Facebook Page: Timeline
31 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in beads, canes, classes / tutorials, Fimo, memorials, nail art Tags: Facebook Timeline
I gotta think out loud.
What I mean to say is, that I tend to think better when I can get it down on virtual paper, or talk it over with a friend. Okay, hundreds of friends, in the case of this post. But you get the idea. And right now I’m thinking about the fact that I’ve procrastinated — drug my feet — on dealing with the new Timeline format for my Facebook business page. I personally don’t like the Timeline. So happily in denial, I ignored the coming change-over until the fait accompli had happened.
Dun-dun-dun…..
Today is the first day of the rest of your……facebook business life. Right.
So what I’m up against here is the fact that I’m one gal who has three distinct businesses under a single label. How do you make one facebook page that “covers” the spectrum?
The answer… I think…. is that you don’t.
This morning I started doing some reading on the new Timeline layout, to find out what the marketing guru-ru-rus advise. They said things like making a clear, emotionally appealing statement with your cover photo and the first 140 characters of your “about” section.
Hmmm….. how to sum up C. A. Therien Polymer Clay Arts in an 851-x-351 photo and 140 characters. Yeah, not gonna happen. If I tried to put all 3 divisions under one Facebook cover, it’s gonna dilute them all to the point of confusion. I know this for sure because I have one main website that tries to funnel customers to all 3 divisions, and I occasionally get the eyebrow-raised question from customers. If you follow the “100 rule” — for each person who takes the time to mention their confusion, there are 100 who thought the same thing but never made a comment — then you know you’ve got a slight problem. People coming to my facebook page for Fimo Nail Art aren’t going to be interested in Memorial Beads. And the Memorial Beads customers aren’t going to be interested in cane layering tutorials. Etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum.
So that means I’ve got to have 3 facebook pages in order to have them be effective for reaching the customers they serve. I’m not happy about adding extra work on my plate, but reality is what it is, and I should have made this decision a long time ago. I gotta put my big girl panties on and deal with it.
*Deep breath* Alright then. To work.
I’ve already got the one main facebook page — somewhat sorely neglected, but not abandoned — which has the C. A. Therien label to it. I’ll probably use that one for my tutorials, videos, etsy cane shop and ebay store.
Then I’ll open a facebook page for Memorial Beads’ website and etsy shop, and Brides & Bracelets’ website-in-progress (two sides of the same coin, floral remembrance keepsakes).
And finally open a facebook page for Fimo Nail Art.
I’ve got galleries for all three, enough to fill a decent album or two. And I’ll link the three pages together somehow… That’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but it’s not the main one. The main one is that the new pages will have no Facebook histories attached to them, and I’ll want to explain that a bit. Or not. But probably will.
…..Later that day…..
Allen’s Corner Shelf
30 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in classes / tutorials, Family Tags: Allen, copper shelf, solder and wire
Allen on his 50th birthday, with our son, Steve. Fake mustaches were a party favor everyone was wearing, in Allen's honor.
My hubby is absolutely amazing. He’s really getting into this whole working-with-copper thing. Ever since he started experimenting with making crowns and ear cuffs for the Renaissance Faire last year, he’s been pushing his own boundaries with metal and solder. I’m excited about all the learning he’s doing, and experimenting along the way.
So when the girls (Margo and Heather) decided they were going to remodel our very-sixties half-bath downstairs, Allen decided to construct some copper-and-wood wall shelving that would go in the corner over the toilet.
The corner shelving unit is made with 6-gauge copper wire and has these three open waves, which have brackets that the shelves are screwed onto. The waves were soldered to a central undulating pair of wires, and the whole thing has this sensual beauty to it. He cut and stained the shelves, which came out surprisingly beautiful for scrap pine. I love how he used his router to give the edges a nice scallop.
We initially had a hard time finding knick-nacks that were small enough that they didn’t overpower the shelves and still left much of the construction visible. A few collected shells, some polymer clay-covered tea-light candle holders, and my new faux stained glass egg where just right to display here.
Heather’s Light Box
29 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in clothes recycling, exercise, Family, fashion, Fimo, health, memorials, needlework / sewing, thrifty-ness, weight loss Tags: acai berry, adaptive sewing, light box, memorial candles
My oldest daughter-in-law is a genius.
