Earlier this week I got the pleasure of mailing two of my barrettes to Australia. Everytime I get an order I do a little dance for joy. I never get tried of sending my barrettes to other people to enjoy. I was very surprised to see Australia as the mailing address.
It wasn’t as hard or as expensive as I thought it would be to mail overseas. I was happy and pleased about that. I am just waiting to hear that the barrettes arrived safely. I did pack them well. I have gotten a number of polymer clay canes through the mail from overseas. I have picked up hints from how those are packaged.
On a side note. I have returned to school to get my Master’s in Education and to help pay for classes, I am working in the Department of International Studies. I will be helping students apply for Studies Abroad.
I am trying to find the right yellow bead to go with the fall swirly beads that I made. The ones that I am trying to match are the white, yellow, red and orange at the very top of the picture. I want to match the lemon yellow that is in the beads. It is becoming very frustrating!
I am sure that I will find them. I will be helping a friend move her studio and I know that she has a lot of beads. I might get lucky there! If not, I will visit even more bead stores and such. I know that there are yellow beads that will match, I already have about a dozen but they are all different shapes. I have even found the yellow in some mixed packages of beads, but I don’t want to have to buy 10 packages to make one set of jewelry!
I made this block of Mokume Gane to use for the beads that I was making for the bead swap that I am in. I started out with one set of beads and it has ended up with five sets and a few focals. My Muse has been very good at keeping me busy!
This group is of round swirlies. I like them all but I will admit that my favorites are the white ones on top.
This group is of different shaped beads. I am happy on how they all turned out and can’t wait to get them finished. I have plans for most of them but who knows want will come out in the end.
After working with the beads that I made using Alcohol Inks I have decided not to use that technique in my upcoming demo. I really like the beads and all that you can do with alcohol inks but I want to keep things simple.
Working with the inks is very easy and the beads are simple to make but the finishing steps that are needed are not. I would not only have to make the beads, bake them and then color them with the inks. I would also have to finish them with a sealer. That is easier said then done. The only spray that I trust is varathane but I would have to take them outside to spray because of the smell. It is really hard to brush the beads with anything. I am not willing to dip the beads, because the ink is water soluble and can harm the jar of finish.
Oh well, maybe I can teach classes on using alcohol inks with polymer clay.
Continuing with the block of Mokume Gane that I made for the bead swap, I made five large focals. They are larger then I normally make but I really like them. They are all of the same shapes but with different colored background leaves.
When I string them, I am thinking of doing simple cable or cord with just the focal or a few small crystals. I will put them one cords that can be different lengths so they can be worn as chokers or with turtlenecks.
I will admit that I was not very pleased with them at first but I really like them!