Layers of Lace

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wednesday Wings with Summertime Bokeh

Tuesday dawned dark and dreary and Wednesday will be more of the same. We are expecting 2-3 inches of rain with wind. So I thought I would share a summertime image! As much as I like the monarch butterfly, I think I like the background bokeh in this pic just as much.

Wishing you a bright and sunny day!

Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden And keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine Kind words and kind deeds. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Quarto Publishing- Watercolor book

GORGEOUS

These necklaces by Ayelet Rottenberg (New Zealand) are bold yet feminine, innovative yet traditional, monochromatic yet bright, but first of all they are simply gorgeous.

There are only a few designs in Ayelet's Etsy shop right now, so head to her photo album for 25 pages full of her beautiful pictures.

COMPLEX

I want to start the month of July with these amazing polymer clay canes by Tami Shvat (tamishvat.etsy.com). These are raw canes, which means that you can cut them slice after slice to receive the same design. I am in owe of the skill and patience required to make such complex and beautiful canes.

See more works by Tami in her flickr and picturetrail albums.

EXCELLENT

Bright colors, intricate details, and lovely shapes – this is how I would describe the new earrings in Elena Bucharska's shop, elenadesignbead.etsy.com. Elena offers these beautiful polymer clay flowers as beads, too.

TANTALIZING

These delicate flowers in soft colors are from oakgeorgia.etsy.com by Georgia Morgan. Such a simple design, but every time I come across them on the Internet, they catch my attention and make me stop to admire them, just like real flowers...

There are more photos of Georgia's work at flickr.com/photos/oakgeorgia and georgiamorgan.net.

CRYSTAL

These lovely earrings, a combination of crystal and polymer clay, are from DIMATSU100.etsy.com.

This design won in the Martha Stewart Living "Calling All Crafters" photo contest and will be featured in the July photo gallery on Martha Stewart.com.

Cool design! No wonder it won!

KINDRED

Dogwoods, lilies, dragons and swirls – I think I just discovered my kindred spirit!

These works of Rebekah Payne may be found in her new Etsy shop, Tree Wings Studio. There are more pictures of her work – both finished and in process – in her beautiful blog, treewingsstudio.blogspot.com.

FEMININE

These amazingly-detailed and dainty bracelets and earrings were created by a self-taught polymer clay artist from Malaysia. I love her soft colors and feminine designs!

Find these and other pieces in beadscraftz.etsy.com.

More pictures of her work can be found on flickr.com/photos/beadscraftz.

PETALED

These multi-petal fantasy flowers are from ZudaGay.etsy.com. What a beautiful combination of color, form, and texture!

Ther are more pictures of Zuda's work in her blog and photo album.

FLORAL

With my interest in sculpting polymer clay flowers, these hand-sculpted creations from dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com caught my attention, although the material used to make them is not a typical polymer clay. It is CLAYCRAFT by DECO Soft Clay – an air-drying synthetic clay-like material, which in its raw form behaves quite similar to "regular" polymer clay (except it does not need to be baked).

Diane Phillips, the artist who makes these gorgeous flowers, teaches Deco clay classes in San Jose, California. Visit her web site for more information.