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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

My Tutorial is now online!!


Well my tutorial is now online!! Only it's not here, it's been posted on the newsletter over at a group I belong to, the PCAGOE. Here is the address http://pcagoe.com/ . So go there to check it out. Maybe next month, when they change the newsletter, I will post it here as well. The tutorial is for the hollow beads that I have been making so many of lately, well at least one of the ways that I make them anyway. I mean, who doesn't want another tutorial in their stash? I print out everyone that I can find. I put them in a notebook out in the studio, and I actually use them sometimes too! Anyway, it was the first time that I have ever attempted anything like that, and I think that it came out okay. Some of the pictures were a little blurry, but overall, it came out alright. So if you'd like to check it out, then please do! You can see a picture of some of the bracelets that I have been making below in a previous post. I will show you a picture here of one of the most recent ones that I have made. Have fun and I'll post soon again. I don't know if anyone out there is even reading this darn blog. But on the off chance that maybe one person is reading this, I thought I'd let you know! Thanks,

Sally

Friday, April 25, 2008

Sparkling Teapots!




Okay so I decided to combine 2 of the things that I like to make. Fried Marbles and Teapots! So now, I have Sparkling Teapots! What do you think? I think I like them. Those little marbles really sparkle, don't they? I told myself that starting this week, I would try to be more disciplined where this blog is concerned. Guess I didn't make it. I got real busy in the studio. Trying to get my inventory built up for my big show in May. I'll post some pics next week. So stay tuned and thanks for checking in!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Featured on a Blog!!

Gosh, I'm so excited. Susan, a woman who has an etsy shop, and a blog (http://www.capitolagirl.com/) just wrote to me and asked if she could feature my fried marble necklaces on her blog on Saturday. Every Saturday she does a special feature called "Saturday Sparkle" in where she features a particular artist who she thinks is doing special work in bringing more sparkle into womens lives with their jewelry design. And she picked my necklaces to be featured this Saturday! How cool is that?? I'm very flattered. Mostly because I really admire her work as a jewelry designer, and her sense of style. and she also writes a pretty good blog! So anyway, go to the link above on Saturday April 19th to check it out! Actually try to go to her blog more often because, unlike me, she updates her blog daily!! How does she find the time! So that's my big news of the day!! Catch ya later!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

My Other Obsession


The picture at the right shows my other obsession, fried marbles. I just love to hand wrap one of these pretty marbles with some sterling silver wire to make a one of a kind pendant or necklace. I purchase them in 2 different sizes. The larger marbles are 11-13 mm in size and the smaller peewee sized marbles measure 9-11 mm. The peewee sized marbles are great gifts for nieces, cousins, or any younger girl, and they are really very pretty. The way that the marble fractures, really makes them sparkle. I sell them at my etsy shop which is http://www.SilverGate.etsy.com and I also sell matching earrings that are really adorable. On some of them I have added a matching Swarovski crystal, which adds to the sparkle factor! I made myself a pair out of the clear marbles and I wear them all the time! I get compliments whenever I wear them and I just love em'. So go check them out! Right now it's time for me to go finish sanding the last few batches of hollow beads. Then I'll make a few more bracelets. Then perhaps I'll figure out what project I want to start next. I've finished writing up the tutorial for the hollow beads, I just can't figure out where or how to post it. So once I figure it out I'll post a mention here. Till next time.....

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The things I get into.....




Okay so I decided to try my hand at blogging. We'll see how it goes. Mostly I decided to start this blog because I have written up a tutorial for a polymer clay hollow bead technique, but I had nowhere to post it. So I thought if I started a blog, which I'd been meaning to do anyway, I could just post it here. I will, for sure, be working on getting that posted into this blog this week. So in reading some of the things I'd written in my other previous one time blog attempts, it would seem that I tend to get slightly "strung out" on different polymer techniques. It would seem that I get temporarily obsessed with a certain technique, as I progress through my learning curve, and I can't seem to stop. I'll do it over, and over and over, for what seems like months at a time. Until I really get it down. I learn all the ins and outs, forward and backwards, until I think I could probably do it in my sleep, or maybe it's just until something else sounds more interesting to try. Then I'll start working on that next one. So I went through my covering bottles with the clay phase, then I think it was, covering pens, then jewelry caught my interest, and making cabochons took front and center in my brain, then it was teapot pendants using beads, and then bead making in general. Most recently it has been making hollow beads. I have been making them for months now. Please see picture above for just a sampling of the many bracelets that I have made. It's quite a lot I'm afraid. But it's all well and good, as I have a big show coming up in May, where hopefully I will be able to sell some of this inventory. I like a lot of the bracelets that I have created, and in fact, I wear my favorite one almost every day. Which also proves that they are very sturdy and can pass the wear ability and longevity test. Which is all very good. I read on someones blog recently that it's exactly what you should do when you are learning a new technique. You should do it over and over and over, until you get sick of it. I don't do this because of what I read, it just helped me to feel a little better about the fact that I seem to have this obsessive compulsive tendency when it comes to polymer clay. I don't think that I'm alone out here though. I think that polymer clay just inheirantly lends itself to being habit forming. Perhaps its the mystique of what lays hidden within what would otherwise appear to be a rather mundane, boring lump of clay. Once you are made aware of the varied forms that it can take, and how easily it can be morphed and transformed you are well down the road and lost in a magical mystery tour and you are suddenly creating "art', before you know what hit you! The wonderful kaleidoscope of colors that can be created, and the shear beauty of what is being created is hypnotizing, and the potential is ever so enticing! So, that is what this blog is primarily going to be about. A journal of my experiences as I travel down the road of creativity, and perhaps some pitstops along the way. I hope you'll join me in my adventure! Feel free to leave any comments you'd like to add. Thanks,



Sally Sotelo