Introducing TooAquarius

beautiful rose beads........

TooAquarius AKA Elaine is an extremely talented Artist,Business woman ,teacher and computer wiz from Canada.

round floral beads.......

I have admired Elaine's Millefiori talent since we met several years ago on PolymerClaycentral.com 's message board. She has a wonderful ability to capture floral beauty in her cane work. I have bought and used many of her polymer clay floral canes in my own projects from her shop http://TooAquaris.Artfire.com .

Lentil beads......

In her shop you will find a huge amount of awesome canes and finished beads to use in your own creations....Her color pallet is beautiful as is her work take a peek at her shop I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

leaf cane.....


floral slice beads....

TooAquarius is a proud member of Polymer clay smooshers guild of ArtFire.

One of my favorite shops on Etsy

Daisy Designs Floral is a awesome shop filled with whimsical floral designs. These designs are well made and sold at an affordable price. I own a few myself. And best of all it is my good friend Terri's shop.
I asked Terri a few questions so others could get to know the artist behind the designs. She is offering a cool giveaway contest at the end of the interview.
Enjoy and good luck all.........

1. Terri how long have you been a floral arranger?
7 years

2. What kind of arrangements do you make? What are you favorite and why.

I create arrangements for any occasion. Weddings, Funerals, Proms, and New Baby just to name a few. But custom orders are always welcomed.

I love to work with fall flowers, and I think that the arrangements I create from them are my favorite. I like doing wreaths, and bridal bouquets.

3. What other kinds of crafts do you enjoy?

I recently started making handmade greeting cards. I really enjoy using this as another outlet for my creative energy!

4. Tell us a little about yourself.

I have been married for 32 years, and we have two grown daughters. But I am proudest to be called grandma by my two year old grandson, and soon he will be joined by a brother.

5. Do you have any sales running in your shop?

I have free shipping on my entire shop and all of my Christmas wreaths $30.00 and higher have been reduced by $10.00 until Monday December 1, 2008.

6. What are your shops urls?

daisydesignsfloral.etsy.com

daziemae.etsy.com

is there anything else you want readers to know? Do you want to offer
a give away contest?

I love what I do and I hope it shows through my designs.

For everyone that e-mails me with the event that sparked the idea of selling my arrangements, will be entered into drawing for the Jolly Floral Arrangement pictured below. Hint you can find the answer in my profile.

daisydesigns2006@aol.com

Cute little frogs

I have a friend named Moe who lives in Hawaii she is so good at making tiny little things. Awhile back I asked her if she could make me some tiny frogs for a custom order. Well the customer changed her mind and decided she wanted lady bugs instead of frogs. So I got to keep the delicate little cuties Moe made for me.
I can make things but not anything as small as these frogs they are less then 1/2 inch and have tons of detail. She sent me several in different poses so I wanted to make something cute with them; they are cool little buggers.
So I made a little 3 1/2 x 5 frame on a 6x6 1/2 inch piece curved beveled glass. They are little tiny tropical Hawaiian frogs so I wanted to give them some tropical flowers to live on. All of the embellishments are made with polymer clay there isn't any paint on this project.
I hope Moe likes what I have done with her little froggies. I saved my 2 favorites for another project.

Polymer clay cane swap

I belong to a awesome group of polymer clay- aholics at Polymer Clay Central. Polymer Clay Central is kind of like my online guild. It is filled with wonderful caring and sharing artists.

One of the cool things we do there is swapping. Last month Linda Weeks hosted a geometric cane swap. I joined one group I sent in 4 canes that I made and Linda sent me back 4 canes from other artists . It's always fun to open the box when the swap items come back because "it's like a box of chocolates.. you never know what you are gonna get." { sorry Forrest Gump I couldn't resist}

I got some lovely canes in return all of them are in colors that I never use so I was excited to be challenged to work outside of my color comfort zone. I am finding that I like working out of my color box and I would like to share the first item I made using one of my swap canes.

I believe the person who made the cane is Nancy Welch, I apologize if I have the name wrong the writing on the wrap was smudged. It is a beautiful Kaleidoscope cane made in golds greens and brown.

I used the cane to make inlays for a the gold bracelet in the photos. The pattern in her cane is so delicate and detailed she did a very nice job. Thank you Nancy..

I would like to thank Linda Weeks she was a wonderful swap host and I would recommend any one to join a swap hosted by her

I have a treasury

The web site that hosts my shop has a section where members can make a gallery of 12 items that they admire from other shops. I have been doing 2 a week of these little galleries that last for 2 days each for a couple of weeks now. Here is the one I made today.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=34064

I really enjoy curating these treasuries because it involves a lot of window shopping which I enjoy. I have found such amazing talented people on Etsy that I know I will never run out of artists to feature. It is kind of fun coming up with themes and catchy titles for the treasury.

So if you have a few minutes and want to see some pretty things check out the link to my treasury. I am going to try to remember to post a link here every time I curate a new treasury.

Gifts from a friend

I have a great online pal named Moe http://moeart.etsy.com her and I became friends through our polymer clay guild. She a wise person and a talented artist. We have spent may hours IM'ing each other talking about the things we like to make and our shared passion for polymer clay and family.

Another thing we like to do is trade craft supplies and send each other little projects we have made. The other day Moe sent me a bunch of very pretty vintage crystals and stones to play with. They were so pretty and sparkly I couldn't wait to sort them and use some of them. She sent me some beautiful shapes and colors that I am saving for some special projects and to make a gift for her. I couldn't resist I had to use a couple of them. I used them to make the business card holder in the photo. I thought it would make a nice gift for a quilter or quilt collector. I listed it in my shop yesterday and I hope it goes to a good home.

Polymer Clay Artists

I am a lucky person to be part of a wonderful group of polymer clay a-holics at web site called Polymer Clay Central. I have met so many wonderful talented people who love working with clay as much as I do. Everyone there is so ready to share what they know I have learned so much and been able to help others as well. I thought a good way to give a little back would be to feature some of my clay buddies at Polymer Clay Central.



So keeping the above in mind I want to tell people about someone I met at PCC. I knew I would be talking about her but I had no idea that she would be my first feature and I had no idea that my post would be a memorial post to her.



A few years ago I met a lovely woman named Cher Harper. She was a new member of our group and new to using polymer clay and she like all newbees was enthusiastic and full of questions. Her posts in our message board were so funny and full of the joy of learning something new it was hard to resist sharing the fun with her. I answered a few of her questions and then we started IM'ing each other to talk about clay . That was how we became Clay buddies.

We then started talking on the phone when she was stuck on a project and we would talk about our families, and that is how we became long distance friends. Cher had great love for her family and was very involved with her family and was very proud of them and thrilled to be a Grandmother. She had a great life she told me several times.

Like a lot friendships life sometimes gets busy and you don't keep in touch as much as you should, Cher got busy with family things and I was beginning my business and caring for my Grandson we kind of lost touch. Then my computer crashed last summer taking all my info, numbers and e-mail address with it. I wasn't to worried about Cher because I knew she checked out PCC often and I would hear from her there, She would say" Well Ginger you are really ROCKING the polymer clay world today,lol..."

Well I have learned to not take it for granted that people will be there because I learned the other day that dear, funny,kind Cher was mauled to death in her own yard by dogs... They also mauled her elderly neighbor to deathhttp://www.dailypressandargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071228/NEWS01/712280305/1002

It makes me so sad that such a kind persons life ended so violently and that she had to have been so scared. It makes me heart sick I feel sorrow for her family and thier loss.



So for me I won't take it for granted that friends will always be there in real life and in cyber life as well.