The Oven Is Working

Following my baking fiasco, today I was extra careful with the oven in its new location. I confirmed the oven temperature with a separate thermometer and checked on my beads every few minutes. The oven is working! Here is the result of my last experiment. Not only these sculpted orchids are white (which is always a challenge to bake without darkening), but they also have tiny delicate parts that are difficult to bake properly as well. I am very happy to report that they baked beautifully and have the purest white color after a full-time baking session.

New Idea!

Funny how an artist's mind works... This morning I woke up, remembered yesterday's burned pendants and decided to see if at least the wire work could be saved. So when my kids got up, they found me digging through the trash. This is not the point, though. The point is that when I removed the wire from my pendants and saw the imprints it left on their surfaces, I immediately thought of filling those imprints with some contrasting clay (not on these pendants, however; I will have to re-create those imprints, with adjusted baking temperature). Now, this is an interesting idea! I am not sure how new it is – I have definitely seen back-filled designs, and may be even some created with wire, not sure. But not in combination with the resin! I cannot wait to try this idea and see how it will turn out. Too bad I did not have time for it today...

Burned!

Tonight I am crying.

I was in a hurry to bake some pendants, and I burned them all. Yeh, I know, it happens to the best of us and we all have to make a sacrifice to our polymer clay gods every so often, but I feel so bad! Why did not I burn some experimental pendants I have been playing with recently? No, it had to be the faux cloisonne ones, including the ones with faces, which take forever to make. There were hours of work in that tray!

I could not force myself to throw this stuff away, even though it is good for nothing now – my husband had to do it for me. He also helped me to set up the oven in our spare bathroom now. I had been baking outside (polymer clay smells a little during baking, especially Kato – the brand I prefer). I hope the oven did not work properly simply because it was too cold outside and not because something happened to it permanently.

Well, lesson learned: use the oven thermometer EVERY TIME.

Eugena's First Squidoo Lens

So, I wrote my first Lens on Squidoo.com – both for altruistic and materialistic purposes. I am glad I found another opportunity to spread the word about polymer clay, which is of course my great passion. I am also hoping that the people who came up with the Squidoo idea (including Seth Godin, whom I respect very much) are right, and this exercise will indeed bring all the good things they promise – such as increased traffic, more Internet exposure, incoming links to my web site, etc.

If you have any experience with this stuff, please come and take a look at my Lens. I will appreciate any constructive criticism.

http://www.squidoo.com/polymer-clay-creations

If you do not what the heck I am talking about – well, come anyway and figure out for yourself. This concept seems pretty interesting, so take a look.

New Tutorial!

I just finished my second tutorial - this time for a set of focal beads made of polymer clay and resin. The beads made this way look really great. They have shiny surfaces and cool three-dimensional designs embedded into the clear resin. The beads are also very lightweight, which is a welcome bonus for anything to be used for making earrings, right?

This tutorial is extremely detailed. It has 37 full-color pictures to illustrate all the basic and optional steps. I also included explanations of possible errors and how to avoid or correct them.

The tutorial is currently available both from my Etsy shop and my web site.

New Earrings

I just finished two pairs of faux cloisonné earrings.

The first pair, Elegia, has a beautiful gradation of color from lilac to purple. This is my first experiment with color gradation as a base for my polymer clay cloisonné focal beads, and I am very pleased with the results. Now I want to try other colors.

The second pair, Mria, is an experiment with different thickness (gauge) of wire. I wanted to try it for a long time. I think this experiment went right as well, and there will be more designs with these elements in the near future. By the way, “Mria” means “A Dream” in Ukranian.

Happy New Year!

I am starting the new year with an updated and cleaned-up website. Here is the page I am the most proud of:

http://www.eugenascreations.com/eugenasgallery.html

It is a sort of a portfolio – a page that shows my most favorite sold pieces. I enjoy designing each of my pendant, necklace, or a set of earrings as much as the process of actually making them. That is why each of my creations is unique and obviously different from the others. When a piece is sold, it is sold together with my thoughts and ideas that led to its creation. Parting with some of my things is particularly difficult, and these are the designs shown on that page.

