Designs by Ginny Baker

Well, I already missed a day on my intended weekly schedule. There was no Worktable Wednesday post. The reason being that I wrenched my back out of alignment two weeks ago and I haven't been doing any clay work since then. Until yesterday that is. So, I will have pics to post, but they'll have to wait till next Wednesday.

Every Friday I hope to share something or someone I've found that I really like or think might be interesting to readers (and from my stats I see there still ARE some of you out there! :o) ).

This week my find is the Flying Lessons ebooks by Kelly Rae Roberts. Kelly Rae wrote the very popular book, "Taking Flight: Inspiration & Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings" which is a best-selling book that covers all aspects of living a creative life. Kelly has had phenomenal success considering the relatively short time span that she's been a full time working artist. Besides her first book, she's also been published in several mixed media books by other artists, has had numerous articles published in magazines, and her art is now licensed and can be found in stores nationwide.

Kelly has created a series of creative business related ebooks under the "Flying Lessons: Tips & Tricks to Help Your Creative Business Soar" title. She sells them in three parts, each of which is devoted to certain aspects of running a successful creative business. These retail for $55.00 each. Or you can get the whole shebang (that's what she calls it LOL) which is $140.00. Each comes to you as a pdf document.

These ebooks may seem pricey. They did to me. But I have to say, you get quite a bit of value in return. About a month and a half ago, I took the leap and invested in the whole shebang myself. I have a lot of business goals I still want to achieve and I was feeling the need to take things a little deeper. The book contains 205 pages and a wealth of very practical information from an artist who's been there, and done that. ;o) I don't regret the investment at all. This ebook is really a comprehensive course in running an art or craft business successfully.

FYI, I don't get any kickbacks for recommending Ms. Roberts work. LOL I don't know her and she doesn't know me. I was just very pleased with her book and thought I would pass on the info. If you're wanting to take your business to the next level, I can definitely recommend you check out her ebooks. Very helpful information indeed and it is presented beautifully. :o)

Kelly Rae Roberts Flying Lessons

MISSING LINKS

2010-12-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I used Blog Roll to keep track of the links to other websites I wanted to share and they closed down recently without notice. So all of my links went >>Poof<<. :o( It will take me some time to add back all those links and I do apologize to everyone I exchanged links with.

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

2010-12-06T09:54:00.000-08:00

I hope to get back to the schedule I once had of posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - beginning today. :o)

No star is ever lost we once have seen,
We always may be what we might have been.--Adelaide A. Proctor

It is never too late to be what you might have been.--George Eliot

It's so easy to lament the passing of time as we get older, to wish we had achieved certain goals or a certain level of success by a certain age. But don't give up. It's not too late. Just start where you are, today. Don't let other people's thoughts of what is possible define what is possible for you.

TIME FOR ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!

2010-08-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

Just on the off chance that anyone who used to enjoy and/or collect my clay art figurines still checks out this blog, I wanted to announce that I'm having another contest over on my Facebook fan page.

I haven't been creating my clay art for months because my time has been tied up with other projects, but I really miss it and I'm ready to get back to it. So in celebration, I'm giving away this little bear below:

If you'd like a chance to win this little bear, please click on this link to go to my Facebook fan page. If you're already a fan, just leave a comment and you'll be entered into the contest to win. If you're not yet a fan, become one and you'll receive two entries into the contest. If you recommend my fan page to friends who you believe will honestly enjoy my work, you'll also receive two entries. (They must leave a comment and tell me you sent them!) If you buy anything from my etsy store, you'll receive three chances to win! (there's not anything in my etsy store yet, but check back on Monday)

The contest will run until 12 a.m. Thursday night, and the winner will be announced Friday, August 13th. Who says Friday the 13th isn't lucky??

Illustration Friday

2010-04-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

This week's theme is "Linked", and here is my entry entitled "Nice to Meet Ewe":

This little lamb and sheepdog puppy are linked by their curiosity towards each other, and of course, by the puppy's playful tug on the lamb's ear!

Created with colored polymer clay on a canvas background.

2010-03-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm having a giveaway contest! You can enter several different ways! Leave a comment here, or on my Facebook fan page. I would like to see my fan page grow a little bit, so if you recommend my fan page to a friend and they join my fan page and leave a comment mentioning you, you will receive two entries. :o) Leave a comment of your own and that will make it three entries! More chances of winning! Become a new fan yourself, and leave a comment and you'll also get two entries!

What's the prize? This cute little snowman sitting on my desk this morning. I know it, he knows it - everybody is sick of winter and snow! But he's hoping to find a loving home all the same!

I'll be taking entries from now until midnight central US time Sunday, and I will announce the winner next Monday morning. That's March 22. :o)

Here's a link to my Facebook fan page:

Designs by Ginny Baker

And here's the little snowman you could win:

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

2010-03-08T14:43:00.001-08:00

This week's theme is "Brave". I just completed this little astronaut guy floating above the Earth, and I think he fits that theme perfectly. I think it takes no small measure of bravery to become an astronaut!!

Created with colored polymer clay. :o)

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

2010-03-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

My poor blog has become so neglected - yet again. I've just had a lot going on lately. It gets a little difficult to keep all the balls in the air at times. I've been given the opportunity to submit samples for a project that would be a dream come true for me - so, not surprisingly, that has my total focus at the moment.

The polymer clay group I started on Facebook is going strong. We're up to 161 members! Just incredible! It's a great group, and if you have any interest in polymer clay at all, I'd like to invite you to join us.

Designing With Polymer Clay

My Facebook fan page is growing more slowly, but then I've done nothing to promote it since I've been busy with other things. I hope to do some giveaways to generate a little interest as soon as I'm done with the samples.

