After making the money box, I had all sorts of ideas for another. I'm working on another at the moment and it needed ladybugs. So ladybugs it shall have.

And happy Australia Day!!!

So as you can see I've made no effort to do anything bout improving my photos. So over christmas I found a 2L paint tin that I wanted to turn into a money box, punched a hole in the top and then that was as far as I got. Until....I decided to grow a cane farm. So I took a slice or 2 of every cane that I had and mooshed them all together. And now I have a monster money box for all those annoying coins that are always lying around. Or is that just our house?

I really need to work on taking better pics. I am usually either too lazy or in too much of a hurry and need to take photos NOW! And not waiting til the morning or a sunny day...Having said that, heres a leaf cane I made a bit ago. I love making and using leaves. They're great as individual beads or great to cover things with. Maybe I need to go find some pics of those...

As a little detour, I love the 'big' things Australia is obsessed with... I've been to the big pineapple, the big rocking chair, the big koala, the big miner, the big galah and the big prawn to name just a few.

Another thing I love discovering is bizarre signs you stumble across around the place.

This one's courtesy of Broome WA, the local beer is called Emu Bitter. Maybe it's just me but I found it amusing that it was not just a beer can, but an emu bitter beer can that was most certainly not allowed to be consumed anywhere in public in Broome...

Well you know how I said I had 'acquired' bf's bench grinder?... Well I got greedy and didn't want to share so I went and got my own. I use it with a muslin buffing wheel to buff the beads after sanding them to get them super shiny. It's a little scary though...it goes really fast and I'm waiting for it to eat my fingers.


Another tool I can't do without is my caulking gun which has been adapted to use with the clay extruder using Nan Roche's tute. Here....






http://hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_clay_jewelry/article/0,1789,HGTV_3238_1378538,00.html

I love using the extruder! I used the strands from it to make the sky in this cane...

I am still working up the courage to reduce the whole cane, something I need to get to soon.

Ok, so I'm a clay fiend....I love polymer clay and the things you can do with it. It's a newish obsession but one that has well and truly taken over. The kitchen table, the spare room, my bf's bench grinder. All of it now belongs to the clay. The holidays and spare time have sent my brain into overdrive and I can't hold onto ideas long enough to follow them through....but here are a few of the brain explosions of the last week or so.

Stamp pads made for using with Mokume Gane and mica shift clay.