Red

These are the most beautiful flowers and add a light to my life. The red is brilliant.

Geranium

And... my gophers don't eat them (crossing fingers). They will even eat the garlic, just not as often. They LOVE roses and they have taken down a full grown apricot tree after (thank goodness) the first full crop. The apricots were some of the best I have ever eaten, which made it so hard to lose the tree.

One year they undermined the road (dug a hole under the road) and a big rain came and washed through the whole and washed out part of the road, when the rain was over there was a hole on the side of the road I could stand in. I am short, but it still came up to my thighs.

So I now spend time trying to find things that they won't eat. I also plant in chicken wire baskets that I make but that is no guarantee either. I drill holes in Cat litter buckets and plant in those, not so good for the bigger things though. But they don't go through those either. The buckets will also break down in a few years from the sun out here and have to be replaced. They have to be watered and fertilized more often also.

I get a perverse thrill after watering and seeing the mounds of dirt around the bucket and the plant still there. You know the movie with Bill Murray , Caddyshack ,that is real.

That's how I ended up with the huge crop of garlic I have. The gopher would dig a hole, and I would stuff a clove of garlic down there, LOL! We even have cloves of garlic in the little pathways. These don't get watered often.

It only worked for a bit and then he started on the tops of the garlic. He comes out of the ground for those. I believe the bulbs are still there, because the shoots will start again. You know the cartoons of the whole plant going into the ground a lit at a time, bit by bit, that is real people, I have seen it.

Green is green in my opinion and even if it is garlic, it is beautiful to me in the summer here. But those red flowers are divine.

Luck of the Irish?

Marie Segal 2009
Is it only the Irish who have luck or can it be for all? I think that jewelry that expresses intent helps me focus on a thought to attract more of that to me. And as my wonderful mother in law always says “It couldn’t hurt!”
So on this auspicious holiday make this dapper piece that encourages you or the lucky recipient you gift it to, to focus on the LUCKY instead of the something less desirable.
Not only are you activating the law of attraction, you are having fun and learning a new technique that will add to the body of skills you need to be an accomplished Indie crafter and artisan.
Oh and a tiny bit of the green may save you from getting pinched and that is very lucky!

All of the products below with code # can be found at my husbands on line craft store http://www.clayfactory.net/
Cernit clay in black CG-025 and green CG-018 (http://www.clayfactory.net/cernit/cernitg1.html)
Lumiere in Pearl Emerald green-572 (http://www.clayfactory.net/jacquard/lum.html)
Necklace finding- decorative swirl, DECO1 (http://www.clayfactory.net/misc/miscstuff.htm)

Small round turquoise flat back glass cabochon (http://www.clayfactory.net/misc/miscstuff.htm)
Rattail satin cording 2mm in green
Piece of screen, lace, un-mounted stamp or anything else with a soft hand for texturing
Ultimate Clay Machine (M35054) http://www.clayfactory.net/makins/makinsprotools.htm
Scalpel (SCP) or Craft blade
3/8” heart cutter (APC3H) http://www.clayfactory.net/kempertools/pages/patcut.htm
Crafter’s Pick “The Ultimate” glue
Word Mold (from previous blog post, making word molds)
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2008/09/making-word-molds.html
#2 pencil with brand new eraser
½” round stencil brush
Paper towel or old towel
Making the pendant
Prepare the pendant with glue and let dry till the glue is clear.
This glue will bake in the oven with out any problems and is not the same as using regular white glue for this purpose.
Make the LUCKY word mold http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2008/09/making-word-molds.html

Condition the black clay until it is a smooth consistency and roll out in the clay machine on the 4th thickest setting.
Use the finding to gently mark the clay for the size of the inside of the bezel. Do not press all the way down to cut it or the glue will stick to the clay. You can also do this step first if you wish.

Use the scalpel to cut around the marked area, slightly inside the deep line. Hold scalple straight up and down vertically to cut.





Place the cut out oval into the opening and center before gently pressing in to place.

With a piece of screen or a rubber stamp or some other texture press the black clay all the way into the area.



Condition and roll out the green clay on the 4th thickest setting in the clay machine. Use the 3/8” pattern cutter to cut out a heart shape and place the cutter on the black textured clay and pull back the cutter really fast to get the clay heart to release on to the black clay. Sometimes this will not work, you do have to practice at this and if it doesn’t work cut out the hearts and turn the hearts over and place on the black clay to prevent the indentation from the plunger from being on the front of your design.

Before you place all of the hearts on the black clay in the shape of a shamrock, cut out one of the green hearts and roll in to a ball and then roll in to an elongated cone about ¾” to 1” and place the point of it towards the middle of all of the points of the hearts.

Now place on the last heart from the cutter.
Then mark all of the hearts with the back (thickest side of the blade) of the scalpel blade. A couple or three lines in each one will be fine and I also like to vary the length of the lines.

Cut out another green heart and roll it in to a ball and place in the center of the shamrock where all of the points meet and gently press down but not smash in place.
Add a tiny, tiny bit of glue to the back of the stone and let dry. If the glue is wet it will slide on top of the clay.
Add the small turquoise cabochon to the top of the ball and use the pencil eraser to push the cabochon all the way in to the green ball of clay. I find that when I am using the pencil eraser as a “stone pusher” it is best to hold the pencil straight up and down vertically to the stone.
Condition and roll out a small ¼” coil of black clay.
Place the coil end in one end of the LUCKY mold and lay the coil across the rest of the word mold.
Do not cut off but press the clay coil in to the mold.
Use what is left of the coil as a tab to pull the molded word out.


Cut off the rest of the coil right next to the word.





Curve the LUCKY word banner a little in an arc and place a tiny, tiny bit of glue on the back of the banner. Place on the top of the oval, a little on the bezel and a little on the clay.
Bake in a preheated 275 degree oven for one half hour shut off the oven and let cool to touch before removing.
When completely cool use the stencil brush to punch in the green Lumiere paint on to the pendant metal and the clay. With a damp not wet towel or paper towel wipe off the excess paint from the clay and the finding.

Cut the length of rattail or ribbon that you are going to use and thread through the jump ring to finish the necklace. I also add a very small amount of glue to the ends of the rattail to prevent it from unraveling. You can also do this with the green Lumiere paint, just dip the end in to the jar and let dry.

Marie Segal
PO BOX 460598
Escondido, CA 92046
760-741-3242
marie@mariesegal.com
marie@clayfactory.net

http://www.mariesegal.com/
http://www.mariesegal.blogspot.com/
http://www.clayfactory.net/
Here are some other wonderful uses for these pendants.



Kathy Davis http://www.kathndolls.com/

Dawn Schiller http://www.oddfae.com/

And myself