Mabray’s tricks

I need a little good fortune today and a little time off for my wrist which brings me to Angela Mabray, CraftyGoat, and her polymer clay fortune cookie.

Angela’s site has pages and pages of tips and tricks to keep you entertained and educated. (She used a pumice stone for the realistic texture on this cookie.) She’s especially good at repurposing kitchen tools and at organizational tricks. If you’re breezing through, go to her Flickr stream you’ll get the gist from her great pictures.

Your tools

“Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.” – Bruce Mau

Helm’s Auntie and tools from trash

While I shy away from new tools for polymer clay, I can’t resist tools repurposed from items found in my junk drawer. Donna Diseker, a newcomer to clay, sent this link to Edith’s Bijoux blog which is filled with pictures of all kinds of household junk turned into terrific tools.

Tania Zakharchenko‘s (Russian, I think) uses the bottom of beverage cans to form nice brooch shapes. Of course, why didn’t I think of that?

And since we’ve steered off course, you need to see what Sarajane Helm is up to with her Aunt Acid, a polymer clay puppet with a purpose. Sarajane calls her “a tie-dyed tempest with a teapot and a wicked sense of observational humor whose satirically sharp wit goes along with a soft heart and a hard head.” Auntie even has her own myspace page.

Auntie says she prepares her web posts attired in a blogging suit and blogging bra. I’m still chuckling.

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