Busy B

So... apparently people like my necklaces enough to give me money for them. Which is neat. I have been heaps busy in making product, creating a flickr page, designing a business cars, and getting my etsy shop going. For some reason, the hardest part in all of this has been taking photos of my pieces :( I don't know what it is, but I just can't seem to motivate. I haven't even gotten to photographing my latest necklace (which is getting polemically mixed reviews) to get it onto etsy yet.

I am working on a cute piece right now which I think is going to end up as a hair clip, and then I am going to start my second commissioned piece for a friend of mine. My first commission for my mother, I ended up making 4 for her to choose from. I have 8 ideas for this next go, so we'll see how many actually make it. Then I have another piece in my head that I am dying to see made next. Unless I get side tracked (like I did with the cute hair flower).

In other news, Aion is released tomorrow for us nerdy people who bought it 4 months ago, and Scribblenauts came out 3 days ago and will be picked up on Friday when we start Aion.

In other, other news, my dogs are barking bastards and got us in trouble with the HOA of our condos so now we are having to get up at 5:30am to walk them, give them toys, raw bones, and puzzles, while leaving the TV on and keeping them locked inside the house all day, come home and walk them, and start training just to keep our asses out of court. They are worth it:

Happy B-day Eric!

For Eric's 24th, I made him a Horadic Cube plus all 33 runes from Diablo 2. I also tossed in a couple of gems and a bonus rune (and he also got a copy of The Moose with Loose Poops and homemade cinnamon buns instead of cake which I should have taken pics for the food part of this blog but I didn't.)

These first 2 shots show the images from the game along with the objects I made:

True nerds will pick up on the bonus rune right quick.

The cube is, of course, a box to keep the runes in:

Gratuitous close up:


Since this blog layout doesn't really allow for big pics, click on them for the decent size.

I made this in secret, carting paint, polymer clay, and gold leaf back and forth from work, working on it sporadically over the course of about a month, trying desperately not to get caught by the bosses (I got caught plenty, but luckily my co-workers aren't douchbags). We have a small toaster oven at work where I was able to cure the clay on the runes, but I had to wake up extra early on weekends to do the box itself and the decorative inlays to have them cooled and stowed by the time Eric got out of bed.

I also had to teach myself how to make a mold as I was remiss to attempt to make 5 design panels individually. Instead I only had to do it once, but in making the mold and then the panels, I ruined 3 of them before figuring out corn starch does shit-all for a release agent whereas plain old water worked great.

Part of the learning process led me to believe that there was no bloody way I was going to be able to make a cube by pre-baking panels and adhering them together, so I opted to cover a balsa wood pencil box I had laying around - this box was 10 years old and covered with dust and leaked ink and everything else you might imagine. I got the clay to stick by using liquid clay all over it, and then laying out rolled sheets of copper with black and red swirls, and then baking it. The lid (and the lip underneath that I didn't got a shot of) is just clay.

Octilove

Another completed creation!

I keep hesitating to call this a necklace, as it is quite big. Yesterday I referred to it as a throat friend to someone, and then I immediately broke out into laughter at the sheer naughtiness of that name. I am not going to lower myself to the level of cheese that "Bosom Buddy" would be, but I can't think of anything else, so for now, "huge-ass necklace" will have to suffice (if you have a better idea, tell me!)

Here is a shot of the way it hangs:


And a couple of closeups:


She is made almost entirely of polymer clay. There are 2 real pearls under the face area, and some glass beads that look like pearls in other strategic areas. The eyes are czech glass beads. Everything else though is all clay in custom colors I made.

smaller version I needed to upload for somethign else heee

I had a hankering for some chili a bit ago that didn't come from a can. I found a few recipes online that seemed to look OK, but not quite what I was looking for. Not enough hoit nor toit as Eric would say.

So I Frankensteined this meal together, and it worked (I am always surprised when things work as so many of my "brilliant" ideas are ass in the end - you see what I did there??). The buffalo and the yams were my own doing, and I had no idea if it would actually be decent. You can play around with the proportions and it will still work. I used about twice the amount of chili and jalapeno I listed below 'cos I like it spicy.













Crockpot Chili with Beans and Corn (and Yam and Buffalo and some other crap)
1 lb ground buffalo - pre cooked
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1.5 c. garnet yams, cut up into bite size pieces
1 can whole tomatoes
1 cup of corn - grill or pan sear first
2 c. water
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 bunches chopped green onion
6 oz tomato paste
1 large fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1+ TBS chili powder
1+ tsp ground cumin
1+ tsp ground mustard
1 tsp dried oregano
salt to taste

Toss everything into your crock pot and let it simmer on low while you are at work, or for 10 hours, whichever is longer. Presto. How freakin' easy is that?

I honestly don't remember what Eric had for dinner on the night(s) that I ate this. It would not be far from the truth to claim it was chicken strips from the Safeway deli though as we had to go to the store to pick up ingredients for this chili and strips are a standard buy.