Aussiepolyclayers First Swap Comp

I've been having a ball! Just spent two days in my studio making "rock themed" pendants for Aussiepolyclayers First Ever Swap Comp. We've had some wonderful swaps but Lisa Henderson (http://www.lillybriar.com/) came up with a FABulous idea in honour of our new forum (we've given yahoo the flick in exchange for a board that allows our members more flexiblity). A swap which is also a competition! This is an exciting national swap and competition open to all polymer clay crafters and artisans. The Swap is played out as normal with Swapeees making ONE EXTRA piece that is retained for the competition. Winner of the Great Swap Comp 2008 will win a $50 Gift Voucher to use at the Bead with Me, via in store or online. Winner will also receive a NEW Christi Friesen “Emerald Isle”T-shirt. There is ALSO a Peoples Choice Swaard (Swap/Award). Items will be on display to the public and the public will vote for their favourite. Winner will receive NEW Christi Friesen “Emerald Isle”T-shirt and their choice of Christi Friesen Book (Dragon’s, Jungle, Sea, Cats or the upcoming DownUnder).

Come check us out...Aussiepolyclayers... http://aussiepolyclay.21.forumer.com/

Everone welcome to become a member. Sign up for the swap too if it interests you. The more the merrier!

Ofcourse, this also means I can't show you pics of what I've been making because it's a secret till the swap deadline. So, I'll leave you with a picture of Lisa Hendersons beautiful work...

Mokume Gane Heaven

These are the result of that fabulous day with the 'gurls' playing with the mokume gane technique. I also had some ready made pmc pieces I'd made for just this purpose...my aim being to have several pmc pieces pre-made for impromtu embedding into polymer. It worked!
Directly above is a button with a pmc sculpted fish embedded into it.
The middle one has a textured pmc layer between two layers of polymer clay mokume gane. I added a pmc starfish and some pc sand and a little gold snail shaped 'thingy' on the bail. Notice the hollow tube bails? These are the first I've made using polymer clay with those core adaptors in the Makins extruder...and I'm really happy with the effect.
The top is a pic of the whole bunch of mokume gane things. I'm playing around with different shapes...
I have one more piece to show you which is in the oven now...stay tuned...

I'm back!

Well, as some of you who have written to nag me about not blogging for over two weeks (good for you!) would know, I've been on hols...doing nothing but reading books and enjoying some down time, away from clay. I get stale if I don't do this every now and then. I cheated a couple of days here and there, wanted to make something for my Mum and make a start on a commissioned piece this week, but mostly just letting myself stop still for a while, feel who I am again. It was a whirlwind of a year for me and stopping for a while did me the world of good. But I'm back! had a wonderful day with some girlfriends yesterday. Since they were new to clay I thought I'd start them off with mokume gane, always a crowd pleaser! I have some beads in the tumbler for them as I write this and later on in the week, I'll have some 'show and tell' for you I promise. In the meantime, here's a pic of us all having a break. Anyone would think I worked them hard???
In the meantime, I want to introduce someone in the claying world who's work I've been admiring for a while now. I've been watching her progress over some time now and am so enjoying her work, I thought you might like to see it too. Many of you from the US will know her already but my Australian friends probably don't so this is for you. Interestingly, there's a new clay just released on the market, Studio by Sculpey...and I wasn't at all surprised to see that Susan has already 'test driven' it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcbysusan/
Enjoy her site...and I'll be back with pics next week!