I have been happily molding away in polymer clay. Various things such as antique Chinese chops, sea urchin tests, antique printing blocks were pressed into a molding material. The molding material was baked and when finished remained flexible. The molds can be reused over and over with various colors and patinaed with acrylic paint. I have just scratched the surface of polymer clay mold making and I look forward to the possibilities!

And in that vein I am starting a new shop, kkennedydesignstoo to create my own beads, sell destash, natural and found items and connect in new ways with the creative world.

You can see the shop at kkennedydesignstoo.etsy.com.

Wish everyone a happy and healthy 2010! And you can check for updates on facebook and become a fan at kkennedydesigns on facebook.

Ingredients:

1 butter flavored ready made pastry crust

8oz cream cheese

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 16oz can of whole cranberry

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy.

In a small bowl, beat cream, sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Gradaully add to cream cheese, beating until smooth and creamy.

Set aside a few whole cranberries for garnish and fold the rest of the cranberry sauce into whipped mix.  Spoon mixture into crust.  Freeze the mixture for 1-2 hours until firm.

Remove 15 minutes before serving and garnish with whole berries. Enjoy!!!

I look forward to hearing from you and seeing how the recipe turned out and if you enjoyed it.

I have been working on a new jewelry technique that I am looking forward to sharing with you in the New Year! or hopefully sooner.

I have begun a new line with horn and amber that will be making it’s way into my etsy store soon. But in the meantime, certain items in the sale section of my etsy shop will be 20% off from Nov28-Dec1.  This sale is in combination with the etsybloggers street team Holiday sale. Be sure to check out all of the shops participating!

This mermaid is riding on waves of pearl, sea glass, shell and vintage seed beads.  I had the good fortune of being able to go shopping in the beading district of New York City, and brought home quite a stash of beads.  I kept a very tight color pallette when shopping, creams, blues, ambers, and all sorts of wonderful blues.  I was determined to create a cohesive line of necklaces, bracelets, earrings etc.

But at the last moment, I wandered into this odd shop, literally with the word curiosities in the title, and saw the mermaid carved in bone.  I didn’t know what I was going to do with her, I just knew I had to have her, and her twin sister.  I packed up all the beads and squirrled them home to Savannah GA, spread them out and set to work, inspired by the wind, waves, dolpins and beaches of Georgia.

I was a bit daunted by the mermaid bead though, she was a bit pricey for a single bead, she was a large focal piece, and she was a bit difficult to hang in such a way that her own weight didn’t drag her into akward positions. So I put her in a box, a clear plastic one, but a box none the less, and worked on other pieces.

Than one fateful day, I was in Barnes and Noble and purusing various beading magazines when I noticed on one of the back pages an article from the editor of the magazine. She was speaking about how she had just returned from a beading show and had all of these wonderful focal beads. Yet she felt unsure how to incorporate these pieces into her work.  She proposed a contest in which you used a focal bead to create a necklace or jewelry piece around.  I felt better that I wasn’t alone with my confusion over what to do and went home to face my mermaid. 

The fan shells seemed the perfect foil for the mermaid and provided the crest of the waves for her to be riding upon. The sea glass was quickly added and bone, czech glass, shell rondelles and various dangles quickly followed. I still had the problem of what to suspend her from that would complement her yet not take away from the focal design piece.  I had scraps of metal wire I had been trimming from other pieces and I began twisting them into shapes, forming links, and hammering them out.  The hammering of the metal gave a shimmer as if light reflecting on water, and the stiffness of the metal provided the support for the weight of the piece. It all seemed to come together and I was determined to finish to attempt to enter my first contest.

The deadline was coming right before I had to leave town for 7 weeks to work on the feature film that I am presently on. So I quickly took some pictures and sent them via email to the magazine editor and left town. I brought the piece with me to VA and showed my new line to the friend I was staying with. She immediately picked out the Mermaid and asked if she could purchase it. I told her that I would give it to her as a gift. However, there was the off chance that it might have to be sent off to be photographed etc. because I had entered it into a contest. She said keep it until you know for sure- apparently, she firmly believed her mermaid was sure to make the magazine.

I had forgotten about the contest in the madness of the last few weeks and the contest closed October 15th, so I figured it would be weeks before I heard anything further. And than, just yesterday, I received an email:

“Hi Kristine:

Thank you again for submitting your design to the BeadStyle Art Bead Challenge. We received many wonderful submissions from readers all over the world, and we are happy that our readers were so enthusiastic about this challenge.

Your mermaid necklace has been selected to appear in the Art Bead Challenge gallery in the March 2009 issue of BeadStyle!”

