YEAH!!!!! She's Back!!!!

Oh my gosh...I am so happy...my muse is back! After days and days of being uninspired I finally am sculpting again!

And you wanna know where my muse was hiding...On http://www.pogo.com/. If you aren't familiar with pogo, it's and online game site. They have a free membership and then a paid Club membership. I am thoroughly addicted to pogo. (thanks to a birthday present of a membership from my sister. THANKS MUG! lol) So anyways, there I was feeling kinda bummed and crummy, playing a game called Squelchies. (it's a match 3 type game, set under the sea) And on the background are all these corals and sea anemones. And it just hit me....I wanna make an anemone!

So I got in and mixed up some glow in the dark clay, with a little white, and some translucent. And started rolling...oh yeah and I looked up anemones online to see what they looked like.:-) So I rolled and rolled and rolled until I had a couple dozen of the little buggers. Then I dipped the tip of each one into Pearlex powders in Interference Green and Violet. (for any non crafters these are powdered pigments similar to loose eyeshadow) I then baked the lot of them and chilled in ice water to get them as translucent as possible. While those where baking I took a little of my tentacle mix and added some pink powder. And made some pointy, swoopy tentacles for a different anemone. I also mixed some pink clay with some pale brown and sculpted the pink anemone's base. After my glow tentacles came out I baked the pink parts.

While those where baking and chilling I realized that my anemone needed a clownfish. I mean really, what self respecting anemone would be caught without it's resident little orange buddy? So off surfing I went again looking for pictures of clownfish. Thankfully I found a really great picture, and I set about sculpting possibly the smallest and most realistic piece of my sculpting career...so far! :-) I really amazed myself...he turned out...dare I say it...almost perfect!!!

After my tentacles and anemone base came out and were chilling, I baked my 'nemo'. I inserted a thin wire while sculpting him too. And then I got to work assembling the 2 different anemones. The pink one was pretty simple. I added some liquid clay to the base then added a 'blob' of more pink/glow clay. I poked holes around the perimeter and added more TLS to each hole, and stuck in a wavy tentacle. When I finished going around I brushed more TLS over the base of each 'arm' and then into the oven he went.

Nemo's anemone took a little more work as the type that clownfish usually live is have tentacles covering their surface rather than just the outside edge. So I shaped the base, took a paintbrush end, and poked dozens and dozens of holes across the top and along the edges. Smearing another good coat of TLS over and into the holes I started applying the tentacles. Of course wouldn't you know I needed more tentacles! lol Good thing I tend to mix up more color than I might need. ;-) So I counted to see how many I'd need and rolled, dipped, baked and chilled again. I added Nemo and then finished adding his pal's tentacles. I used some white TLS and painted on Nemo's stripes. I will use black paint to add the final details tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy the collage of my anemones, and thanks for 'listening' while I released my joy at my muse finally returning! :-)

Deborah

Sunday 2-8-09

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Mine has been well intersting, to say the least. We had a friend over last night who is going through a rough patch, and that was great. But in the midst of it we get a call from a wife to find out things at her house were bad. So needless to say that brought the 'party' to a screeching halt. So it was a long night with calls coming and going helping her out. It ended up being after 3am this morning before we made it to bed. *sigh*

I had planned on claying today, but can't seem to find the motivation. Does any one else ever get like that. Real life getting in the way of your creative mojo? Any suggestions on getting over it. I'm sure I'll think of something, for now I'm gonna just play around online in between loads of laundry.

I did take a bunch of pics with my new camera yesterday, so I'll share some of them. You can also see many more of my things (taken with my new camera, of course ;-) ) on my website http://www.dlsarmywife.etsy.com/

Bright and Sunny Saturday

It's still chilly, but the sun is shining today! I spent an hour or so this morning taking new pictures of some of my polymer clay work as well as some earrings I still have. I will be updating many of the pictures in my webstore today. I am hoping that these new clear pics will help show off my work to it's full potential.

Not to much else going on today, Hubby is most likely gonna head out and go golfing tomorrow morning, and I am gonna try and swing over to visit our local Paint-your-own-Pottery store. I think it would be s neat place to have an outing for our spouses group. I'll also spend sometime tonight and tomorrow making phones calls just to remind folks about our meetings, and preparing for that meeting Monday night.

I am also gonna get some clay time in. I need to play, still no idea of exactly what I'm gonna make, but I feel the need to get my hands moving.

Y'all have a great day!
Deborah

Ok so Daily Dish might be stretching it! lol

I really am trying to remember to post every day, but yesterday was just crazy! Our Family Support group put on lunch for the soldiers yesterday. We served hot dogs and shredded chicken sandwiches, chips & mac n' cheese, and a bunch of home-made desserts. Considering we didn't advertise as well as we could have we still made almost $200. It was a great event and we are planning another one next month.

Then after lunch I had to rush over and get my nails done. And then rush to be there when H got home from school. Had to start dinner almost right away because Hubby and I had a meeting at 5:30. Or atleast I thought it was 5:30!!! LOL we showed up, kids in tow, only to discover the meeting didn't start until 6:30!!! Ugh! I hate when I mess up times like that. But I guess it's better to be early than late. lol The meeting finally wrapped up around 8ish. Made it home in time to get H and B ready for bed.

