Funny faces

OK, OK, I am still stuck on this faces thing. With the vampire and my grandmother down, I was itching to do more. You can read about them here.

Now, I have these guys.

I used suntan Cernit and decorating chalks and then antiqued with Neo-opaque Brown my all time favorite antiquing medium.

Since I have to make jewelry, I thought why not put them in the copper findings I make.

This is what I usually do with them.

I love Dawn Schillers Oddfae in findings.

I would love to be as good as her, but I know that practice will make perfect or a least better and I am inspired by her work. Viktor is one of my favorite pieces and we did it together. I did not do the face.

She helped me get back in to the sculpting thing after not doing any for a very long time. Her encouragement and gentle hand brought things back long buried.

That was at the last Sandy Camp, she did a couple of impromptu classes.

I enjoyed playing with the Cernit for sculpting more than any of the polymer clays I have ever worked with. It sort of just sculpted itself. I love the way it comes out after baking it.

This is what I did then.

I call him Snakeman and he is one of my all time favorite coneheads. LOL!! He is my only conehead.

Thank you Dawn! I am having so much fun!

Getting small

This is walking to the stand of flowers.

I like to get small and with a camera that is very easy to do.
I love to focus on the small aspects of life, the textures, and the subtle colors.
I love to use the pictures as components of my digital collages.
I was driving down the road the other day and there is a place where the volunteer honeysuckle is prolific and it is like walking or driving into a perfume shop. It is probably 30 feet long and 10 feet high.

The window was down and I got a whiff.

There is a smudge on my lens, I love this picture.

I have lived here for years and no one planted these, but my grandmother had some on the side of her house ages ago.

Smudge still there.

We get tons of things that grow from seed, from birds that sit on the wires and defecate. LOL!!!From piles of dung grow beautiful things.
I went back to the same spot with my camera and started taking photos of the area.
Smell-o-vision would be wonderful now.
But if you have ever been in a place where there is a ton of this flower it will bring back the fondness and the feel.
In smaller amounts of these flowers, I don't remember the fragrance being this strong.

I figured it out, I can see clearly now the smudge is gone!!!

This is a very close to the road. Eucalyptus seeds.

This is a flower (weed) in the hump in the middle of the road. It is about a 1/4" in diameter.

Please do not worry

I am going to be away from this blog and do not know if I will have access while I am gone. I do not want you to worry, you will be added to the giveaway, if you comment, when I get back.
You will see it as soon as I get back. Do not post a 1000 times ;-O, I have comment approval and I will be deleting all duplicates in the final tally anyway.

Here is a link.

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2009/05/1st-giveaway-thank-you-thank-you-thank.html

There is also a right hand side link under the title Giveaway page.

I am fine, I am in West Virginia playing and sharing at the Polymer clay and mixed media retreat.


You should be there.
I hope you all have a beautiful and magical week.
Love and hugs,
Marie

I love this picture

I love this picture.

1. Howard is playing farmer.

2.Last year the neighbor did this for us,because Howard couldn't.

3. The birds follow him behind the tractor grabbing the bugs. Some fly around. The ravens walk behind.

4. I am grateful.

I have been tagged! Twice!

Well, I have been tagged by the hostess with the mostess Jodi "doll artist extraordinaire" Creager, be sure and visit her, her husband Richard and their family of creations at Creager Studios, you will be glad you visited. A sense of humor, a unique insight on life, and the ability to convey it all in words are just a few of her many assets.

Sorry it took me so long Jodi!!

I have also been tagged by Brittany at Papermoonies

She is a talented, funny, and great walking partner!!

I had already listed her in my tagging, but she beat me to it by tagging me first. Does that nullify the tag? Oh good, I am so glad it does O-:

I shouldn't have waited so long.

And I am going to tag her!

I am also going to do what Jodi Creager did on her last tag and let the tagees come and do it or not do it. I know you are all so busy and have life to do too!!!

I love you all!

If you don't go to these blogs my dear readers, you will be the one that loses. You will willing deprive your self of some wisdom, some talent, and some wonderful human beings.

These are the rules for the 'Tag'
1)Name and link back to the person who tagged you.
2)List six things 6 (un) important things that make you happy.
3)Tag 6 bloggers and let them know they're it by leaving them a comment on their blog.So here goes...

1.) My family and my new granddaughter Madisyn. When she smiles my heart just melts.

2.) My friends, who are really family, especially the nuns!

3.) My mind and how well it works most of the time.

4.) Realizing that my life is very good and I have everything I need.

5.) When ideas in my head come out of my hands the way I see them in my head.

6.) Learning something old.

These are a few of my favorite things... and then I don't feel sooooooooooooooooooo bad.

Now...Bloggers that I am gonna chase and TAG.......

Bring some popcorn, a cuppa, woman's or man's traveler companion, and maybe even a Kleenex.

You will be glad you took the time to visit all of them.

Brittany at

http://papermoonies.blogspot.com/

Cindy at

http://oopsdesperateblogger.blogspot.com/

Cassy at

http://cassymuronaka.wordpress.com/

Renee at

Http://circlingmyhead.blogspot.com/

Ces at

http://cesandherdishes.blogspot.com/

Bella at

http://bellasinclair.blogspot.com/

Annie at

http://anniesbeadworld.com/

Where there are no chickadees at

http://underthetonguerecipes.blogspot.com/

Lynda at

http://claymama1.blogspot.com/

CK at

http://designsbyck.blogspot.com/

Dawn at

http://oddfae.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth at

http://ginagal.blogspot.com/

Nature is the best artist

When I am looking for inspiration for color palettes, I go to my yard.

This is a Special Cactus; it was given to me by my friends, Irene and Lee before they moved to Kansas.

I miss them dearly! It is one of those things that we all do, get close right before someone moves. Or when they get sick…or before they die.
Note to myself, “live and love now, no regrets later”.
Anyhow, they lived near the beach, I don’t. I knew the cactus would like it here, cacti like it hot.
It is coloring up very nicely. Now it is flowering.
It was just as beautiful at their house but a lot lighter.
It reminds me of good times and good friends and it has a great color palette to play with. Don’t you agree?

Piñata Ink on Opaque White

I also love the way the Piñata ink looks on the Opaque White Cernit.
The Opaque White is what I call a Ice white or White White. It is very white and even after baking stays quite white. I just love this.
So when I apply the Piñatas to the surface of this very white clay the colors stay vibrant and very true to what they are out of the bottle. They are not muddied up by a muddy white color.
Here is the tile baked (on the left) and raw clay (on the right) so you can see the darkening of the colors that I was talking about in the previous post.


This is a technique that I just love where you are using sheets of the Opaque white and coloring them with the Piñata ink on the surface. All of those sheets are stacked and rolled through the pasta machine several times and then stacked and cut with a ripple blade. And best of all it is a rainbow ripple, YAY!!! I love rainbows. Any way… I digress.
Each side of the slice will be very different from the next.
This is a version of Mokume Gane that uses a distorted blade instead of distorting the stack.