Feeding your Creativity Friday - One World, One Heart

Bienvenue! Dobro pozhalovat'! Bienvenidos! Benvenuti! Irashaimasu! Merhaba! Foon ying!Huan ying! Velkomen! Brucha haba'a! Bine ati venit! Witaj! Welkumme! Dobrodošli! Tervetuloa! Vítejte!Velkommen! Bonvenon! Tervetuloa! Kalos orisate! Suswaagatam! Benvenuti! Sveika atvykusi!

I'm sorry but the deadline is here! I won't be taking any more comments towards the drawing. I will be drawing the 9 winners later on today and announcing them as soon as possible. Thank you all who visited and participated!

WELCOME! And THANK YOU for stopping by my Blog! I've rolled out the Welcome Mat (my special Magic Carpet!) for old friends and followers and new friends to be from around this great green earth of ours! I am pleased to have stumbled upon the blog of Lisa Swifka, A Whimsical Bohemian, it is a fantastic blog , you must save that link and go back and visit it often. I honestly don't know how I got there, I go through dozens of emails per day and hundreds of websites, especially when writing for my own blog or just looking for something and one link leads to another, but somehow I found this wonderful event. Designed by Lisa in 2007 it is in it's fourth years and each year the participants grows abundantly.


UPDATE!!! I will be taking entries until 6am EST Feb 15th , then I will draw the nine winners and make an announcement later tomorrow morning. Thank you all for visiting me! :)


In a nutshell each participating blog owner is offering a heartfelt giveaway. When you get your ticket you go to the link above and you will see all the participants from around the world listed on the right sidebar. Just click on them and you will be taken to a page on their blog similar to mine. You will see this same poster. Visit them, learn about them a bit and leave a comment and you are entered into their giveaway. All winners will be announced and posted on Feb 15th (unless otherwise noted on individual blogs).

What a wonderful way to draw us closer together? I love it, I am just sorry I didn't know about this back in January when it started, I would have had time to plan better but since it's still open until the 8th I am throwing my blog in to the wonderful mix!

So welcome fellow Bloggers from around the world.

Rules: Very few!
Please leave me a comment so I know you were here and tell me what country you are from! Also please make sure that your icon links back to your blog where your email is listed somewhere so I can contact you if you are a winner! That's all you need to do to be entered into my drawing!

I am sorry to say I don't have a giveaway all prepared, but between now and the drawing date I will make something special just for this occasion, and knowing me, it will be more than one, so we may have many winners! (Please see below for update) For those who are new to my blog I already run a weekly giveaway on Mondays, called Mystery Monday, you can look back through my blog to see what that is about. I also have other weekly features such as:

Team T International Tuesday where I highlight a member of my etsy team which is composed of all kinds of artists and craftsmen/women.

What's New Wednesday - where I let you know what's new with me, my artworks, shops, contests I'm entered into and more. This coming week I will reveal the creation I made with the Beads I received in a huge Bead Soup Party Swap! So if you love beads and Jewelry stop back and see what I and over 80 others have created with our 'Soup'!

Thrifty Thursday I share what I've found in my searches and also from my many emails that will help you stretch your money further so you can have some left over to help others and buy craft supplies! :) Also eco friendly tips!

Feed Your __________ Friday, this day I present something to feed your soul, mind, body or as the case in this post, your creativity and sharing and learning about others. Always something different, and hopefully inspiring for you!

I don't post much on the weekends, time to rest, and regroup, but sometimes I have pre-scheduled posts, or reminders about the Mystery Monday giveaway to get your entry in, or maybe just share with you some of the joys I find outside my window each day with all the wild life in my yard there is always something interesting or amusing going on! So I hope you will enjoy your time here and please come back again, or subscribe to RSS feed or click on the Google button over my followers in the sidebar! Let's not let this be a one time visit, I'd love for you to come again!

Now getting back to the GIVEAWAY.......................
I am currently in a large bead swap which will be revealed next Wednesday so as I finish off my project for that I may also make something special for the giveaway here. I will try and post pictures of them as soon as possible.


Right now we are bracing for a Blizzard, BRRRR, and I haven't had great photography weather but will do so as soon as I can. If you would like to know a bit about my artwork you can visit my shop in the sidebar or my Flickr site for more pics!

I can tell you this, although I am mainly at present an Artist working in Polymer Clay, I also like to do paper art, recycled and re-purposed art, collages, photography, textile art projects and more! So it could be anything! The anticipation makes it more fun, don't you agree? :)

Again Welcome!!! I am so happy to have you visit me and I hope you enjoy your time spent here and will come back soon!