She’d heard that I’d attempted to make a poor man’s light box, using items I had on hand, with very little in the way of success. Last week she asked me if she could see what I did have, and maybe help me to fix it. I gathered an assortment of items:
- clamp-on gooseneck lamps
- clamp-on spot light
- an old pressed-board end table with screw-in legs
- leftover white muslin fabric from sewing Allen’s renfair shirt
- a clear plastic box
- scotch tape
- scissors
- an extension cord
- white poster board
With these items, she guided me in setting up the light box correctly. Now I already owned all the items to create the light box, but if I had to purchase them it still would have cost me less than $50. I did purchase two new gooseneck lamps so that the light box had it’s own dedicated ones, rather than me stealing one from Mark’s desk and the other from my sewing area.
The main thing I had been doing wrong before was to put the fabric on the outside of the box. The purpose of the white fabric is to diffuse the light so that harsh shadows soften and shine spots disappear or are greatly reduced. But by putting the fabric on the outside of the box, the plastic was still picking up and reflecting too much direct light.
She helped me to cut and tape pieces of the white fabric to the inside of the box, thus creating a correct diffuser for the lamps, and it works like a charm. It’s so great for photographing white-on-white, like these candle holders I just finished for a Memorial Beads customer.
We put the light box in the closet with the fuse box, so that the ambient light would be greatly reduced and allow for dark photography, like showing the candle holder with a lit tea light inside. Keeping the light box in the closet also allows me to use it at a moment’s notice; and yet it’s portable enough that I could disassemble everything in less than 5 minutes and put it into a rolling case.
Heather had created a new Memorial Beads design – the Leigh Bracelet – filled with memorial heart charms and crystal cubes. She’d spent a little time with the new light box and her camera, taking some shots of her bracelet for our catalog. It’s so nice now having a dedicated and ready place for us to take photos. Thank you, Heather, for bugging me about this. 
In other news…
I’ve finished my first week taking the Acai Berry capsules. If you’re curious about how I’m feeling about it, take a look at my post “The Acai Berry Craze” and scroll down to see the update.
I’m almost finished with my friend Peggy’s anniversary dress. She’s the one who’s wheelchair-bound and wanted something really special to wear to her 40th wedding anniversary party. I’ll have pics of both the finished outfit, the shawl, and her husband’s tie next week. It’s an adventure in adaptive sewing for the disabled, where we took a shirt pattern and turned it into a fitted dress with mock princess seams. If you’d like to see a sneak peek at the dress in progress, head on over to my post on “Sewing Adaptive Patterns“.
Polymer Clay and Stemware
05 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in canes, Fimo Tags: adhering cane slices to glass, fimo, fimo fanatics, polymer clay canes, sanding and polishing polymer clay
Yesterday I had a question posted on one of my Polymer Clay Basics pages of my main website. The reader wrote:
“I am placing canes and/or sheets of polymer clay on wine glasses and bar ware. Do I need to sand these items? I just did a test sand, and a few of the dots and triangle embellishments came off. Horrors!!! Did I not bake the glass long enough or was I too rough? I’m using Sculpey III. Bake 275 15-30 min. I baked the glass for about 20 minutes. The canes were about 1/4 thick.”
I had written a pretty long reply to her, and thought it might be something that other fimo fanatics have had questions about. So I’m reposting my reply here:
“That’s a great question! You’re wondering why the cane slices sanded right off. Okay, here are some possible solutions for you:
1. Sculpey III might be the problem. This particular kind of polymer clay is known for it’s brittleness and tendency toward breakage. I would recommend using Fimo Soft or Premo for decorating your stemware and barware.
2. Using liquid clay to “glue” your cane slices on will help. Liquid clay bonds two clay items together. Brand names are Liquid Sculpey, Kato Liquid Clay, and Fimo Decorating Gel. Or, you could use Poly Bonder, which is a super-glue like substance that can be baked. All three kinds of “glue” would be baked at 275 degrees for 30 minutes to seal the bond between your cane slices and your clay base.
3. If you are attaching the cane slices directly to the stemware glass, then you will want a 2-part epoxy to adhere the baked cane slices to the glass. Nothing works better than a good, strong epoxy like Gorilla Glue’s 5-minute epoxy. It dries to a translucent yellow, and if you are sparing in how you use it, the yellow isn’t obvious. It will provide a permanent, water-resistant bond between the baked clay and the glass.
4. Baking times may need to be lengthened if you are placing raw clay onto the stemware. I highly recommend a minimum of 30 minutes in the oven, at 275 degrees. with aluminum foil tented over the glass while it bakes (to prevent browning of the cane slices.)
5. Sanding is a good idea, but only if you are embedding the cane slices into a sheet of clay to create a pattern sheet. Pattern sheets benefit from sanding and polishing, whereas dimensional cane slices used in a 3D applique technique don’t necessitate sanding. It can be done, and nothing wrong with it – sanding will smooth the surface of the clay and even out the thickness. Ii would use an 800-grit sandpaper for this purpose.”
Does anyone have any advice to add to this polymer clay newbie? Please post a comment if you do. And this has sparked a question, don’t hesitate to ask. If I don’t know the answer, I will have a pretty good idea where I can get it answered.
Memorial Rings
31 Aug 2011 2 Comments
in fashion, Fimo, Interests, memorials, needlework / sewing Tags: adapting patterns for the disabled, keepsake rings, memorial beads, Shapewear
Time to post some recent work!
These are sterling silver rings with a Memorial Bead in the center. I’m really excited about adding these to my keepsake line, because they provide a really subtle way to wear a reminder of a lost loved one. The speckled stones in the ring are created with dried flowers and clay.
SHAPEWEAR POLL: A reminder that the poll closes tomorrow. If you haven’t voted yet, please do. The votes are anonymous, and you can see the results of the poll any time. I’ll be posting on Friday about Shapewear: what it is, how to make best use of it, and what I personally have experience with. (Before and after candid shots will be forthcoming. Wow, talk about being transparent….)
ADAPTIVE PATTERN SEWING: I met with my friend last night and we talked about the custom pattern she had. What she liked, what she didn’t. When she told me the pattern was ten years old, that made me think we maybe needed to go with something different. We talked about camouflage – how it’s difficult to find wheelchair-friendly garments that are intended to hide some areas and highlight others. When it was all said and done, we decided it would be better to find a dress pattern with slimming princess seams, that was made for a woven fabric. I took her measurements and then came home to look through my patterns. I found a few things that I think she might like, and she’s coming over on Friday to make a decision. I’m going to make a test garment out of some flannel (or some tightly woven plaid I have… the plaid would give me alignment benefits because of the pattern, similar to using a gingham). If the test garment works, then we’ll do the real thing. Plus, she’d have a sloper pattern to use for other garments! Double the benefit, double the fun.
Meet My New Friend
09 Apr 2011 2 Comments
in Fimo
Our son, Phil, is very outgoing and friendly. One time when he was about 4 years old, he had been playing outside with his siblings and the other neighborhood kids, and he brought another little boy to meet me. “Mom, this is my new best friend,” he said, a big grin on his face. Then he turned to the other child and said, “What was your name again?”
We’ve told and retold this story as Phil grew up, became an adult, got married… because it really resonates with the essence of who Phil is. He loves people and just really gets a charge out of meeting someone new. Well, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, as they say. And while I don’t claim that new friends are instantly my new best friend, at the same time I share Phil’s enthusiasm in wanting to introduce someone cool to my other friends.
Melody Tallon is an Australian jewelry artist who works in mixed media, including polymer clay. Her series of Bloom necklaces are beautiful, ethereal, and playful, all at the same time. Love them! But don’t just take my word for it. You can visit Melody’s website, Artefacts, and her blog, All Chained Up, at the links. I’d love to show you some pictures, but in respect for both copyright and bandwidth, I’ll let you go visit to see the beautiful things Melody makes.
I wanted to make mention of her blog post about being an artist. I was impressed by the depth of thought and observation that went into what she wrote (and the editor in me likes her writing style).
Dry Nail Polish Appliques
04 Mar 2011 3 Comments
in nail art
In the February 2011 issue of NAILS Magazine, I ran across an ad for Incoco Dry Nail Polish Applique. The concept intrigued me – 100% nail polish in a sticker-like strip that you apply to your nails. Wow, what could be easier?! I immediately ordered half a dozen colors.
I did some research and found out that, as a general rule, people liked these strips. I also learned that you could find the Sally Hansen version at Wal-Mart. You mean I don’t have to wait for the ones I ordered to try this stuff? Off to the store I go!! There were more than half a dozen designs and colors to choose from, and it was so hard to decide! I picked up this gold glitter one.
