two rainy days have been productive studio days, as you can see. Maybe a bit too engaging cause we're eating Mom's vegetable beef soup! I might take time out from my work table tomorrow to do the dishes and make home made drop biscuits to go with. I love big pots of soup or chili on rainy, chilly days. It's Octobery, right? Hope you like the new little bottles. I might not be done claying with little bottles, I have four more. They just walked into my studio the other day, go figure.