Sometimes A Girl Just Needs To Feel Sparklie

Once in a while when I get together with my best girlfriends, my Ya-ya's, we get silly and wear wild head gear. I've been meaning to make myself a tiara for these special times, but haven't had the time. This weekend I made time. For the flowers I cannibalized some wire-wrapped earrings that I've had in inventory forever. Special sale pricing proved ineffective at moving them, so I used them for this bit of Sparklie Goodness...

OK, Girls, I'm ready for our next meeting!

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

And The Winner Is...

The winner of the contest to name my newest collection of clay jewelry is (drumroll please):

Tameka from Tea And Honey Bread

Her contribution to the name pool is Morrocane Magic. I love this... a play on words and it's catchy. Thanks to everyone who participated.


copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

While Mining Netflix, I Found A Gem

I'm still stuck on the sofa. My back is improving, but flares up quickly if I'm not careful. Daytime tv selections are dreadful, so I've been watching streaming Netflix... a LOT. While trolling through the many, varied choices over there, I found Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School.

The title was so cumbersome, I was skeptical about how good it would be. The cast is stellar: Mary Steenburgen, Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty), John Goodman, Marissa Tomei, Donny Wahlberg, Adam Arkin, Miguel Sandoval, Ernie Hudson, and Danny Devito. My God, with a cast like that, why didn't this 2005 movie get more press?

I found myself delighted and deeply touched as I watched. This is a heartfelt, poignant story of a widower thrown into a tragic situation that inspires him to change his life. The actors move through their parts gently, working to avoid out-shining each other. In particular, John Goodman demonstrates he is a mature and skillful actor with his touching performance.

The script was very well written. The story flows through present and flashback scenes so easily, that it never leaves you feeling lost. The plot and subplots are woven together so well that the actors are able to bring these characters to life. You clearly see their transformations without proclamations or huge speeches.

You won't find action scenes, obvious, gratuitous sex, or beautiful people; these are tragic figures who find direction. A sleeper film, but what a treasure! I hope you'll try it... you won't be disappointed. (Oh, and lest you be put off by the idea of ballroom dancing, actual dancing plays a verrry tiny part in the plot.)

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Fall is in the Air

The days are getting shorter, the sun is lower in the sky, and squash is in season at the Farmer's Market.

I roasted a funky looking squash (can't remember the name... sorry) - the farmer told me it would be a good pumpkin-like flavor. It is. To mark the onset of Fall, I made pumpkin pancakes this morning.

What a fabulous recipe! You can find the recipe at my cooking blog.

~~~

In other news, I'm slated to participate in our local church's Alternative Gift Market again this Thanksgiving (I'll be the one with all the jewelry! :) . I'm SO looking forward to this event. People come ready to buy, as the proceeds go to charity, and I really enjoy representing my work personally to the customers. I'll post more about it as we get closer. The dates are November 20-21, if you happen to be in the Chapel Hill-Durham-Raleigh area.


copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Polymer Clay and That Thing That Happened...

There I was, being a Good Girl and resting on the sofa. I spent the past week making the blog rounds, rearranging the furniture (so to speak) on my own site, and watching a LOT of movies from streaming Netflix. My back is beginning to feel marginally better and I started to get bored.

For the past few days I went into the studio for a short while and found that something wonderful had happened.

I decided to make some pins and earrings using really old canes. The slices I made were cracked and crumbly (we're talking 6 months old here). So, thanks to Alice's advice, from Polymer Clay, Etc, I reduced the canes down: small, smaller, and smallest. I had no idea these canes, originally about 1.5 inches square, could go down as far as 1/4 inch. They made beautiful borders.

I began building my brooches with a single large slice. As I played with my new mini canes, I realized that I'd need to add some contrast between the center area and the borders. I textured some 18 karat gold leaf-covered clay and cut it to fit. Add on the borders and... "Wowzer!"

While reducing some of the canes, I stopped at about 1/2 in and tiled slices together to make a larger kaleidoscope design.

This I cut into several different shapes and added black and gold leaf borders. A few slices from my favorite flower petal cane added an exciting detail to these new earrings and necklace.

I also had some regrettable "junk canes" sitting in a drawer. I'd mish-mashed some scraps of clay together and added some blue and white as borders. The final result looked uninteresting, to say the least. I reformed the round cane into a rectangle and cut some slices. Add some black, gold leaf, and bright border cane slices... NOW we're cooking. The final touch: a single honey-colored Swarovski crystal in the center of the junk cane slice.

I have no idea where these new pieces came from. I guess I should take more time off!

~~~

Now I need to come up with a name for this new series of pieces. They remind me of old-fashioned tapestries and/or Persian carpets. What do you think? The person who comes up with the name I decide to use will get a special prize - a pair of these pretty earrings:

So spread the word to your friends. All ideas are welcome! Just be sure to leave your contact info in the comment you leave here. The contest will end on Sept 25 and I'll post the winner in a blog entry shortly after that. Thanks for your help. :)


copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

I'm In A Time Out...

