Beaders

I recently joined the Beaders Showcase group for jewelry designers, and I displayed a few pictures of my new polymer clay pieces.  I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email today telling me that they had selected one of my pieces to showcase on the website.

  They selected a favorite of mine, the faux Lapis Lazuli necklace of polymer clay that I gave my cousin for her birthday.   Here is the link for you to take a peek.  http://www.beadersshowcase.com/photo/polymer-clay-lapiz-lazuli?context=user

Pear Earrings of Polymer Clay

Our family as an annual Octoberfest and we have a theme so that we can prepare something that has to do with that theme.  It can be a recipe for food or drink, or a painting or a game or centerpiece for the table.  Whatever we decide.  Past themes have been something made with Pumpkin, apples, German Potato Salad.  This year we were asked to include pears in our project.  After thinking hard on this I decided that it would be fun to make pear shaped earrings for all the ladies in attendance.  Cindy Lietz, the Polymer Clay tutor had a video class on how to make Anjou Pears out of Polymer Clay, so I pulled that up and here is my take on the Pear Earrings.

 One photo is of the unbaked and raw pears. The second is of the finished earrings.

Palm Springs Museum

I spent an interesting afternoon at our local Palm Springs Art Museum.  Due to a generous donation from the Berger Foundation, the museum is offering Free admission to the museum on the second Sunday of each month for 3 years.  They are offering interesting art demonstrations, music, dance and a short film on a featured exhibition and the artist.

As a Polymer Clay Artist I am  always interested in color and  patterns in everything I see.  I watched the dance artistry yesterday and admired the  two colors of a costume that I thought would make a beautiful Skinner Blend.  What really caught my eye though was the beautiful blown glass exhibits by the artist, Lino Tagliapietra.  Many interesting millefiore designs in glass, and textures that would be absolutely gorgeous in Polymer Clay.

Here is a link that will take you to some beautiful glasswork by Lino Tagliapietra, and a little history on the artist.  http://www.psmuseum.org/exhibitions/current_exhibition.php?id=26.  I'm sure you will enjoy this.

Stella & Dot Think Pink Boutique

Besides having my own jewelry design business where I make some pretty Polymer Clay Beads to use in my jewelry designs, I am a Stylist for Stella & Dot, a direct sales jewelry company.  This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and Stella & Dot is featuring a "Think Pink" Boutique.  20% of sales from this boutique will go to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer.

Take a look at this "Think Pink" boutique at www.stelladot.com/loretta and then click on trends.  You can't go wrong with any of these beautiful pieces, and it's for such a worthy cause.

A couple of my favorite pieces in this collection is first the Perfect Faceted earrings in Rose Quartz, and second the Rose Quartz Cross Necklace.  You can also pick up a cute Awareness Charm to add to your bracelet or necklace.
                                                            

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is a special month for me.  It is my birthday month, and a month that I celebrate  9 years of being free of  Breast Cancer.  Awareness is very important in treating this dreaded cancer, because with early detection you have a much better rate of survival.   It is also important that the person diagnosing and reading your mammograms are board certified in that field.

I have always been vigilant about getting my mammograms, and feeling confident after having them that I was cancer free.  Little did I know that many Imaging Centers are not trained to catch the very small pre-cancer calcifications that happen and can eventually turn into full blown cancer.  I was at 3 different imaging centers in an 8 year period, and two of them missed the spot.  Fortunately it was slow growing insitu-ductal, and I had a very well trained, Board Certified in Mammography, Radiologist the third time that caught it.   After a Lumpectomy, removal of a few lymphnodes and radiation, I am cancer free.

I encourage you all to visit this website for up-to-date information on the treatment of Breast Cancer.  http://nbcam.org/index.cfm