babushka faces before antiquingI’ve been making babushka faces and lentil beads all week. Sounds like a horrid recipe, doesn’t it? but the “lentil” part refers to the shape, and even though I’ve been sticking my heads in the oven all week long, things are looking good here. I’m committed to using up old scrap clay for “bead guts” and I reconditioned 5 pounds of it last night while watching tv with the family. I’m also going through all the boxes of  millefiore canes I have made over the years, and I’m using them up–feels good to let them go into becoming beads and things, since thats why I made ’em in the first place! It’s time to use up all the fabulous things I’ve aquired over the years–acrylic foils, metalic leaf, glitter, rhineshtones—time to make it all up into beautiful beads and components, and thats what I’m doing. Hours go by every day with prepping clay, processing clay, rolling and baking clay–and I’m having a lot of fun. Also I’m impressed that canes I made years ago that were wrapped in saran wrap and stored in boxes are still good–even if I’m down to the last 1/4 inch of them! And its time to use ’em up—-and MAKE MORE!!I’ll be working over the next few weeks at a steady pace to use up the clay I’ve got ready to go now.

Production work has its tedious moments, and drilling is boring, and even though it goes fast with my dremel moto-tool and drillpress accessory, I like that part least of all. I have about 2/3 of the beads I’ve baked this week drilled, and soon I’ll be ready to do the final step, antiquing the faces and adding some gloss to them and the beads, with Varathane. They’ll be much better looking then, but here’s a peek now. And I’ll go back to the studio and roll some more!

lentil shaped polymer clay beads