Were you wondering where I’ve been? I have been a busy busy bee.

I’ve been helping my Dad with his revamping his website (not ready for the big reveal yet),

I’ve built a few etsy banners for PCAGOE members. I enjoy helping out polymer clay artists that are getting their shops prettied up to sell their polymer clay items. I hope you’d take a moment to search for these artists on etsy! Just type in the shop name into etsy’s search to find them.

Now I’m busy working on my Live Spinner Heart class that will be June 12th on CraftCast.  I can hardly wait to share this technique with you all!

In addition to the Spinner Heart class, I’ll be busier at my full time job because my co-worker and friend, Kathy, gave her notice for retirement. This will affect my workload. I’m really looking forward to some new learning opportunites. Wish me luck!

If that’s not enough, I’ll also be celebrating my birthday towards the end of May. 44 years on this planet…man, life comes at ya fast! ha!

Have a wonderful week and I’ll check back in soon!

I wanted to let you know I have a new “Live” online class coming up June 12th, 2013 on CraftCast with Alison Lee. I’m so thrilled for the opportunity to share with you in a live online class! You’ll be able to follow along and the best part…you can ask me questions. yay!!

I’ll be teaching you start to finish how to make polymer clay “Spinner Hearts”. I will also include information on how to make spinners using any shape! Hope you will join me June 12, 2013 Find out the details here.

Spinner Hearts

Read more about this experiment below, copied from mashable. If you can’t see the video click over to my blog to see it!

From Dove,
Dove posted on Monday a three-minute ad on YouTube that teaches a vital lesson about how we view ourselves compared to how others see us. Trust us, it’s worth your time.

A former forensic artist for the San Jose police department met a series of women and asked each to describe the way they look. He had no way of seeing them behind a curtain. He prompted them to detail everything: hair length, facial structure, their most prominent features. He then sketched each participant from their self-description.

Each woman was asked before the study to get to know one of the other participants. The forensic artist then prompted each woman to describe the other’s face.

At the end of the video, the artist reveals two sketches — one from the participant itself, one from their partner. The differences are remarkable.

We won’t ruin the effect for you, but we’ll leave you with this comment from Dove posted below the video:

“Women are their own worst beauty critics,” Dove says. “Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful … we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.”

Polymer Clay Global Perspectives will be in bookstores July 30th. You can preorder it now for $16.98 through Amazon.

I’m thrilled to have a featured chapter in it, talking a bit about myself, my art and demonstrating an encased heart. I haven’t seen the book yet but I’m excited all the same.

Cynthia Tinapple from Polymer Clay Daily did a fantastic job pulling together polymer clay artists from around the world.

Hi there! Hope you all are doing well today. Although the weather has been nice here in colorado springs (60′s and 70′s) for April…It’s suppose to turn cold tomorrow on Tuesday and snow again. (20′s…brrrrr!) We need the moisture but I’m so looking forward to no snow!! It’s nice to get outside when it’s warm. My tulip leaves are getting bigger and bigger. Come on spring!

Thank you to those of you who have taken my new video class “Decorative Pens” in polymer clay. I’ve been playing around with decorating more pens myself, as you can see in the pictures. Poking and playing around with a design. I’ll try and remember to post pictures of the finished pens.

Blooper Tip!

I also wanted to share a little tip with you about keeping some of your “blooper” pieces to practice on. I keep several bowls full of “blooper” pieces that I’ve made that just didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to. Here’s one of the blooper collections…

I like grabbing one of these pieces when I’m experimenting, that way I don’t have to start from scratch. I’m impatient and using one of the blooper pieces allows me to get on with the experiment.

The blooper piece below has lots of issues but was perfect for practicing on. I’m playing around with 2 experiments, 1 using embossing powder and the 2 using alcohol ink. It’s not a piece I’ll finish but it gives me a good idea if something is going to work or not before I put a lot of time into a piece.

It was really hard to get a non blurry picture because the transfer is so shiny, but you get the idea. So keep some of your blooper pieces to practice on!

If you have blooper pieces you’d like to share, leave a link to it in the comments section. I’d like to see yours too! Have a great week!