Recently added items

Necklace Purple Moon, Earrings Purple Moon, Necklace Spread Your Wings, Earrings Spread Your Wings, Necklace Wild Fire, Necklace Peacock Shimmer, Necklace Peony, the Royal Flower, Necklace Midnight Dream, Earrings Midnight Dream, Vase Sculpted Oak, Pendant Forest Secret, Pendant Amber Orchid, Pendant Elven Queen, Green and Gold, Earrings Elven Queen, Green and Gold

Instant Gratification!

My faux cloisonné tutorial for polymer clay is now available for an immediate download from my site:

http://www.eugenascreations.com/t-faux-cloisonne-tutorial.html

Ruby Lane – My New Shop

I spent last week setting up a shop at Ruby Lane. It is an on-line gallery of virtual boutiques selling collectables, jewelry, and fine arts. The site exists since 1998 and has good reputation both with customers and shop owners. They have very strict regulations about which items can be sold through their shops and how they can or cannot be described. It took me extra time and effort to have all the pictures and descriptions done exactly to these specs, but I like the accuracy required by the site. I also like how fast and professionally the site organizers communicated with me so far and all the great tips and advice they shared as soon as I began working on my shop. I am looking forward to having my work displayed through Ruby Lane and hope to reach some new customers through this venue. Wish me luck!

Below is one of my necklaces listed on Ruby Lane and my new shop address:

http://www.RubyLane.com/shops/EugenasCreations

A “No” from Lark Books.

Lark Books returned the slides that I submitted earlier this year to be considered for their new book “500 Resin Objects”. Bummer! Even more – they enclosed a standard letter that does not explain the reason for rejection. I imagine they had lots of jewelry pieces submitted, and mine are not exactly “resin” – they are made using sort of resin in addition to polymer clay, wire, beads, and findings… Still, I really liked the three pieces I suggested for this publication. No wonder two of them were sold very quickly. The third one, a fairy pendant, is still available (hint, hint!).

O well, I will just have to send my pictures to another book, right?

Oak Vase - Finished

Here is the promised picture of my finished oak vase. The vase has been antiqued and re-baked again. I applied some patina to make all the little sculpted details to pop against the darker background. If you want to learn more about this finish (or about lots of other techniques available for polymer clay), please check out my Polymer Clay Glossary:
http://www.eugenascreations.com/polymer-clay-glossary.html



On a side note. I need to get my time organized! Right now, I have no idea how I was able to work full time (and even travel quite often on a job) and still have some jewelry made, photographed, and displayed on my web site. Not to mention all kinds of other projects and activities I had been doing... I thought as soon as I have all this time free from my scientific work, I would make an enormous progress in my sculpting. It has been three weeks since I returned from my trip, but I hardly see any progress at all. True, I cleaned a few places around the house that were allowed to get messy over the last year or two (I knew I would get to them when I quit my job, see), I finished a few sewing and knitting projects... I also made a bunch of new 3D-sculpted pendants with flowers, but it does not show on my web site, does it? I officially promise myself to make regular listing of the new items on my web site my #1 priority. No, actually, #2 priority - after listing both new and existing items in my Etsy shop. I am going to gradually re-stock my shop on Etsy.com over the next month, so please come and visit. I will have some bargains there!

Almost Done!

My sculpted vase is almost finished. The last step is to "antique" it. I shall have the final picture tomorrow.

Sculpted Vase, Oak Tree (continued)

Here is picture #2. The sculpting phase is almost finished. I say “almost” because I may still decide to add or move around a couple of details here and there.

When I started working on it, I thought of big roots to give the vase more support and balance, and the idea of an actual oak tree came later. I think I was influenced by my son re-citing Pushkin’s poem (we teach him Russian):

An oaktree greening by the ocean;
A golden chain about it wound:
Whereon a learned cat, in motion
Both day and night, will walk around;
On walking right, he sings a ditty;
On walking left, he tells a lay.

