Ruby and lush green macro

I’m jumping in for a quick word before the holidays swallow us all up – in a good way, of course.  I took these pictures in the summer and found them again while cleaning up my photos.  Just fooling around with macro shots in the kitchen…it struck me that they are Christmas colours, well, sort of!  Close enough and just full of wonderful detail.  My afternoon glass of cranberry juice never looked so rich!

                                                       
                                                 

                                     

                                             


      Translucent ruby veils of colour… followed by the cut up Spring onions on the board to be tossed into the Jerk Pork Tenderloin marinade! (One of our favourite meals…)

                
                   


                           


Hmm, some polymer connections too, which is probably why I whipped out the camera in the first place.  I recall ,too, solemnly chopping up garlic cloves and admiring the wonderful shapes of the cross-sectioned garlic.  Can’t seem to find the pictures so maybe I just went ahead and cooked them!

Happy meals with your families!  Happy holidays if I don’t get back before Christmas!

Quiet scene

 

I 'll just finish off the the year with a few pictures of the creche my daughter has been making since she was 7.  She is 13 now.  I realized that polymer has been around in our household for longer than I thought...

 

The angel..

Such earnest wise men...

 

The small shepherd and his tiny flock..

We are all proud of our children...

 

The cat watches from on high...

 

The dog is so happy, you can just tell...

I hope you are all happy too.

Prosaic and ecstatic...

It's taking me a while to get the hang of juggling all this stuff. But when I read through other blogs, I'm convinced it's worthwhile. I think I'll start adding to my notebook of everything yet one more thing - the passing thoughts that are the germ of some good to write about. I do have a couple of things to mention today, starting with the prosaic one.

This is a tool that I have started to use a lot in my polymer work. I'm a bit of a freak/geek about tools which is definitely a hangover from my glass career, where having quality tools was sooo important. ( And a source of much attitude and snobbery, as well!) With polymer, what tool you use leaves a direct mark on the clay and is usually there for ever, so the marks you choose to make say a lot about your creative voice and ideas. This is a long way to say that I find this particular tool useful in cutting down on the stodgy look that polymer sometimes presents (think - the 'squished' look). Think of this tool as a trimmer. It's very useful in tight places, very helpful in refining a final, tiny form.

Ecstatically, Polymer Clay Daily's Cynthia Tinapple has gone to the trouble of making great thumbnail links to the 'Making Connections' show coming up at the Synergy conference in February, 2010. My necklace is one of the pieces in the show! There is some wonderful work by artists I've admired for a long time. Check it out here! Thank you, as always, to Cynthia.

Have to finish trimming the tree with a polymer ornament. I'm such a mean parent - every year I force my children to make at least one ornament with me for the tree. I will say though, that they love working with clay.