TENseconds Studio

Holiday Cheer

Megan usually makes some of her Christmas gifts and this year was no different.  We love to go and stock up on frames for projects and she used this one for one of her close friends.

This frame is store bought from one of our favorite places. She antiqued our copper metal with Ver-Day and then hung the jewelry piece on top.

We filmed this as a video and for some reason I couldn't figure out how to get the camera in focus for the first part.

This video also ended up being more out-takes than anything else. When we do get to the closeups of the project the focus is much better. 

 

 

 

 

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas Holiday and you have a Happy New Year. There is still a couple of days to post a comment on our Ver-Day video and win a bottle. Megan will be picking the winner on Wednesday and we'll announce it on Thursday.

Merry Happy Peace

No matter how you say it, I think we all mean the same thing when we give holiday greetings. There is so much talk these days about the correct greeting to give and what companies you should shop with that have the correct greeting...

Really...I don't know why we spend time worrying about minor things when we should be worrying about bigger things than the correct greeting. Maybe, we could all love one another. It's so very simple but seems so complicated to achieve.

I hope everyone slows down this holiday, take a moment to look around you and appreciate what you have rather than what you don't have, help someone to make their day 50% better and most importantly love those close to you.  

I hope you all have a very merry, happy, peace on, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kawansaa and a loving holiday. As for me I'll be doing whatever my Mom wants me to do.

Copper and Ver-Day

People are always asking me what's your favorite color of metal and I have to now say, "it's copper."

I love this stuff. Since we've gotten our huge shipment in, we've been going nuts over copper. This is PURE copper not the art metal.

The second thing I love is painting on copper our new Antiquing Patina Ver-Day. This stuff is so easy to use and the effects are different each time you use it.

We've been playing around with our videos and shot another video on this technique.

A couple of tips before you start with copper. Wash your hands, try and keep the copper clean from oil while you're working, you may want to lightly buff it with a sanding block to give it a little tooth and you will want to give it a light coat of varnish when it's all dry and done. This will seal the color and stop it from continuing to change in color.

  

 

Customer ideas

Peggy Newlen in Maryland sent me this photo of a project she made for Patti at the Queen's Ink in Maryland.

This is made from a box that clay was formed around with metal accents on the bottom.

It looks like she used our Bronze God metal that's been cut out. But it also looks like she used our molds on the clay as a background texture.

I love seeing what customers come up with using our tools in their own art forms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is really creative thinking is lifting the top and little earings are hanging from hooks.

That is brilliant, and our mold was used on the clay earings.

It's refreshing to see more and more people taking their love of crafting and making gifts, than to just go out and buy something made in China.

Thank you Peggy for emailing me your photos and I hope others will send me pictures of what you're making. Try and size it correctly and it helps if it's in focus.

 

 

 

Another customer of ours, JW Ford sent me  a link to her website that has pics of what she does. I was amazed at the talent this woman has and she claims I inspired her. JW, your work inspires me. Please visit her site and check out some of the beautiful pieces she is creating. I've sent her an email asking if she sells her pieces Her piece on Basquiat was fabulous. For those of you who don't know who Basquiat is, google him.

Thanks to all of you who sent us emails about the youtube video this week on the Gelli Art Plates. Wait til you see next week's video on Ver-Day.

The year is quickly winding down and we've got some great ideas for 2012. I'm coming to the Phoenix area the end of January and will post the classes out there next week. I'm going to three stores and then the following week out to the International Bead Show in Tuscon. I'll have more info on all these venues next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. My new saying..."I'm on the tollroad to crazy!"

We got youtubed

If you haven't gotten on the Gelli Art Printing Plate bandwagon, well you're missing the boat.

These printing plates are so cool to create all sorts of backgrounds, transparencies, decorative tags and envelopes or transferring images from molds onto paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We shot a quick youtube video this week for everyone to watch for our Tuesday Video. This is just a taste of what you can do with the Gelli Art Printing Plates, we will have an online class available next year showing all sorts of cool ideas that can be done with these plates, our metal and molds.

A little less than two weeks to Christmas and I hope everyone is enjoying the season as much as we are.

My folks are amazing me each day when I come out and listen to some of the crazy things they say. I mentioned to my mom the other day that they may want to go and check out the senior center in our town so they could make new friends and fill their days with something other than hanging out in Walmart. My mom put her hands on her hips and said in her best 'she knows everything and I know squat,' "Cheryl, we are not old enough to go to a senior center and hang out with all those old people." Who knows, maybe she's right.

 

Friday

This is what my whole cross looked like that I posted on Tuesday. This is done on pure copper and then our Ver-Day painted on.

There is a lot of brass brushing on this piece but it was well worth the work.

 

Our blog comment winner for today is Suzanne from Santa Barbara. Suzanne, I'm bookin' the flight and will let you know the dates I'm coming.  I would love to have my own "wing" for a vacation. I'm thinking a month in March. Hope that's ok!?! Email me your address and I'll get your art out to you.

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend and you've got your self caught up for this season. I can't believe Christmas is just a couple of weeks off. December is flying by. 

19 days left

I thought I would give you a peek at what I'm working on. Take Copper Metal and add our Ver-Day and you get a beautiful rich patina on pure copper or brass.

We've been going nuts with our new patina. If you didn't get this stuff when we were having our metal sales last month, you definitely want to pick some up while we have the last case left before the new year. Once this is gone, it's gone till next year.

Last week's video on our alphabet stamps brought quite a few email questions about other techniques, so in keeping with the season I thought this would be a good refresher for ideas in gift making.

Stamp on fabric and stitch using DMC thread.

 

 

 

 

This is a closeup showing the letter stamped on muslin and then colored in with Perfect Pearls as a watercolor wash on fabric.

I've stitched around the letter with a running stitch in black.

 

 

 

 

You can also transfer the image onto the metal and emboss using our tools. This is a great idea for personalizing all sorts of items for gifts.

Check out the video and hopefully you can use these ideas for last minute personalized gifts. You only have 19 days left!

Post a comment for this video here and on Friday I'll pick a winner and someone will get something I've made, it may even come in time to put under your tree.

I want to thank all of you who sent emails to me regarding taking care of parents. You shared such funny stories of your own "fun" and it made me laugh. The other morning I came out to the kitchen and my mom announced that my toaster didn't work. I said "why not?" She said the crumbs were on the bottom and she couldn't get it them out. I turned the toaster over and nothing came out. She said her toaster worked better than my toaster (well doesn't that go without saying!) So I said I would take care of it and I walked outside and slamdunked it into the trash can. It would have felt better if I could have hit it with a hammer...the toaster, not my mom. I then walked back inside and my beautiful mom said, "Well, you didn't have to throw a good toaster away, we could have given it to the Goodwill." We got it out of the trash and it's in the box for the Goodwill, but it's broken after I threw it into a empty trashcan. Favorite Hubby wants to commit me, I may beg him to.