Happy Moonday, Everyone! Really, it is! Wikipedia says ~ The English noun Monday derived sometime before 1200 from monedæi, which itself developed from Old English (around 1000) mōnandæg and mōndæg (literally meaning "moon's day")... A number of songs feature Monday, often as a day of melancholy. For example, "Monday, Monday" (1966) from the Mamas & the Papas, "Rainy Days and Mondays" (1971) from the Carpenters, "I Don't Like Mondays" (1979) from the Boomtown Rats, and "Manic Monday" (1986) from the Bangles. It is a grey, rainy Moonday (doesn't that sound better, anyway?) here in Southeast Missouri and I'm trying to make the best of it! Really, though ~ I've always loved anything lunar, even calling my arty-stuff October Moon Designs/ October Moon Art...inspired by my October birthday. ♥ ~ Isn't this 1903 postcard of a lovely Moon Lady just wonderful? Like the nursery rhyme says, "Monday's Child is fair of face"... ~ ~ And then there's one of my favorite books from when I was little, Little Audrey and the Moon Lady...:^) (1960) ~ You know I love playing with polymer clay and making all kinds of little things to go on my Fairy Houses...the flowers I make to embellish them are among my favorite things to create... I've had clay and beads and beads and more beads collected for a couple of years now, knowing I wanted to make jewelry, but not sure just what...lots of polymer artists make beautiful, realistic flowers, but I wanted to do something unique, and it just hadn't come to me. A few years ago I got Christi Friesen's Dragons book, and right then I knew I wanted to add beads and pearls and crystals to polymer clay... ~ ~ ~ This is the little dragon I made after reading Christi's book in 2007. Looking at him now I can see that he could use a little refinement, but I was hooked! ~ Back to moons and flowers... ~ ~ A few days ago I was waiting for my little "mini" Fairy House to come out of the oven, and I was conditioning (playing with) some clay with which I'd planned to cover the house's base... I'd used my Grandma's biscuit cutter to cut out a round of clay for covering an area of the house ~ (I know...who would have thought? ~ Wish I had learned to make her biscuits with it, but...) Anyway, I cut a circle with it and then moved it over about an inch and cut another circle, accidently making a perfect crescent moon, and I thought ~ "What a good shape for a flowery brooch!" It would be perfect, curved "just so" on a sweater or lapel... ~ ~ So here is my first pin/brooch...the crescent shape works really well, I think, with the gently curving flower, buds and leaves. I also added some copper jewelry headpins with Czech glass flowers and Swarvoski crystals...(love them!). Then as a finishing touch, I wired in some genuine peridot briolettes... (I didn't think I'd ever find a use for them...they are so pretty, but the holes are too tiny for most headpins.) ~ ~ One thing led to another... And now I have all sorts of ideas... I have a smaller round cutter as well, so I plan to make two sizes of moons... Finally something for my Etsy shop, October Moon Art! I will post a tutorial for the rose pin later this week. :^) ~ ~ Now ~ Can you believe it? Another "oopsie"... I should be too embarrassed to show you! I had finished the little leaf and tendril on the Fairy House, and had it curing in the oven. Jonathan came downstairs to fix himself a pizza, and I told him I was baking something (he would instinctively know it wasn't food), but that I would put it in for him as soon as mine was finished. A few minutes later, the oven timer went off, signaling that the little house was ready. I turned the oven temperature up to 400 degrees for the pizza, and went about playing with more clay. About ten minutes went by; maybe a little less. The oven beeped to let me know the temperature was right. Something made me look around... where did I put the Fairy House? Uh, oh. Yep. I opened the oven door, and stinky, burned-polymer smoke rolled out... Oh, shoot, shoot, SHOOT!! I couldn't believe I had done this...but sometimes you just have to laugh! As I said previously, polymer clay is wonderfully "fixable"... So I laughed. So did Jonathan. I told him that if it had been the new little moon brooch, though, I would have been sad! (I think the papier-mache is finally truly dry, however...) This will make me think, the next time! (Hopefully!) I let it cool and peeled off the blackened blob of clay... ~ ~ And here it is, one more time! I think I like this leaf and tendril better, anyway. :^) ~ ~ Isn't this a cute vintage post card? Look at the little acorn "light fixture" ~ Like mine! I guess the pull-cord is the doorbell... I think I like my tiny acorn "button" one better ~ I do like the little window-sill/shelf, though! That's all for now...back to making little moons! (Thank you to all the new folks who have visited me...welcome!) Love,
