Meet Vadoma!

A while ago I treated myself to something, a sculpture from a fellow polymer clay artist, Angelina Star Edwards. I am not a sculptor, and I am in awe of anyone who can sculpt. This particular artist has captured my heart with her amazing snails, and she made me my very own pen & ink artist Lady Snail! I'm delighted with little Tess, and she moves around from place to place in my studio so I can see her and she can approve of my work. ;-)

Recently Star announced a snail giveaway, and I am bound and determined to win this beauty to share the studio with me and little Tess. She's Vadoma, the fortune teller snail and she's gorgeous!

 Please visit the blog and check out Star's wonderful work.

I'm here!

So much has been going on at my house. I've finally (with the help of the wonderful Crystal!) gotten headway in my studio, so I can now sew. A little bit of work every day or so will get the collected junk sorted through - look for destashing and new projects soon.

I've decided to dump my Etsy shop. I don't list there, I hate listing, I hate the whole process. I'm going to start selling mostly through my wonderful friend at Third Blessing (who sells from her store, at festivals and sales, as well as on Etsy! Check her blog for info) as well as the occasional art/craft sale. Eventually I want to set up my own website and possibly do a bit of e-commerce there, but for now I think I'm out of the game. My destashing will be done at Yardsellr, or a similar site... news on that later.

I want to tell everyone about a fabulous new site I've found. It's smallish, but it's growing, and I'd love to see you all hook up with me there, if you sew. It's called My Sewing Circle and it's a lot like Ravelry for sewing types. My handle over there is teresadkg, please feel free to add me! (Over at Ravelry I'm born2me, add me there, too!)

You can look at my sewing projects there, I've got one finished one up and two in the planning stages. I've also started a group for stay at home Moms who sew.

I've got a Tumblr now. It posts my Instagram pics, and I'm also putting pictures up of my studio and the progress I'm making there.

So many projects!

I'm working on bits and pieces these days. Did a little clay here and there, lots of doodling, some beading recently. It's too hot to crochet, or do much in general right now. I'm looking forward to fall, to getting my studio back into shape, getting the sewing machine out.

I have a domain name now, and soon I hope to start using it. Eventually I'd love to have an art shop there, as well as do my Reiki teaching on the site as well.

I've added a few more things to Third Blessing in West Plains, MO, but nothing new at Etsy. I hope to get back to adding items there pretty soon, though. Is there anything that you'd like to see me working on to sell?

Teaching

I love to teach, and teaching polymer clay classes are a great treat. I got to teach a two hour session at a women's drumming retreat last weekend and it was fabulous! I had created some Goddess figures and djembe blanks in advance for everyone to decorate. We also made beads. It was great, and I had such a talented bunch of women.

I'm hoping to teach a class this summer at a small store in my hometown, it should be great fun, too!

Crochet excitement

Although I have never offered any of my crocheted items for sale, many of you already know that I love to crochet. I've been on a quest the last year or so to learn "real crochet", rather than the self-taught one or two stitches I worked with for years. I'm actually almost reading patterns now, and have branched out into amigurumi (love it!!) and lots of beautiful cotton hats, dishcloths and towels. Recently I ran across a pattern for a pair of fingerless mitts, and being a sucker for fingerless mitts, decided to give it a try. I have made my first pair ever this weekend, followed the pattern, re-worked the pattern a bit, and am ready to start on a second pair!

A dear friend of mine passed away a few years ago, and I begged the administrator of her estate to let me have some yarn or fabric from her stash. Quite a bit of her massive collection had been ruined by a collapsed roof, but I ended up with several boxes full of fabric and yarn, and some finished and partially finished pieces. A lot of them were granny squares of all different sizes and types, and I hope someday to put them together with squares of my own into a wild crazy lap quilt.

Sunday I decided to rummage in her stuff to see if I could find some new yarn for a second pair of mitts. I came across something I don't remember seeing before - a bag with several skeins and partial balls of a really pretty acrylic pink sparkly yarn. When I say pink I mean a BRIGHT DEEP WILD PINK! The photo doesn't do it justice, the sparkle is muted and it feels so soft to the touch. It's gorgeous and just my style. In the bag was also a mostly finished cloche hat. I decided it was a gift from Stu, and probably sign of her approval at all I'm doing with yarn these days. I fiddled around and think I know what size hook she was using, and (although I seem to crochet much tighter than she did) I'm blending in fairly well with what she was doing. It's almost finished, then I'll start a pair of mitts. I found a couple finished granny squares in this bag, too, so I'll use whatever is left to make more to match and form the center of my crazy lap quilt.

I'm getting ready to bring all my yarn up from the tubs in the basement, sort it, and put it into space bags. I bought some cubes, the kind that you use a vacuum to suck the air out. I intend to use up my stash of mostly acrylic yarn as quickly as I can, I have plans to make some dog/cat beds to donate to shelters. I also have a lot of cotton yarn that I'm using to make hats to donate to a couple different cancer centers. They are light and comfortable, and perfect for wearing in the summer. That's the same yarn that I make my dishcloths and such out of - Lily's Sugar 'n Cream, and some Peaches & Creme. In fact, I'm working on some washcloths and towels for my kitchen right now.

I have more projects that I have time for, especially given the new jewelry I'm working on to add to my Etsy store. Always fun!

I am enjoying myself lately doing "zoodles" (zen doodles, similar to Zentangles, but not copyrighted) and pondering ways to incorporate them into my art.  Here are couple of the first I tried:

They've also added a lot of dimension to my ATC's (artist trading cards). Here's a partially finished one:

One thing I'm working on right now is making glass slide pendants with my own handmade copper bails. I've made a few double-sided pendants that are musical in nature, and I'll soon have some out that are doodles.

Getting with the program!

I just got set up with a lovely display at Third Blessing, which is an amazing little shop in my hometown of West Plains, Missouri. I'm so excited about having my work in a brick & mortar store. I'm also taking a few things to FKO (Filk Ontario, a music convention in Toronto), since I've been offered a bit of table space! It feels good to be getting my work and name out there. I also have a bit of work at my Etsy shop, and I'll be putting more things up there as I go along. In May I have the fantastic opportunity to join some dear friends at Spring Fling, which is a WomenDrum event. I'll be doing a polymer clay class where we'll be decorating a large Goddess bead, fit for a drum dangle or a necklace/brooch. I'll also get to relax and drum while the guys have a bachelor weekend at the house.

In the process of rebranding to Lovely Mayhem (which is a part of gundowerks), I'm moving all my old blog posts from the gundowerks blog to here, and changing my gundowerks Facebook page over to a Lovely Mayhem page. My systems administrator (such a hottie!) is going to purchase a domain for me soon, so I should be able to get things started running through there at some point. It's all new, and much fun! I hope you'll join me in my new adventures.

Tutorials!

I am constantly experimenting with new techniques, new products, new tutorials. I love piddling around with supplies, trying new things. As I settle into my newly-reclaimed art studio I want to start doing more of my own tutorials and product reviews - to that end, I have started my own Squidoo site. I'll still blog about it here as well as provide my Squidoo links. I'm hoping each will drive traffic to the other - at least that's the plan.

Currently under the microscope - surface techniques for polymer clay. Stay tuned here for more!

Shifting Gears

After a lot of thought I've decided to close both of my online shops, at Etsy (Lovely Mayhem) and Artfire (gundowerks). It probably won't end up a permanent change, but I've come to realize that I'm just not interested in doing what it takes to sell online at this time. I'm going to concentrate on new styles and ideas, and finding some consignment venues in local stores.

I am still going to be here, and online in general. I'm working on a Lovely Mayhem FB page, and will hopefully secure a URL and have my own website eventually. I'm going to continue to share wonderful art and ideas from my friends, and insights that I find in my own work as I go.

Still available for all kinds of custom work, especially buttons (for any kind of fiber worked garments) and prayer beads. I'd love to help you out, just email at gundowerks at gundo dot com.

Tools from the trash

While we're talking about tools, what is something you use regularly and would probably just trash/recycle when done with that you save and use in your polyclay work? I have many, but in sorting through my stuff as I clean & redo my studio, I came across a bag of something that inspired me to post this.

Pop bottle caps.

I realized a long time ago that they are perfect for mixing liquid clay with small amounts of powders for colored TLS, or mixing powders together to make different shades, or doing just about anything that needs to be contained in a small space and can just be tossed or rinsed out when you are done.

I try to grab lids of all sorts, but mostly plastic caps from pop bottles, since they are deep and recyclable.

Here is one with some gold TLS in it. I actually make this and black TLS up in larger bottles, but I just squeezed a bit out in here to dip my brush in.

So, your turn. What's something you'd normally dispose of that you use regularly with your clay?

Super Sculpey to the rescue.

So, my amazingly talented friend ColtPixy blogged about her favorite new tool. I have used it before, but not recently, so naturally I had to grab a 40% off coupon and trot over to Michael's to get some more, because results like that I NEED!

I already sliced off a hunk and started using it in my pasta machine(s). I say machine plural because I have three out and able to use (although only room to clamp one down at the moment), and I'm pretty sure I have a fourth somewhere. The real test is going to be using it after red, which tends to be so heavily saturated that it bleeds onto and -stays- on everything.

Super Sculpey is wonderful stuff. I wouldn't personally use it to make anything to sell, but I've used it for years to make tools, stamps, and molds when I don't have access to the really good two-part stuff. I recommend always having on hand a box of it, and the plain old Sculpey Oven Bake Clay (white, but not pure white like the small packages). I use that to make armatures and many other things. I will eventually blog about using clay to create useful items for the clay table, so stay tuned!

Come join us at Lovely Mayhem's brand new Etsy store!

NO SOPA

NO SOPA