I'm in a STUDIO time out, that is. I don't want to dwell too much on yet another problem, so I'll just say that my back went out again and my leg and foot went numb, too. My doctor told me to get comfortable and wait it out, that as long as the numbness comes, and then goes, he's not too worried. If it goes numb and stays that way, we'll be taking x-rays and talking to surgeons. So, I'm out of my studio chair, parked on the sofa, and waiting for this to heal up on its own.

I realized this past week that I've been too focused on work recently. I haven't taken time for myself. I've read a new fluffy Summer Beach Book. If you haven't discovered Wendy Wax's hilariously funny books, I can recommend her latest: The Accidental Bestseller. My all-time favorite of hers, though, is Leave It To Cleavage: An Uplifting Tale. The heroine of that book owns a bra factory and all I can tell you is that in the first pages of the book she finds a photo of her husband wearing custom-made ladies underwear and in the picture he has a woman's hand on his butt. Very funny.

While I'm mostly immobile, I have been doing some beading to keep myself busy. A gorgeous Rosetta jasper cabachon is at the center of this new bead embroidered collar. I hope to have this finished by the end of this week.

Meanwhile, you can find me here on the sofa with a tv remote in my hand...

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Upcoming New Website

Thanks to Gabriela Delworth, who is quite the marketing mentor, I've started a selling blog, sort of an online glossy brochure for stores and show promoters, as well as the general public. After my last post, Gabriela wrote me a wonderful email full of ideas, including this one for a blog with "buy now" paypal buttons.

click the picture to visit this new page

I've spent the past week designing this new corner of Blogland, trying hard to avoid the standard blog look. For instance, did you know Blogger now allows you to have up to 10 pages within a blog? Sweet! My resident computer geek, Marble Man, is giving me a crash course in html programming to customize this site. Despite the risk of brain damage from all this coding, I'm thrilled with the page so far. It's still very much a work in progress, especially the individual listing pages.

Meanwhile, please take a trip over there and poke around. I would gratefully accept any constructive criticism/advice. Is there any information you feel should be included? Feel free to share this link with friends and family.

I plan to keep my Etsy site for listing pieces I only want to make one of - mostly the beaded stuff and earrings. This new website will be for listing things I'll make in multiples, as well as the wearable art beaded pieces, keeping shops in mind.

Whaddaya think?

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Petal Power and a Revelation

Fairy Blossom Necklace

Our recent family trips and resulting sales of my new polymer clay pieces have taught me that I absolutely must be able to show my work personally and interact with my customers face-to-face. Sure, most of my sales in the past couple of months were to family, but these folks did ALL their Christmas shopping from my box of wares. If they were merely wishing to be supportive, surely they would have bought a single piece?

I've had my shop at Etsy.com for a couple of years now and it's been an interesting experience: on the one hand, I get very excited when someone I don't know from some other part of the country buys my work . On the other hand, WAITING for that person to find my shop is seriously frustrating.

Flower Pendants

My recent revelation is that it's time to participate regularly in craft shows again. For the past several months I've devoted my time to learning the polymer clay craft, finding my style, and making pieces that I find fun to do.

Now I need to take those lessons and find pieces that can be quickly created in multiples and are appealing to the eye. All these flower petal pieces shown here are relatively fast, fun to make, and popular.

Floral Brooches

I'm also going to be approaching buyers for boutiques, galleries and museum shops. Time to suck back a glass of wine for courage and start making calls!

The last issue for me is how do I sign my work? I found a nice initial "T" rubber stamp which works well for the larger pieces, but what about the small ones? Any ideas?

I'll keep my Etsy shop, but it won't be so fully stocked anymore. Any ideas you all have would be very welcome.

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Polymer Clay Bangles

I've been having tons of fun these past couple of weeks creating new bangle bracelets.

The clay is set into 5/16" brass channel bracelet blanks. After baking, I sand and buff these little beauties to a satiny smooth finish.

I've also made some 1/8" bangles in complementary colors to the wider funky bangles:

The wider bangles are listed for sale in my Etsy shop for $38 each. I don't plan to list the narrower bracelets there, so contact me directly if you are interested in those - The price is $16 each.

Stay tuned for more new work, coming soon.

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Butterfly Beauty in Durham, NC

This week we're enjoying my mother's company here in the Steamy South. Trying to think of air conditioned activities we could do while showing her the area, we decided on a day trip to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. This is a wonderful museum full of "touch me" exhibits for little ones, including a gorgeous butterfly house. If you call ahead, you can find out when staff will release newly hatched butterflies.

We were greeted by charming metal sculptures of insects as we approached the entrance to the butterfly house:

Tired? Have a seat on a clever butterfly bench...

The butterfly house contains several different ecosystems ranging from desert to tropical rain forest. Marble Man looks right at home in front of a Lobster Claw Tree from the tropical area:

Look up! Fluttering all around us were delicate natural wonders.

