Polymer Hearts

Click for larger view.

I was looking through some old photo's on my computer and came across a collage I created a while ago showing a grouping of the polymer hearts I've created.

It was fun to take that stroll down memory lane to think about why I created each one. Several have gone on to new homes.

Do you keep photo's of your art work? I'd love to see your collection! Feel free to leave a comment with your link to your work.

Have a great Monday!

Blog design

I'm playing around with a new blog layout. Bear with me. I'm going for clean & simple. What do you think?

my old design is on bottom.

WIP-added-art

WIP-added-art
Originally uploaded by tejaesart

Polymer clay side of my studio space.

Well, I mentioned in a post or so ago that I wanted to paint my studio but it would have to wait. LOL! Well, lucky me found a can of paint sitting around, so I painted the walls pale green paint, that use to be the outside color of our house.

Added a few pieces of art and installed a task light above the desk. (see the task light under the shelf?)

Have an artful day!

WIP triangle banner (AAO swap)

This is a work-in-progess art banner. The project has us making 6 banners, theme is WINGS, it's 3" x 5" a little small but still easily mailable.

I created mine in photoshop elements. It has about 16 layers. I copied it for the additional pieces I needed.

To finish it up I'll need to attach paste it on to some decent weight card stock, decorate the backside, and add embellishments.

Treasure Gold Rub and Internet Explorer fix

Two tips for you today.I had a tub of Treasure Gold metallic rub on wax that had dried up. I didn't want to toss it so I contacted plaid to ask how to fix it. Their answer "A few drops of either Xylene, Mineral spirits, or Paint thinner should do it." So now you too know how to fix it. :)

Secondly there is a virus going around that attacks your computer without you knowing it, when you visit certain sites. You can read about the virus here.

http://www.ghacks.net/2009/07/07/internet-explorer-vulnerability-fix/

You can visit microsoft and click on a button to have it fixed.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972890

Have a great Tuesday!

twisted-wing

twisted-wing
Originally uploaded by tejaesart

This butterfly flew into our garden yesterday. I could tell he was having problems flying and if you look closely you can see why. His left wing is crimped.

He kept blowing away so I put him in my flower bed. Have you ever seen a butterfly eat? Pretty wild to watch.

He's still sitting in my flower bed this morning. I was hoping the dew would help fix his wing.

butterfly

butterfly
Originally uploaded by tejaesart

testing out the blog feature in flickr, bear with me...

This butterfly visited us yesterday.

Creating an inspiring studio

new desk

I'm in the process of doing a little spring cleaning in my art studio. I started really looking at my space and researching "organizing rooms" on the internet. I found a new bigger desk at Goodwill for around $50 to replace my small white polymer clay table (see image below).

I found an interesting website Inspired Home Office You may want to check into it. Jennifer has a free newsletter with tips on creating an inspiring home office. (or you can hire her to help you virtually!) I've discovered (among other things) that I have too much stuff! Also my studio was functional but not exactly inspiring.

New set up

So I made a few changes (I still have lots more de-cluttering to do). I looked at my "before" space (below) and obviously had a few items in my space that doesn't need to be there. (heater, exercise ball, too many book cases, an extra table, clothing etc) I want to eventually paint or change the gray walls, but that will have to wait for now. I'm also going to remove the metal book case, pictured above to the right.

I moved all my rubber stamps on the shelf above my work table to my "paper arts" work space, which is directly opposite of my polymer clay table.

My white polymer clay work table was simply too small and my computer desk wasn't working for me. So I got rid of my old computer table and moved my white table in it's place (you can see the corner of it and the back of my flat screen monitor in the second picture.)

My studio is in the basement and I don't have a door. So I removed the curtains from the windows and made a "faux"entrance to my space. This makes the space brighter during the day and creates a fun "door".

What do you think of the changes? How's your space? Does your creative space need a makeover? Leave a comment and a link to your room. I'd love to see it!

Lisa Clarke invited me to participate in a fun project for July called "A month of Hands". Here's my hand shot for today!
Have a great 4th of July!

Silver Charm Prototypes and Charm Giveaway!

(clay proto-types for silver charms)

How's everyone doing out there in blogland? Just wanted to share a new project with you that I'm working on. I got the bug to create some new silver charms. What do you think of my clay proto-types? A couple of them need to be re-worked and tweaked before they go to be cast but I thought it would be fun to get your feedback.

I'm planning on offering a new line of charms and other fun artsy items to debut in my etsy shop around August. Keep me company as I share my process with you. :) You may even win a little charm. Stay tuned for the details!

I make my charms the old fashioned way, I either create the charm in jewelers wax and have it cast using the lost wax process OR I make the charm in clay and have a mold made, then a wax model is made for a sterilng silver casting using the lost wax process. I have nothing against pmc (precious metal clay) I even have a digital kiln myself, I just like the feel of sterling silver. The same process is used for gold charms. It generally takes a couple of weeks to get the charms from this proto-type state to a sterling silver charm.

These little guys are approximately 1/2" tall. The tags (on the left) are 7/8" tall.

Got a word you'd like to see on a charm? leave me a comment. If I use your word on a charm your name will be entered to win a free charm on my Grand re-opening of my etsy shop August 1st. (how fun is that?)

Have an artful week. I'll be back soon to share some more charms and artsy things with you. :)

Spring Cleaning projects

Actually, yesterday was the first day of summer so technically it's summer cleaning. :)

First I want to show you a couple of tables I'm refinishing. Silly me, I thought I could do this in a day. LOL. It's been 2 weeks! It's pretty tedious. I picked these up at Goodwill for $14 a piece. They were both covered in two layers of paint. White underneath and grey on top.

The first picture shows the I've already removed the grey from the top and the drawer. I thought they'd look nicer as stained wood. I'm not sure if I'm patient enough to remove all the paint for the stain. It looks like they may have had water damage on top (white spots). If I can't figure out how to remove the damage, I may just repaint them!

The second project I've been working on is planting flowers in the beds. This is a shot of part of the back yard. It was raining at the time. I can't wait til everything start filling out. We also planted 3 tomato plants. YUM!

Third project I want to work on is my art studio. It's such a cluttered mess! Piles of "stuff" on every flat surface! I have LOTS of ideas for some new art projects that I want to start on, but they will have to wait until I get this room in order. I thought if I posted pictures I'd be more likely to clean it up! Have a great week!!