A comment about glitters: if you’ve ever tried sprinkling some glitter onto your nail polish, you’ve probably found out a few things: 1, it has a rough surface – which to me is irritating; I like my nails to be smooth or I tend to pick at the raised areas. 2, the glitter tends to chip off faster than plain polish does; and 3, it’s hard to get the glitter to stay right where you want it! Seems like a lot of wasted glitter and it gets everywhere. I’ve used glitter polishes and while they are better (I do have a favorite one from Sally Beauty Supply) they still aren’t quite the density of glitter I wanted. I’ve also mixed glitter into my Light Elegance nail gel; and I can get a really nice, smooth surface. But when it comes time to file that glitter off, it takes a lot of filing to get it all. I’ve had much better success in that regard with the Pearl Ex powders, although that is more shimmery than glittery. Pearl Ex in nail polish works great, though!
Alright, so I went and bought the Sally Hansen gold glitter one, and came home to apply it to my nails. It’s important to do some prep before you stick the nail polish on; the nail plate (nail bed) must be filed to create a surface for the polish to stick to, and must be free from oils and residues. Here’s a step-by-step process for getting perfectly prepped nails, adapted from my article in the upcoming GREEN issue of From Polymer To Art Magazine:
Wash your hands carefully, paying close attention to the cuticle and side walls of your nails. With a wash cloth, push the cuticles back. Dry nails very thoroughly, paying close attention to the cuticle area; cuticles can harbor moisture and cause the nail art to lift, as well as trap bacteria between the nail plate and the polish.
With a manicure stick or other cuticle instrument, gently push the cuticles back. For skin that has grown over the nail, you may remove it with a 180 grit nail file, but do so gently: Use the file in the same direction as the “grain” of the nail plate (up and down over the nail, not side to side across it). File only until the stubborn skin is removed, and the shine of the natural nail has dulled. Over-filing the nail can potentially cause permanent damage to the nail plate, so be very careful. Shape the free edge of the nail, using the file in one direction, either right to left or left to right.
Use the nail brush to remove the dust from your nails, paying close attention to the cuticle and side walls of the nail. Wipe your nails with a lint-free wipe soaked in rubbing alcohol. This will help dry any moisture on your nails as well as kill bacteria.
Alright, so the moment of truth: applying the Sally Hansen nail appliques to my own nails!
Personally, I don’t want a nail full of glitter; I tend to prefer my colors along the free edge (the area that grows out past the surrounding skin). So in order to get this gold glitter applique just at the tips, I had to cut them. What to use? Aha!! My scrapbooking scissors! I have a pair that is in a scallop shape. That will give me the curve I need to do a French Manicure style. And there’s a side benefit: doing the nail applique this way, it only costs me about $3.00 for the full set, because I’m only cutting a strip about 1/4 inch wide from each of the appliques. That means I can do my nails about 3 times with the same package of appliques. Yippee! Very economical. I did do a coat or two of clear nail polish over the top, because I found myself picking at the corners of the appliques. Slap my own fingers – I know better than that. But it’s a habit. So the polish over the appliques smoothed out the ever-so-slight bump where the applique began, and I stopped picking after that, because there was nothing to get my nail under.
The end result: the picture here isn’t my nails on the first day – no, it’s been twelve days since I did my nails. Twelve. No chipping, no peeling. My nails look as good as the very first day. I am so thrilled with this stuff!
I was really excited when my Incoco ones arrived. I set them out for the Monday Night Craft Groupies to use, and I’ll check their nails in a few days to see how their dry nail polish appliques held up. (Maybe they’ll even let me take pictures!) One of the complaints I heard most often was, “my nails are too short for this”. Actually, doing a French style with these strips make even short, bitten nails look good!
If you’d like to read a really good discussion about these appliques (along with pictures of real people using them), here’s a link to a forum about diamond rings. They have 15 pages of talking about these appliques.
If after reading my blog post, you go out and try these (or if you already know all about them and have been using them for years), leave a comment. And if you have pictures – send them to me via email! I’d love to hear how you feel about these nail polish strips, and I’ll post your pictures (with your permission) in my Flickr set.
Bonny Buttons!
10 Feb 2011 1 Comment
Lisa Clarke of Polka Dot Cottage has started a new tutorial series on her blog, called BBC: Beginner Button Class. I wanted to put a plug for the first installment in the series, because the instructions and photographs for this tutorial are EXCELLENT. And I’m not saying that just because I think Lisa is cute and adorable and writes well, either. (No, she didn’t pay me for this… she doesn’t even know I’m writing it.)
If you sew – or if you’ve ever lost a button and were frustrated with not being able to find a matching replacement – how about making some of your own? Making your own buttons is fun, and can be really easy to get started. They’re machine-washable and dryable (depending on what bits of this and that you include IN the buttons, and what finish techniques you use ON the buttons). But you could always use button pins or make button covers, if you have any concern about washing your button beauties.
I’ve got a shirt that I took all the plain, white buttons off of it, and put some square kaleidoscope buttons on, instead. Washed and dried hundreds of times and the buttons still look brand new. So I know from personal experience that what Lisa’s going to teach you is GOOD STUFF.
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On a completely unrelated note… I’ve broken my web shops. Again. I was performing an upgrade and somewhere along the line it went all horribly wrong. I’ve got a note off to Lyonshost - my absolutely fabulous web hosting team – whom I know will shake their heads and then go fix my mess. These guys understand artists – and that makes a huge difference. Let you know when things are back up and running.
Three Sisters
09 Feb 2011 4 Comments
I need another internet shop like I need another hole in my head.
But, as some of you lready know, it’s about exposure. The more places your work can be seen, the more places people have opportunity to find you. Okay, I can dig that.
Yesterday I saw a post in one of my LinkedIn groups about a fairly new online site for artists to sell their work, called Three Sisters Marketplace. Two things caught my attention about this place:
A, there is only a commission on sold items, and if an artist sells nothing, then they pay nothing. The commission rate is pretty decent: 15%. I could do a lot worse with a local gift shop, where not only would I pay a higher commission, but I’d also be subject to theft.
B, the shops are juried. That means the artist must pass a certain set of standards before they can have their shop accepted. (Their site doesn’t say what the standards are, but as I looked through the other shops, I could tell that halfway decent photography was one of the standards). I spent about an hour or so last night getting my jury examples together, and was pleased this morning to see that I’d been accepted.
Some irony here:
Last night, as I’m setting up these listings and thinking to myself, “why are you doing this, when you’ve been paying for an empty Artfire shop for three months?” Good way to guilt myself, but maybe it’s the kick in the butt I need to take the time and get Artfire set up.
Sutton Slice
08 Feb 2011 6 Comments
in beads, classes / tutorials, Fimo
The Sutton Slice is an interesting polymer clay technique, where soft bits of clay are pushed into the recesses of a deeply etched rubber stamp, until all the recessed areas are filled to the rim with clay. A sheet of clay is pressed onto the stamp to adhere the sheet to the clay pressed into the recesses, and when the stamp is peeled away from the clay sheet, the recessed areas now become raised areas on the sheet of clay.
Lisa Pavelka’s video on how to do the Sutton Slice shows her method for doing the technique, and I recommend viewing the video a couple of times, just so you can see some of the nuances of doing it. She also has a step-by-step tutorial on HGTV.com, but of the two I prefer the video, both for it’s clarity and for the way the rubber stamp is peeled off the clay – in my opinion, this method works the best.
My local polymer clay guild met this past Saturday, and we all worked on projects with the Sutton Slice. Here are some highlights:
Ann creates and sells hand-felted mug warmers. She attaches handmade buttons to the felt, and says her customers love that little detail. Here are some Sutton Slice buttons she made at the guild meeting.
Pam made an assortment of jewelry pieces with the Sutton Slice technique. I really like the one in the middle; she was using a faux abalone mokume gane cane (if you don’t know what that is, it’s a stack of layered sheets of clay that are very translucent, interspersed with sheets of metallic foil. You can see a good tutorial on this technique in Carol Blackburn’s book, “Making Polymer Clay Beads“.)
Silly me, I didn’t want to show these pieces until I was completely done with them. But that was just my pride talking, so posting this picture is somewhat humbling. I’ll try to explain what these things are, because they do look confusing, don’t they!
Starting with the round ones: those are going to be buttons on a blouse I’m planning to make. They match the half-circles, which will be earrings. And yes, they look just like giraffe print!
Which wasn’t on purpose, at all (don’t ya just love happy accidents?). I was playing with a Texture Gallery rubber stamp I’d gotten at Hobby Lobby. I filled the stamp with dark brown clay, then used a light sandy color for the “background” behind the raised “spots”. Looks totally realistic on the randomness of a giraffe print, and I was really excited with the result.
The teardrop shapes are going to be earrings – with the rounded part at the bottom of the earring and the pointed part at the top. I used a “bubbles” unmounted rubber stamp for these, making one pair black and white for my daughter (shhhh… don’t tell Margo! It’s a surprise), and the purple and white pair for myself.
All of these pieces will be getting a very thin clay border around the edge, so that I can fill the recessed areas with resin. It will create an interesting effect – clear, glossy, dimensional recessions with matte, textured raised areas. I hope I like these when they’re done – and of course, I’ll share pictures.
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