Happy Pink Saturday! Wow! I can't believe its been almost 2 months since my last post! I guess that birthday hit me harder than I thought! LOL! Just kidding, folks. I've just been attending to life. Getting kids back in school, finishing a mosaic table that I did with my kids' whole elementary school back in April which I had not finished doing the background on (until this month), beginning work on a 12 foot long mural mosaic for the same school with my friend
Juanita, and...taking a weekend long polymer clay class from the awesome
Laurie Mika. If you aren't familiar with her work, go check our her site. The things you can do with polymer clay are amazing. Her art is awesome, the class was awesome, and she was a darn nice lady, too! Her studio was just featured in the most recent issue of "Where Women Create". Her book, "Mixed Media Mosaics" was an awesome find, tying together my love for stamping, mosaics, and iconery. When I found out she was coming to Ft Collins, CO (yes, of "Balloon Boy" fame) to do a workshop at sweet Christine's
Artists' Nook, I just jumped at the chance to take it. It was 2 days of bliss. I've never done any type of workshop like that before, although several of the more well known artists meccas like Silver Bella, Art Fest, and Art and Soul are definitely on my "Bucket List". So anyway, my finished project is my offering for PS. My photography wasn't up to par as I was doing a couple of down and dirty pictures to do show and tell with friends and family, but you get the idea. It was a cool metal box made to look like a book which we embellished with our completely handmade tiles and collage on the back and the inside. The tiles are polymer clay which has been stamped with rubber stamps (no ink), painted, embellished with mica powders, and occasionally embedded with doo-dads. We also learned how to handpaint simple white tiles and do transfers onto the tiles. My inspiration was the Paris Opera House. I had a cool postcard of the Opera House that my father had brought back from Paris in WWII when he was stationed there. I made a laser copy of it and brought it up with me to the workshop along with some bits and bobs I had stashed. Laurie had all of the stamps and mica powders and seed beads that she let us play with. I can't wait to play with polymer clay and stamps again. Who knew it could be so fun??? When you're done oohing and aaahing (come on, indulge me here), pop on over to our Pink Saturday host Bev's place,
How Sweet the Sound to check out all of the offerings for Pink Saturday.
Until next time,
Me and the Goddess of Polymer Clay, Laurie Mika.
We had a ball doing our 4 hour marathon listing on Our Cottage Garden on Saturday night. It was crazy, but good. We put TONS of new items on, including this whisper pink mosaic birdhouse created by little moi. It has a mix of vintage and new china, stained glass, and a couple of handmade and painted clay tiles. It even has a cute little drawer that opens at the bottom. It is purely decorative, but so fun to add a little whimsy to your decor.
I have so many mosaic project ideas rolling around in my head, but my ability to start them is limited by the fact that I am currently without a proper studio to work in. BUT, that's about to change. We have been working for over a year on building a new garage that has a studio over the top. It is basically a studio apartment, but we won't be renting it out any time soon. So, I will finally have a place to work where I don't have to clean up before I cook dinner or go to work. I can't wait for it to be done so I can start using it. And I can't wait to show it to you (I'll have to take pictures before I mess it up-I'm just NOT a neat artist!). I hope by the first part of next year, I can be in there working away. 
