ELVES
I made elf ornaments last year for my coworkers for their Christmas presents. I'm just now getting them on my blog because unfortunately I thought I had moved the images from my camera to my computer before deleting them, but obviously hadn't. Luckily my Aunt took pictures of them and I was able to get the pictures from her. These are polymer clay over aluminum foil balls. I made two for each of my coworkers, as the both have two small children.

When I made the ornaments for my co-workers, I made an elf face for myself and this was another of those body-less heads floating around the studio. I thought maybe I would try doing a cloth body for him, so I used a pattern I had which seemed to be the right size. Once I made the body, though, it reminded me of a frog. That gave me the idea to paint the body green and add spots and create a frog-elf. I added spots to his face as well.

When cleaning out this weekend, I found the silver leaf server. I think it works great as a "pad" for him to sit upon. I'll have to color it with alcohol inks to get the right color.

Joyce Cloutman is a member of our polymer clay guild and she attended Donna Kato's workshop earlier in the year. She gave Donna an adorable elf that she had made using canes from a previous workshop with Donna (unfortunately I didn't get a picture). She also had this little guy pictured on the left & we all feel in love with him. Pictured on the right is Joyce with another one of her cute little elves.

As workshop chairman, it is my responsibility to schedule workshops for our guild. After much urging by the members at Donna's workshop, I spoke with Joyce about coming and teaching a workshop for the guild this summer. It took much convincing on my part, as Joyce had not taught before and wasn't confident about doing so. Let me tell you, she had nothing to feel insecure about! Her workshop was last Saturday and it was fabulous. She broke things out to make it easy for each of us to create our own "Butterfly Elf", was very gracious and giving and also shared many, many invaluable tips & techniques that we will be using for years (got to make one of those curing boxes, especially with this 100+ heat).

While I don't have a picture of the finished project we did, I do have pictures to share of some of Joyce's adorable elves, all but two went to new homes, as the members purchased them.

Don't you just love the sweet little faces on her elves? Plus the detail is fabulous! Lucky me, Joyce generously gave me the original elf that we saw, the one on the upper left of this post.

I didn't finish my elf, but I did make two faces at the workshop. As soon as I get a chance, I'll finish them and post them. Neither little face wanted to be a butterfly elf, they have other things in mind.