The interior of the house has a controlled, comfortable temperature. Running around on the ground is a group of funny little partridge-like birds which eat the unwanted bugs that this venue tends to attract, as well as a collection of song birds that eat dead butterfly carcasses.

We arrived in time for the release of the new butterflies. Here I am, handing one off to a little friend. This insect was so new it couldn't fly yet. We watched it exercise and air out its wings until it took off on its own.

Aside from butterflies, this part of the museum also houses a collection of creepy crawlies of the HUGE variety. We're talking about African Walking Sticks that were 12 inches long, tarantulas as big as my hand, and a whole tankful of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches - a pretty high "Ick Factor", but interesting too.

My favorites were the Poison Dart Frogs. So colorful and funny.

After four hours of being in the company of over-wound rug rats, we were ready to head home. On our way out, we came upon this group of youngsters working on building a huge tower of small blocks. A frame from a short video shows them putting on the blocks, one-by-one, and holding their breath with each addition.

The tower got so tall that the other, taller, boy had to continue. Shortly after he took over, it all came tumbling down.

If you are in the Durham, NC area, you should stop by this lovely museum. The exhibits are well designed. There's lots to learn for children as well as adults.

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Twice Loved Dolls & Trucks - Charity Begins At Home

Aunt Mari (center) with Head Start Program workers

Last May, Marble Man and I took a trip throughout the Northeastern States. One of our stops was at the home of my beloved Aunt Mari and Uncle Ken Share. It had been FAR too long since our last visit together and this short visit was enough time to learn about my aunt's non-profit charity, Twice Loved Dolls & Trucks.

Volunteers working on toys

~~~

Our interview:

SG: First-off, when did you begin your twice-loved dolls venture... what was the event that gave you the idea in the first place? Secondly, how did you begin? Did you begin on your own, or did you have people helping from the start?

Mari: Around 1997 I was a member of a Catholic Women's Group. Through discussion of our personal goals I expressed concern with the over-abundance of things in the USA for some children and a great lack for others. That fall I started getting a few donations of used dolls from acquaintances. The group helped me to clean the 30 dolls to nearly new condition. We gave them, wrapped and tagged to a group of homeless children who were part of a Head Start program at a church in White Plains NY. That was the beginning of Twice Loved Dolls & Trucks! I've built & continued this every year since then.

SG: Are there organizations that you work with directly?

Mari: Over the years, we have supported quite a few organizations: Blythedale Children's Hospital, Head Start programs, Church groups as well as private people in need.

SG: What are your sources for toys? What types of toys and books are you looking for specifically?

Mari: We receive donations from churches, from people who have seen my posters, from family and friends

We do not solicit or take money contributions.

We take rubber dolls, plastic dolls, trucks of all kinds, blocks, puzzles, doll clothing, & toys with no small parts. We also take books suitable for 2-6 year olds.

NO STUFFED ANIMALS PLEASE

SG: Where should people send toys for donation?

Mari: People can send toys to 7 Fenimore Road, Scarsdale, NY 10583.

~~~

Volunteers with restored toys (Aunt Mari is on the right)

Aunt Mari has donated toys through the police and fire stations to individual kids who have been devastated by fire or horrendous crimes that have touched them and their families. The toys are gift wrapped by hand and given individually to each child.

If you have kids, or know someone who does, who are transitioning from one set of toys or books to another, please consider sending them to Twice Loved Dolls and Trucks instead of setting them out at the yard sale. You'd be doing a wonderful thing for some children who find themselves with nothing.

Thank you!

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Where Have I Been?

In preparation for the Tracton Clan's (seemingly) annual trek up to Atlantic City for a week, I was holed up in the studio trying to finish up a bunch of new polymer clay pieces. I enjoy showing new work, and it appears the family enjoys seeing it. So, I came prepared:

Brooches

Pendants

Bracelets

My back gave out 10 days before we were due to leave. Rediscovered pounds and the stress of sitting at my work table for hours-on-end doing physically demanding work caused my low back to punk out on me. I needed to park myself on a heating pad on the sofa instead of my work chair. Faced with hours of mindless sitting, I decided to get back to my roots, so to speak. I began this fabulous collar with a Prudent Man Agate cabachon at the center.

Soon it became clear that I was seriously in love with this necklace. Halfway to the end, I decided to keep it for myself and let it get wild. This piece is now in my private collection and gets taken out to dinner as often as I can talk Marble Man into going.

To make up for keeping a big piece, I made this lovely beaded cuff, which you can find for sale in my Etsy shop.

Keep checking my shop for new listings. As the summer progresses, I'll be adding the clay pieces shown here and some other exciting work.

~~~

The good news is that my back is doing MUCH better. Weeks of rest, some better-living-through-chemistry in the form of muscle relaxers, and losing some weight has done wonders. Yes, the weight loss battle is back on... I decided to track it on my foodie blog. If you are interested, you can click the photo at the top of my right sidebar. Otherwise, I thought it best to keep it off this blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl