My Favorite Tool/Tools for Metal Clay...

Well as most of my friends know I'm a tool junkie! Give me one little chance... and if I think it's cool I'll buy it and give it a whirl. I think it all comes from myfather... he too was a tool junkie. My sister is a tool junkie too. She's a gourmet cook and WOW you should SEE her kitchen! Why even one of my brothers is too. Yep... guess it is hereditary. Oh gosh... my poor daughter! And in this millennium of electronics. Geesh!

I have tried lots of tools big/small, expensive/free. I truly enjoy giving each and every one a good fair test. The reason I'm always trying new tools is to possibly do a better job with it. And most of all... save time. Time is money! My Dad always told me to always use the right tool for the job.. it's safer and it will get the job done right. And save time.

I was daddy's little right hand girl. He collected antique cars and always loved tinkering with them in his spare time. Spare time... that's a laugh... 'cause my Dad had is own metal finishing business and worked six days a week. He would leave the house around 4:30am and get home around 8:00pm. Whew... what a day! He was a hell of a man and father too! I cherished every moment I could help him take something apart or put it together. I learned things from both he and my Mom that one can never learn in school. These are the kind of experiences that I try to give my daughter. I know from experience they will help her immensely.

Oooops.... oh yeah back to the MC tools. Well, we all know that some time or another we need to use water... be it tap, distilled or from our favorite blessed artesian spring to get our MC pieces to hold together. Some dip the piece in a "puddle" of H2O. While some use a toothpick or bamboo skewer. An artist brush is probably the most popular. Like the ones in the picture. Usually a size 0 or 1 round Taklon brush works best and lasts nicely from my experience. One thing to keep in mind is it's best to have dedicated brushes for different tasks in our work. Shoot... for the few bucks in brush investment it's well worth it with the cost of metal clay. I have separate brushes for water, wax, enameling, you name it. I'd rather be safe then sorry. It avoids the disappointment when you open the kiln and find your piece cracked, discolored or what have you.

Then after a year of playing with MC. Yep, I call it playing. 'Cause its fun... isn't it? I just love MC. I get so into it that I loose all sense of time! Anyhow, after getting a feel for the stuff... I found these neat "water brushes!" I thought WOW... what a time saver! So I used them for a year or two, but always ended up with my favorite brush for water welding. Water welding is what I call it when you're fusing two pieces of MC together with water. Make sense? Well, it does it my book. I really wanted the water brush to work. 'Cause it made sense... it has a nice point, a reservoir for water and you just squeeze it a titch for water to get to the brush bristles. It makes perfect sense. But no matter how careful I was... I either got too much or too little water. The other reason I wanted it to work is because I had already invested twenty dollars or so in the things. I bought a couple of extra ones to see if, by chance, the first ones were possibly faulty or something. I'm sure many MC artists love them. And they work just great for them. But for me... NOT! I wish they did but back to my good old favorite pink brush. I still have that same brush to date. It's a great little brush without a hair on it's little head missing. Well, maybe they don't make 'em like the used to. Ya see, it was one of my Mom's brushes originally bought for doing her ceramics. Shoot, it's gotta be twenty-five years or so old. My Mother used to make the most beautiful ceramic and porcelain dolls. Even when her eyesight was failing her she could still paint the eyes and eyelashes like the old French and German artists. She had the steadiest hand I've ever seen!

So all in all I have to say I still think a good old size 0 brush is my favorite and most used tool. But hey... "Mr. Finger" is the first tool every MC artist got. And one of my favs also! ;-)

As Seen Through Our Own Eyes...

Have you ever just sat in your studio and let your imagination run away from you? I've always gotten a lot of my inspiration from my inner thoughts, memories and imagination. Sometimes I'll just sit at my bench and day dream. Glancing at the various collections of ideas, tools and papers I have strewn on it. Ideas for our creations come from everything around us. I've designed some of my jewelry from a simple leaf or seed pod as many other artists have. Each artist interprets the same object differently in their work. This is where their talent really comes out and flourishes. Every one's art is an expression of their innermost, God given, talent! The finished piece by one subject/idea. That's what makes every ones work unique!

The following are examples of leaves with dew ...

First we have a lovely creation of a leaf done in stained glass...

...why there's even a ladybug!

by Soap Creek Designs

---0---

Then we have my take on a leaf...

...unusual, strange, down right bold!

by Colleen J. Stella

---0---

Now we have God's leaf...

...beautiful, perfect, BREATHTAKING!

by, none other then... GOD

The first two examples are creations of the same original object done with two different types of media by different artists. Each piece helps you to envision the same original creation but both look totally different. Every art piece is completely unique to the original artist. Our artwork is unique to each individual artist. Everyone sees things through their own eyes in their own way!

Be creative, true and unique in ALL your art! It will always reflect your inner TALENT!

Now I would like to leave you with with a FUN and very creative video! It's a truly creative lot of artists inspired by none other than Post-it Notes!!! This video is of the whole creative process of making the final video, "DEADLINE." And I thought creating jewelry was time consuming?!? Yowza these guys got a lot of patience and TONS of creativity!!!

"DEADLINE, the making of"


and now for the finished video...

"DEADLINE post-it stop motion"

It's Been a While...

Well it's been a while since I posted. But time flies when you're having fun. ;-) My daughter is doing much better now. We've seen all kinds of docs and had all kinds of tests. And fortunately they've all turned out fine. She is on a regular regime of Zantac, and that seems to be doing the trick. I think the biggest thing that helped her was when the doctor said that there was nothing severely wrong with anything in her abdomen. They told her that they understand she is having pain, and a lot of times children suffer from pain in their abdomen. Children can commonly have abdominal pain instead of headaches like adults get. And unfortunately a lot of times they can never seem to pinpoint exactly what causes it.

The doctor has assured us that sooner or later they will probably go away. For now the best thing to do is try and keep busy to keep her mind off of it. It was a relief for us all that it is nothing serious. So now it's my job to keep her busy and focus on other things.

This weekend she's been busy making Valentines cards in her studio. Just like when I was little... I have taught her to make them with paper doilies, lace, glitter and all kinds of other fun items to create them. We make them for relatives and close friends. And it's always a special treat when you get one.

I think she's the only kid in her school that does this though. When I went to school, we not only made Valentines for our family, but for every kid in our class. I think it's such a shame that soon crafts such as this will become a thing of the past.

Nowadays schools are so busy testing children and so focused on the "No Child Left Behind" Act, that there's very little time for simple things. I fully understand the reasoning behind the act, but feel it makes elementary school a much more stressful place then it needs to be. When extra time is needed for testing and such... the areas that suffer are the arts, like music and art class. They either cut back the time or completely do away with them. The other thing that gets cut is their recess time. In elementary school children need time to play and let off steam. It actually helps them to be better focused in classes if they can get rid of "Mr. Figgit" on the playground. Sometimes I wish they would just let teachers do their job and teach and have fun with the children! And honestly... I wonder if any child would really be left behind?

Tests, tests, tests!

Well last week was tough, but this week is full of TESTS! So far my daughter has been a real trooper. She's been poked, proded, pushed and scanned.... but she's hangin' in there. The best part is the results are coming in good so far. I so want this chapter of our lives to be over.

The doctors have given her a temporary diagnosis of acute gastritis. Which in layman's terms is an inflammation of the stomach lining. If their diagnosis is accurate it will take at least ten days before she might see some relief from the Zantac regime they have her on. So we have four days under our belt and six to go. Hopefully it's just smooth sailing from here on out. So we can get back on with our lives.

The doctors and nurses at The Cleveland Clinic are the best! They are soooo very patient and encouraging. I have always had a lot of faith in the Clinic as both my daughter and I were born here! So hey... they gotta be good! Right?

Going through a chapter like this in your life is very hard. Especially when it involves your child. One thing I can highly recommend to help is to talk with someone, post to a journal or even post in a blog like I have. It can be very helpful to get things out and off your mind. If you keep them bottled up you might soon be going for tests too! So talk or write... whatever suits you. Hey and thanks for listening. You've helped me immensely.

Family Outing ...

With temperatures ~zero this morning, brrrrrr, it was a great morning to pull the covers up and just sleep in. Especially after all we had been thru this last week with our daughter. But my husband wanted to still do an early morning shop to Costco. So, we all got up, UGH brrrrr, had breakfast, got dressed and were on our way. We got there early, as my husband wanted to beat the crowds. But, I guess because of the week my daughter and I had just been through we were giddy and just had fun shopping and goofing with each other. My husband kept telling us to stay focused.... but we acted like little kids and soon converted him too! We were there for HOURS! And the crowds kept building. So much for beating the rush!

As we shopped we would find things we liked or needed and say things like, "Wow that's a good deal" and toss it in the cart. During our shop we even ran into good friends. But they were on a mission and couldn't play like us. ;-( After covering all isles of the store our cart was full to the brim. We finally decided it was time to check out. After they rang everything up, my husband said, "Honey, did you see the total?" I looked at the register and nearly died! ..... $353.00 GEESH! I couldn't believe my eyes! We kept tossing all these "GOOD DEALS" in our cart and look what it added up too!

Sooooo, all in all, are they really "GOOD DEALS" after all? Or do we just think so? hmmm ;-)

Tough Week!

My daughter, of 10, has been ill with stomach pains for the last month and a half. The last two week's have been tough as they have gotten more severe. We have spent more time at the doctor's office then I care to even to talk about. I would do anything to just take all the pain and endure it myself.

She's an honor roll student and can't wait to get back to school. We've been going to the Cleveland Clinic for her care. So we're going to one of the best!

Earlier in the week she underwent quite a few blood tests. She hates needles, but was quite a trooper. They took around seven vials. I was wondering if they would leave any for her! All the blood tests have turned out negative so far. I thank God for that. As it rules out some of the scary illnesses, like Lupus, Lymphoma, etc.

Just yesterday we went to a Gastroenterologist at the Clinic's Main Campus. They were extremely patient and thorough. My daughter and I were both scared and nervous. But it was so comforting and reasuring to have doctors who cared and spend so much time answering ALL our questions. After several doctors looked over all her tests and symptoms they came up with a temporary diagnosis for now. They feel she might be suffering from acute gastritis. And started her on a regime of Zantac for a minimum of six weeks. It was such a relief to hear that she had nothing that was severely enlarged, serious or life threatening!

We still have some other tests to undergo this coming week. But I think the pain lessened for her just hearing that it was nothing too serious at this time. It felt like a huge cloud was lifted!

Fortunately she is feeling a little better already. And we continue to pray she has a speedy recovery. She truly is the light of our lives... and when she feels bad, we ALL do.

Wow.... I finally started a blog!

Well I've been following a lot of other blogs. So I decided it was about time I gave it a go. Right now I'm in the middle of trying to turn over a new leaf ... so to speak! The last three years have been a medical hell for me. So I'm hoping 2009 is going to be my year, to raise holy heck for all the rehab and such from my various surgeries! I thank God for my beautiful family. And yes ... we have survived another holiday season!