Chag Sameach Purim!

Once again, they tried to kill us , G-d Saved us, lets Party!

In honor of the holiday, all items in the Purim section of my AlmostARTifacts shop have free shipping!

Also this beautiful necklace, (fit for a Queen) with an ancient scroll bead along with the separate listing of matching bracelet and earrings is the special for this month. If you buy both, not only do you get free shipping, but also free gift wrapping and $6.00 off the set! Go take a look at my selection of Purim gifts. There are 13 in All! ;)

Ancient Ways - Purim's coming soon! Thank you Esther!

I know you are used to reading Organic Odysseys news here but did you know I have another store? Yes, it's called AlmostARTifacts. I have been facinated with ancient things for practically all my life. I love going to museums and also libraries and now online to see antiquities from times past. Not long ago I was doing some looking around on the internet seeing what I could find out about any antiquities or artifacts from Esthers time.

I came across this section of the Megillah ( Hebrew for Scroll of Esther) that was written on Papyrus in Ancient Greek, found in an Egyptian dump. All the scrolls found there are called the Oxyrhynchos scrolls. This particular fragment I saw was missing many letters but many could still be read. This inspired me to try to make different pieces using this fragile piece of history. I have tried to come up with different items rendering them in a faux ivory and bone, ebony and onyx, and antiqued to look as if these could have been found alongside the papyrus.
Purim will be here in a few days. We are told in the book of Esther that through all our generations we are to remember and celebrate this time when Esther saved her people from the evil Haman.

You can find all these in my other store, AlmostARTifacts and right now until the end of March the shipping is free on all Purim section items. Take a look and let me know what you think, I love comments!

Bead-azzled!

Lately I've been rearranging the studio and thus going through all my materials (and this includes all my findings and beads for making jewelry from my polymer clay components). Beads were one of the first things I'd tried making ( after buttons) when exploring polymer clay years back and I did a bit of experimentation. I really don't lean towards the shiny or the 'bling' type beads, I prefer instead more earthy, natural and irregular to shiny, bejeweled and perfectly matched. So some of my favorites have been imitations of what one would find in nature and drill a hole in it to make a bead.

Beads are one of the oldest forms of self ornamentation on our planets. The newest discovery of ancient beads that I am aware of are made of Nassarius shells with holes drilled in them and estimated to be 75,000 years old, found in a cave in Africa. As you can see, beads have certainly stood the test of time and we are still adoring them.


But lately some more glamorous beads have been catching my eye. Such as those by Cyndie of BreathtakingBeadzz. Cyndie makes beautiful millefiore beads and then uses them to make all kinds of small treasures so you can take this wonderland of floral bouquets with you wherever you go. Check out her shop to see key chains, cell phone charms, earrings, focal beads, pens, bookmarks, and more. She has hundreds to choose from so you are sure to find something for yourself or a gift or both! You can find her canes for sale there in florals, butterflies,bees, hummingbirds, dragonflies, ladybugs etc if you ambitious enough to want to try to decorate something yourself with them. She also has a whole rainbow of Swarovski crystals to match with her stunning beads, so you can design your own piece. That's one of my favorites there, with butterfly's and colorful leaves.


Here's a new shop I've discovered called CreativeSpiritToo . She offers some very colorful beads and focals that are totally different, very artistic, modernistic and impressionistic! Many of the master painters must be her inspiration because I can see many of them echoing from the past in her modern renditions.

I love these beads, I think they would make a stunning pair of earrings, perhaps paired with some Lapis Lazuli? I think they would go with just about anything, especially anything denim. I might just have to snag these for myself, as of late I have been trying to collect little bits and pieces of other polymer clay artists work, just to put into my studio, and be surrounded by them, if not in body, but in spirit.


And finally, last but certainly not least in my beading quest, one of my favorite all time bead makers, who is a Bead Star in her own right, Valerie Aharoni who makes the most interesting lentil beads I've ever seen. I still can't figure out her secret on some of these, all I can say is that they are entrancing, they make you want to look at them and study them for hours, even if you don't figure out how she did it! Take for instance this faux bois Lentil, I love the colors and the texture is amazing. Very organic and peaceful to look at, and would make a stunning focal bead paired with even the simplest of companion beads. Valerie's style is different than any other polymer clay bead artists I've ever seen and I'm so glad to have discovered her shop and the great talent that lies within.


