Everything’s Coming Up Roses

 

I have not made a lot of handmade rose polymer clay canes over the last few years. I usually do not have a call for roses in my designs, or I just never think about adding any roses. Either way, I have not created a lot and have fiddled with different tutorials over the years on how to create a rose. I think the first rose cane tutorial I saw was Donna Kato’s in her first big Polymer Clay Book. At least, I think that is where I saw it….

This is a wonderful book to help you to develop the techniques necessary to start with polymer clay, but advanced enough that you can go from the beginning to intermediate in a short time.

Anyway, whether I saw the first rose there or not, the book is great.

Now, on to the roses.

I have been scouring the web and pinterest and other sites for rose tutorials. I have found a few that I may pick up later, such as Marcia’s amazing rose tutorial:

All of Marcia’s tutorials are on this page and you can buy it through her website or on etsy. Her roses are gorgeous and in order for me to get the amazing detail that she gets, I will need her tutorial.

Here are my little roses that are better than usual, but nothing like Marcia’s.

 

 

 

 

 

Not all color combinations a good rose will make :)

Enjoy these and I will keep working at creating them.

Julie and Blu

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Pink Polymer Clay Flowers for October

For all those who have survived or lost someone to breast cancer, I picked these beautiful polymer pink flowers for you and for my friends who are no longer with me.
Enjoy these talented polymer artists from both Artfire and Etsy.
- Julie and Blu

Countdown to Christmas Blog Hop

Playing with Petals – New Polymer Clay Raw Flower Canes for Spring

I get in a rut. I find a style that I like and I do not deviate from it when I am creating my flower canes. I really, really wanted to try some different things with my petals and colors for this batch of new canes.

This desire came from revisiting all my old flower canes that other artists had so skillfully done. I looked at my flowers and felt very defeated. Mine would never be so intricate or delicate.

So, I went looking for flower cane tutorials. There are many good ones out there on places like Etsy and Artfire, but none of them really were exciting me. I know, the thing that one has to do to get excited about anything is to throw all you know out and start fresh.

I decided to just try different ways to blend, cut and fold my blends. I added layers of color and then did it different the next time I created some.

I did not get a lot of new canes finished, but I did do some different things and by doing different things, I see some new petal ideas for my next batch.

Without further ado, here are the spring canes from Blue Morning Expressions.

 

 

My favorite are the navy blue flower canes and I used them in a new set of beads.

 

Not deterred by my feeble attempts at a better flower, I have more clay ready to go and my next flowers will be better.

Enjoy

Julie and Blu

Revisiting Beloved Canes

Time goes by too fast.
Evidently, many years ago, I bought a lot of canes from some very talented cane artists. Cat Therien, being one of them, as well as Candace Mathewson. I never got around to using all these canes, so they have been sitting in a sealed container being shuffled about the house, and then, between states.
Now, I have the time and have grabbed a couple minutes to create some more beads, I thought, I really need to see what is in this box that I guard like the crown jewels. I was so excited when I opened it back up and took them all out and lined them up. They were still in their own wrappers and some were even still in bubblewrap. I made beads. I only got five set done yesterday, but I have seven more lined up to go and will work on those tomorrow.
Without further ado, here are the newest beads. See if you can recognize your favorite cane artist’s canes in these beads. Some of these canes have been gone from their stores a long time.

Now that my love affair with my beads and my stash of canes has been renewed, I think I will be creating many more beads in the near future.
Julie and Blu

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Bracelet Give Away

I want to post this so anyone who would like a chance to win my Ashes of Roses bangle bracelet gets a chance to get in on the give away. Jacki, of Christie Cottage, holds a weekly give away and this week it is a bracelet that I specifically designed for her give away.

Here is the bracelet:

 

This bracelet will make a lovely Mother's Day gift and comes with a felt drawstring navy blue pouch for gift giving.
Sign up to win here http://etsygiveaways.blogspot.com/2012/03/bangle-bracelet-giveaway-ends-0314.html

 

Wet Sanding Clay and Carpal Tunnel

As much as I want to deny it, I have carpal tunnel. It does not always bother me, but sometimes my entire hand goes numb and I cannot hold onto things. This is a bit painful, but more frustrating than anything else.

This also means that a long time ago I had to stop handsanding my polymer clay beads, which led me to have beads that I was okay with but wanted something much better.

My mother, a long-time professional artist, suggested I try sanding mitts. I had no idea what they were or if they would work for me. She and I did some internet searches and she found these mitts and sent me a link to them. The first time I saw them, I thought, not only are they ugly, but they are HUGE.

She found bowling ball mitts. These are used by pro shops to smooth down the ball after the holes are drilled. They really are huge and they were expensive and they did not come with the sandpaper.

These mitts have velcro attached to the tops and you place different grits on the velcro. You get a set of five and when you find someone selling the wet sandpaper, you get a matching set of five grits. I have 180, 320, 500, 1000 and 2000 – bowling balls need to be VERY smooth to roll right.

They were not cheap; mom sent me $100 to purchase these mitts and sandpaper – it was a gift for Christmas and I got my mitts.

They took some getting used to, since they are so big and I had been handsanding with smaller pieces of wet sandpaper. This cramped my hands and made it impossible to hold onto the beads and became painful very quickly.

