blue bird, blue bird through my window...

According to several online sources the blue bird is a widely accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness, and prosperity. One source even suggested that it is a symbol of fertility. I've never seen one in person although my mother says she sees them all the time and she only lives 15 miles west of me. If you're celebrating Easter this weekend - have a good one! 

after the storm

I'm still plugging away on this anchor cane. The blizzard stole a couple of production days from me but I'm back on track. This cane is gigantic  - never anticipated it would get quite so large. Sure hope there's a lot of sailors out there! I'm very close to finishing the construction. A few more rows of waves and I'll be able to start to reduce it. 

anchor's away!

I refer to these most recent canes as simple/complex canes. This is truly an oxymoron."Simple" because the images are just that, granted — when producing the cane however they are anything but. Maybe graphic/complex cane is more apropos. The graphic nature of the images require more symmetry to be successful than an organic cane might. I just have to keep reminding myself to make calculated decisions and not to take short cuts. Hopefully I'll get to finish this before the storm comes. Sounds like it might shut down the region as the day progresses tomorrow. I'll be curious to see how the waves hold up when reduced - but that will probably have to wait 'til next week.

luck o' the irish

I'm up early on this Saturday morning. My house is nice and quiet...for the  moment. I think I'll savor it for awhile. Yesterday I received a nice mention from Cynthia Tinapple on Polymer Clay Daily regarding my scalloped heart cane - thank you! I missed it entirely when I perused over the post in the morning. What a nice surprise to find it! When I'm making these simple/complex canes I'm trying to think two steps ahead of myself. (I'll tell you about a problem I hadn't considered when I post a shot of the reduced heart cane on Monday.) I reworked the outer edge on this shamrock cane to separate the yellow from the purple. If I didn't add a thin white strip between the two colors I would probably get an undesired brown. Of course I didn't think of this until I had completed the work. So I undid and reworked but I'm glad I took the time instead of getting some disappointing results.

for the love of David Sedaris

New heart. My goal is to work with strong color palettes and simple designs this go round. With the intent of reducing these images down to 1/2" size it makes no sense to create too complex of a cane. Red, golden yellow and aqua have always been a favorite color combo of mine. The hardest part for me when I work on projects like these is resisting the temptation to prematurely reduce the cane without letting it settle for a bit. With the help of a David Sedaris book on CD - I was able to keep my mind occupied. By the time the book was finished so was the cane. It was also quitting time.