Honestly, Have you heard? More Treasurys than ever! (and tips for PC artists)

Honesty Photo by HazyDaisy.etsy.com

Have you heard the news at Etsy? They have made their newest Treasury making application in Beta version live now called Treasury East. You can read all about it here. (See below for how to use this newest feature as an artists color inspiration tool. )

Being part of a Treasury Team (our website) at Etsy Called Team T International (our blog) one of our main activities is of course, making Treasuries!

It was always difficult to remember to look and see when they would open, and then remember when that was and I forgot and missed way too many times! If you too have been frustrated by this, Treasury East is for you! You don't have to worry about being at your computer when it opens, and hope to get one of the 'prized slots'. You instead can go here 24/7 and start your Treasury. AND now ALL 16 slots show up in your treasury, no alternates!

Also these don't have an expiration date and you can change them around all you like. There are some hints when you fill them out on the side but there's a couple I did not know about until I experienced it a few times doing my first one and I'd like to share with you to save you some time and trouble.

When you do a Treasury Main or Treasury West you have to wait to get the Make your treasury screen open up. If you get your title in and click to make your treasury, it is made and saved in the system. You don't have to fill it in right away and you can come back and find it easily. It is different with Treasury East. You click to make a new treasury from a different way but even though you put in a title and start adding your items it is not saved! If you hit the back button, you loose it all. So, be aware of that when going back and forth getting the listings you want to add to your treasury. Frequently save (at the bottom of the page you will see the SAVE button) your item additions. And also there is no OK button. Once you enter your listing number in the slot under the picture frame you have to hit your 'Enter' button, then the item will appear. I suggest to save what you have for each row. That way you won't have to go back and redo it three times like I did! ;)

Here is my first, give it a visit please, even if you don't click on anything, just so I can see how that works. Also you don't have a count of how many clicks on each individual item like before, but a total from all 16 selections on the right side bar.


To make one, go here , then click on the button on the right hand side that says " +New Treasury". You can make as many as you want! On that front page to the left of that link you will also see another link "Your Treasuries" which will take you to a page that has all the Treasury Easts you have made. Have fun!

For those of you that are Polymer Clay artists and have read Maggie Maggios and Lindly Haunani's book 'Color Inspirations' and follow Maggie's blog Maggie Maggio - Smashing Color then you are familiar with her Collages. This is a great opportunity to use this technique without having to go through many magazines and cut out all those pictures. You can use The Explore Feature on etsy 'Color' and make your treasury/collages that way. Give it a try and see how your artwork improves!

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Book Review - Jewelry Inspirations - Sherri Haab

What's New Wednesday is Continued with this special edition. What's New? This new book by Sherri Haab called Jewelry Inspirations. Yes, she has a new book coming out, available in book stores on March 9th that I just had to tell you about. Published by Watson-Guptill a subsidiary of Random House, the parent company that was owned by my employer of long ago when I worked for a major newspaper.

I have to say that of all the books I have on Jewelry and Polymer Clay as well as other art forms this book is a gem. Just for the layout alone its worth getting but Sherri takes us inside her world and treats us to first hand processes of her artistic endeavors.

You are invited to bestselling author and crafter extraordinaire Sherri Haab's Studio - where her inspired jewelry designs come to life!

Sherri gathers inspiration from all areas of her life and shares how her childhood memories, personal collections, love of cooking and gardening, early crafting experiences, and favorite times of the year become the basis for her charming jewelry designs. She walks you through the process of developing Creativity and over coming the biggest deterrent to it: fear that our artwork won't be perfect. There’s inspiration all around you, and Sherri shows you how to find it.
Each chapter is Ornamented with great Eye candy that suits each section. I love the Shabby chic medicine cabinet full of color sectioned cork topped vials and small bottles of the most luscious beads.
Sherri also demonstrates techniques in wire work, resin, polymer clay, metal clay, and image transfer. Dedicating a section just to these techniques so you can try out the projects further on in the book that call for these techniques.

Each section after that teaches you projects in headings such as Memories, Seasons, Collections, Blast from the Past and Hobbies. Each Chapter starts with where the inspiration comes from for these projects. And there's wonderful glimpses into her studio and teaching room where you can see her organization as well as Inspiration that fuels the beautiful pieces she makes.

The photography is superb and inspiring in itself which makes following all the projects and learning new techniques a breeze with step by step, clear and concise photos to guide you through each project.

