Itching for Halloween

Polymer Clay Witch Fingers by Marie Young Creative @2012

It is starting to look a lot like Halloween at the Young house. I whipped up a big batch of these witch fingers from one of my favorite translucent polymer clay recipes. I love working with translucents coupled with alcohol inks because of the depth of color that you can get in the finished piece. In this case the combo makes for an eerie skin tone.

The finished products become earrings, necklaces, and even polymer covered ink pens!

Some of these are headed to customers who placed custom orders and a few have crept into my store. If you want to get your fingers on one, check out the Halloween Shoppe at my online store:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/YoungCreative?section_id=10419107

Expanded light switch plate color palette

Fleur de lis light switch plates @ Marie Young Creative

Great ideas come from everywhere. In this case, the idea to introduce an expanded color palette to my fleur-di-lis switch plate design came from a new customer.

She liked the fleur design on my handcrafted polymer covered switch plates, but she needed something different than the bright gold (bottom right) to go with the colors in her home. I did a few sample plates and she chose the deep red in a 4-toggle and single toggle.

All of these designs are available for custom orders. View product details here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/YoungCreative

Shot Glass Desserts

Creating Sweet Drama

It is all in the presentation.

Simple, inexpensive desserts take on a level of sophistication when displayed with some "WOW" factor. One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to get drama is to group something small to make it seem more impressive.

Creating a Glass Dessert Tower

The catering service at the University where I work does an amazing job of this. They take a simple dessert that will feed a crowd, such as a mousse, and make it a focal point of the event.

Sometimes they serve the desserts on small white rectangular trays on the tables, but to me it doesn't work as well as the tower effect. The fact that the tiny desserts in the tower are served en masse  gives them an impressive feel, yet there are other aspects to the design that sets this display apart.

Repetition:
They picked one material, glass, and stuck with it. Using glass shelves doubled the impact of the glass shot glasses. They also used glass blocks at the sides for more serving levels and sprinkled glass stones around for even more sparkle. And because they chose glass, the whole display seems to float. Drama!

Placement:
This display was in the center of the room, yet because it was so airy it created a focal point without blocking the view. I also think it would have looked stunning against a backdrop of satin,velvet, or another fabric that reflects the light the way the glass does.

Cost saving tip: You don't have to spend a fortune on glassware to get this look. If you need a large number check into a restaurant supply company. You may also hit the jackpot at your local dollar store. Not all dollar stores are created equal, so stop in a couple. I have one near my house that has almost two full aisles of nothing but glassware.

7000 Bracelets for Hope

My polymer clay guild made bracelets for the the Global Genes Project's  7000 Bracelets for Hope campaign to donate as part of our August PCAGOE Challenge. You can show your support by voting for your favorite bracelet in our challenge through August 7. 

http://polymerclayartists.blogspot.com/2012/07/august-challenge-charity.html

The Global Genes Project

The Global Genes Project is one of the leading rare and genetic disease patient advocacy organizations in the world. Did you know that more than 7,000 distinct rare diseases exist and approximately 80 percent are caused by faulty genes.

7000 Bracelets for Hope 

Through the 7000 Bracelets of Hope campaign, Global Genes collects unique bracelets made by jewelry designers, artists, crafters, church groups, girl scout troops and other volunteers to distribute them to families fighting rare and genetic diseases. Since launching the campaign in 2010, Global Genes has received thousands of unique blue themed bracelet designs made from everything from cut strips of recycled denim to vintage blue glass to turquoise stones. 

Now they have some great polymer ones to share!

 

Catching a Break

It has been a long month, filled with ups and downs, but with the arrival of Friday, things are finally looking more up than down.

Stress 1
Work is a lot of "work" right now. I'm project-lead on on a new website for the university where I work. It is a HUGE project that has consumed the last 1 1/2 years of my life. The site is slated to launch this month. That means tons of work to get everything ready.

+ Stress 2
On the home front, we had a new patio/fire pit area installed at our house. We tagged it on to a project to fix the drainage in our backyard. Kinda funny to do it this year, considering it is bone-dry back there, but most of the time it is a swamp. We thought the project was going to be done in June, but they crew just came the end of July.

So add construction and a torn up yard to the stress-factor list.

+ Stress 3
And just to keep things interesting, I managed to get into some poison oak. For a good two-weeks, I had head to toe hives with insane itching. Now, thankfully, I just have mild itching and lovely red scabs.

= Almost missing the challenge
With all of this going, entering my polymer guild challenge this month was, well, challenging. But August is the Polymer Clay Artist's Guild of Etsy "charity" challenge and I didn't want to opt out. Fortunately our awesome challenge coordinator allowed us to enter something we made earlier, as long as it that fit the bill. 

About the PCAGOE Challenge:

For our annual "Charity Challenge" we chose The Global Genes Project, 7000 Bracelets for Hope, which provides bracelets for the rare and genetic disease community. Bracelets needed to be blue, in keeping with the projects color theme. 

 

Voting is open for the public through August 7. The winners are selected at random from the voters. So vote and you could win!

 

http://polymerclayartists.blogspot.com/2012/07/august-challenge-charity.html