Bonne Année! Happy New Year!

It is today the first of 2019. My resolution is to blog more, aiming for once a month. As we all begin this new year I want to wish you all the best of love, friends and meaningful work. I won't wish for the happiness that comes in a bottle or the peace that appears on a facebook post. I instead wish you all the contentment from a right decision and a right action. I wish you peaceful sleep because you know you've done the best you could that day. For my part, I plan a bit more self-discovery and pray for the patience to accept what I find.

Aujourd'hui le jour de l'an, je résolue d'écrire un blog au moins une fois par mois. Puisque nous commençons tous en même temps je vous souhaites de l'amour, des amis(es) et du travail qui vous enrichi. Je ne vous souhaite pas le bonheur qu'on trouve embouteillé ou la paix fabriqué d'un poste de facebook. Au lieu je vous souhaites la joie d'une bonne décision et d'une bonne action. Je vous souhaites le sommeil paisible qui vient en sachant d'avoir fait de son mieux cette journée. Pour ma part, je planifie un peu de recherche sur moi-même et je demande le courage d'accepter ce que je trouve.

Bienvenue Spring!

I've been incognito for a couple of months and I blame winter. This is my fallow season where going outside, somewhere, is usually more trouble than it's worth. That feeling is reflected in many aspects of my life and online is part of it. The winter is almost over and I feel energy and purpose coming back into my bones.
Since I missed the last few challenges I combined them into one piece. December's PCAGOE challenge was "outdoor pieces" and February's challenge is "houses" so I built a bird house that will hang outside the door to my home. I wanted something that would hang flat up against the wall and I wanted to work on the polymer clay's ability to mimic other materials.
Using a "brick" painted wood canvas, I built a bird house from "metal sheet with rivets" and "metal roofing". I am inspired by artists who build bird houses from leftover materials. I attached the word "Bienvenue" because I love company and I want my guests to feel welcomed. I debated whether to leave out the bird. It could have welcomed a swallow or a robin. But then I thought of the impracticality of having a bird nesting so close to my entrance and decided to build my own bird.
I'd love to hear about your "fallow" time and if you lay low for a while too. I am so glad that winter is on its last legs and am eagerly awaiting the swallows and the robins.

Salute to Ironcraft

This is the last Ironcraft challenge that will be thrown for quite a while. I want to thank Kat for all the organizing, the choosing of themes and for being an inspiration to me. I've enjoyed the challenges and learned so much from them. I wish Kat the best in her new ventures and hope that our paths will cross again some time. Like they say, I'll see you down the road.
For this last challenge, I choose to show these little salt shakers turned soap dispensers. In our home, we don't have Christmas stocking. Instead, we have a New Year's Bag. In the past when the children were small, the sheer volume of gifts would eclipse anything you could put in a stocking so we decided to postpone it to New Year's day and put them into bags. Mostly filled with chocolate and toys, the kids looked forward to opening them every year. This year's bags are still filled with goodies and items that they will need like soap, underarm and the like. I found these Norwex face cloths that take away makeup without soap or harsh creams. The soap that is included is to wash the cloth after you are done. You put it in a shaker so as to get a very small amount of the soap and that will do the job. My daughter goes through many makeup wipes in a month and the cost of the cloths was about what I spend in a month so I figured I couldn't lose. I made a bag for my son's girlfriend too and she got one too.
I covered the shaker with their favorite colors of polymer and it can be something that will save them money, will be better on their face and that they can keep for a long time. The Norwex products are wonderful and long lasting.
So, here it is. I wish all my fellow Ironcrafters a wonderful new year and more crafting and challenges on down the road.

ps. The top of the shakers are covered in tape. I needed to put them in the New Year's Bag and I didn't want them to spill the soap.

Riots Not Diets

This month the PCAGOE challenge is Owls. I love making birds and owls are often my subjects. After trolling the images on the internet, a few inspired this piece. Riots Not Diets is built on a wooden canvas and the rest is polymer clay. I had lots of fun making this. My "owl ladies" make me giggle. They sort of remind me of me and a couple friends. We love to sit and talk about how to fix the worlds' problems, usually with a glass of wine. No one else ever hears our bright ideas but we certainly think we are clever.
I don't have names for them so if any of you are inspired to try naming them, I'm all ears.

H is for Hope

Our challenge for Ironcraft was to make something inspired by the letter H. I decided to choose hope. I can use a little in my life and I'm sure most people as well. It is through hope that we stand up and face our daily challenges. This piece was inspired by a poster I saw on facebook. Can't really recall which ones of my friends posted it but it stuck and I wanted to make something that reflected it.
Now, I apologize if I'm infringing on someones intellectual rights and I will take it down if I'm asked to. I didn't come up with the phrase. In the meantime though, I wish that the message reaches as many people as possible. Along with the hope, we could all use a little peace.

Ocean Finds

This PCAGOE is about the ocean. I haven't laid on the ocean in a few years and have to make due with rivers and lakes. I still get out close to the water as often as I can and go through the sand to find little treasures. I made this brooch with beads that are ocean or water related. There are those shell beads that have been dyed pink, the polished rocks, the granite, the marble and the sea glass. Those have been encrusted into pink clay which in turn wrapped in more clay.
I love all the pinks and imagine it washing up on shore, remnants of long gone head wear lost at sea. On the ocean floor a queen's crown is missing its biggest jewel. I like imagining stories like these for some of the things that I make or that I find. Where would you situate this brooch?

Beach Star!

This Ironcraft challenge is a fitting Stars and Stripes for July 4th. Being Canadian and celebrating our own independence a few days ago I decided to move from the obvious flag theme to a more broad definition of stars and stripes. I've been going to the beach a lot and not being near an ocean the wildlife in the river floating to shore is not always the most exciting. So I decided to add my own wildlife.
The painting is an exercise in shading of the skies and the water and the sand. I see stripes that blend into each other so in a very round about way, this fits the theme. lol
I also have a bigger goal with the exercise because my next challenge will be to apply a beach theme to polymer clay. This is the warm-up. I have lot of fun painting this and am not very good at it but I think that my idea comes across. The starfish is making stripes in the sand.
I'd love to hear comments on whether you saw that before I told you or only after. Be kind but be honest.