Color Wonder

I have recently discovered Crayola's Color Wonder markers and finger paints. They are a clear "paint" or marker that only shows on special paper. So my two year old can color off the side of the paper (or couch for that matter) and I don't have to clean up her lovely art work from where it shouldn't be. Such a wonderful invention! I'm fascinated by color and this has naturally led me to Maggie Maggio's blog "Smashing Color". She is what I would call the color guru particularly of the polymer clay world but also in other artistic fields as well. Anyway, I was looking through her gallery of works and I saw her lovely watercolor beads...jaw droppingly beautiful I must say. Well I had to try to make some of my own. I'm not entirely sure of her technique but I made my best guess and came up with some beads that I am very happy with. They definitely aren't as good as hers but I'll take them! I'm still struggling with finding my "thing". I don't know if that makes sense but I want to find my style, my voice in my work if you will. I want to be able to make a piece and when it is all said and done someone could look at it and say "That is Keila Hernandez's work". Right now I've been doing a lot of imitation and experimenting but I haven't gotten there yet. I don't know how long it takes for an artist to find their voice but I hope it happens soon. Well here are the latest pictures of my stuff. Maggie style beads and an experiment with metal leaf, liquid clay and a heat gun. (very fun by the way!)

Tragic Loss

No, no one has died, however I have suffered a great loss. In my husband's good intentions of making our computer a happier machine by reformatting it, he failed to double check that my pictures were entirely backed up. Therefore, I have LOST nearly all of my pictures from the past 8 months. This includes not only all my recent clay work but even worse the pictures of my kids. I am a excessive picture taker, I want to savor every moment and (eventually) put all my picture in a scrapbook. Like most scrappers I am about a year behind in my books so I hadn't even printed any pictures except for some from March... I suppose life goes on but I am just about in tears about having next to no pictures of my 9 month old son.

This was all a few days ago and to lift my spirits I just finished the biggest cane I have ever made. It had so many components (and a lot of translucent) that it just kept growing and growing. By the time I was ready to reduce it it weighed 1.5 pounds! I know a lot of people make canes a lot bigger than that but most of mine are just a few ounces. I was almost afraid to slice it after I reduced because I was so scarred that it would be terrible and I would have wasted all that time (nearly 4 days) and clay. But when I cut it open my fears were relieved and I think that it turned out pretty good. Let me know what you all think.