With Good Intentions...

First of all, this is what happens in our back yard during the Monsoon Season.  Desert plants spring up all over the yard.

Some of the ones that I like the most get to live where they grow.  This little guy is smack dab in the middle of the yard and that's where he's going to stay.

The monsoons have hit the last couple of days and are about to come in again this afternoon.  It starts getting dark about 3:00PM every day.

As I said before, it's not a good time to take photos of minis.  It's also not a great time for beads either.

I started out intending to do some dishes and food for the crooked cottage and the weaver's workshop....Good intentions often get bent out of shape when the poly clay leaves it's cage.

I had a LOT of scraps from other projects just laying in the box of canes...How could I leave them there to contaminate the pretty canes?

The answer is, I couldn't.

For those of you not familiar with "Natashia Beads", they are my favorite way of using up scraps.  She is a lady from Russia that invented the process, thus the name.  They are also referred to as mirror beads.  I kind of think of them as little Rorschach tests...  You can pick out all kinds of things in the images.  There are four sides to the beads and each side is a different test.  I see a butterfly in the first one...You find things in the rest.

These are three that I came up with.  Mind you that these are nowhere near finished..

The first step is to moosh(technical term) up a lot of little scraps of different colors together and  chop them up still further.  I usually gather them up and roll them together.  Then if they aren't fine enough when I slice the piece in two, I chop that piece up more and gather it together.  I keep repeating the process until it looks pretty fine.

When they are fine enough, you shape them into an oblong block.  Then you proceed to cut it lengthwise in the center.  Lay those out, cut side up and do the same thing to those two pieces.  Then you basically turn the block inside out.  If you did it right, when you stick it back together, each side will have a mirror image on it.

I still have some smoothing to do on these and then I will have to put a hole through the center lengthwise.

When I am satisfied with the shape and smoothness, I will bake them.

When they are cool, they will be sanded and polished.  The last step will be to put Future Acrylic floor wax on them for a good finish.

This is the sum total of my work today,,,,Not a plate or a carrot in sight.

I will get back to the serious stuff tomorrow.  Right now I am having way too much fun finding things in the sides of the beads. 

I see a bunny and a frog and......

Anyway,  back to playing and enjoying the rainy weather.

See you tomorrow.