Designs by Ginny Baker

Hope all is well in your world. :o)

SUNSHINE AWARD :o)

2010-02-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

This Sunshine award was given to me by Lori Allberry of Sugarberry Sensations! If anyone I know deserves it, it's Lori. She is as sweet as the name of her business! But I'm honored that Lori decided to give the award to me as well. :o)

So, as part of the rules I must pass this award on to 12 bloggers. Here's my list:

ABCcreativity
Claykeepsakes
The Critter Company
Clay Wishes by Christina
My Tiny Treasures
Redheaded Stepchild
Tonja's Polyclay Corner
Helen's Clay Art
Saga of a Work at Home Mom
The Adventures of Mama Bear
Darbella Designs
Gourmet Felted Designs by Gerry
Here are the rules, so please pass this award along....
The rules for accepting the Sunshine Award are:
- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Not much sunshine around here today. I posted about the "Perfect Snow", and this is what we woke up to this morning:

The kids in the book didn't get a snow day - but the kids in our town did. My daughter's still sleeping blissfully. LOL

CLAY ILLUSTRATION

2010-02-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

One of the areas I love to explore when it comes to polymer clay is clay illustration. My favorite illustrator of books for children is Barbara Reid. Barbara doesn't actually work with polymer clay. She uses plasticene. But the effect is the same - stunning three dimensional illustrations.

I've been a fan of Barbara's for years and own every book she's ever produced. It's just so much fun to see clay "come to life" in this way. Her illustrations bring such character and personality to the words in the books she illustrates.

Her latest, Perfect Snow, has just such amazing illustrations. You can almost feel the cool, crisp air, and hear the snow crunching beneath your boots when you look at the pictures. It's a really cute, fun book!

(click to enlarge)

Barbara also has a YouTube channel with videos showing how she creates her phenomenal clay illustrations.

She's just a very gracious, very talented lady. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when she so kindly told me my own clay illustrations were "Very beautiful"!!! There are few bigger thrills then receiving praise from someone you so greatly admire. :o) I hope you'll check out Barbara's fabulous work. I know you'll enjoy it.

NEW POLYMER CLAY GROUP ON FACEBOOK

2010-02-02T11:42:00.001-08:00

I've started a new polymer clay group over on Facebook and it's already growing by leaps and bounds. If you enjoy creating with polymer clay, whether it's a business or hobby for you, please consider coming over and joining us!

Designing With Polymer Clay

CHANGING THINGS AROUND A BIT

2010-02-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

When I started this blog, my intention was for it to be about sculpting with polymer clay and needle felting, as well as a means to promote my own artwork. Since then it's evolved into a bit of a free-for-all!

I want to get back to my original intentions for this blog. So I've moved my Creative Adventures posts to a new blog, The Adventures of an Artful Dreamer. I will use this blog to chart my journey on my Creative Adventure.

This blog will return to being about polymer clay art, with occasional posts devoted to needle felting, a new interest I've been hoping to devote more time to.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

2010-01-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

OK, this is my first ever Illustration Friday participation. The theme for this week is WILDERNESS. Well, using this definition:

wilderness

1.	a wild and uncultivated region, as of forest or desert, uninhabited or inhabited only by wild animals;

my jungle piece fits the definition. :o)

This is an older piece and obviously the one I use for my blog's banner. This was created with colored polymer clay on an 11x14" piece of glass.

This piece was inspired by the work of my all-time favorite children's book illustrator, Barbara Reid.

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

2010-01-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
-Robert Collier

To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
-William Shakespeare

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius

Sometimes it sure feels like those small efforts aren't getting us anywhere, doesn't it? Or, that we're not just going at a slow and steady pace, but damn near standing still! Those times can be frustrating.

It's like when we were kids and we were traveling some place with our parents, and it felt like we'd been in the car forever. We ask of our weary parents again and again, "Are we there yet?" And again and again, the answer is a disheartening, "No".

About a year ago, I got this strong desire to write a romance novel. It started on a lark. I've mentioned here before about National Novel Writers Month, better known as NaNoWriMo. This is an online event that takes place every November, and the idea is to try to write a 50,000 word novel in the space of 30 days. My daughter, Caitlin, wanted to do it, and she talked me into doing it with her for moral support.

Well, I didn't write 50,000 words by the end of November. I did, however, write over 30,000 and came away with an idea for a romance novel that I love and really want to finish.

I've never written a novel before, romance or otherwise. So what qualifies me to write one now? Absolutely nothing, but the sheer desire and determination I have to do so.

I've had to learn and relearn a lot about writing and I'm finding the challenge to be quite fascinating and enjoyable. But, I do struggle at times with feeling like I'm really not getting anywhere.

When we look at a goal that seems so far out of reach, it's easy to lose sight of the steps we've already taken on our journey towards it. It feels like there's still so far to go, like we've been traveling forever, and we're just not getting anywhere. This is why we need to celebrate each step we take in the direction of our goal, no matter how small. Each one is bringing us closer and closer to our dream come true.

Looking at it as a whole, writing a novel is a daunting project. Writing ten pages seems a whole lot more doable. Writing just ten pages feels a very long way off from writing a 400 page novel. But, as we all know, ten pages on top of ten pages, on top of ten more pages will one day add up to 400 pages.

The key is in not getting discouraged and giving up. It's easier to keep going if we remember to celebrate all the steps we've already taken along the way. Soon enough, the distance we still have to go will be much shorter than the distance we've already gone.

Just like on those long road trips with Mom and Dad. Soon you start seeing those billboards announcing that your destination is getting near, and before you know it, you've arrived and the elation you feel is worth all the frustration and boredom you sometimes felt along the way.