Now get on your magic carpet and ride on out to discover more wonderful blogs!

GIVEAWAY UPDATE! I love it that so many have come to visit me even though I started late. I have been gathering some prizes together and so far have these teasers to offers (no pics I still like the idea of a surprise!) Something green, something heartfelt, something to inspire, something to be creative with, something to wear, something to read, something to share, something for fun AND something to listen too!

Ok, I couldn't resist, must post some teasers for you. Some of these are prizes, others may be components I may use to make you something with. I'd love to tailor each prize to the winner drawn so these may change.




That's right, one prize for each day I have been on the ride!

How's that to peak your interest? :)

Again, thanks to Lisa for organizing this fantastic event!

8009

Organic Odysseys meets Pointy Paws

One day while shopping on etsy ,(I think I was browsing using the Time Machine 2) I saw this SS ring base come up. I have been working on a ring inventory of late and have only been using distressed copper bases but I had wanted to start acquiring some Sterling Silver ones for the more distinguished buyer and also so that they can wear my rings longer. This one looked interesting, simple but elegant and the price was good. So I clicked and decided to buy it. Normally I check out the seller first but I didn't this time, not until I had made the final purchase. Then I looked and saw that they sold these items to help raise money for rescued animals.

Now I have always loved animals and was taught at a very young age by my Grandfather to love and respect them and to appreciate all they had to offer. I remember at age 6 or 7 walking around my grandfathers property one day and coming upon a fallen bird. I didn't know what it was, but I remember I cried upon seeing it and realizing it was dead. I went to find Grandfather and told him about it and that I wanted to bury it. He got me a shoebox and dug a hole. Meanwhile I had placed the bird on a piece of old rag my Grandmother had given me for it and closed the box and placed it in the ground. Grandfather covered it over and I think he thought that was the end of it, but it wasn't, I wanted a head stone! So he got a scrap piece of wood and gave me some paint and I asked him what kind of bird it was, and he told me, 'A Grackle'. So I asked him how to spell it and then painted on the little piece of wood 'A Grackle'. That was the first and last animal I ever buried, after that it was too emotional for me and I always got one of the men in the family to do it for me, when one of our animals had to be put down, I couldn't possibly go, it was too heartbreaking.

Ever since then though I have taken in strays,and injured animals, they just seemed to find me somehow, be it dogs, kittens ( I once found a kitten locked in a pay toilet at a gas station and had to take it home!) squirrels ( raised two at different times that had fallen from the nest), an Opossom ( took to the local animal wildlife shelter) and all kinds of birds that needed some rescue that I'd released,asap. One time a mother woodpecker had taken her brood out to teach them how to hunt. They had found our dogs little pool that was back near the woods and had a bit of water in it and I guess were having a bath or drink. Next thing I knew I saw one of them struggling and the rest flew off. I went out to rescue a baby woodpecker that was thoroughly soaked. I picked it up gently with a washcloth and brought it inside. There I placed it on a towel on the bottom of a cage I kept just for that purpose and placed it on the floor. Then I stood above it with a hair dryer on low, careful to move it around so it wouldn't get too hot and after a few minutes his feathers soon dried. It was very close to sundown so I hurried out side to put him back near the pool and hoped he would know the way home!

So you can see I have raised many an orphan and have a deep love for all Gods creatures. That is why I was so interested to read the announcement at this etsy shop.

100% of the revenue from our sales goes to rescue and shelter discarded, stray and broken animals.

I had to go and look around to see what else I could buy from this seller, just to help the animals out. And happily I shopped , finding many things I thought I could use with my organic pieces to make some very nice jewelry. I convoed the woman and asked if it were too late to combine shipping since I had already completed the other order, and she graciously told me no it wasn't.

Within a short while I received a package in the mail and opened it. The first thing I saw was some crumbled paper ( more like crinkled from being wet) and what looked like some leaves sticking out from it. What in the world?? I thought. I pulled out the paper and also noticed some odd looking boxes in there. What did I order? I had three other packages sitting besides me so it wasn't' just this I was waiting for in the mail. I opened the folded two sheets of paper and began to read.


First the woman thanked me for my order and for helping the animals out, then she proceeded to tell me that she had taken a look around my store, ( I love that!) and then while she was on her way out to gather up what I had ordered ( I assumed she had a workshop outside the main house) she got to thinking how we lived in different parts of the country and that maybe I didn't have some of the plant life where I live that she did. So in the rain she stopped to pick off some leaves and seed pods and put them in the letter and a little box for the Morning glory seed pods and sent it off to me along with some bonus bags of wonderment ( beautiful beads and other goodies).

Now that was last week and I haven't been feeling too well recently, my heart is doing it's odd thing again so I haven't been able to get to this as soon as I wanted. But I was so touched by her generosity, and thoughtfulness I just had to reciprocate, for the animals.

So the very next day I made some molds and also impressions in some clay. I really had no idea what I'd be making, but I was sure something would come to me. I haven't finished them completely, but I wanted to show what I have done so I can get thanking this woman properly!

Here are the molds and an impression of one of the large green leaves, that I believe if I understood her correctly, Live Oak.
I finally got around to working on them and have made bas relief pieces from the molds such as the one from the top of the picture with the black dots, these are actually morning glory seeds embedded into the clay and then I later removed them. From this mold I have made a very special button for someone to use on a very special garment I think. The mold to the right of that is of the Morning glory seed pod. The way it impressed it looks to me like a strange outer-space man just crossing the finish line and breaking through the end of race ribbon!

The one right below it is the little cap on top of the seed pod and the one below that is a smaller Live Oak leaf. This one here you see in brown clay, I added a backing to it and filigree texture and made this pendant.


Isn't it beautiful? I will add findings to it and make it into a necklace. It looks like antique brown leather set in an old bronze metal aged setting.

I seemed to like the shape of these Oak leaves, I remember, but it's been awhile, being in the South, and seeing many majestic Live Oaks, with the Spanish Moss hanging off of them. These are huge , stately trees and are also not like Northern Oaks, which I am surrounded by, but the Live oak is an evergreen. I sure would like that, we just spent the best part of two days cleaning up all the leaves from our dozens of oaks!

So I had to make something else. Remember the other mold, with the oak leaf? It looked kinda ruffled? I decided to make a bead with this, different than others I've made. I made a base bead first from the newer clay that is very light, so light it floats, and this bead does float, I tried it out! anyway, I made the base bead and baked it, then I impressed some sage green clay into the leaf mold leaving plenty of clay on each side. Then I carefully and I mean carefully, wrapped it around the base bead, careful to smooth it so there were no air bubbles, and cut away the excess clay then smoothed the seams together.
It looked nice, but rather plain. So I decided to give it a little lift. With my needle tool I carefully went around the leaf, impressing a tiny hole each time. As I got to the edges I had to be more careful that each press of the tool did not smash the leaf on the other side.




I finished it off by making tendril type branches to simulate the Spanish Moss. After baking again, I finished it by sanding, then painting with various colors of paint, sanding, baking and then sanding and then finally buffing it. I think it came out very nice. It looks to me like a natural clay bead done in earthy glazes. I will also be making a pendant from this one, it is different than anything else I've done before and that is one of the exciting things that come from a loving heart with a surprise like this! New and exciting discoveries!

I hope I am not boring you yet, I want to show you a couple more things I've made. Here is the little Morning Glory cap, it reminds me of tomato caps and if you have been to my store you have probably seen my tomato bracelet that highlights many different tomato caps, each has it's own personality.I have done this one in a Tuscan Wall finish, it reminds me of the stucco walls in Tuscany, yellowed with age. Yes, this will be another pendant, a more delicate one than the last.

But this one here will be a brooch, one that reminds me of Wedgewood and old cameos at the same time. It is done in a denim clay and highlighted in white. It reminds me of Close Encounters of the third kind, the little men against the bright white light! This will have a border added to it and then a pin back. It should be quite the conversation piece!










Oh! Remember that white circle of clay with the black dots I told you were Mourning Glory Seeds? That is the button I made at the top of this blog entry, isn't it handsome?

I hope to be listing all these come this Friday, yes, Black Friday and I will also be having a shop wide Free shipping offer as well as a free gift tag/ornament with each purchase. So be sure to stop by, OH, and did I mention, all the proceeds from these pieces pictured here will go to my Local Animal Shelter, I'm sure, this time of year especially they will need all the help they can get, so see if you can't help out but purchasing one of these unique items. And thanks again to Nita, of PointyPaws.etsy.com ! And please visit her shop and see if you can't help out there too! I think Nita is the nicest, most personable person I've met so far on etsy ( besides my friend ellaluna) and I'm sure anyone that does business with her will agree!