I face this issue every day!
I need to work on the gifts that I am making for some very important people in my life. The gifts need to be done by the 8th of June. I know what I am doing but I haven’t started yet!
I have plans on making more canes. I want to do some based on Northwest Indian Art. I have plans for a salmon and otter for sure. I also may try my hand at doing a bear, whale, eagle and frog. They will keep me busy but I think that the canes, done well would be stunning. I can already picture barrettes and other jewelry made from them. Once more I haven’t even started conditioning the clay!
I want to make more flowers similar to the orange and yellow ones that I posted the other day. I really like how they turned out.
I also need to do some repairs on jewelry that I have made. I finally got crimping down. (At least I think that I do!)
Where to start!
I have had more fun with making canes and made what I think are really nice barrettes.
The orange ones are really nice. I really like the yellow ones. The color change in them is very hard to see in the picture but is eye catching in life. They seem to be real to me. I am going to try to re-create the look in other colors as well.
I finally finished the canes I was making for a petal and leaf cane swap that I signed up for on Polymer Clay Central. Now all I have to do is mail them out. I plan on doing that later this week.
I ended up making three sets of petals and leafs. I signed up for two groups but mentioned that I would be willing to fill spots of needed. The swap mistress e-mailed me asking if I would be willing to make a third set. I said “Sure”. I will be getting a total of 15 sets of petals and leafs. (Each group has five people in them, so each one will get one of my sets and I will get one of theirs.) I can’t wait to get them. I know that I have to wait. The official deadline is not until the first of June.
I did save some of each of the canes for me. I have two barrettes in the works, each with flowers from two of the petals. I will show pictures of them after the swap is totally done. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone in the swap.
My other concern is that everyone likes my canes. I am so insecure about the quality of my own work!
I am working on adding new barrettes to my web store. It is going to take a few days to get them all up. I took over 30 pictures and have to re-size them all. That is the easy part.
The hard part is coming up with names! I want to name them descriptively but also I want to have fun doing it. That is harder then you can think. (I also try to follow my husband’s advice and come up with names that are search-able.) Coming up with ones that other people might search for is the hardest part.
When I do searches for barrettes, I search for the word and add description words like “handmade”, “unique” and “one of a kind”. I am sure that many others do the same. I have the word barrette in every title and think that that is enough for others to find them by.
We all face an artistic block now and then. The question is how to over come that block and create again.
I, personally, try to find inspiration anywhere and everywhere. I have many books on polymer clay and many booked marked websites. If my blockage is really bad I will spend many years looking at what others have created and soon I find something that I want to try as well.
If that does not. I spend sometime in nature. I really enjoy making flower canes and working with them. It is amazing how some of the canes can look like the real thing. Although nature does make thing so much better then I could ever think of.
Another sure fire way for me to get over an artistic block is to simply pick up some polymer clay and go back to the beginning. For me that is working on mokume gane. That is one of the first techniques I tried and I fell in love with how it looks. Soon more ideas seem to fly in my head.