A second thing -

Must be a record for me, two blog posts in one day. 
Yesterday I received my package from my  Bead Soup Blog  Party partner - she is Marie Cramp of Skye Jewels.  I'd  just like to give you a taste of things to come:

the mystery-

 After opening, I have a generous number of beautiful flat tiles with very evocative images.  I know this is going to to a true challenge for me because I rarely, if ever, use images in my work.  Oh , Lori.....

 What I immediately gravitate towards in these tiles is the sepia/magenta/blackness of them, because I work with these colours all the time.  Maybe I'll be able to find a way in...
Also included are lovely brass finish findings, bead caps, chain and a clasp - another challenge, I ususally make everything in polymer.  (Don't despair,  you'll find those pliers somewhere in the mess on your desk).

 And finally, these lovely little glass beads!  The way to an ex-glass blower's heart...something I can always relate to!

I will succeed, I will!  (But it will be difficult).

Thanks for everything, Marie!

Out of focus

I'm still working on a list of things I've set myself, one being the use of polymer without paint.  Hmm. Paint withdrawal - not a pretty sight here, but I'll persevere!

Since I have become interested in using images on polymer, this has naturally rekindled my interest in photography - and also in blogs that post photographs of interest to me.  It's difficult to define precisely  what  interests me but  I've been looking more critically at my shots and deleting lots.  A couple of things occur to me here.

 When I was at school for design in glass,  I had a drawing teacher who simultaneously inspired me and annoyed me (isn't that the role of the gifted arts teacher?).  We had a schoolwide project (teachers included) to assemble disparate objects into some sort of sculpture.  We were each given 20 objects - no personal choice was involved.  I remember having a mini 'aha' moment when I looked at my drawing teachers' finished work.  He had taken dark brown micro-crystalline wax and had coated each of his given objects so that only the form remained and had then assembled them into quite a powerful and resolved piece.  All those competing voices were silenced...

I'm finding (late in life, it's true) that focus in photography works that way.  Sometimes when things are blurred, the competing elements are damped down a little and the form or structure is more powerfully evident.  Like this picture of my son opening his birthday present-

Or this, of my front yard,

Which became after fiddling -

So many images, so little time!  My son is in his own world, it makes me laugh! And  oh yes, I'm quite certain my drawing teacher will never read this blog....

Credit where it's due...

 I realized that in my haste to post about printing on baked clay I neglected to give credit to the person who invented it - shame on me!  You can read all about it on Foah Designs website.  I was very hesitant to try it because printers and I have a long history of disasters together, but eventually I convinced myself by acknowledging that my printer was already 10 years old and I would love a new one anyway.  If you follow her directions exactly in the tutorial,  it works perfectly!  I love the qualities of the finished print.  It is perfect for flat applications ( but sadly not for beads, I'm still researching that..), but the print is fragile and needs to be protected with a layer of liquid polymer for durability.

I think Foah Designs is Pam Hall.  I'm guessing this from looking at  her Etsy shop - but I'm going to email her and thank her for sharing the results of her experimentation!

Here is a picture of one of her lovely wallets made using this technique: