Day 15...

I've got plans for these...stay tuned.

Remote clay day...

I've been waiting for Clay Day for quite a while.  To my dismay, I woke up to snow.  I live at the bottom of a steep hill and up a steep driveway in a neighborhood that will get snow when no one else does.  So I stayed home.  But I worked on stuff I would have done at clay day.  I made more of those funky mobeius beads that I made yesterday.  And I made this necklace:

It's...um, colorful.

Following my muse...

Huh.  I don't know why I didn't think of this before.  I kind of stacked up some little cutouts on top of a square of clay, and again on the bottom; poked a hole in it and formed a sort of mobeius bead.  It's too bad I can't figure out how to get a good picture of it.  It looks pretty cool in person.

Okay, I give up for now...

Part of my problem is I'm so easily bored.  I like making new things--I just don't like making the same new thing over and over again.  Here's my final try with this lacy onlay thing (for now, anyway):

Second try...

Hmm--I don't think this particular cane slice works with the lacy onlay.  I think the lace looks slightly better than yesterday.  The problem seems to be the shaping of the mobeius bead itself--it tends to distort the holes in the lace which causes it to look sloppy.  I'm going to give it one more try tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Just experimenting...

Eh.  My lighting in the evening is not very good.  I don't really notice it until I take a picture close up.  *shudder*  My lacy effect looks pretty sloppy--I'll have to try again....

What do you think?

The border gives it a more finished look, doesn't it?

Day 8...

I've noticed a definite difference in how a complex mobeius flower looks when made with a cane that doesn't have a border:|

I'll post bordered ones tomorrow so you can see the difference.

Double Duty

I'm teaching a class at Ben Franklin in February.  I'm noodling around trying to come up with a class sample.  Here's two that I've come up with...

...now I just have to bake them, string them, and deliver the completed pendants.  Or maybe come up with a couple more to choose from.  These things are addictive!

Moebius beads - day 6...

I made quite few today...

Beyond the bead...

So, not too long after learning how to make mobeius beads, there was a happy confluence of events that spun me off in a new direction.  Around that time a new clay came out--Premo (or it might have been premo's predecessor, promat--I'm afraid my memory is not what it used to be).  It had gorgeous colors and was a bit easier to work with than fimo.  Susan Hyde was a member of our guild and she was fearless in her use of color and made wonderful canes mimicking fabric.  Then I ran across an article in Ornament magazine (Spring 1995 issue) by David Forlano and Steven Ford on making wonderfully complex ikat canes.  So I spent a lot of happy hours inspired by Susan, and Ford & Forlano, making colorful ikat canes and trying to figure out what to do with them.  I made tons of mobeius beads and amplified them a bit.  I honestly can't remember when I came up with this:

I just kind of pushed three mobeius beads together and thought, hmm....  That opened up a whole range of possibilities and I went a little crazy after that...

Eh, more craziness tomorrow.  In the meantime, here's today's mobeius bead:

MORE cat hair?  Arrgghh!

Mokume Mobeius

I've mostly made mobeius beads from cane slices, but you can also get some nice ones using a small square cookie cutter (I must admit it's a lot easier to get a uniform bead when all you need to do is run a sheet through the pasta machine and then cut out a little square).  You can get some nice beads with a random, yet coordinating pattern.  Like this one (I backed it with a solid color which gives a nice effect):

*sigh* cat hair....

Double Mobeius

So where did the beautiful bauble known as a mobeius bead come from?  Well, this very gifted fellow named Mike Buesseler created it and generously shared it with our guild (among others) way back in the 1990's.  I must admit I became obsessed.  To take a cane slice and manipulate it into an intricate looking bead fascinated me.  I've taken inspiration from quite a few polymer clay artists over the years, but I've gained the most from Mike.  I guess I consider him my muse and mentor.  I consider the mobeius bead the foundation of quite a few of my creations.  Here's a little adaptation I came up with fairly early on...a double slice mobeius bead:

New Year's Goal - updated

Okay, I'm rethinking my goal a bit.  365 mobeius beads in one year might be a bit much.  I think I'll do a mobeius bead every day in January, then in February I'll do a Natasha bead a day.  I'll come up with a different type of bead for every month.  I have some themes in mind, but I haven't firmed anything up beyond February--I tend to be creative on the fly.  I never quite know what's going to spark my interest until the time comes.  Anyway, here's today's mobeius bead:

New Year's Goal...

I'm not good at resolutions, so maybe if I say "goals" instead, I might actually follow through....

I'm going to try to make a mobeius bead every day this year.  What's a mobeius bead you ask?  This...