Today was a little slower, a friend came over this morning to go through my scrapbooking supplies. I scrapped for several years, until moving on to my jewelry habit.(which of course I have since moved on, to my polymer clay habit ) But anyways, she is newly married with little ones and wants to start scrapping. And since I have tons and tons of stuff I gladly willing to 'share the wealth' and pass stuff along to her. So we enjoyed spending the afternoon going through supplies and just chatting.

This evening I had a 'ladies night' with the other Support group leaders. We had a nice time just chatting and hanging out. Our host is planning a wine tasting for our next get together. Sounds like fun. :-)

Hubby is thinking about going golfing tomorrow, so I think I will alternate between laundry and claying. I'm not entirely sure what I'm gonna work on, but I'm eager to play. So hopefully I will have some new pictures to share with y'all tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone.
Deborah

Geez, here it is Wednesday already. Where oh where has the week gone? Hubby and I spent Sunday afternoon and early evening awaiting returning troops. It's always wonderful to see so many families reunited! We were supposed to go to a SuperBowl Party afterwards, but the flight didn't get in until later in the afternoon. So we ended up not heading out until after 9. But sometimes it's more important to be around when friends need you.

Monday was a busy day and sadly no claying got done. Our spouses group is having a lunch fundraiser tomorrow, so I spent Monday making up a flier and doing some shopping with my co-leader. Tuesday was busy too, early to rise to get our taxes done, then an afternoon meeting. Came home made dinner, worked on shredding chicken for sandwiches tomorrow, (ugh still have another chicken to shred tonight, not to mention baking to do!) and then I drove out to Wal-mart to buy my new camera.

My new camera is sooooo cool! It's a FujiFilm S1000, I got it for $189, including a case! It has a macro and a super macro feature. (that's for close-up and super close-up shots.) Which for posting pics of my clay work is so important for me. I took a few pics of my turtle piece just to try it out. I just can't get over how amazing these pics look! I now need to rephotograph ALL my pics for my store! Ugh can't say I'm looking forward to that but "A picture is worth a thousand words!" And to have a good looking store, means having great looking pictures!

Geez can you believe that it's Wednesday already. Been a busy week so far. Hubby and I spent Sunday welcoming home returning troops. It always wonderful to see families reunited. We had been invited to a SuperBowl party, but due to the flight coming in later, we spent a large part of the evening at the airfield. But you know that's ok, sometimes it more important to be where friends need you. :-)

Monday was kind of a lazy day, I didn't do any claying, but did some shopping and planning for an upcoming lunch fundraiser. Tuesday was busy, busy. Got up early to get our taxes done. (I do so enjoy that. and thankfully our trip to go see The Mouse ;-) is all set to go! :-D ) Then I had a lunch meeting. Came home and cooked dinner, and shredded a chicken for sandwiches tomorrow. Then off to Walmart for my new camera!

I LOVE my new camera. It's a FujiFilm S1000. I needed a camera that takes good close-up or macro shots. My new camera not only has a macro setting it has a Super-Macro setting!!! Yeah. I took some quick shots of a turtle piece I have done just paying with it last night. I put them into a collage a bit ago to see how they look! I am THRILLED with this new camera. And it was as steal too at only $189 including the carry case!

Well off to change my clothes to go do some more shopping, then get my nails done, then got baking to do as well as church tonight. So I guess I gotta get scooting. Until tomorrow. :-)

Saturday

Well I guess since it's already after midnight it's technically Sunday! lol Well let's see, today a gorgeous, sunny, crappy day! It actually started Friday night, I couldn't sleep! So I was up until 4:30 in the morning playing games online. I finally was tired enough to head to bed, and slept until about 11:30. Got up and made the kiddos some lunch, read my email and just kinda chilled. I read my email and surfed the net for a bit playing games on pogo.com. My usually babysitter called wanting me to go to the gym with her, but I just didn't feel up to it. A little while later I went out to Wal-mart because the hubby needed wiper blades for his car, and the younger 2 boys needed new sneakers. (they grow out of and wear them out so quick! lol) I managed to find sneakers for them as well as the oldest all on clearance!!! 3 pair of shoes for $27.00!!! I was very excited. :-)
I stopped off at Books A Million on my way home and picked up the new issue of PolymerCafe and BeadUnique. One of my favorite artists, Christi Friesen, has pieces in both of them! So I am eager to try them out. I made it home and started cooking hamburger for tacos. Dinner was late tonight, but on the weekends I don't mind. And well I've been online ever since. LOL So unfortunately I didn't get any claying done today, and most likely won't get any done tomorrow either. Hubby and I will spend a portion of our afternoon at the Airfield tomorrow, as we have a wave of troops returning. And then a SuperBowl party tomorrow night. Ah well there is always Monday, well atleast until I need to go shopping again! But then I can alway sculpt afterwards too.
I hope everyone is having a nice weekend and enjoy your Sunday.
Deborah