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