Keep on keeping on. :o)

P.S. I'm not even worrying about what I'm going to do with the romance novel when I finish it. My only goal at the moment is FINISHING it. ;o)

Motivational Monday

2010-01-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

“To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest.”
Author Unknown

“The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.”
Earl Nightingale

Since we're setting off on a creative journey, and each of us has to find their own path to our dreams, I wanted to share the two quotes above.

I do believe that as we set out on the journey towards our dreams, the path does become clearer as we go along. Although, there are times when I would give just about anything for a GPS or a tour guide! But, for many of our dreams, there are no road maps. So we have to forge our own path, little by little.

It can be hard to take those first steps towards your dream when it's something you've never done before, and you're uncertain of how to proceed. What you can try to do is to break the goal down into smaller, more manageable steps.

For example, when I made up my mind that I wanted to do a craft book on working with polymer clay, I had no idea how to go about doing that. But, what I could do was to look at similar clay books, and learn to break my own projects down into steps, and write up instructions outlining those steps - or step outs, as they're called. So that, by the time I was asked to do a book, I was prepared to do so.

So when you look at the dreams you have, the things you would like to accomplish - is there one thing you could do right now that would bring you one step closer to that dream? That's how we get to where we want to go. One step at a time. :o)

BEGINNING THE CREATIVE ADVENTURE

2010-01-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

Today kicks off the Creating Dreams Come True Adventure and our first assignment is to make a list of our dreams and post it online. Andrea suggested we list 100 or more small, medium, and large dreams, but I'm choosing to focus specifically on my dreams for 2010. I believe nothing is more powerful than focused energy, so I would rather focus my energy on specific dreams for 2010, rather than dissipate it by trying to focus on too much at once. But, that's me. Everyone has to do this program in the way they feel will work best for them. So, here's my list for 2010:

To focus more than ever on my writing, both fiction and non-fiction

To finish the romance novel I'm writing

To create tutorials on sculpting that I will make available for sale

To get more free publicity for my artwork in the form of articles on blogs and in publications

To continue to build my illustration portfolio

To redesign my website

To regain my blog following and reach even more people

To create more videos for You Tube

To do more needle felting, along with my clay sculpture

To USE my airbrushes on a regular basis

To learn to work more with digital art

To license my artwork

To travel more - this year to Ireland and Scotland, land of my ancestors

To take more time to expand and enjoy my social life

To take better care of myself

I'll probably add more as I go along, but this is plenty to get me started on the new year. :o)

I didn't want to lose the lovely comments I received when I moved this post here, so I copied and pasted them. Hope nobody minds.

Carrie Anspach said...: Hello Ginny!

I'm on the creative adventure as well and I love you list! I love your focused energy concept and I look forward to seeing all these dreams and more come true for you this year!

roz said...

Happy New Year, Ginny. I think I'll hop in your bag when you head to Ireland and Scotland. I am half British and desperate to go back for a visit. I was actually married in Scotland. Edinburgh.
Hope you're settling in well to your new digs. It's so funny to me that we were both in Vegas and now in the Mid West.

ABCcreativity said...

great list ginny!

yes we all have to do everything in whatever way feels right for us :)

Redheaded Stepchild said...

I look forward to seeing you and the rest of us creative dreamers fulfill our dream goals!

Ginny Baker said...

Thanks ladies! I'm off to respond to each of you on your own blogs. :o)

IT'S IN THE STARS

2009-12-19T13:47:00.000-08:00

Keeping with the theme of using cookie cutters to create unique Christmas ornaments, here's a little Santa Claus ornament I made using a 2" star-shaped cookie cutter. This little guy was inspired by some adorable ornaments I had seen created by Michelle Zink. I've since done all manner of variations on this theme including many with dogs. The star becomes the body of the Santa, the top point of the star becomes his hat, and then it's just a matter of how you choose to embellish it.

Clay Cut-Outs

2009-12-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

When Design Originals asked me to do a book on Christmas ornaments, they wanted cute designs that would be quick and easy to make. I had some Kemper cutters on hand, and I started playing around with shapes and came up with some simple, but very cute designs using the teardrop, heart, and round cutters in various sizes.

The teddy bear, angel, and Santa Claus have pants made using a teardrop cutter. I used a small heart-shaped cutter to create the angel's and Santa's shoes. I turned the heart cut-out sideways, stretched the top up slightly and then cut it straight across, then attached to the bottom of the teardrop shapes. I did the same thing to create the teddy bear's stocking, just using a larger heart cutter. Santa's jacket was made using a larger heart cutter turned upside down. I rolled out a very thin piece of red clay with a pasta machine and then cut out rectangles that I gathered for the angel and teddy bear's tops.

The gingerbread men that Santa and the teddy bear are holding were made using a small flower shaped cutter.

It's a lot of fun to experiment with these small cutters and see what you come up with.

COOKIE CUTTER ORNAMENTS

2009-12-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

Since people are always looking for quick and easy ornaments to make, editors are always looking for quick and easy ornament projects. I came up with an idea to use a 2" gingerbread man cookie cutter I had to make a variety of Christmas characters that I could put onto glass ball ornaments. This was a project I did for the January 2001 issue of "Great American Crafts" magazine:

The snowman was made using the 2" cookie cutter, the gingerbread boy and girl were made using a 1" gingerbread man cutter.

The Santa Claus below uses the same 2" gingerbread man cut-out as a base, only this time, I cut the piece out of red clay, and then added the other elements to turn it into a Santa.

I attached the unbaked pieces to the glass balls using super glue and then baked them. They've held up for 9 years with no problems, but if you don't want to put super glue in the oven, you could always attach the unbaked clay pieces to the glass ball, bake them, then gently pop them off, and reattach them with glue. I've never had any problems with baking super glue. It is flammable, but not at the low temps polymer clay bakes at. I was not the first person who tried this! LOL I took my cue from many other clay artists who have baked super glue with polymer clay.