Here's a few things that can be found in this wonderful book to tantalize your creative flow:

• Casting nostalgic toys and game pieces into fine silver for one of a kind charms
• Using silicone mold putty to make 3-d Art beads from nature
• Toner copy transfer to copper for beautiful etched components
• Making modern adornments from Grandma Jewelry box
• Using Fiber for soft connections in your jewelry pieces

Frankly I have never seen a more pleasing book that has so much soul in it, as well as artfully conceived, with such a diversity of projects and techniques. A must for every Jewelry makers library for sure, it would take many books to equal the wonderful variety this one book contains. If you aren't inspired to make many new creations using the techniques in this book then I would hesitate to guess you really haven't found your niche in jewelry making!

Look for it in your favorite Book Stores on March 9th

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Procrastination?

Did you procrastinate and forget to get something for hubby or Dad for Father's Day? Well it's never too late, and 'Better late than never' or one of those cliches! How about making it up to him with a really fine gift like one of these pens or sets of cuff links from CreativeWriting?




Keith does marvelous things with Polymer clay, especially his faux finishes like, Crocodile, pig skin (football) Aged and laced leather even! Check out the authentic looking golf ball and football tie tacs too~!



He also has some beautiful designs for discriminating ladies if you know of anyone with a Birthday or special day coming up soon! Just look at this luscious cloisonne fountain pen!


You can see more at his etsy store right here! CreativeWriting.etsy.com


Happy Father's Day to all you Daddies out there!

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New Material, New Ideas, New pieces

Remember me telling you that the farm where I get my organic produce opened up a couple weeks ago? I guess that helped to jump start me after a long winter. A winter I thought I'd be really able to be making a lot of things with all the texture plates and molds I'd taken over the course of last summer and fall. But it was not to be. Other things got in the way. Things I thought I should be doing and things that helped everyone but myself. It took it's toll on my health and well being and I was barely making a handful of new things per month. Recently I've had a relapse in my health and have decided that in order to be able to do what I want and what I need I have to learn to stop apologizing for not being able to do everything and volunteering and just say no. This is very hard for a classic INFJ to do, this group isn't called the Nurturers or Protectors for nothing. But I have to learn first to protect myself and nurture my innermost being first else I am no good to myself or anyone else. As it is I haven't even been able to go out to the farm yet, hopefully this week that will change.

So without boring you, my dear reader with any more of this, I have just decided to stay away this past week or so from places and people that bring negativity into my life and who squelch my creativity until it can hardly raise its head. It's taken me a bit to recover, especially since this affects my heart from over stress and anxiety and instead of it pushing any further and possibly giving me a heart attack or stroke, I have chosen self preservation. :) And in this time of healing (much bed rest) I have been able to actually make some things, fill some commissions and basically get my schedule back to normal again. I'd like to show you some completed pieces and one which is in the prototype stage.

First is this 'coin' necklace, which is made from various hand mixed shades of greens and copper clay and finished in various mediums. Then all joined together with bronzed findings. In the pictures it is attached to a bronze chain but the final produce will incorporate a gun metal lava stone which I think will harmonize with the 'coins' well and repeat the circular theme. As you can see by the two pictures, it is reversible, so even if flipped while wearing the viewer will always have something to enjoy looking at. I have stamped Aux Fine Herbes on the central focal bead, and even though these are not the classic mixture called generally aux fine herbes I thought it was an appropriate title. ( NOTE: you can click on the pictures to get a larger view if you'd like).

Then I have finally finished a retro Black and White Checkered set I started a few weeks ago. Making the squares was a bit difficult as I wanted the tiles to go all the way through and there to always be a black touching white. But once sculpted and baked I was not sure how to put them together. I choose to use some black and white eyelets to finish the holes but didn't want to use a black or white ribbon or cording, I wanted that retro 50's look. After going through my boxes and boxes of findings, I came across this ball key chain, I had purchased them in sizes from very large to very fine. I knew the pendant would work ok with this but was not sure how it would work with the earrings, but I figured it out! I think they came out great, and as one who loves black and white ( as I sit her typing under my zebra shaded lamp with my Dalmatian lying behind me ;) ) I can tell you it looks pretty fine! Very bold, graphic and nostalgic at the same time, but timeless all the same. I hope I get a chance to revisit this theme again, and will be putting this today into my Polka Dot Sandals shop if I can part with it!

