Another Clue

One last thing added to my polymer clay project before putting it aside for a couple of days.

I’ll bet the guesses will be closer this time!

This is the project that is taking my time for a few days.  Paper piecing with a difference – I am drafting my own pattern.  Oh Boy – is this a lot harder than I thought it would be!!!  I’ve re-drawn the pieces multiple times and this is my second attempt at stitching.  The first one was just sad.  Keeping my fingers crossed, but so far this version is going better.

I have found a whole new respect for people who draft this type of pattern!

Not Sitting on My Thumbs

Just because this blog has been quiet, don’t think I am not doing anything.  Unfortunately, one thing it does mean is that I am not finishing anything!  Until today.

This is the Ice Queen that I went to class to learn how to make.  There are a few things I still need to practice on – hair and eyelashes come to mind – but I am feeling more comfortable with the clay.  And I’m tickled with how the Queen came out.

I went a little crazy with her crown.  There were several ice-ish trims available and I think I used pieces of all of them! 

This is my favorite photo, with the light behind her.  It makes all the sparkly bits – um, sparkly!  A lot of glitter was sacrificed for this gal’s costume!  (And I will be finding glitter in odd places for weeks, I’m sure.)

The costume was concocted of sheer silk, Tyvek, mulberry paper, angelina fibers, and netting.  Fun stuff to play with and interesting results. 

Now that she is finished, I will pack up all the snowflakes, icicles and blue feathers for now.  Because the next project will be quite different.  I started today so here is a little teaser:

What Have I Been Up To?

I’ve been a bit quiet here this week (OK, not just this week – but let’s not get involved in details).  I am taking another hands-on workshop, making a polymer clay figure.

This morning, we baked heads.  And by this evening, arms and torso are ready to go into the oven. . . I hope. 

She has some issues with her hands, but letting it sit overnight could settle that down a bit.  Polymer clay has less body as it gets warm and the weight of her hands causes the wrist to sag – in places where it should not be able to sag!  In the morning, the clay should be firmer and a bit easier to control.  I can see in this photo that she needs a little more “meat” on that outstretched arm.

I am soooo happy with that face!  By George, I think I’ve got it!  Tomorrow we start playing with fabric.  Oh boy!

Order from Chaos

There’s a very good reason for this blog being silent for the month of August.  Really!  There’s been a lot of – er, disruption – in my half of the basement.

This is just the beginning!

This is what was happening on the other side of that wall.  This and a bit more, in fact.

Whoa!  That is one heck of a hole!  The purpose of this hole is to provide an egress – a way to get out of the house in an emergency if the stairs are blocked.  After all, I spend a large amount of time hunkered down in this basement, but I want to be able to get OUT!

This is a badly blurry picture, but I think you can see that not much cutting was getting done on that cutting table! Of course, while everything was topsy-turvey, I decided to see if I could come up with a better layout.

I crawled around with my trusty tape measure and measured EVERYTHING!  Whew, that was a job all by itself!  Then I opened EQ and started drawing furniture/blocks.  Here is what the original layout looked like:

Cozy, huh?  This phase took even longer than cutting the hole, by the way.  I would draw up some options, and Sarge would tell me why it wouldn’t work!  Then I’d draw up some more options!  By the time I finished, I had every single piece planned to go somewhere else.  Except the TV.  It had to stay attached to its cable, after all.

Last weekend was moving day.  Amazingly enough, we did not kill each other before we were done (close a time or two, though!) and now it looks like this:

Here’s real life, sort of:

This shot looks dark because I was shooting into the light from the window.  The lighting is more like the one below.

And from the outside . . .

Now everything is put away and work surface are cleared off and I’m ready to get back to making things!

If I can remember where I put my tools, that is!