This makes a cute and very simple project that could easily be personalized.

HANDMADE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

2009-12-16T12:08:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love so much about Christmas is putting up our tree every year. Our tree is traditional, full of ornaments I've made, or my kids have made, or that were purchased because they bring back memories of happy times in our lives, or special places we've been, or some were treasured gifts from friends or family.

I first worked with polymer clay over 30 years ago, but it wasn't until I met my friend, Laurie, who I worked with at a veterinary clinic about 20 years ago, that I really got started selling my work.

Laurie and I started doing craft shows, and we came up with a rather "nutty" idea at the time. We created tiny polymer clay scenes inside of walnut halves. I had seen an ornament that was made of resin and was an imitation walnut with a tiny scene, and Laurie and I decided to try to do our own little scenes inside walnuts with clay. We used the halves at first, but then after a while, my husband, Ron, started hollowing out the shells with a Dremel tool, so that we had a little more of the shell to work with! We sold these quite well at craft shows in Albuquerque, NM, where I was living at the time. The one below, was given to me by Laurie, and it's a wonderful memento of both her and my family's time in New Mexico. My husband was born in Espanola, New Mexico and grew up in Santa Fe. Yup, Laurie and I were crazy enough to do little adobe houses like this one, complete with hanging ristras near the door, tiny ladders, and for this one, Laurie even added a howling coyote and a tiny yucca plant!

Our line also included tiny walnuts filled with Santas, woodland creatures, and anything else our imaginations could fit into a walnut. Like this little Mrs. Santa I did:

Her shell is broken at the top now, so I can't hang her anymore, but she held up for 18 years on my own Christmas tree. Laurie's little adobe house walnut is hanging on my tree again this year, for the 19th year. :o)

Tomorrow, I'll share more ornaments.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN

2009-12-15T09:01:00.000-08:00

Only 15 days to go! Every year I say I'm going to stop and enjoy the season, but always in years past I'd be so busy creating last minute items to list on ebay, or finishing up the last of my orders, that Christmas would sneak up on me and be over before I knew it. Well, not this year. I am shipping off the last of my orders today, and I am going to enjoy the next 10 days fully this year.

I've been noticing a profusion of aqua colored Christmas decorations in the area stores. I absolutely LOVE the combination of aqua and red! The tree and other decorations featured below are from the website of a store in Canoga Park, CA called, Traditions:

Gorgeous, isn't it? Tomorrow, I'm going to feature some ornaments I've made for my own tree over the years. :o)

MY BABY IS 18 TODAY!

2009-11-17T13:53:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it, but it's true. It's been 18 years since our daughter, Caitlin, came into the world. And let me tell you, she was in a big hurry to get here! She was born almost 6 weeks early, and weighed all of 3 lbs. 12 oz. She had to stay in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit for several weeks, til she got up to 4 lbs. Then they let us bring her home, but she still had to have visits several times a week by a nurse. She was SO tiny!

I'll have to add a photo later, because we're on our way out. I just wanted to wish my darling Caitlin Jeanne the happiest birthday she's ever had! :o)

TRYING TO GIVE A LITTLE BACK AND A THANK YOU

2009-11-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

I will be listing more dog figurines for sale on ebay through Christmas, and I've decided to donate 10% of the sale price of these figurines to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I've loved and worked with animals all my life, from showing and breeding Boxers with my Mom for over 10 years, to working for other breeders of champion show dogs, to working as a dog groomer, and then later as the office manager of a veterinary clinic in New Mexico, so it's only natural that animals, and specifically dogs, play such a large part in what I create with clay. I've donated many pieces to other rescue organizations to be auctioned to raise money for their cause because I feel so strongly about it.

Recently, I posted about the three kittens we've adopted since moving to Missouri. I wasn't looking to adopt even one kitten at the time. My husband is allergic to cats! But I just could not leave these babies to fend for themselves. So I feel VERY strongly about the importance of spaying and neutering pets. I'm sad to say that I've encountered a great deal of ignorance from people over the years concerning how important it is to spay and neuter. Especially during my years at the veterinary clinic. We had so many people bringing in puppies and kittens that they had found abandoned, and I heard such horror stories. Puppies found in a cardboard box on the side of a busy road, kittens found in a trash bag in the dumpster. It broke my heart then as it does now.

My three kitty boys are growing up, and the first of them will be neutered this week! The other two will be neutered over the coming weeks. I want to support the ASPCA in their continuing efforts to educate the public on the importance of spaying and neutering, in addition to their many other educational efforts. If you're interested in my clay art, I hope you will continue to check out my auctions over the next month and maybe you'll find something you'd just love to have, and in purchasing it, you'll be helping me help the ASPCA.

You can click here or on the ebay widget on the right side of this page to get to my ebay auctions:

Designs by Ginny Baker

I also want to thank Julie Leir-VanSickle of Craft Gossip for posting my Snowman and Bichons piece on her blog this week. Here's a link to the article if you're interested:

Craft Gossip

CREATING A POLYMER CLAY SNOWMAN VIDEO

2009-11-10T21:32:00.001-08:00

Well my video editing skills definitely need work, but considering it's my first attempt at editing together a series of clips, it's not too bad. I just wish it were as clear as it was before I uploaded it to YouTube. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy checking it out. Listening to that music, while I was working on the video, brought back so many great memories. My brothers and I grew up listening to those Christmas classics, which my parents would play every Christmas season. Both of my parents are gone now, so those memories, while wonderful, were also bittersweet. That music also helped put me in the mood to create more holiday themed items.

