I’ve kept scrapbooks for years on jewelry, pottery, home decorating and design that appeals to me. They’re more than a source of inspiration; they give me a visual record of the ways my taste has changed over the years and how it has remained the same. Here are some random pages pulled from my scrapbooks. I recommend you start keeping scrapbooks if you don’t already.

I am deep into Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes, and having a ball making color collages. I plan to start a notebook just for color ideas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I took a little time off from working my way through Polymer Clay Color Inspirations to take a surface design class with Ellen Marshall at the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild. You can read all about it on the Guild Blog.

Ellen led us through making texture plates and gave a boatload of suggestions for clay surface treatments with a host of acrylic mediums, paints, pastels, stamps, and a secret discovery from Radio Shack. The pictures below show some of the work I did-a texture stamp make of scrap clay, and the surface-embellished clay in various stages. After texturing and coloring a sheet, I cut it in strips, rearranged them, cut them cross wise and rearranged them again. They offer some interesting project possibilities. It was an interesting, relaxing class. Thanks Ellen!

I walk to and from work every day and I constantly scan the sidewalk for treasures I can use to make something. Trash day is the best day of the week!!!

Awhile ago, I wrote about making lampworked beads from glass I found on the sidewalk. Now I have added brown beer bottles to my cobalt blue wine and aqua Bombay Gin bottles. And a co worker contributed too! She had a beautiful yellow glass vessel sink in her powder room and when it cracked and she had to have it replaced, she gave me the broken glass.

The pictures below show each kind of glass, plain, fumed and fumed with stringers on top.

Since I don’t know the COE of the glass, I don’t mix the colors. I cut the glass as best I can and hold it in the flame with a long hemostat. It’s loads of fun and you never know what you’re going to get.

I have started to work through Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes, and am quickly becoming obsessed with what this wonderful book by Maggie Maggio and Lindly Haunani has to offer.

I decided to limit myself to Premo in order to limit my choices and because that’s the clay I usually use. I completed the package color testing exercise and made a value sorter.

This was getting interesting. Terms like tint, shade and value started to make more sense. I read about pivot tiles and made six of them.

I was so fascinated by the color shifts that I made six more pivot tiles with different colors.

Then I made clay plugs from the leftover colors this time, extruded them and made canes.   Since each cane started from the same pivot color, they all work on some level.  Now I am hooked.  To pivot beads and beyond!!!

I found a neato color test you might want to try.  Go to the Pratt and Lambert site and find out what color personality you have.

Happy Birthday to the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program which is 25 years old this month and still going strong.   I feel lucky to live in a city where I can see beautiful paintings on the sides of buildings where ever I go.  I get to walk past two of my favorite murals on my way to work.

 

The mural at Hahnemann Hospital on North Broad Street is near my workplace.

The mural of former mayor Frank Rizzo is near my home in the heart of South Philadelphia. Some people loved him and some people hated him, but he was always larger than life. And so is his mural.

Here’s to the next 25 years!

But wait, there’s more! 

Wall Watching is an invitational photography exhibit of showing the murals as part of the city landscape instead big paintings.  The exhibit is free to the public and runs to November 13 in the West portal hallway of City Hall in Philadelphia.  You can even  follow the mural program on Twitter!   And check out Art in City Hall  to get information about the many other interesting art exhibits scheduled there. 

You can read my newest project article on how to make these cool drop earrings  in the November/December issue of Step By Step Beads. You probably know that SBS Beads will cease publication  with the January/February 2010 issue,   The good news from the Interweave site is that it is being merged into Beadwork Magazine, and that Step By Step Wire is still going strong.  I had a clasp making article published there earlier this year.

Adobe has a neat, free on line tool called Kuhler (pronounced cooler) that lets you play with color. After you open a free account, you can even upload pictures and pull palettes from them. See my picture below.

Here’s a good tutorial on how to use Kuhler.

What got me on this Kuhler/color obsession? Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio’s magnificent new book, Polymer Clay Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes. This winter, a friend and I plan to work our way from one end of the book to the other. When we come up for air, maybe I’ll have something new to show you.

Harbor Freight sells a steel shot filled leather pouch used to repair dents in cars. It makes a great noise-deadening surface for your bench block and the price is right at  $2.59. They also sell a flint striker for $1.79  which is great for lighting torches. This cheap model works better than the “high quality” one I bought elsewhere. I also got a small bolt cutter that I use to cut cable and heavy wire, a  bargain at $3.99.    I plan to use their digital pocket scale for weighing resin and hardener. That way I won’t mix more than I need and I can pour out equal amounts more easily.

I confess, weighing resin is not my idea; I read the tip in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. But it makes sense.  Serious bakers weigh their ingredients because the measurements are more accurate.

And for all you tool lovers out there, Toolmonger is a blog you shouldn’t miss!

Connor Samuel,  born September 23, 2009. Congratulations to parents Leigh and Max.

As promised, here are pictures of my finished counter that I posted about in July. I attached the pieces to the counter, grouted them with sanded grout and sealed the grout after it dried. This project was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but I like the results. I don’t use this counter for food preparation; it’s just a bright place between the dining room and the kitchen.