It’s still feeling very summery here at 95 degrees this August day…but at night there’s a hint in the air that Autumn is coming. And it’s here right now in this picture!

Pictures, pictures,  all day long…I edited them all morning, and finished 35 pictures, and then took 50 more. I reshot 2 dozen polymer clay mini masks that I had already done a year ago because I know so much more about it now. They look so much better that it is completely worth the time to redo them. It usually is, unless you are having a “Cut, Print, Lets Move On!”  sort of schedule ala Ed Woods–and then things can start to show the difference. Along the way I’ve learned what NOT to do, and how to get the best out of my camera (though gear lust has raised its ugly head and I’m thinking about a new one for the next book. I don’t want to change my horse in midstream now though!

Bryan and I are oohing and ahhing a lot as we go through the collection of masks and unwrap the goodies. Here’s one from today’s shoot that came from Helen Hughes, circa the 2003 miniature mask swap. I have images of the masks from this year of the annual swaps up on my Polyclay Gallery site that are so old I took them with my scanner, not yet having a camera! The new shots are much improved, I think.  The new book “A Collection Of Polymer Clay Masks”  is on schedule for release at the end of October.

I’m using Adobe Photoshop masks and adjustment layers to clean up the shots, and get them ready to put onto the pages using InDesign for the layout. I love these programs, and learning them at FRCC gets me top notch instruction in exactly the tools I need for self publishing–along with a course in digital photography, which has also come in extremely handy! The new book is set for release this year in October, in time for Halloween. I’ll be posting peeks at pics while I work, and I’ll be sure to announce when it is finished and ready for purchase!

The mask shrine necklace shown here is from my collection and was made by Dotty McMillan, using a matchbox–it slides open to reveal a golden heart. Other masks shown here include Susan Ivester’s full sized mask  of “Frida”, and two miniature masks, by Ellen Rumsey Bellenot  and Karen Scudder, from the 2006 mask swap.

Production work has its tedious moments, and drilling is boring, and even though it goes fast with my dremel moto-tool and drillpress accessory, I like that part least of all. I have about 2/3 of the beads I’ve baked this week drilled, and soon I’ll be ready to do the final step, antiquing the faces and adding some gloss to them and the beads, with Varathane. They’ll be much better looking then, but here’s a peek now. And I’ll go back to the studio and roll some more!

I’m still in face mode, and I have been doing a lot of ceramic faces, as well as using silver and bronze clay both in their solid clay form and as slip applied over bisque fired ceramic faces. They are fired again after 6 or seven layers of slip are applied, and then they get a brisk application of the wire brush to get them gleaming.

Here’s a pic of the “before” so that you can see the difference the wire brush makes!

Here’s the most recent batch of ceramic faces that are glazed. Now I’m working on polymer clay faces and of course, more of these! I really like how the flowers turned out as well. I’m looking forward to using what I’ve learned when my ceramics 3 class starts up in the fall, and till then, there’s lots more to do here at home..and maybe we can get a trip to the woods into our summer lineup too!

Celebrate the memorable moms in your life with components for making Spirit Dolls, Hand Beads, Face Pendants, Wearable Art Jewelry, Bag Ladies and more. I’ll be there with Show-and-Tell about upcoming classes and projects.

I’m re-vamping my website, “Sarajane’s Polyclay Gallery” and in the last month I’ve gotten a lot of it done! There are over 300 pages, and I’m putting each one into the new format and tweaking code behind the scenes and optimizing images, adding and updating all the pertinent information and even finding time to build new pages. Some I’ve meant to do for quite a while, and its all happening now. I’m around 2/3 of the way done, and I’ve made the resolution to keep at it every week until every page is revitalized and all links and such checked and functioning. That part alone is a big job! Its also one I’m still in the process of doing, so there will be fewer and fewer missing pages and links as the weeks go by.  I do think it is all looking much cleaner, brighter, and better organized.  I hope you do too!

This week’s updated pages include ones about conditioning polymer clay, millefiore canes, and things you can add into or use on top of polymer clay. Visit the Polyclay Gallery Directory page to see a list of all the pages.