Oh My GOD! I was caught completely off guard. But now, my mermaid, purchased in New York City, worked into the necklace in Georgia, debuted in Virginia, is now being shipped to Waukeisha, WI for her close up.

This is my first contest entrance, and first time selected, first time in a major publication and I only formed my beading buisness this past March. So I think the moral of the story is to do what you do best, be creative, find something you respond to, don’t be afraid to put it out into the world and you never know what might happen.

Below is an example of some of the metal chains of been creating from jump rings and scraps of metal wire. The hammered metal pieces will be posted soon.

How she has time while making her own artwork and raising 2 children, one of whom is a newborn, is beyond me. But somehow she has and we’re all very grateful.  Be sure to check out her blog at http://joeyandaleethea.typepad.com/ and her etsy store at: http://joeyandaleethea.etsy.com/. Stop by and see her charming childrens clothing.

A tiny sampling of what you will find….

Etsy Buy Handmade joeyandaleethea

But lately, I’ve noticed a trend in the jewelry I’ve been making. I have been doing alot of research into turquoise and amber and using those materials and colors in my new jewelry line. They are lovely opposites on the color spectrum, historically have such interesting stories to tell, and work so beautifully together. As one art professor said, “God never gets it wrong. Always refer to nature for your color pallette.” Thus a warm yellow sun in a clear blue sky.  Perfect opposites on the color wheel and beautiful together.  Blue has such versatility from the beautiful waters of the tropic to the crisp cold of the frozen north, and turquoise as a stone varies so much in color from that turquoise color namesake all the way to green, that the possibilities for combinations and interpretation seems endless. 

Amber is a bit more specific as a color, but I’ve recently been surprised by the variation of colors and opacity to be found in the beads and findings available.  Elsewhere in my blog, you will see a comination of Faux Amber from Polymer Clay and Chip Turquoise based upon very opaque stones from an Antique Tibetan Necklace.  And we all think of that amber with ancient dragonflies and plants trapped inside, frozen forever in time. 

And this color combination now seems perfect for the season that is coming up, fall, with those crisp clear blue skies on a fall day, that vibrant autumnal color to the leaves, I guess God never does get it wrong. And I still haven’t picked just one favorite color, but everything needs its equal and opposite, so for now, amber and turquoise, orangey-yellow and bluey-green.  As non-committaly committal as I can be. (for the time being)

This posting is in response to the blogcarnival hosted by EtsyBloggers asking what your favorite color is and how you use it in your work. Look for other etsy bloggers and there postings on the subject.  Thanks Storybeader for an interestingly difficult question to be pondered.

The thing that I love about polymer clay is the fact that I can cook it up in the toaster oven at home. No special kiln, no hi heat, not terrible smell, at least so far. I have a little dedicated toaster over that I picked up at a church bazaar for $5.00 that has been working wonders.  I started out just playing and experimenting using instructions from some books that I had picked up that I thought were interesting. The techniques are relatively simple so far, but I can see a world of possibility. 

To be able to design a bead that is just perfect for the piece you are working on is liberating. I have run accross problems when making jewelry pieces in the past of not being able to match colors exactly enough, (I work in very tight color palettes most of the time), or a whole being too small in a bead for a design, or the wrong cut to a stone.  Now, I can be working on a new piece and know that I can work on creating just the perfect bead, focal point, or moment of whimsy myself and it has opened up a whole new world for me.  Plus the clay is just fun to work with and happy accidents abound.

The picture below illustrates beads that I recreated.  They are based on research that I pulled from a book which showed a beautiful necklace of Tibetan creation with very similar beads used in the design. The beads are meant to resemble antique amber with chips of turquoise embedded in it. The bead itself is polymer clay, a blend of three colors and some translucent clay as the base, and a real chip of turquoise. It is than baked, painted with burnt umber acrylic paint, buffed down when dry, and voila! I can see endless possibilities for this material. You will soon find this bracelet on my etsy store page with more polymer clay beads to come.

Faux amber made with Polymer Clay and embedded with Turquoise

can you hear the childrens laughter...?

This beach is Tybee Island Georgia. I started collecting shells and memories the first time that I took a walk there. I remember this day clearly, the little girls running and laughing and the cries of the gulls. I began creating jewelry that attempted to capture these magical moments to take them with me. The necklace below is an attempt to capture the findings, colors and weightlessness of such a day.

I have made a few pieces along this line and continue to draw inspiration from the sea. The new jewelry line will continue to develop on the seaside theme, but have more of an otherwordly, underwater, encrusted treasure, brought up from the bottom of the sea, feel…. wait and see. It’s pretty cool. I will post some of the research on it in the next few days.