Week 45-52 Polymer Clay Challenge

I’m posting the last few weeks of the challenge here. You’re getting a sneak peek before anyone else. ;o)

Week 45 to week 47 are pendants. I was just playing around as a beginner does to see how the clay behaves with certain treatments. This first piece is a test with a rubber stamp. I cut the ovals, then used a rubber stamp cat paw on the front. I baked the pendant, then filled in the paw print with black clay and baked it again. I used some of the black white cane I made, and made beads to add to the necklace along with metal spacers in between. Our cat is a black/grey/white tabby with narrow stripes, so the beads are meant to mimic the stripes.

The next two pictures are pendants made with two layers of clay and using charms pressed into the top layer. It worked well and I learned from working on the tools back a few posts, that the clay needs to be thicker so that whatever you add, will have the depth you need to secure it.

The next set of pictures are all faux food and wreaths made with clay. I had so much fun making these, I could have kept going day after day making these, but I do have other projects to work on.

The wreaths are different seasons and colours, and measure from 1 1/2” across, to 2” for the largest ones.  The sweets are between 1/2” and 1”, and I’ll be using them at some point for my doll projects.

With both the wreaths and the candy, I did free hand embellishments, and added some glitz with glitter glue and gold leafing on a few of them. Here and there I’ve tucked in some beads, such as the gingerbread on one of the wreaths. So enjoy….

Pomegranates

About 3 years ago, we did our local flavour trail tour, which in essence is a tour of local farms and what each one is producing. It’s a lot of fun and you can see not just what produce they grow, but some also have demonstrations and some even team up so you get to see more than one farmer at a location. This link will take you to the tour that just was.

We went to one particular farm where the family grown fruit trees. I think this man was born with green thumbs. I don’t think there is anything he can’t grow. He has the usual variety of apples and pears. Also, quince, figs, grapes and those are the types of things you expect most people to grow here. He doesn’t use any type of commercial fertilizers, he just know how to work the soil and it shows.

But he says, you can grow other things that wouldn’t be expected because he compares our climate to that of a Mediterranean one, making it possible to grow oranges, lemons and grapefruits. The oranges and grapefruit are in greenhouses and I have never ever seen those fruits so big and so healthy looking, the lemons grow up a wall of the house. Those lemons are huge, the size of a fist. Bob has Christmas lights around the lemons and nettings. If the temp drops below a certain point, the thermostat is set and will activate the lights. That bit of heat from the lights is all that the lemons need to keep going.

He grows a type of olive up the side of his house and too much to tell here but if you click on the link above to the Flavour Trail, he is listed as #3. He has pomegranate plants, we decided to give those a try since we both love pomegranates.

The back of our house is in full sun so we planted the tree against the house and supported it. It was about 2’ tall to start with, and quite wispy due of course to it’s size. Well, this is the third winter coming up, and to my surprize, this is what we spotted on the tree. It’s been a long, very good summer this year, and that probably has a lot to do with it. The blooms are bursting out all over and with luck, we will have pomegranates next year.

Without actually measuring the blooms, I am guessing they are approx. 1 1/2” across.

These pods have now burst open and it’s so pretty to see how they are adding a new dimension of colour to the all over green of the tree.

From those pretty pods and blooms, to hopefully this in the near future. I can’t wait…Do you eat pomegranates? You should, they are so good for you, but don’t take my word for it, read what Dr. Fuhrman says.  Back soon with more pictures of what I’m working on.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

Happy Turkey weekend my fellow Canucks. Have a great time with family and friends. Don't overeat you'll just fall asleep and miss everything else that's going on. ;o) 

Mushroom Soup and More

Are there any mushroom fanciers out there....?? We just learned about a mushroom called Chanterelle's. They are not a readily accessible as fresh mushrooms as far I understand, please correct me if I'm wrong. You can find them in small packages, dried. You will have to re-hydrate them. The package we got has a recipe in it for mushroom soup, so far be it from me to not try it. It is very good I must say.  I also got some lovely fresh parsley from the garden and sprinkled that on to.

And not to forget that with every good bowl of homemade soup, you must have hot biscuits, it just goes without saying. So, I made those as well.

 

These were made using a recipe from a book I picked up the other day. Instead of using milk, the liquid is yogurt. I gave myself a little break and had a couple of biscuits with the soup. Since my last meeting with the Naturopath, she has me on an eating plan that is just on this side of vegan. It is not as hard as I thought either. I haven't had any meat other than lamb for the last couple of weeks and for someone who does love a nice juicy barbecued steak, that's a long time. ;o~ I have discovered since following this plan, that the one thing that I didn't think was a problem, is. Eggs....I've tried 3 times to eat eggs and each time I discovered I definitely have an egg sensitivity, that was a surprize. It will be interesting to see what else surfaces as I go along. I didn't realize until I started seeing her, how much I eat that may not be so good for me. Nothing terribly serious, but an eye opening exercise for sure.

For those of you who do like to cook and bake, this is the book I found the recipe in for the biscuits. It's a hard cover book, weighs 5 lbs. It's a big book, 2 pages short of 1000 pages.With that many pages, it is cover to cover everything you could ever want to know about vegan eating. There is every conceivable bit of information from weights and measures, to recipes, defining what beans are what...and much much more... The ISBN# is: 978-0-7645-2483-7 and the cover is here. It is well worth it to at least take a look. As a hardcover book it was $40, but in paperback it would be less....but take a good look at it.

 

Bagel Safety 2

Just a quicky post. For anyone interested in the bagel guillotine, I looked on the box and found this link to the company that makes them. If you can't find them in your local kitchen shop, this is the next best thing.
Bagel Guillotine At the site, look down the left column and you'll find "Where to buy". There is a long long list of places that carry this....

Bagel Safety

This is totally non craft related and you're wondering why I would bother to write about bagels. No I haven't lost it, honest. Not a bit of crafty news in this post. Although, if you like to snack on bagels while scanning your craft cupboard or a stack of magazines, well that would make bagels a craft related topic..... So why bagels? Okay, so my dh, like all men, loves gadgets. He's been on a mission to find the perfect bagel cutter, to save the hands from potential danger. Anyone who loves bagels knows exactly what that means. You learn how to balance a bagel on end and carefully and with the full respect a sharp knife deserves, you cut through. Sometimes you can lay it on the cutting board, flat and cut it sideways to. There are probably tons of different things that have been tried, and let us not forget that plastic box that you stand the bagel in, and it has that slit that goes down the sides and you guide the knife through that slit and strive for a cut bagel....Doesn't work well..... I had just actually perfected what I thought was a great way to deal with cutting bagels, but, when I saw this I just knew it was a winner.... So this is the box so you can look for it, if you're a bagel fanatic, and I haven't met a person yet that doesn't like bagels of one kind or another. My personal favourite are the sesame and the poppy seed ones.....with real butter and cream cheese and of course the Tim Hortons coffee with that... but I digress....Here it is, the Bagel Guillotine.
Does this not look like the best thing..... the next picture shows you the two parts.....It wasn't cheap, but for the benefit of cutting bagels safely and we do eat bagels pretty much every day, it was well worth it.
Seriously though, keep your kids well away from this. It is extremely sharp and could cause a serious injury to a child.....












Do you think this bagel knew what was coming....??? ;o) It works like a charm, you just slip the unsuspecting bagel into the slot, and slowly push the top down and there you are, a nicely cut bagel, no risk of injury and you're done...If you live in the Victoria BC area, they carry these at the Penna and Company kitchen shops. Enjoy...