Collaboration with Debra Linker: Part 2

Things are moving right along with the ornaments. I am able to manage crafting 1 to 2 sets of them a night. Other than my 1 year old frying my laptop with cup of coffee I should have set out of her reach...lol...

Like John MaCain says, "That One."

Not much else to write but I have a few more pictures of the crafting process to those who are interested.

This is who I have dubbed 'pancake santa'. He is basicaly the shape of one of my pancakes. I never get them round. Do you? Here I am just getting the shape worked out.

Here I am just adding some details...



"pancake" is all done and ready to be baked!

The shapes and style that Debra uses for "Folksy Santa" paintings are fantastic to work with. It's very hard to get bored with them. I think that's why I have so much fun making them. This is the fun triangle shaped santa.

I'm basically just hammering out the shape here...

Adding the beard....see it there? On the side? lol

All done and ready for baking!

That's it for now!

La Te Dough

Rachel

Collaboration with DebraLinker

When I first came to Etsy.com to set up my shop I began to scout out the Holiday section to see how I would fit in with all the other shops. One of the first shops that I spotted was http://www.debralinker.etsy.com/ and her adorable "Folksy Santa" series of Christmas cards http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16866617. I immediately fell in love with them and decided after I made my first sale those cards would be the first thing I would buy.
A month or so later I made my first sale and the first thing I did was, you guessed it, I bought those cards. Soon after Debra and I began messaging back and forth admiring each others work and soon we decided to collaborate and give each other permission to make and sell designs inspired by each others designs.

Well, I'm so excited to say that I finally have begun the crafting of her "Folksy Santa" ornaments and decided that it would be fun to show some of the progression of what goes in to making dough art and especially the dough art inspired by Debra's "Folksy Santa's".



Here are some being baked!








And here are some of the first ones I made in the series monday night all ready to go to my mom's house to be painted!

That's it for now! I will add more pics as I progress!

Bye for now!

La Te Dough
Rachel

Bad American Host!

My husband has Japanese brother. When he was growing up in Modesto, California his parents decided to be a host family to a Japanese exchange student. They were so good at being a host family that the Exchange student basically adopted them as his parents and had them attend his wedding and visits them often in Modesto with his wife.
Thus, that is how we have uncle Koji in our lives.

So, Koji gave my husband a call the other night and told him that one of his wife's old ballet students (his wife was a prima ballerina in Osaka)has become an exchange student at the University of Washington and has had the unfortunate experience of being set up with a bad host family.
This family doesn't talk with her much or feed her or include her at all in their lives. On one occasion she asked if they could have a dinner together and they gave her a frozen T.V. dinner and told her it was "The American Way". (Understand that as a host family you are given money for meals and other expenses...)

So Koji asked us if we could contact her and visit with her to show her not all Americans are bad and to introduce her to some good all American meals.

I'm excited to have her over but I'm wondering what kind of dinner I should make. Any ideas out there?
What's a good all American meal - besides "Thanksgiving" dinner.

Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Thanks, Rachel

Introductions

I guess I should introduce myself.
My name is Rachel, I'm 34, a wife and mother of two. Nothing really exciting there, I know, but though my life may not be that interesting to a tabloid magazine it is....meaningful and significant. And so is yours.

My faith has tought me that no matter how simple or unoticed a life may be it will always be meaninful and significant to the one who created it.
And even if you don't believe in a creator your life is still significant to those who know you.

So that said, this blog was created for artists and crafters. And as artists and crafters we understand the significance of created things! No matter how small or simple they may be, it took our time and creativity and love for what we are creating to make it. And thus this thing, this craft that no one else may notice or care about is now meaningful and significant.

I create salt dough christmas ornaments and figures. It doesn't get much simpler than salt, flour and water.
But with a little molding and crafting, some vision, paint and love...we get something that can be hung on a tree and bring a little charm to the Holidays.

That's what I create. And this blog will have more to do with crafting and such later on. But for now I just wanted to introduce myself and where I am coming from when I craft.

So what do you create? What is behind your creations? What motivates you?

Bye for now!