January 2013 Challenge! "TEXTURE"

I am excited about my entry for the PCAGOE January 2013 Texture Challenge! I love working with texture, always have, so when this theme came up I was thrilled. I was hoping I could make a piece that would show my love for texture, and I believe that I did. I'm very happy with my entry to this challenge.

I hope that you will vote for your three favorites this week, from January 1-7, at the PCAGOE blog. Thank you for voting. You could win! Three voters will win a prize this month.

Here is my entry, it is a triangular vessel with texture adorning all three sides and the bottom. Each side is different - sort of a three-in-one vessel that can be turned for visual interest. I went for a modern organic look and think that I accomplished that. :)

I added some imprinted patterns with 23k gold leaf accents on each side for a little mellow bling. The textured base and the raised textured pieces are in the same lovely copper color for a unified look.

Side 2

Side 3

I even textured the bottom, and added my "maker's mark" there. All in all, a very enjoyable challenge! Please don't forget to vote at PCAGOE this week. Thank you!

Big Jaws and Little Jaws

The name of this photo is "Big Jaws and Little Jaws". I thought some would like to see the snowblower machines that keep us in touch with the world during the winter here. The little red machine helps take care of the snow in our 150-foot long driveway, and the big yellow machine keeps the roads in our area from becoming too tunnel-like. (Click on the photo for the best view.) 

"Big Jaws" can take wide swaths of 10-foot tall snowbanks and shoot them up or down onto the mountain sides. It has a 7-foot opening and the yellow 3-foot berm cutter which knocks the highest snow down into the opening where the giant auger is as it drives past at about 4 or 5 miles per hour. The snow shoots out of that giant top chute (which the operator can rotate to either side of the street as well as raise and lower) and the streets have 2 lanes once again.

On the days when Jaws is out and about, we can hear its engine (the entire long section behind the cab is the engine) for hours before it arrives on our street, so we tense in preparation. Will the operator see our driveway before he shoots snow 30 feet up into it? They usually know, but we've had a couple guys bury our driveway with it, so we are always outside when Jaws comes by, day or night.

Thankfully Jaws generally comes out only a few times each season, most especially when over 6 feet of snow falls over a 7-day period as happened this week. There is no other way to keep up with that much snowfall except to bring out the big Jaws!

Winter Views

Driving home from Christmas shopping on December 19th afforded us these lovely views of the valley below our mountains, (the Sierra Nevada mountains) with the western mountains shadowing the valley even as the lower eastern mountains (the Pine Nut mountains) were still bathed in sunlight. Please click on the photos for a closer view.

The small community nestled up against the mountain as we drove above it looks like it could be part of a Christmas card, with the barren trees and distant rugged ranchlands dusted with snow.

As we rise up the mountain, the valley fades into the distance as the steep road, the craggy mountains, the deeper snow and the pines take precedence. A few miles more and we'll be home.

Winter.... again

Just like clockwork, winter has struck again. The temperature dropped to 9 degrees last night, and then warmed up to 19 degrees today. Guess who is dressed in layers? :)

This is the view out the front door and across the valley to the east today.

So, like any good polymer clay aficionado who has no desire to be out in the elements, I've been playing, um, I mean working! Keep in mind that I'm supposed to be making Christmas ornaments - so where did these autumn-colors beads come from? An imprint mokume gane stack somehow appeared on my clay table last night, and these cute little earring beads are resulting. Of course they are not baked yet because I'm going to make about a hundred more of them before I preheat the oven. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Inspired by Cinnabar

I've been really "into" expressing myself via the monthly challenges that my Etsy guild, Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) holds each month. It's been very satisfying to carefully consider what each theme says to me and the art that I can create as a result.

For November, the challenge theme was "Asian-inspired", and mostly due to a suggestion from another guild member, I decided to try a faux cinnabar look. I really like it! I had a lot of fun mixing clay colors, then finding just the right hummingbird and flower mold that would give me that Asian flair. Once the piece was baked, it was time to get the finish just right. I added acrylic paint for that antique look, and then I sanded and buffed the piece for quite a long time to get just the right glow on the patina.

Please click on the photo below to see the vessel in all of its glory. :) And, please take a minute to vote in the challenge from Nov. 1-7 by visiting the PCAGOE blog here. There will be 3 voter winners, hopefully one of them will be YOU!

Bull

Yikes. Would that barbed wire fence have stopped him?