Valentine’s Day Polymer Clay Beads and Canes by Blue Morning Expressions

Volume 9 Issue 2, February, 2012

What's New in February?

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my Valentines.

Can you believe that we are already in the second month of the year? It is so hard to believe how fast time flies past us and soon the small green shoots of new grass and spring flowers will be poking their heads up from the frozen ground. Some places have received a lot more snow than others and the welcome sight of new buds and shoots will be a breath of fresh air.

Keeping with the spring themes and thoughts, I created some new lentil beads with bright colorful flowers on them. I only managed to get three sets done, as well as a set of Valentine flower canes, but still the bright colors were welcome.

 

 

New Canes and Beads—You can find all the new beads and canes on my website www.bluemorningexpressions.com or at Artfire under Blue Morning Expressions. Both places have a full selection of my most current canes, including this new Valentine cane.

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

 

Things to Look Forward To:

New Products:

Earrings—I have been on an earring kick lately and added swinging chains to the mix. I created a lot of 10mm beads with my flower canes and added them to chains and other Swarovski crystals for some sassy new looks.

These earrings are currently not included in my www.bluemorningexpressions.com site and only available in my Artfire shop. I am planning a lot more jewelry, including a lot of bracelets and necklaces, so keep an eye out for the notice in any of my stores and sites for the latest information.

Come visit us on our blog www.bmeblueprint.blogspot.com for the latest news and beads.

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Yummy Caramel Beads with Vibrant Raw Polymer Clay Flower Canes

I went with a beautiful rich caramel base – see my post on the Polymer Clay Canes Blog for the whole story – and as I worked with these beads, I could not decide if I was going to use them myself or offer them up for sale. I held them in my hands for a very long time before deciding. They are silky smooth and just sweet to hold onto, but I put them in my Etsy store for the moment.
They are 15mm lentils with gorgeous yellow flowers paired with stunning and vibrant purple violet flowers. These canes are part of my personal collection; the violet cane is sold separately in my Etsy, Artfire and Blue Morning Expressions stores. They are a regular and repeated popular raw cane.
The beads are sanded smooth and lightly varnished.

Then there are these beads:

This set of 6 lentil shaped beads are 20mm in size and are silky smooth with 2mm holes pierced through them. The beads are a floral garden of vibrant colors. Crimson red daisy canes, another set of violet purple flowers and finished with my pinwheel cane of bright blue and outrageous orange make up the flower garden. These colors are bright and gorgeous in person.
Hand sanded and lightly varnished, these beads will make a great necklace and bracelet set.
Last, but not least of the beads are these Victorian inspired beads in 15mm lentil size.

When I created the rose and pale green flower cane, the first thing I thought of was the muted floral patterns that is sometimes seen on Victorian era wallpaper or is used in the vintage postcard and paper collections. These colors lent themselves to a soft and almost romantic flower.
Pairing them on the caramel beads only served to add more warmth to the flower and when I first saw these beads, I thought they would be lovely on an antique silver bracelet with resin rounds and acrylic leaves.
I did two things with these listings that I normally do not do, but plan on making it a practice. I listed them with design ideas and accompanying bead lists and I listed them with their own navy blue felt jewelry bag. I am including the bags so that you can put your finished piece in it when you offer it for sale or give it as a gift.
I like these beads and they are perfect for any number of projects.
Enjoy the beads, bead inspired and thank you for your continued support.
Julie and Blu

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Blog Hop from Hopes and Dreams

Blu and His Christmas Present

 

Since we wandered up into the mountains this last spring, we have found ourselves in the middle of a college town with lots of active dog owners.

With hundreds of hiking trails and no less than ten full scale dog parks, there are dogs everywhere. Walking downtown finds dogs enjoying the sunshine lying on the payment tied to a parking meter, while their owners are in having a beer or a sandwich. Everyone loves the dogs and the dogs seem to love everyone. We have yet to run into an anti-social dog.

The dogs seem to come in every shape and color, with a propensity for the retrievers and the border collies. These dogs, both purebred and mixed, are found running about at the parks and joyfully chasing balls and sticks.

It did not take us long to discover that dogs went everywhere we did. The trails were filled with happy wagging tails and curious sniffs. If you do not like dogs, you will not like hiking in Bozeman, nor will you enjoy a stroll downtown.

Keeping this in mind, these happy and healthy dogs are cared for by community conscience dog owners. The park district keeps poop bag dispensers handy on all the trails and parks. These dispensers are a wonderful convenience for dog owners and keep the parks tidy. Even the parks that are 37 acres are kept picked up.

Who do you think carries that poop around?

You guessed it. Me.

I have seen a few industrious dog owners who have tied the used plastic bags to their dog’s collars and made them carry them, but there is something just not quite dignified about a beautiful red Irish setter with a sweeping tail and beautiful feathered feet carrying a plastic bag on its collar. It may be easy, but it is not dignified.

As an active member of Artfire, the online venue for handcrafted items and artists, I enjoy perusing many of the other artists’ shops for the sheer pleasure of appreciating other people’s handicrafts. That is where I discovered the perfect solution to my pooch’s poop bag problem.

Rachael Barman of Blue Shed Crafts has created the cutest poop bag I have ever seen. She and I are in a couple of the promotion guilds on the site and I have quite regularly featured her poop bags in a collection of items that I have enjoyed.

After featuring this bag for so many different collections, as Christmas rolled around and I was thinking of the upcoming hiking season, I decided that I was going to get Blu a bag.

Last year, we had one hike that was over 11 miles and that is a very long time to carry poop, no matter how tightly the bag is tied. Not to mention the fact, that I was using a walking stick and I was carrying my camera while traipsing around on a mountain side.

Thoughts like this made the decision for me. I will continue to carry Blu’s poop, but it is not going to be in little plastic bags knotted and tucked between my fingers.

Here is where we are carrying Blu’s poop from now on.

Yes, Woof, I heart my dog Scoop that Poop!

Here is the deal with this bag. It is almost a shame to put poop in it, it is so nice.

Rachael has machine knitted this bag and it is a nice tight knit and professionally created. The inside of the bag is lined with a plastic liner that is solidly sewn in; the liner fills the complete bag and is attached both at the top and along the sides for a solid and secure connection.

The top of the bag has a drawstring, which makes it able to create a pouch by pulling the strings. Rachael sells one that has a clip on it to attach it to your belt loop or your dog’s collar, but since I create jewelry, I already have clips and will attach this to my backpack clamps.

The bag is washable and should be line dried and not put in the dryer.

She has a couple different styles of bags and several colors.

If you love your pooping puppy, you would do yourself a favor and be fashionable by swinging a bag of poop from your belt loop, backpack or your puppy’s collar.

Tell Rachael that Blu sent you :)

 

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