Eyes, Eyes, everywhere

As planned today, I made eyes.  Well, that's not all I did, but that's what's on my Polymer Clay Desk.

Let's start at the beginning of the day, though, shall we?  I started the day out by making Homemade Vegetable Soup, or at least that's what it started out to be.  I can't quite get the hang of only cooking for one or two and not a family and friends.  I originally couldn't decide if I wanted Soup or Stew, and finally settled on Soup.  So, I got out the trusty crock pot this morning and dumped the chopped up stew meat into it and then began cutting carrots, celery, potatoes, and onions, and by the time I was done, the crock pot was full and I mean FULL.  Hmmm, I asked myself, what now, no room for the V-8 juice (the family recipe calls for Tomato juice, but I don't like it, so I substitute V-8).  It can't be soup if there's no liquid.  So, I thinks to myself, can I just cook up the meat and veges and then take out half and save it to make stew on Monday and add V-8 to what's left to make my soup?  I decided I could and proceeded to do so (I still asked my Mom when I talked to her and Mr. C when I talked to him if they thought it would work, LOL).  They were both in favor and indeed it did work.  Then I made up a recipe of bread, but put it in little foil loaf pans instead of a big pan and now have 10 beautiful little loaves of homemade bread to go with my homemade soup.  Yum!

Well, alright, so there's only 9 now, I had to try some fresh out of the oven, hot, and dripping with butter, didn't I?

So, here's the soup all ready to go for my supper and it's a good thing it's almost that time, as it smells heavenly and I'm hungry.

So, then, I finally got to make my eyes.  Have I mentioned why I want or need to make eyes?  I'm taking a class with Kori Leppart-Butts at That Creative Place on Sculpting a Child Fairy.  When I first got involved with Polymer Clay, it was with the idea of sculpting, but sculpting is very difficult for me, so I tried other techniques, also and, as anyone who knows me well is already aware, I found I had a real knack for making canes.  So, I put aside the sculpting and started making canes.  Problem is that I don't have any clue what to do with my canes, I just love making them, so Mr. C started selling them to support the purchase of more clay to make. . . more canes, of course.

Back to the eyes, so I've wanted to do sculpting.  I can do very simple sculpting, but as seen in my canework, I tend towards realism, so I want to learn to sculpt realistically (hmmm, kind of an oxymoron there, "a realistic fairy". . . well, the next class is sculpting a baby, so it counts).  I will need eyes for my Child Fairy and they will need to be small, as I work fairly small and it is a CHILD Fairy, after all.  It just so happens that Kori sells  eyes that she makes, but I didn't know what color or for sure what size I wanted, and Kori also happens to sell a tutorial for Making Glass-Like Eyes for your OOAK Doll.  The rest is history, as today I finally made some eyes.  However, after the first batch using Kori's Tutorial, which did come out quite nicely, I do believe, in 2mm, 3mm, and 4mm size and multiple colors, Mr. C reminded me of something.

Mr. C says, "Ummm, those are nice, but why aren't you just using your eye canes you made a couple years ago????"  I says, "Ummmm, 'cause I forgot about them."  So, I went digging through acres of schtuff and finally found the few I didn't sell (I always keep a  couple of samples from every cane I make so I can use them myself. . . well, someday, anyway).  Then I proceeded to make my own version of eyes for my Fairy Child using my own eye canes.   So I guess I have my own technique, now.

But, I can't decide if I like them better with or without the top coat of gloss:

Problem is, NOW I want more colors, I don't know why I never considered that eyes could come in more colors than just plain brown, blue, and green, so now, I have to take time out to make more variations in eye colors, but I just got word that the Fairy Child class is supposed to start 'yesterday', so guess I'll have to use the eyes I've already made this time around.

So, that's my day for today and now it's time for some homemade vegetable beef soup and bread goodness to warm up my innards on a cold day (the day started at -9.9* and is now up to 1.4*, brrrr).  So, until tomorrow. . .