Here's a link to the video:

Creating a Polymer Clay Snowman

WHIMSICAL CHARACTERS

2009-11-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

Before I started doing primarily dog items, I used to sell whimsical characters at shows and on ebay for many years. In fact, it was those whimsical characters that led to me being asked by well known craft book publisher, Design Originals, to create a how-to book on creating clay Christmas ornaments, and to publishing numerous how-to projects in other collaborative books, and magazines.

I always enjoyed creating charming seasonal characters, especially snowmen. So I recently taped a video of myself creating an adorable little snowman. I was all set to edit it with Windows Movie Maker, and found out to my dismay, that the format my camera saves video files in is not supported by WMM! So now I'm in the process of upgrading my QuickTime software to QuickTime Pro, and hope I will be able to post this cute little video on YouTube and here, sometime in the next couple of days.

These little characters are currently listed on ebay, along with a few others. You can access my ebay seller page by clicking on the ebay widget on the right side of the page.

It was always so funny to me to be creating snowmen in Vegas when it was 70+ degrees outside! Last winter, our last in Vegas, we actually experienced a record snowfall on Dec. 17th. It was the first time the school district closed school because of snow in 30 years!! I'm so glad we were there for that, after living in Vegas for 17 1/2 years. It was such a fun day! It put everybody in such a festive mood, just before Christmas. :o)

Soon enough I won't be lacking for real life inspiration when the first snowfall hits my new MO hometown. So I'm enjoying creating these little snow guys and some seasonal dog items this week.

I hope to be able to share my little snowman video by Tues. or Wed. of this week.

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

2009-10-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a Worktable Wednesday post in so long that I thought I would today. On my worktable today are some Halloween miniature scenes featuring dogs. Here are two quick pics I took on my stove top of an Old English Sheepdog and a Schnauzer when they were fresh from the oven. :o) They'll be up on ebay, along with several other breeds later this week. With better pics of course. ;o)

BACK TO MY ROOTS FOR A BIT

2009-10-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

Well I've been sidetracked from doggies for a while to participate in a swap with my clay buddies. Our group is made up of some of the best makers of adorable, whimsical polymer clay characters you'll ever find. Some of them, like myself, have published polymer clay how-to books, magazine projects, etc. Most of them have been selling at shows, and via ebay for years. I feel very fortunate to call these talented ladies my clay buds!

For our swaps, we always pick a theme, be it snowmen, gingerbread men, scarecrows, whatever, and then we make one for every member of the group, including ourselves. Then we mail them off to the person who is acting as swapmeister (hostess), who divides them up, and sends a full set back to each of us, so that we have one piece by each of the participants, along with the one we made ourselves. There are usually a dozen of us participating at any given time. Our most recent swap was a bunny swap, and here's my contribution. I actually did 12 though only 11 are pictured below. My new home town just had their 30th annual Old Tyme Apple Festival, so my bunnies are apple-themed in honor of that:

PREMIO MEME AWARD

2009-09-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

I want to thank my dear friend, Michele Lynch, for the Premio Meme Award she's bestowed upon me. Michele and I have been supporting each other in our artistic endeavors for many, many years now. We take turns nudging each other back onto the path, during those times one of us veers off into the bushes, or gets lost in the maze of eBay, Etsy, struggling to keep enough product made, struggles with lack of inspiration, or too much of it, and not enough time, and whatever else comes up while we try to balance the artistic life with "regular" life.

So I'm supposed to tell 7 things people might not know about me. Since this is the third time I've been asked to do that by someone, it's getting a bit more challenging. OK, here goes:

1. I'm a pretty big fan of U2, who will play Vegas October 23. :o( Did I plan to see them this year before this job and move came up? YUP Are they touring anywhere in the state of MO? NOPE. Am I bummed? YUP.

2. I've had an airbrush, complete with compressor, for going on two years - and I've never used it! Partly because I had visions of inadvertently spray painting the walls and carpet of the lovely new house I was renting - something I didn't think the owner would appreciate! Though Michele keeps trying to get it through my silly head that this is an airbrush, not a FIRE HOSE, and nothing like that is likely to happen. ;o) I think I'm finally ready to try it!

3. I used to have a horse I called Shane when I was younger.

4. I compulsively collect gorgeous dog figurines.

5. I absolutely LOVE hummingbirds! I've always adored them. But during a time when I was going through a lot of heartbreak in my personal life - my dad was dying, my marriage was falling apart - hummingbirds became a symbol between me and God/the Universe, that I wasn't alone.

6. I like to create with words as well as art materials.

7. I am a hopeless romantic.

Now I'm supposed to give this award to 7 other bloggers and ask them to answer these questions, but I need to give that some thought, so I'll edit this later.

FRUSTRATION FRIDAY - BACK TO BASICS

2009-09-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well, not like frustration is limited to Fridays for me―wouldn't that be nice―but it fits today. Today I'm feeling the importance of having a designated work space something fierce. I've been feeling it ever since we moved into this house a couple months ago, but I guess it's especially thick today.

I'm just remembering how much having or not having a designated place to work on your art, to keep all―or at least, most―of your art supplies in, a place where your work is not in the way of your family members, and they're not in the way of your work, makes an impact on feeling free to create your art.

Ah in comes frustration, my old nemesis. And frustration always makes it so much harder to want to create at all.

It's a basic need all artists or wannabe artists share. A place set aside for them to create. And I'm currently without one. Which means when I want to create, I have to dig through boxes to find my stuff, which is scattered here, there, and everywhere, pull it all together, then try to find somewhere I can set it all up, at least temporarily, so I can create, at least for a little while, until I have to move it all out of my family's way. UGH. It's all just so draining, and exhausting, I find myself not wanting to bother. Frustration wins again. But only temporarily.

