Category Archives: easy project

Freebies

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Happy Monday . . .quick, think of something you’re looking forward to today! Even if it’s cold and drizzly out there, remember what that great guru, Dr. Seuss, said, “Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.” And speaking of winners, the Friday Freebie Scent Shard goes to Terri Reyna – thanks Terri, for subscribing to SHARDS. Let me know how you’d like to claim your prize. Thanks, everyone, for subscribing, and in the spirit of the season, I’ll be giving away another Scent Shard this coming Friday. Yay!

xmaswrapHere’s another Freebie for everyone – remember the gift tags I posted last year? Go to that link if you’d like to print them out for your packages. I’m wrapping gifts in sheets of newsprint (the plain kind) this year. Plain newsprint is cheap and very biodegradable. I get mine from ULine and use it for all kinds of stuff at the Studio. I found some ivory ribbon at Costco, and with the gift tags and some leaves and feathers and such, the packages look great.. Bye for now, there’s fun to be done!

Air-dry clay

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If you read the Studio newsletter today, you’ll know that there’s a whole lot going on in September – if you missed it, click this link. But I’ve had some time to plan a new workshop on an alternative way to make shards and adornments even if you don’t have a kiln. Sherrill Kahn got me thinking about this (Hi, Sherrill!), and you know I’ve been playing with molding compound. Well, I’ve discovered that you can make molds with air dry clay which, with a few tricks, work just about as well as fired clay. Look at this photo and see if you can tell which ones are air-dry and which ones are fired.P1090280

It’s not easy to tell – and I used some air-dried clay buttons on the piece that I submitted to the juried FASA show (below). You can see how nice they look with an iridescent finish. So sign up for the October 15th workshop and learn how to do this stuff! TGIF, y’all . . . .

buttons

 

No-Fire Shard Faces – a how-to freebie

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So you can’t come to the workshop this afternoon? Darn! Well, never fear – here’s a how-to freebie on making your own shard faces and adornments at your own place of creative belonging. No kiln needed because this project uses air-dry clay, lightweight and inexpensive. I’m going to demo this process at the workshop this afternoon although we will be using actual earthenware clay today. But this is a fun option to try at home (yes, you can try this at home). Here are some how-to step-by-step photos. And if you click this link, you’ll get a printable one-page list of materials and directions. Happy molding! That sounds weird. Happy creating beautiful one-of-a-kind clay objects of delight!!

 

Hot Tip and a Friday Freebie on Saturday

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I’ll make this quick – I’ve been working on my website and if I spend any more time at this dang computer, well . .it won’t be pretty. But the site looks better. You can actually find workshop info (and I scheduled another Earthshard session by request on August 25th). Anyway, here’s the Hot Tip from my friend Barb at Ann Pearce’s. If you use Altoid tins for stuff, like I do for Spirit Boxes, you can fire up the barbie and put them on the grill. It burns off the paint and leaves them nice and shiny, kind of a patina black. Works great! Thanks, Barb. Now . . . look carefully at that fine golden rooster pendant on the newly-blackened box – he’s the Friday Freebie! If you are a subscriber to this blog, SHARDS, you’ll be in the drawing for him. Sunday night’s the deadline.

Whoopee – off to the Studio – happiness is this computer in my rear view mirror!

altoids

Friday Freebie – Pocket Pendant pattern

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Last night I hosted a group of long-time Herb Society friends at the Studio. I wanted to have a project for them that was easy, fun and useful, and not too labor intensive, so I chose Pocket Pendants. These are pretty little folded paper adornments to wear or hang from a twig or give as a small gift. Soooooo – your Friday Freebie is a pattern to make a Pocket Pendant for yourself. You can find it at this link on my website – cut it out, add stuff, and voila! Functional art! The pictures, below, will give you ideas – my friends did a fantastic job on their projects. They are good cooks, too – they brought food for a pre-workshop potluck supper. Yum. The plantains with brown sugar were particularly yummy. Thanks, Y’All!