I also took a class with Laurie Mika which I really enjoyed. She does such beautiful work. Here is a sample of what I did in the class although it isn't finished yet. I have the main piece constructed (in the middle) and a few of the tiles done. I used black polymer clay with blue, pink, and gold mica powders. Before I applied any of the mica powders I coated the pieces in Golden Copper Fluid Acrylic. After all the colors were applied, we baked the tiles for 20 minutes in a polymer clay oven. The baked tiles that came out had a faux raku look. The colored tile above the dragonfly wings was a white polymer clay tile that was baked then colored with mica powders and copper paint. Laurie brought the white polymer clay already baked.

I took a class with Karen O'Brien and I must say it was the messiest most fun class I have taken in a LONG time. This is the book cover. I'll be posting the rest of the pages (although they pretty much like this one) eventually. She is really organized and I highly recommend taking a class with her if you have the opportunity.

Here is a cell phone fob that I did from a kit by Laura McCabe. It worked up very fast and was a lot of fun to do. I made one for a friend that she uses as a pendant to wear around her neck. They are addictive so I had to move onto other things. I wish I could design like she does. I use components of hers for some of my own jewelry. If you are interested in her work, she does have a book out and is featured frequently in Bead and Button in addition to Beadwork magazine.

This is a copper Byzantine bracelet which we make to sell.

This is an image from a fat book techniques swap I was in. I used the technique of Emboss Resist from Bernie Berlin's book The ATC Workshop. For the swap, I had to make 120 of these 4x4 cards for the participants. I got my box of the 120 techniques cards and I must say that all were beautiful and inspiring. I can't wait to try some of these techniques.

This is the card from an Inkjet Image Transfer Swap that I was in. I used Lazertran's Waterslide for Inkjet printers to produce my transferred image. I was impressed by how crisp and clear the waterslide image was. I had tried using gel transfers but the image just kept washing away. I tried this several times but finally gave up. I prefer using images printed from a laserjet or copier for my gel transfers and tape transfers. The image I used was Molly, the Duchess of Nona by Frank Cadogan Cowper. Cowper was considered the last of the Pre-Raphaelites. Don't you just love her clothes and the expression on her face? I also included a little Cupid on the front of the card since the Pre-Raphaelites were also into mythology.