Just a short post so I can go enjoy the humidity that passes for Cincinnati in the summertime. 

If you want to make your own components and connectors, check out Ginger Davis Allman's tutorial - Rustic Beads and Components from Polymer Clay. It is a very comprehensive tutorial that is great not only for those with beginners skills, but is an inspirational starting point for those of you who have been working with clay for some time.. Ginger gives a full list of everything she uses to get "the look" that she does. Her steps are clear and easy to follow, and filled with pictures to help you along.  And if you are into instant gratification she downloads it immediately from her etsy site!

As always I can't settle on organic/rustic or shiny/bling so I did a set of each!

So I started today with good intentions, really I did! I meant to start some serious cleaning because my house is starting to look like an episode of the "Hoarders: Buried Alive!" Unlike a true hoarder I can throw things away when I need to....at least that's what I thought until today! There it was - an innocent piece of aluminum foil, a clean piece that was left from wrapping...something.  It was clean what was I supposed to do? Then I noticed it was sitting next to some clay that I had just conditioned...hmmnnn. Well it turns out that it didn't work too well as a texture plate so I was forced (yes, forced) to go to Michaels and get molding material. I thought I had some but after an hour's search I decided to cut my losses. I needed to get jump rings anyway. So I came home with the molding material and this is what I did.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone! I hope the rain doesn't dampen the fireworks tonight. Here are my latest listings on etsy,         Thanks for looking!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am easily distracted. That can be a good thing sometimes...this past week-end I had nothing to do. Everyone I knew was busy and I was totally on my own. Since it was the week-end I really didn't feel like working on the beads I had been doing all week, because even though it was fun it just seemed like work. Being temporarily stumped I decided to have a glass of wine and read a book. I never got around to the book, or the wine for that matter! When I went to the cabinet where I kept my glasses I saw some inexpensive glasses I had forgotten all about. Thinking this might be a fun project I set about decorating one of the larger goblets.
I can see lots of changes I might make but I also see things that I love about it; for a first attempt I am reasonably pleased with it. Since I hadn't blogged for a bit I took some pictures and here I am!
This is mostly Premo with some Sculpey thrown in. I used scrap clay but added enough new to give it a base color. After curing I used alcohol inks (appropriate, no?) and then went over it with Inka Gold in green and purple. The finishing touches are Guilders Paste Silver.
I also tried a couple different fabrics for the backgrounds, each gives a different feel to the piece, don't you think?
I enjoyed this project so much that it just may become a part of the Out Of Time Designs regular inventory.
Thanks for stopping by and looking!