I finally took a small 3-drawer storage cart I have, a ceramic tile, and I started sculpting a Super Sculpey Yorkshire Terrier, right there on the top of that cart. Less than ideal, but better than nothing. The need to create won out over the frustration of trying to do so.

But I see that I'm going to HAVE to set up a work space soon, and the only available space in this house is a finished part of the basement. UGH. Basements have such a dungeon-like feel. It is a walk-out basement, which helps some. But who really wants to be shut away in the bowels of the house? Okay, getting melodramatic there, but I'm sure you can catch my drift when it comes to my feelings about basements. :oP

This isn't the Yorkie I mentioned here, but just thought I'd put it up since I don't have a pic of the new one yet. ;o)

New home, new camera, new loves :o)

2009-08-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

Got my new digital camera yesterday and I'm excited to get going finally on the tutorials I've been wanting to do forever! This new camera can also record up to an hour of video in HD, so that will be something fun to play with.

In the meantime, here is the little orphan kitten we've adopted. When we moved into this house, there was a mama cat with four adorable kittens camped out at this old building next door that had been converted into a 5 unit apartment building. They soon came over to charm us. We felt sorry for them and started feeding the 5 of them. After a week, we went outside to give them some food and all of a sudden a new and very vocal little guy came running up the stairs to join them. We had never seen this little one before and it was clear he was not one of mama cat's kittens. He was obviously a few weeks younger, and she despised him on sight! He couldn't have cared less and pushed right up to the dish to eat. Mama cat had no choice, but to tolerate him. LOL

He has a little stump of a tail that clearly wasn't that way at birth. :o( Lord knows what happened to him, but it's healed just fine. For a few weeks we were sure he was a HE, then when we decided he was the one who needed us most, and we would adopt him, we started thinking he must be a she because we couldn't see any little what-nots proving he was a boy. LOL We named "her" Mischa. But once we took "her" to the vet, the vet confirmed our first impressions had been correct and it was a little boy!!! So now Mischa is Mischa Man til we figure out his new name!

The mama cat had been brought here by a woman who lives two doors down, but she'd never done anything to take care of her once she brought her here. :oP We found out from her sister, our neighbor across the street, that this was the 3rd litter she'd allowed mama cat to have. :o( She finally called animal control and they came and caught two of the kittens, mama ran off, and two little guys remain. Animal control never came back for them, so we've been feeding them ever since.

So here are the boys - the grey tabby is our little guy, the grey and white my daughter named Jade, and the black she named Jasper. ;o) Very hard to get clear pics of these guys! They're in perpetual motion! Our little man though the smallest of the three is also the most fearless. He's a real pistol. :o) The vet believes he's 3 1/2 mos., so I'm guessing his adopted bros are 4 mos. or so.

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Time to get back to sculpting! :o)

Edited to add: Mischa Man has become Milo. :o)

Getting Settled At Last

2009-07-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well it's been so long that I'm sure I've lost everyone who used to come visit my blog. It's taken us so much longer to get settled here in MO than I would have ever expected. We left Vegas May 9, and it took us TWO MONTHS to find a house to rent. We want to rent till we figure out where we want to buy. We're limited because my husband cannot live outside a 15 mile radius from where he works. He will be the troubleshooter for the power/gas company here. He's been a journeyman lineman for nearly 30 years, but is now undergoing training to handle the gas side of the business as well. We thought we would rent for a year while we look for a property to buy. My husband wants lots of acreage. ;o)

Well little did we know when we moved here, how hard it would be to find a nice rental home! We were used to Vegas, where it's incredibly easy to find a brand new house to rent. Here, so many of the houses are older - from 50 to 100+ years old. Many of them don't even have garages, unless they were added on later, or are freestanding buildings. There are new homes too, but the majority are older. Most of the rental homes here are in pretty rough shape, unfortunately. Owners of lovely homes don't want to rent them because so many renters just tear them up, sad to say.

We finally found a good one though. It doesn't have a garage - just a carport. But it does have a partially finished large basement, so lots of storage down there.

Unfortunately, when we unpacked our beloved Mac computer, we found out it didn't handle being in a storage unit that wasn't climate-controlled for two months very well. I'm hoping we can fix whatever's wrong and have it back very soon. In the meantime, we bought a refurbished PC and finally got back on the internet. WHEW!!!

I hope to start posting on a regular basis again and get back to creating with clay and finally getting my dog sculpting tutorials done. Hope to draw my former readers back!

Here's a pic of the beautiful courthouse in the town square of our new home town, Versailles, Missouri. We live just down the street from it. We're in the Lake of the Ozarks area. Lovely rural area. I love that part of it. What's been hard for me is the lack of conveniences. It's a small town, population just above 2500. We have Wal-Mart. That's about it for shopping. Thankfully it's a supercenter so we get our groceries there too. If I want to go to a Barnes and Noble, or a Kohls, or the craft store, or any of the other stores I miss from Vegas, I have to go about an hour away to the state capital, Jefferson City. There are a few nice little gift shops in the town square but we're really lacking for shopping and restaurants.

I'm shopping for a new digital camera. My current one is just outdated. I can't wait to take pics around here. There are so many gorgeous homes here - old Victorians that have been beautifully maintained, etc. Not to mention the abundance of nature. And the little orphan kitten we just adopted!

Looking forward to rebuilding my following!

IN LIMBO LAND

2009-02-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

Well, this blog has been totally neglected for the past few months while we've been on pins and needles waiting to see where we're moving to. :oP We thought we would be heading to the Austin, TX area, but now an even better opportunity has presented itself, and it looks like we'll be heading to a small town near Lake of the Ozarks, MO. My husband is a journeyman lineman, who worked as a troubleshooter for the power company here in Vegas for 14 yrs. He's the guy that determines why outages happen, and what is needed to get the power back on. ;o) This job would be a similar one, working for Ameren, the utility company that handles electrical service for MO and IL. This was the opportunity we were hoping for, so we just have to wait now till it all falls in to place!