(English translation by Walter Arndt)

Now I am thinking about adding an actual “golden chain” to make this vase look like the oak tree from the poem… No, I am not going to make a cat to go with it. Viewers will have to use their imagination.

An Oak Tree Vase

A few of my friends asked me what I am working on right now. I decided it is easier to show my work than to describe it with words. Besides, I think it is interesting to see something like this in progress, right?

So, here is my new sculpted vase. Obviously, it is still unfinished. I had been working on it on and off for about a week. It turned out to be more complex and time-consuming than I expected. It is in a shape of an old oak tree, with huge roots and lots of acorns. The roots are climbing over rocks (pieces of Baltic amber) and the acorns are made of fresh-water pearls. I still need to shape and attach the rest of the leaves and acorns, than cure the clay, apply patina, and re-bake the vase. I will show you more pictures of this vase as it progresses.

I am back!

I just came back from my trip to Russia and Ukraine. After being away from my polymer clay for more than a month, I am so full of ideas and cannot wait to start working! Give me a week or two to catch up with a few things, and I will start posting new pictures of my creations. I am also planning to work on the new tutorials. Stay tuned!

Vacation

I will be on vacation and out of country until October 26, 2007. During this time I will not be able to fill out the orders. My Internet access may also be limited. I apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. Please check back in early November. I am planning to add many new items at that time. Thank you.

Sculpted Vases

Next week I am going to Russia and later to Ukraine to visit my sister and parents. Here are a few presents I made for my relatives. To make these vases, I covered glass bases with polymer clay, added hand-sculpted polymer clay leaves and other patterns, antiqued, and adorned with fresh-water pearls, glass beads, amber, and semi-precious stones. These works were inspired by Christi Friesen from CFOriginals.com.

Caribbean Night – Polymer Clay Tile

What a wonderful idea! The Satin Cord people moved to a new studio and decided to embellish one of their tables with polymer clay tiles. Instead of making the tiles themselves, they invited other polymer clay artists to participate. They will be collecting the tiles until the end of the month. Click here to see the details.

And here is my contribution:

Polymer Clay - 100% Now!

So I did it! I am officially a freelance artist now. It is Monday, but I am sitting in my studio and actually working with clay – what can be better?!

Actually quitting my job was really difficult for some reason. It is the step I wanted to take for a long time, I planned for it, and yet closing my company’s door for the last time was almost a torture… I think it is the fear of the unknown. The change is just too drastic for me. Everything I did for the last 25 years was related to chemistry one way or another – I studied it in school, then at the university, I changed specializations, I switched from lab to teaching and back to the lab again, I progressed from a bench worker through a few levels of management, I worked for three different companies over the years, doing different projects – from sleeping aids to cancer drugs to military antidotes… But all of it was within the same field, and every next task was somehow related to my previous professional experience and knowledge. Now I suddenly abandon all of it and jump sideways, into a filed almost completely un-related to anything I have done before.

I think only a few (if any?) people in my office could understand and appreciate this step. I was told lots of good words at my last day, wished luck, etc., but I could see this question in people’s eyes. Why? Why am I leaving a well-paid job with full health benefits, good bonuses, and not too much travel? Some people have clearly decided that I’ve found one of those get-rich-quickly schemes and am planning to make big bucks with my jewelry and teaching activities (which is not true). Others decided that I must have hated my previous job (which is even further from truth). I think those who actually have creative hobbies themselves came closest to understanding my move. Truth is that I have a few notebooks full of sketches and ideas for my jewelry and sculptures, and never enough time to implement at least one tenths of them. Every time I read or hear about new business idea for my jewelry, I get excited much more then when I hear about new projects at work. I even caught myself looking at my co-worker’s tie at a meeting one day and thinking how to re-create this design in polymer clay…

I do not know, maybe I will indeed get tired of polymer clay in a year or two, as some people predict. For now, I just want to give it a try and see what happens…