These mitts are so much easier. I just stick my hand in one and with my bad hand, I can easily roll the beads against the other hand. If that hand starts to ache, I can put the mitt on it and use my other hand to hold the beads. This has gone a long way to making my beads smoother and my jewelry cleaner without the pain of trying to hold a small piece of paper.

The backs of the sandpaper have a sponge like foam on them, so wet sanding is no problem and the mitt is a vinyl that cleans up easily. Even though mine are dirty. I just finished sanding a bracelet when I thought I would take photos and share them with you.

Ugly, yes, functional, absolutely. Thanks mom! Oh, and they are color coded.  :)

Look at my little hands, you can see how big they are!

Julie and Blu

To purchase your mitts:

http://www.bowlingballsales.com/shop/item/ebonite-powerhouse-abranet-sanding-gloves.htm

I had to purchase my paper separately.

http://www.bowlersdream.com/abralonpads.html

You may be able to get them cheaper than I did; I bought them several years ago and the pads ended up coming from a seller on eBay. But, I did spend a total of about $100 with shipping on both purchases.

Technorati Tags: handsanding beads,wet sanding clay beads,wet sanding polymer clay beads,carpal tunnel and bead making,sanding with carpal tunnel,tools for wet sanding polymer clay

Denim and Gingham

I am getting to use some of my newest canes and I created a couple little beads using these canes and as soon as I saw them together, I knew I needed to create my next bangle bracelet with those canes. My pale blue flower cane and my white polka dotted red flower cane fit together so well that I wanted to feature them. So, here they are!

 

 

 

I think the two canes went together very well!

Enjoy the canes,

Julie and Blu

Spring is around the corner at Blue Morning Expressions

Volume 9 Issue 3, March, 2012 – from the Blu Print – Blue Morning Expressions’ official newsletter

What's New in March?

Happy Spring thoughts to all my leprechauns!

Sitting here watching the snow fall makes me think that spring is hiding under the winter mantle and the mountain wildflowers are just starting to wake up under the snow. It will not be long before their shoots will start to reach up and seek the warmth of the sun.

Then I will have a whole new palette to play upon.

Until then, here are some of the latest creations that have come from my workbench. I have been on the rose side of life lately, so there are a lot of peaches, pinks and rose shades reflected in the latest canes and beads.

 

 

 

New Canes and Beads—You can find all the new beads and canes on my website www.bluemorningexpressions.com or at Artfire under Blue Morning Expressions. Both places have a full selection of my most current canes, including theses new rose flower canes.

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

Things to Look Forward To:

New Products:

Canes —I am enjoying the softer shades of red lately and they are reflected in my latest canes and jewelry. Here are some of my latest canes used in bracelets and buttons. The buttons are shank buttons and the bracelet is on a brass blank. The bracelet will be given away in a blog contest. If you are interested in taking a shot at winning the bracelet, you will need to go here and sign up:

http://christiecottage.blogspot.com/2012/02/win-it-wednesday-new-giveaway_22.html

The web address may have changed by the time she puts up my bracelet, so if you just go to http://christiecottage.blogspot.com and look to the right side, you should see the Win It Wednesday link.

I would LOVE to see you win it!

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The Canes Have Now Become a Bracelet

My canes have tantalized me for a week now as I have gone through the creation process and I was more than ready to create some beads from them. However, I had another project that I wanted to participate in first.

Jacki Christie of Christie’s Cottage does a Wednesday give away on her blog. She does tireless promotion for many of the artists on both Artfire and Etsy and I have been honored by her featuring one of my pieces of jewelry as a give away. I offered up one of my polymer clay bracelets and she also gave away one of my polymer clay penguin Christmas ornaments. This time I told her I wanted to create something specifically for her give away.

Since I have bunny earrings and bracelets running all over my workbench, I was really leaning towards creating a Easter Bunny charm bracelet. The give away is slated for March 7th and I felt this gave me enough time to do something specifically “bunniesh” and the recipient enough to time receive it before Easter, especially if I went with something for the younger crowd. It could be a great basket stuffer.

Well, as inspiration would have it, I kept thinking about my new canes and I kept thinking about this stash of a dozen brass bangle bracelets that I had staring at me. Then a Victorian thought came to mind. I have been surrounded lately by some beautiful Victorian lace valentines and the background of Jacki’s blog is Victorian. The Ashes of Roses of these canes kept whispering lace and fineness and the pinks and peaches of the excess clay staring at me simply demanded that I create that bracelet.

So, I looked at a million lace patterns and  intended to create my translucent and white accent cane by using a lace pattern, and not the normal bullseye lace pattern. I was looking for real lace. But, as my impatience to create overwhelmed my nitpicking, I went with a crosshatch pattern.

The bracelet quickly came into shape and the colors were sweetly romantic, feminine and oh, so, Victorian. I fell in love with the bracelet and it did not take long to determine that this was the give away for Christie Cottage.

Here is my most favorite bracelet EVER! Well, for this week anyway.

This bracelet is set on a brass bangle and it has been hand wet sanded through three grits before a light varnish to give it shine.

If you want to be part of the give away, here is the link to Christie Cottage. It will not be posted until the first of March, but she has other shopping sprees, twitter trees and other promotional events that she routinely schedules.

Enjoy the canes, these are the actual canes that I have for sale on my website.

These canes are limited and they will not be repeated, so if you are inspired to create your own Victorian bangle bracelet, then now would be the time to get the canes.

Enjoy

Julie and Blu

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