I’d LOVE to attend Grant’s or Donna’s workshop one day *sigh* I think what separates great artists from the rest is the amount of details they put into their works. You can look at their beads and think ok, they’re nice. But when you take a look closer, you’ll start to notice all the details that work together nicely and make the beads look effortless.
The good news is, it has been decided. No, let me re-phrase: it has been decided and action has been taken upon it because as I’m typing this entry, an order is zipping across the continent to the land of Uncle Sam 
Now for the bad news. The list grew when I saw Dremel Stylus on Wednesday. Dremel Stylus is a rotary tool but with supposedly better design that enables you to hold it like a pen. In general, rotary tool will make buffing a breeze. Of course you have to get past the darn sanding process first but the reward of seeing the buffed piece turns glass-like is almost worth it. I did an experiment yesterday and buffed only half a bead. Let’s see if the camera can capture the difference (that’s a hint for you, Mr. Panda!!)
I’d been longing for an OTT Light or any daylight lamp for quite some time because it’s so darn hard to assemble things under the halogen lights above the dining table or while crouching in front of the sofa. And look what I got last Saturday:
It’s a Daylight lamp! With a tray! Love, love, love it to bits
And here’s what I’ve been working on. This piece is long overdue as my progress with the crochet had been real slow. I quite like the result although it’s a tiny bit too long for my neck but Panda is not so hot about it. Will post the finished pic later.
And here is the inside of my clay cabinet.
I got my own desk courtesy or Mr Panda!!
The small table in Ikea only comes in white so we had to settle for that. But I think it’s kinda nice too and I can see colors better against the white surface. After shuffling the tables around and massive spring cleaning (by our standard), look what we have now!
Before:
We also managed to clear our 2 black holes (the big plastic bins with wheels) so off they went to store room.
After:
Panda donated his broken dry box so my Pearl-ex are lining up nicely in there. You can see the box at the lower right corner. The orange Ikea box hides other stuff like texture plates, blades, baking rack, etc.
Another try at making a bead series. I bought 1 big block each of Premo black and white so I have quite a lot of clay to play with (I don’t have the heart to open most of my Kato. They are so tiny!).
Again, I was doing the flower design here. The lentils came from the failed experiment of making a checkered beads. The black clay is softer then the white so it’s difficult to create the exact same size of black-white-black and white-black-white. You can see the distorted pattern on the second photo below, the square bead on the left side.
The rest of the beads are using anything-goes design.
These took half of last Saturday. You may recognize that the flower and the dotted beads designs come straight from common lampwork beads designs. You’re right. I’ve been fascinated by the chubby flowers ever since I saw one on lampwork beads. So I tried to simulate it here with clay.
Working with white clay is tricky. Even after wearing gloves and cleaning the pasta machine, it’s difficult to keep the beads clean. Somehow there was always something that managed to stain them. And then there was problem making them round. I don’t know how other people do it but for the life of me, I couldn’t make them perfectly round. Argh!
But all in all I’m quite pleased with the result. There were not enough beads to make a full string necklace so I have to think of something else. Probably strung with Softflex silver wire and suspended by sterling silver crimps.
And here’s to show off our mini studio. I bought the light box for $80 and Panda bought the lights (and the camera, of course). The lightbox can be folded into the flat carrying case. Neat!
Much to Panda’s horror, I went mad in Blick and Michaels and bought a truckload of polymer clay stuff Of course I had very good reasons for it. There’s not much choice of clay supplies and tools here in Singapore. Art supplies shops that sell Premo didn’t even have the basic colors like black, white, or pearl! *tsk tsk*
So ladies and gentlemen, may I present the new additions to my clay treasures
Not exactly clay stuff but I was finally able to lay my hands on Softflex Extreme 925. They went out of production for quite some time due to Katrina hurricane, then the stock availability was delayed from June to July.
I love the baking rack! Previously I made one from the disposable aluminum foil baking dish and straighten paper clip. Yeah, cheapo me.
These little jars are quite expensive! I’ve only tried few colors so far but they are very interesting to use. The bead below was made from moss green scrap clay and dusted with Interference Gold powder. The powder itself is white but turns into lovely gold shimmer. It is recommended to wear a mask when working with mica powder so that’s one more thing on my future shopping list.
Other stuff not pictured here: oven thermometer (long overdue) and a brick each of black and white Premo.
Stuff that I forgot to buy: Donna Kato’s latest book :( *duh*
My order from The Clay Station arrived yesterday *yay* The Kato clay samples are really tiny! Not sure yet what I’m going to make out of them. I’m thinking of creating color charts first but that will wipe out the clay. Hmm …
Last month I decided to take the plunge and entered a Designer Quest held by Beading Forum. This is the first time I’ll be showing off my design and I’m so excited! So here they are, promise you won’t laugh :)