It may be another few weeks, but then I'll be back to posting on a regular basis, and will try to make this blog worth reading! Hope you'll check back later next month. Take care everybody. :o)

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

2009-01-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Today's Quote:

"All of us can take steps - no matter how small and insignificant at the start -
in the direction we want to go."
~ Marsha Sinetar

Still taking steps myself - to finish the Yorkie tutorial, which is almost done, and to work on the website. I also have some jewelry ideas I'm anxious to get to, once I get a couple more orders finished. There's never a drought of ideas and projects keeping me busy!

One thing that may slow me down a bit on the things I want to do is that it looks like I will be moving in 2-3 months. I am very ready to leave Las Vegas. Seventeen and a half years here is more than enough! I've had lots of fun living here, and gotten to meet some wonderful people. Sooner or later everybody seems to end up coming here to visit, so that's given me an opportunity to meet people in person that I never would have met otherwise. But I am very ready for a change. What I'm not so ready to do is pack! Fortunately, we left a lot of things in boxes in the garage when we moved in. So it definitely won't be as daunting as the last move was, after being in our house for 16 years!

About a year and a half ago, we sold our home. We were lucky to have quite a bit of equity in it, so we walked away with a very nice chunk of money. We fared much better than a lot of people have in Vegas' awful housing market. We chose to rent this house rather than purchase another one. We knew we didn't want to stay here much longer, and also knew we did not want to be buying another house here as bad as the housing market currently is. So we moved into this house brand new. We're the only ones who have ever lived in it, and it's a really lovely house. Unfortunately, the owner has been badly affected by the downturn in the housing market and the house looks like it's probably going to be foreclosed on. It's a case of a young man trying to expand his investments to fast too soon, and buying a house in the wrong city. For a long time, the market was hot here. Not anymore. Everywhere we look there are brand new homes sitting empty. The only good thing is that after our initial lease, we chose to rent month to month. So we can give 30 days notice and leave when we like.

So things will be a bit up in the air for me again for a while. I'm ready for the change though! :o)

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

2008-12-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try to get back to my old posting schedule, now that things are simmering down a bit. I've got all my holiday orders completed, and can relax and enjoy the holiday decorating, baking, etc.

I haven't given up on trying to do the tutorial either. I just have decided I want to do a video tutorial on a DVD, so it's taking me a little while to figure it all out - especially since my video camera is just about as old as my daughter! (17) My digital camera will take video, but only for about 5-7 minutes at a time. LOL Would take quite a while to piece together a video tutorial that way!

Here's a bloodhound that I did for a very nice lady recently:

THE MARIE ATOINETTE AWARD

2008-12-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

I want to thank Cathy of Cathy's Creations for the Marie Atoinette Award she gave me. She actually gave it to me weeks ago, when I was lost in novel-writing bliss. LOL So I didn't get the chance to post it, or thank her, til now.

According to the rules, I'm supposed to pass this award on to 7 other bloggers I admire. I would be happy to do this, but in my experience, as well as that of many of my blogging friends, very few people seem to even read their comments, let alone respond to them! So they never even see that they've been tagged! So I'm not going to tag anyone this time around, but I do thank Cathy for the lovely award. I'm honored, and she is definitely a lady I admire. :o)

Things are finally slowing down a bit, I'm caught up on orders, etc., so I can finally start decorating and actually ENJOYING the holiday. Every year, Christmas sneaks up on me so fast, because I'm so busy selling on ebay, filling orders, and so on, right up to the last minute, that I almost miss the sheer enjoyment of the season. This year, I intend to relax and enjoy the holiday!

Here's one of the last minute figurines I did for ebay:

Hope everyone else is enjoying the season as well. :o)

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

2008-10-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

Last week I showed the beginnings of a Halloween jar I was working on. Well here's the finished jar. It turned out much differently than how I had originally envisioned it but I'm quite pleased with it all the same:

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MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

2008-10-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
-----Napoleon Hill

The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams.
-----Eleanor Roosevelt

There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, 'Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams.' Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they're still there. These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, 'How good or how bad am I?' That's where courage comes in.
-----Erma Bombeck

I'm proud to be a dreamer. How about you? :o)

And just for fun, here's the cutest video I've seen in a long time. Perhaps these little pups had pleasant dreams after being sung to sleep with this sweet lullaby. My mom and I bred and showed Boxers for over 10 years before she passed away, so this video really brings happy memories to mind for me. Hope you enjoy it! Dream BIG dreams! :o)

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

2008-10-15T13:41:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I get these great ideas, and I'm all excited to create them - until I sit down to actually DO it and remember that what I planned to do presents a bunch of challenges! For example, I purchased these really cute and inexpensive pumpkin-shaped treat jars from Wal-Mart with the intention of covering them with clay, and then creating bas relief Halloween scenes around the center of the jar. It's been a while since I took on one of these projects, so of course while all caught up with thinking about the darling designs I wanted to sculpt on these jars, I completely forgot what a royal PAIN it is to cover curved surfaces like this! Especially when the piece is narrower in some places then others. UGH.

