It's My Wedding Anniversary Today

It's my wedding anniversary today. I received these beautiful flowers from my husband, they were brought into my classroom in the morning. My poor love gets hit with a double whamy. My birthday was two weeks ago and he never fails to send me flowers for both occasions.
I hope you are spending your day with a special someone, friends, family. It's a shame we don't celebrate love more often, God knows we need it.

I am still working with polymer clay and continue to learn. I am sooo loving the process, I feel as though I have so much catching up to do. As soon as I have more new stuff I will post the pics.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Brrrrrr it's cold!

It's still freezing here in Texas and I'm under a mountain of blankets trying to keep warm. We had an over night temperature of one degrees and will have a high of five degrees tonight. We've had power outages, gas outages and frozen water pipes. Friends and family have called to inform me of burst water pipes. So far no burst pipes over here, hopefully my luck will not turn. The pipes in my kitchen have been frozen since late last night, I just pray they don't burst over night. I would be in a world of hurt if they did.

When I have electricity I go to my studio and work on my jewelry, which is also the warmest room in the house. I'm still playing with polymer clay and it is still a learning process. I pull at it and roll it and combine different colors. Sometimes I come upon a happy accident but when I try to recreate it I can't.
These particular pieces are the results from just such a session. I know, very amateurish but I am pleased with my novice results. . I would love to get advice from polymer clay artists, every little bit would help.

Here's hoping you are having a warmer night than I am. Good night.

Polymer Clay

I finally took the plunge. I knew I would work with polymer clay one day, what I did not expect was how much I was going to enjoy it. I had never worked with it before, so I started off by playing with the clay and creating some hand formed pendants. After baking my first pendants I took them to one of the shops where my jewelry sells and the owner of the shop asked me to make her some heart shaped pendants. Time to panic!

After several experimental pieces these are the results. I made a dozen of them and took them down to the shop today. Hopefully they will receive a warm welcome from customers. I can't believe I went from buying the clay for the first time to selling the pendants all in a couple of weeks. The next step is to learn all the cool tricks polymer clay artists do and learn a few tricks of my own.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

What a weekend

I've had quite an eventful weekend. It all began with some shocking news. My bank card number was stolen and in a matter of minutes someone had charged over $400 in merchandise. Luckily my bank is covering all the costs and my money will be returned...in about five days. I felt so violated. My daughter gave me some great advice, I don't know why I never thought about it, she suggested I purchase gift cards when I am going to purchase something over the inter net. This way if someone gets a hold of my card number again, they won't be able to spend a thing! Duh, why didn't I think of that before?

On a lighter note, I am learning how to make polymer clay jewelry. I have been creating test pieces and I can see that this will be a slow learning process. I'm enjoying myself, even though every piece I've done so far is not suitable for selling. I can't seem to roll out an even sized pendant and after firing some of the pieces can still be bent. I've been searching through polymer clay sites, reading books and e-mailing for advice. As soon as I have something worthy to show I will post some pictures.

Well, new to my shop is this recycled watch pendant. I am very fond of this piece, it says "believe" in the inside, I'm a little sad about letting it go,hopefully someone will like it as much as I do. What do you think?
Hope you are enjoying your Sun. afternoon as much as I am. Till next time.

Virgen de Guadalupe

I started the new year with a lot of momentum and so far I havn't lost steam. After dinner is served I make my way into my art studio to work on my pendants and my art. What I havn't done is posted on etsy. Taking pictures is sooooo time consuming! I usually take picture of two to three items when I call it quits I just can't seem to get the momentum with my picture taking.

I've also started working with a new medium, polymer clay. I've been interested for quite some time, but you know how it is, that inner voice saying "Another thing to do?" As soon as I have something to show I will post pictures. In the mean time I continue to enjoy myself as I learn how to play with polymer clay.

I hope you too are enjoying yourself with your art.

Nothing ventured, Nothing gained.

New Year, new shop! My work is now being sold at a quaint little shop called the Pink Cottage. I got a small, and I do mean small, little space for my necklaces. I spent my Christmas holidays creating new pieces for this shop along with the displays. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will go well in this new endeavor.

I also sent some of my necklaces to Belle Armoire Jewelry in hopes that they will feature them in one of their issues. My motto for the year: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained. I feel ready to try new things and want to push my jewelry business to another realm.

I'd also like to add that "my dress" is no longer blowing in the wind (Last Post). I have found calm winds once again, I just hope they are long lasting.

Stop Blowing My Dress Away

This is a small piece that I created in my sketchbook. I am part of an on line sketchbook challenge where a new entry is supposed to be done every day in the month of January inspired by a Zebra. I have to admit that my intentions were good and was posed to meet the challenge. I've only done two. I went back to work on Tues. and there went my free time. Hopefully I will be able to carve out some time this weekend to try and do the entries I have missed.

The piece I created was inspired by some bad news I received during the holidays and something that my family is still trying to work through. The blowing dress symbolizes me, fluttering through the turbulent air I find myself in, waiting for some calm air....

Santa Fe

I took a trip to Santa Fe, NM last month with my high school art students, while there we took a tour of Canyon Road and all of the great galleries. I was wearing one of my necklaces when I went into Mesa House Contemporary Gallery,the owner of the gallery commented on it and before I knew it I had sold her the necklace right off my neck. We started talking and came to a consignment agreement. My jewelry is now selling in Santa Fe,, NM on Canyon Road.

My jewelry was also picked up at another shop here in town. I hope these two new ventures have a positive out come, God knows I've been working non-stop the last two weeks trying to meet orders and providing inventory for the shops where my jewelry already sells.
With all of this work I havn't given my book (I'm writing a family history book) much time. Hopefully once things get settled I will return to writing my book. I'm also interested in writing a book geared towards art teachers. That idea is still in the works.I was told by a friend of mine last week that she was looking through a jewelry magazine and noticed some necklaces that resembled mine. Hmmm, I will be looking for this magazine to make my own assessment. Time for a good book and a hot glass of tea before bed, good night all.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS! MMMMMMMMMMM, the tamales are ready!

Happy Holidays

Sorry I havn't posted lately, as you know, this is our busiest time of the year and I am busy filling orders and stocking up inventory in the five shops that carry my jewelry. I've had to deactivate my Etsy listings for now just to keep up with the shops here at home. Hopefully I will be able to stock up quickly after the holidays.
Happy Holidays to everyone!