One other thing I'd like to share with you is what I did with the set of beads I received from the Bead Swap I participated in with my etsy guild. These green jade beads were made by Jill Palumbo. She is a French and Japanese HS teacher and I asked her to carve something in Japanese into what ever she was making me, (she asked me what I'd like, not knowing we were to keep it secret until sending them, but I was happy to have the chance to get something very unique from this lady who is very versatile with her clay!). So I pondered it a bit, knowing that I would not have this chance again and choose to have the first seven words in the Torah inscribed in Japanese on them. I think she did a wonderful job carving them (she told me she hadn't ventured into this avenue of experimentation with Polymer clay yet and was happy for the chance to give it a try!).

I had no idea what the beads would look like and waited in anticipation for them to arrive. When they did I was thrilled! They were done in a very realistic Jade, carved on one side, Genesis 1:1 and embedded with a flower and butterfly cane on the other. I studied them for awhile wondering how to string these. They are quite large, the center one being about 2", but after looking through my bead collection I think I found the perfect match. I strung these on a steel cable for strength and can't wait to wear them out somewhere! Thank you Jill for such beautiful beads, I will treasure them always!

She tells me that they read from left to right and from top to bottom and basically translated:

When there was yet nothing, God created Heaven and Earth.

Pretty Cool, I think!

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Spring Has Sprung!

The sun is shining , the birds are singing sweetly outside my window, the boy doves are chasing the girl doves around the yard, my neighbors forsythia is in full bloom and there are green wild onions popping up everywhere! My husband even reported he saw 'Phil', our resident groundhog merrily skipping about the back yard on his way to some unknown secret rendezvous. AND I've finally enticed a pair of house wrens to make a nest in the eaves of my back porch so I can watch them with their young and they are both busy getting it ready for the 'blessed event' .

Not only all that but when I wake up each morning and come out of the bedroom a sweet perfume greets me. The first day this happened ( last Thursday) I couldn't understand why the house smelled like perfume as I made one of my nightly trips to the Bathroom. It wasn't until the next day I remembered that DH brought me home from the store a hyacinth, one of my favorite spring flowers, along with gardenias and bouquets of purple iris, red tulips and yellow daffodils. I have a brown thumb with the finicky gardenia (can't keep the house cool enough for them), and all those others weren't in the store yet but I have a hyacinth and every morning its wonderful smell greets me like a friendly spring 'Hello'!

So I know spring is defiantly here and I have something to share with you, a bit of a preview actually. The PCAGOE ( Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) will be having another Scavenger Hunt very soon Called the 'Spring Fling'! And this is the prize I am offering ( I bet you've been wondering what that was up top) :) . Since my Impressionist Field of Poppies cane seems to be so Popular ( especially on my Flicker photo stream) and Cynthia Tinapple of Polymer Clay Daily liked it so much and put it on her blog on the first day of March titling it "Breath of Spring" in her second looks column, I decided to make a pendant from it and offer it as my special prize! This won't be found in my etsy shop because it is just for you, the winner of the prize, whomever that shall be. I will be giving you all the details soon, so check back. I just wanted to give you a chance to see what is waiting in store for you if you are the winner!

Stay tuned for more updates of How, where and when!

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Voting Begins!

Time to cast your vote! Yes, voting is now open until next Tuesday at Midnight EST in the PCAGOE Faux Challenge!

Take a look at all the entries by clicking on the View Slide show " button below.



This month I entered a rather large and entailed piece. It is a game board, that can be used for either checkers or chess, made from imitative turquoise ( my own recipe, stay tuned for an upcoming tutorial I am sharing with you all on how I do this!) and imitative ivory. That is 32 pieces of each! It took me over 70 hours to complete this and I think it is my first and last one!

On the Ivory ones, I have hand carved the letters of the Ancient Paleo, Phoenician, Canaanite, or Hebrew Alef-bet. This one I used, mainly comes from around 700bce and uses some of the letters found on the inscription in Hezekiah's tunnel In Jerusalem. If you have visited my other etsy store AlmostARTifacts you know of my devotion (obsession?) with ancient languages, especially those of the Middle East.

I have mounted the tiles onto a wooden tray that I have pyro engraved and stained. So this is my entry to the challenge, but there are many more and all wonderful pieces! So why not take a moment, go here, look them over and cast your vote! And for your time and comments ( we love comments) you will be entered into a drawing of some cool prizes which you can see here.


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