Hmmm, maybe that doesnt really sound any better….perhaps its time to show pics instead.

Last week I saw the beaded spirit doll (using my polymer clay face) that my friend Laura Humenik had created, and I knew I needed to make one for me, so I can show her off when I sell Spirit Doll Kits at shows and classes. An 8 inch doll, fully beaded, seemed like a bit much as a first attempt (even for me) so I’ve decided to embellish one I had already started, and do a smaller fully beaded one after that.

Unfortunately, this meant the doll already had hair and was partly costumed, and her hair kept getting in the way of the needle.

Normally, I’d do the hair last on an elaborately decorated doll. But she’d been done as a demo model in a Spirit Doll Class I taught last year, and she seemed to be crying out for more beads…so I picked out some that would go with her hand dyed body and hair (including some beautiful mixed pinks size 15 seedbeads–oooeee, but they are tiny!!)

Here she is before I started beading.

Laura saw me working on the doll with her hair tied up in an akward turban, and said that she had found that bagging the dolls head,arms, and legs as needed using those taffeta drawstring bags we got for purchases made at shows worked really well.

And she’s right!

Here you can see both the back and the front of the doll after about 7 hours of beading (ok, I’m not very fast yet–just determined. Practice will make me better at it and faster too, at least that’s the theory.)

I’m going to work on her some more today and see if I can get her torso and arms finished, then she’ll need more beads in her hair and some beady shoes…

I figure another dozen hours and she’ll be really splendid. Since I need to make a half dozen dolls for displaying in my booth, she’s a good start for showing this kind of decoration. I’m already thinking about the next one.

We’ll be there in booths #1848 and #1850, with Fun Polymer Clay Jewelry By Judith Skinner and Sarajane’s Polyclay Gallery. We’re bringing jewelry, beads, faces, spirit doll kits, face bags, dyed textiles, millefiore slices and cabochons, paper dolls, and of course BOOKS!

We’re both working on new books for next year, and here’s a spirit-doll.pdf you can view or download and print, about creating your own.

This will be part of “Making Faces Molds and Forms” in an expanded version in the book with step-out pictures showing more detail and including the full size pattern. I’ll be posting this at our booth, and I thought I’d share it with those of you who wont be attending in person. I’ll be sure to post about all the wonderful tools, textiles, and fabric arts that I see there in future posts, so check back!

When there’s a LOT of peppers harvested, I like to chop them up into a big mixing  bowl along with onions and garlic and add just enough olive oil to coat the whole mix, then drop by the heaping teaspoon-full into ice cube trays. We freeze up these “pepper pucks” and then pop them out and transfer to freezer bags. One or two pepperpucks added to soups, chilis, lasagna, casserole, stir fry or whatever we are cooking up  keeps the fresh pepper taste happening all year round. I make each batch a different level of heat. We don’t do mild, but we DO have some that are in the special XXX bag, and those have some habenero in them along with other peppers.  Scoville Units are how pepper’s capsacian  heat levels are measured, and habeneros and others in the scotch bonnet family are among THE hottest of all, coming in at 300,000 SU…I wear gloves and safety glasses when I prepare those! But OH MY do they add a great value to my chicken soup! This year, we managed to get five habenero plants to sprout out of all the seeds we planted, along with thai dragons, tobasco chilis, and cayennes. We also dry and grind a lot of peppers, and are VERY careful how much we use at a time. One time I rinsed out the pepper dust  that remained in of the food processer after grinding into a vat of soup stock, and it was too hot to eat, even for us!! (I had to freeze it in portions to add to other soups)

So the upcoming break will see me frantically trying to make and organize new merchandise and taking LOTS of pics to get ready for more. I have a few pictures of polymer clay masks that I took from the most recent swap a few months ago, and I’m taking a break from studying for finals and writing papers to post ‘em here.

The Venetian style domino mask shown here above is by Mary Vanderwood, made of polymer clay and fitting inside a 3 inch square which is the requirement from the swap.

Lala Ortiz and Esperanza Salinas also participated, and I was able to get pics of several of their masks before sorting them out to resend to swappers–I only get to keep one from each set of ten.