craft nights are keeping me sane.

one day, we'll be able to open this up to more people - as it stands, none of us have the space to really allow for larger numbers of people to create.

but, for now, it's keeping me totally sane. stress levels are below a danger threshold (which is when i start producing massive quantities of stomach acid and pain). last meetup, we made hypertufa planters! when i finally plant something in it, i'll be sure to post. it was fairly easy, although one of the ingredients smelled strongly of cat litter. used cat litter.

hint: portland cement is caustic - use gloves or wash your hands and apply massive quantities of lotion as needed.

these pics are from the meetup at my house - we made carved sculpey beads - ridiculously easy. hello jo-ann's sale! roll a bead, poke with skewer, bake for 15 minutes, cut with razor blade/x-acto knife (we put them on crumpled foil to bake - no need to worry much about dent marks in the clay from the foil, since we would be carving into them).



i really want to make more and will hopefully soon be tracking down some ball chain to use as the necklace. i like the way it lays, and it's cheap. right, it's cheap? seems like it'd be cheap.





this was an attempt to make a colorful rainbow bead necklace. it's still in this state in the craft room. rainbow necklace fail.



one of the craft members found this fantastic piece of wood shaped exactly like a turtle head! no, not like this. at least, one hopes not.