Sunday, March 18, 2012

More Border Canes & Wire Pendants

Last week I was back in my clay room happily conditioning clay when the pasta machine motor suddenly made a whining noise, the rollers slowed down and when I felt of the motor is was hot, hot hot.  I turned if off, let it cool down and when I turned it back on it heated up very quickly and slowed down again.  I shut it off  and using a paper towel I wiped the air vents on both sides of the motor...... got lots of black sooty gunk on the paper towels. Once I cleaned off all the gunk I had high hopes that it would work but no such luck.. the motor heated up again.   So I immediately ordered a motor from Mona.  I'm lost without a motor, I can hand crank a little but it hurts my wrist and takes all the fun out of claying.

So I didn't clay for several days, played with wire instead.

Click on the photos for a closer look

I used various swirl beads as the focal beads in these pendants.


More wire pendants... no polymer clay on these.  I will hang a small bead in the center of the yellow amber pendant.... just haven't found one I like yet.


I was tired of wire .... my new motor hadn't arrived and I was itching to play with clay so I decided to try the old motor one more time.... and guess what, it works fine now.  I made a whole bunch of new border canes and it didn't heat up at all..... fixed itself I guess.  Got my new motor a couple days later, now I have a back up if the old one conks out again.  My advise is to wipe down your motor vents every so often, I know I will from now on.

Here are my border canes.



I used the top cane to make necklace tiles.


and a couple focal beads with the scraps. You may have guessed by now, I really like mirror images.


More border canes.... I haven't made anything with these as yet.


I have more canes in the works and the tute is still in the planning stage,  I will get to it one of these days.

Thanks for stopping by.

6 comments:

  1. I'm sitting here waiting breathlessly for the tut, better hurry before I turn blue. LOL

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    1. LOL, sure don't want you to turn blue! Better take a breathe tho... it may be a while. Our granddaughter is getting married April 6th and I have that on my mind.... trying to find an outfit that will look good with my Crocs LOL

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  2. Beautiful border canes. The focal on the left, middle pic of mirror images looks like a baboon's face! My mirror images always come out a little wonky....lol..

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    1. Thank you, glad you like my canes. Mirror images take lots practice, many of mine turn out wonky too but I'm getting better.

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  3. I am so eager for you to share your wisdom and techniques on those marvelous border canes! Think of this as encouraging rather than nagging, but I'm waiting!!! :-) Seriously I love how you do them and your color choices are so intriguing.

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  4. Thank you Betsy. Right now it seems like a daunting task but I will get to it one of these days.... after the wedding. I appreciate the "encouragement" though. :))

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