I contemplated taking them back, but I really wanted to use them. I just didn't want to spend hours working on them driving myself over the edge into insanity (a short drive I admit) while doing so. So I altered my plans a bit. Instead of covering the entire center of the jar with one continuous piece of clay, or having to seam several pieces together to create the background for the scenes I wanted to create, I decided I would do little vignettes instead. I have a large square cookie cutter with a decorative edge and I decided I would do 4 squares with little scenes in them instead. I did however cover the entire lid of the pumpkin with orange clay. I have to say that after trying a brand of clay that shall remain nameless to cover that lid and having nothing but problems with air bubbles, stickiness, etc. I decided to try Studio by Sculpey clay. I had a bunch of it on hand that Polyform Products had graciously sent me to try. It worked FANTASTICALLY! It was a dream to roll out, no air bubbles, and the seams blended smoothly. I know this stuff is controversial in the clay community for reasons I won't go into here, but I have to say it was wonderful to work with for covering the glass jars. This clay has an interesting feel to it, almost powdery. It's hard to describe. It's soft right out of the package but not overly so. It bakes to what the company calls a suede-like finish. It doesn't really feel like suede but it does feel different from other polymer clays when baked. It was a pleasure to work with. :o)

This shows one of the jars in progress:

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WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

2008-10-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

What's on my worktable today? Some custom orders and some adorable glass pumpkin jars I am covering with clay:

But what's on my list of things to do is growing longer by the day. Being a self-employed artist, we do it all - creating the art, photographing it, editing the photos, uploading the photos, writing up the ads, listing items for sale, wrapping, packing, shipping, billing, bookeeping, customer service, creating the website, promoting the art, and on and on it goes. I love what I do but it does get a bit daunting at times when you add on the responsibilities of being a mom, running a household, etc. I get tired just thinking about it all!

I've been enjoying working on the Halloween items. It's one of my favorite holidays to design for. Here's a cute little candy jar project I did for a magazine a couple years ago:

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

2008-09-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Law of Attraction has gotten much attention in the past couple of years. But the idea behind it is much older than that and wasn't always referred to by that name. Basically it is the power of our thoughts to create our lives, and the underlying principle can be summed up as "What you focus on expands." Another side of that is, "What you resist persists."

What you focus on, you get more of, but also what you resist you get more of as well. The reason is because the focus when you're resisting something is still on that something, so you draw more of it to you. For example, I had an ongoing problem with noisy neighbors. They carried on til all hours of the night outdoors, making it very difficult for anyone in my household to sleep, and repeated attempts at asking them to cease and desist on this behavior got us nowhere. They would apologize and agree to keep things down, but in reality would not change their behavior in any way. It got to the point that the only way we could get the behavior to stop temporarily was to call the police. So of course, all of this was very aggravating, and you can imagine that it was uppermost in my mind day after day. But the more I fussed over it all, the worse the problem became. It did not stop til I could take my focus off the problem, and focus only on what I wanted, which was peace and quiet.

That is the key. Take your mind off what you do not want, and do your best to keep it on what you do want. You will not attract money if you are focused on the lack of it. You will not attract success when you are focused on the lack of it, etc. All things have two sides. If you don't want a particular thing it's because you DO want its opposite. Focus on that.

It's not only a matter of what you think about, however. It really comes down to how you feel. You can think you are focused positively, but inside you are still feeling a great deal of negative emotion. It is the feeling that attracts, more so than the thought. You need to try to focus on the feeling that the desired outcome will bring to you. How will you feel when you have peace and quiet in your home instead of noisy rude neighbors? How will you feel when more money is flowing into your bank account than out? Focus on that feeling, and take your thoughts and feelings off the opposite aspect entirely. That is Law of Attraction in a nutshell and that is what will bring you the desires of your heart.

FRIDAY FIVE

2008-09-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

FIVE SITES FOR SCULPTING INFO

1. Figurines-Sculpture
The website of Peter Holland, master sculptor for Royal Doulton, Royal Worcester, Coalport, Wedgewood, etc. Peter Holland is an amazingly gifted sculptor who shares sculpting tips on his website. I was thrilled when Mr. Holland left a lovely comment on my blog recently. Kind as well as incredibly talented!

2. Elvenwork Tips and Techniques
Katherine Dewey is well known in the polymer clay world. She has written a couple of books on sculpting with polymer clay and also provides tips on her website.

3. Polymer Clay Sculpting Tips and Tutorials
This Squidoo lens contains sculpting information along with links to many other sites with sculpting tips as well.

4. Dog Portrait Sculpture
This artist gives tips and techniques for sculpting a bust of a Pit Bull.

5. Learn to Sculpt a Corgi Dog
Artist Aleah Klay shows the steps involved in creating a Corgi dog in polymer clay.

All great sites! Hope you will enjoy them! Have a great weekend!

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

Ever Evolving, Expanding, Improving

2007-08-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

As an artist, I am always learning. Despite the fact that I have now been working with polymer clay for well over 20 years, there is always something to learn. I find my work is ever evolving, techniques are always being refined, which keeps things always interesting.

Lately I have been drawn to sculpting one of a kind figurines that are more realistic, and I am finding the process both fascinating and challenging. I absolutely LOVE sculpting with Super Sculpey clay, which is different from the colored clays I usually work with in creating my pins, and other whimsical pieces. The SS is wonderfully easy to blend, and rework. Very user-friendly! This is the clay I created my earliest figurines with as a teen years ago.

From this:

To this:

To finally this:

It is always an interesting, sometimes frustrating - especially since I have no formal art training - journey!

Creating art in clay is for me always an exercise in persistence. As I said, I've had no formal art training. I've never taken any classes in sculpting whatsoever. When I first wanted to learn to sculpt dogs, I found that there were no books available, no classes I could take, or videos I could watch. So in teaching myself to sculpt, I've learned the most important thing is persistence. Many times I have wanted to wad up the clay and throw it against the wall! But something inside of me has kept me coming back again and again. This is how I know that creating in clay is what I'm meant to do. :o) I believe it is not really me teaching myself, but that part of God I believe He puts into each one of us working with me.

Okay enough philosophizing for one afternoon. ;o)