Her shop is called , VAharoni and is full of wonderful beads, and most recently of bead sets that you can buy and use to make her award winning necklace that was shown on the front page of Bead Star magazine, a new magazine that features only Prize winning beaded jewelry. Valerie took first place and one look through her shop will show you why.

She has been very busy making many bead sets in a whole rainbow of colors just so others, perhaps you? can duplicate this intriguing, but fairly simple ( once you have her beads) necklace. The directions can be found in the Bead Star magazine and are very easy to follow, even for someone like me who has only made a half dozen beaded projects in her life!

I have collected a couple of Valerie's bracelets, but am thinking I really need to add one or two or more of her delicious beads to my collection and maybe get up the nerve one day to do it justice in my own jewelry piece!

To lie sometimes on the grass.......

Got a message today about a treasury, went to see, glad I did. I sooooo long for Spring. We didn't get the predicted huge amount of snow last night but it's still so cold out there and all white!

I love this green! Just had to share! Love the title too:

"To lie sometimes on the grass, Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, Grow, Grow........."

My Corn leaf and kernels vase. ( click on poster to go see at etsy) I love the texture on this, the leaves are rather hairy and when impressed into the clay they leave a fuzzy look with a very distinct double rib down the center. And each kernel is different even though when you eat a cob of corn you don't notice, when you sculpt them from real live corn you do. :)

Happy Green Month!

( Oh, BTW, in my shop, I am offering 25%, yes, 25% off anything green in there for the whole month of March, so you in the mood for some green but needing to save some as well? Stop on by soon.) Check out the announcement in my shop here OrganicOdysseys.etsy.com

Time to Vote Again!

Impressionist Field of Poppies

Yes, this time its Canework. That's right the PCAGOE ( Polymer Clay Artist Guild of Etsy) challenge this month was to make either a cane or canes or to make something from them. If you aren't familiar with a cane, outside what dapper gentlemen from old Hollywood movies would spin and dance around, it is a term also used in glass making. Take a look here for a more in-depth description and pictures of the glass. Polymer clay artists have found that many other artistic mediums can be duplicated with the clay, it is that versatile and glass cane work is also not only possible but can be made to fool many eyes.

I never really got into making canes, a few years back when trying different techniques with the medium I made a few checkerboard canes, and a leaf cane or two but they never quite came out right and I think I still even have some, or tossed them in my scrap clay pile. I wasn't going to try for this challenge, but then I remembered, it was a challenge and I challenged myself to try again.

I didn't want to try anything I'd seen in books , wanting instead to find this technique for myself. I looked around for inspiration and came across a tutorial by Cynthia Tinapple on youtube where she demonstrated how to do a face cane. I remembered seeing something similar from thousands of years ago, the Romans would make these kinds of canes. Right now you can actually see a set for sale on ebay, going for over $6,000. So I wanted to make a cane like this. Wasn't too sure about how to go about it so just went in with abandon. I think it came out close to the vision I had and like the sketch I had drawn out, but the important thing was I had fun!


I wasn't sure what to do with it when I was done, so I finally decided on a pendant. I had some greens I had mixed left over so I made an impromptu skinner blend with the five greens and made my first blended bead strand from them.

I'd like to keep this first one for myself, but have put it up in my shop to take orders. They won't be exactly like pictured, but that is the beauty of the cane, especially doing the technique I came up with of adding extra elements leftover from making the leaves and poppies to give a 3-D look. I may also offer brooches, and maybe reduce it to make earrings, so this is cool, you get more to play with after all that work to make the cane.

Don't forget, to go and vote at the PCAGOE.com site, because you aren't just voting, you are entering to win some really cool prizes ( and one is by yours truly, the green and copper necklace), so hop on over there and place your vote, I know it won't be easy because they are all so wonderful! Click on poster at right to take you there to vote! Have fun, and hope you win!

It's funny how in a round about way, Cynthia inspired me to make my cane. When I checked out her blog today, Polymer Clay Daily, and read her side column where she posts links to artists she has featured in the past and calls it 'Second Looks', I noticed one titled " A fresh Breath of Spring". There was no name attached, so I clicked, especially since we are getting what has been called a Mega Monday Winter storm ( some have gotten over a foot of snow today), I could use a Breath of spring, my favorite time of year. Imagine my surprise when the link lead here. Thank you Cynthia!