My Day 15 Education for Thing A Day

When I woke up today, the sun was shining! This was very good news as we have had cloud cover for the past two weeks, not only was it depressing, it was also making it very difficult to take photos.

So, I got up, set up my photo cube outside on the deck, and started shooting. After 300 or so photos, I was even more depressed than when we had cloud cover for two weeks. My photos left a lot to be desired, especially in the color category. So many of the pens and key rings I was photographing were not really the colors that were showing up in my photos.

So I watched the Olympics for about 3 hours and got a headache. But then, a wonderful little miracle. My daughter, the graphic artist, called to say hello, and I told her about my color problems. Well she uses Photoshop, which I know can do anything, but I don't have that program.

However, her 6-year old has a computer with the same program that I have, and she sat down in front of it, took one of my photos that was completely off color, and figured out how to fix it! Now, she didn't just send me the photo... nope - she made me sit there and work with the program until I figured out how to make my photos better. What a relief! I have a zillion photos on my computer that I won't share, because of the color distortion.

Here is where I've begun - this Rose Flower Pen is not blue!! It's a very pretty gray-blue color. But as you see by the first photo, it looks blue. I probably have 20 different photos of this pen - all of them blue.

But - VOILA!!! As you see by the second photo, the blue has been reduced so that the photo (at least on my monitor) looks like the right color! This is wonderful.

So the saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" definitely applies to my new color-correction ability. I'm on my way to much better photos. Thank you, my dear daughter!

Happy Valentine's Day - TAD Day 14

It has been a lovely Valentine's Day around my house, I hope it's been the same for everyone else. I have five Heart pendants to share for Day 14 of the Polymer Clay Central Thing A Day challenge.

We are already halfway through the challenge! I am glad I signed up for it this year, and I'll be looking forward to doing it again next February. What a good month to get busy claying in, after the holiday and the January lull.

Red for Thing A Day, Day 13

What do Atoms, Fireworks, Baskets and Streamers have in common? Good question? I can tell you the answer - they are the pictures that I see in my latest set of kaleidoscope canes.

I made these for the 13th day of the Polymer Clay Central "Thing A Day" challenge - since they are red maybe I should be saving them for tomorrow, Valentine's Day, but I can't wait.

I did these a little differently in that I used exactly 50% each of Kato clay and Premo clay. I was impressed with how well this worked, I didn't expect them to be as crisp as the others, but they are. They also reduced without any more waste than the previous canes. So there's a win-win, since I have a lot of Premo clay here. They slice great, too, so I'm quite happy with the combination.

Here they are, please click on the photos to enlarge them.









I can't wait to make more... back to the Claypen!!

Day 12 - Plum Kaleidoscope Pendant

I finished sanding and buffing this Plum Kaleidoscope Pendant this evening, and took a photo, then forgot to move the photo to my computer. But I've remembered! So with no further fanfare, here is the photo. Thanks for visiting my blog!

The Claypen Chat - Thing A Day 11

The "Discussions from the Claypen" chat was this morning - so today I'd like to give you the link to the Claypen Art website so you can see all the polymer clay creations that people made. It's amazing, really, the diversity that people have in their creations from week to week.

And this is just one week! There are 5 years worth of weekly albums here at this site. Feed your eyes some lovely candy....

Here is the link to the Claypen Art photo album for this week:

Claypen Art - February 11, 2010

All the artists thank you for looking!

Day 10 of Thing A Day - Still Two-Thirds of February to Go!

I was up late playing with clay last night, and I really like the magical thing that happened with this Plum Pillow Kaleidoscope cane pendant. It was a cane end that had a hole in the center, but it was too perfect looking to pass up.

This is not sanded yet, I'm still deciding whether to sand and buff this one, I may not.

The square center stone is compliments of Mr. Scott Mizevitz, it is an antique stone and very beautiful, the camera only caught a little of its glow.

Click on the photo to enlarge it.


(Reminder: tomorrow is Thursday, Discussions from the Claypen chat!)

Day 9 of the Thing A Day Challenge

Well I fell off the wagon, as they say, and missed Day 8 of the Thing A Day challenge at Polymer Clay Central. Sigh....

But here I am with three pairs of earrings for Day 9, I hope that makes up for it. I don't like the little bump in the road, but will have to live with it now.

These little kaleidoscope cane end pieces are fun to play with and make really cute earrings. They are sanded and buffed to a high shine. I have a Foredom jewelry buffer that I just love every single time I use it.

Click on the photos to enlarge them. Thanks for visiting my blog!!