Clay In The Hands

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Time for Sunflowers

Sunflowers are such a beautiful flower. They seem to evoke happiness. I am sure that they make birds happy by sharing their seeds with them. We always buy extra sunflower seeds to mix in with the bird seed mix we buy for our feeders because the Cardinals enjoy them so much. I am continuing this month to promote the Christian Artist Street Team and the Boomers and Beyond Etsy Street Team so these beautiful sunflower items are from member's shops of these teams.

Bulgarian sunflowers Bracelet by eversoDear

Ceramic Sunflower Vase by JillsTreasureChest

Buckets of Sunshine by yankeegirl

Sunflowers Pewter Silver Floral Necklace by thefiligreegarden

The Sky's The Limit ACEO by campbelljane

Sunflower Melody by MYSAVIOR

Garden Delight by bbrunophotography

I love making sunflowers with clay. I will share some of mine in the next couple of days.

blessings, ZudaGay

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Poppies Part 2

First thing I'd like to share is a jigsaw puzzle. I do a puzzle on Jigzone most everyday while I eat my lunch. I like puzzles and I like having something to do while I eat. Today the puzzle was a poppy! I found that the site allows you to embed their puzzles in blog posts...how fun is that?

I have been making poppies for a few years now and I was interested in how the newer ones have changed or evolved from the first ones.

Lavender and green poppy.
This was an experiment with a clay center.
I made a mold from a little button then put
dotties around it. I really like the look, but it may change..who knows?

I saw a photo of a pale pink poppy with a
deep, dark purple center.
I like this okay, but it didn't quite come out the way it was in my head.
I think I will give it another try soon.

A customer wanted a dark red poppy and so this was my first try.
I always make something up and then allow the customer to say yes or no
and offer any ideas of changes if it isn't quite what they want.
Seeing what a person wants doesn't always happen the first time around.
It came out a lot darker than I was planning and was darker than
she wanted. This one is on a flat base.

This was my second try at the custom poppy and we were both
very please with the outcome. I made a bowl shaped base to build
the poppy on...ummm in. I like the way it cups the petals much better.

This was the first poppy I made in 2007,
I was just playing with the end of a cane.

This one was made with a cane made for the poppy.
I love the satin covered button center!

The biggest evolution from the two older poppies to the newest ones is the textured petals. I have been using a handmade glass ink pen from Italy to make the vein textures in my petals and leaves here lately and I just love the look! The second thing that has evolved is striving to make the petals go up with a base that still supports them rather than lying flat or even curling under.

Blessings, ZudaGay

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Poppies!

Poppies seem to be quite popular and no wonder, they are a lovely and somewhat simple flower. Here are a few examples of poppies from the CAST, BBEST and EtsyLush teams.

Felt Brooch Red Poppy by SunshineFelt

Original Painting Mixed Media White Poppy Floral by syoderart

Poppy Wine Glasses Painted by GlitznGlass

Poppies Original watercolor Painting by TheCreatorsPalette

Turquoise Satin Poppy Elastic Headband by SewEndless

I hope you enjoyed these lovely poppies. I will share the ones I have been experimenting with soon.

blessings, ZudaGay

Friday, July 22, 2011

Oldish and Newish Browns

In my last post I mentioned I was going to share some of my work to show color combinations incorporating the color brown. I have found that brown goes with so many different colors and makes a great base for setting a calm and warm mood to a piece and maybe even hints of age.

This is my newest pendant that uses brown,
more as an accent rather than the focal color.

I used it in this flower to tone down the flamboyant oranges and yellows.

There is something that hints of richness when combining red with brown.

Peach and brown gives an old almost Victorian feel.

I do believe that Browns and turquoise were meant to be together.

Copper, brown, gold, pearl, bronze.....yummmm

This has to be one of my favorite hearts I've made over the years.
Pink makes brown sweet, but not too sweet.

This was a pretty early pendant that just happened while playing with scraps.

Thank you for joining me for a bit of a journey down the Brown Memory Lane.

blessings, ZudaGay

Monday, July 18, 2011

Brown, Brown, Brown, What goes with Brown?

Can you tell I've been reading children's books? :) Brown gives such a warm and restful addition to many different colors. Here are a few of my favorites from the Christian Artists Street Team on Etsy.

Brown and reds