Tips: Here are my favorite etching tools

Click on the photo to see a larger view of it

Beads: Instead of getting steps...

... on my pedometer, I just had to make something (or two things)!
Okay, so now I'll go outside. (Have I mentioned that I am an indoor cat and even on a beautiful day would be just as happy inside playing with clay or drawing? Sunshine coming in the window is good enough for me.)

Beads: KatMan Can Do!

Is he a cat or man? you decide...

Demonstration: The "etching" process

I finally posted some photos on flicker to show you how I do my etched focals and bead sets.
You can see the photos and my notes here: Demonstration of the "etching" process

It shows how I went from this:

to this:

You can see more of my etched beads on flickr.

Beads: Low-calorie doughnuts!

Etsy Treasury: Goats!

I have liked little goats since seeing The Hunchback of Notre Dame movie with Maureen O'Hara as the beautiful dancing girl Esmeralda and her pet goat, Djali. I have run into a real goat at a petting zoo or two but my best experience was with one guy at Rob's parents' farm who followed me around all day like a dog. When we had to go in the house he climbed up on the porch, baa-ing for us to come back out. He was a funny fellow. I did an etsy search for goat and other keywords and came up with this...

 Click here to go to the real thing and investigate the items.

Beads: Faux Wood with Loops

Another new thing...

Beads: Something new

Here's a new thing...

Garden: Bastard Acacia (was: help me identify this tree)

This little tree popped up by itself. It seems to be pretty common because I pull little things that look similar all the time. This one was about a foot tall when I discovered it in the spring and it's now about 4-5 ft tall. It has a pretty shape and nice leaves so I decided to keep it. I have google searched for "ovate leaves tree" but haven't had any luck putting a name to it. (A flickr contact identified it for me.)

Nightmare: Weed Garden, Part 67

I haven't been able to get out in the yard for the last 3 weekends and the weeds took total advantage.  You couldn't tell where the real plants were because the weeds were taller. I have never seen such weeds!
Here's a before and after of one section. I didn't bother with the ones below the rock...I hit them with the weed killer and they will just get covered with mulch when it arrives.

Back among the living for 300!

After an extremely busy two weeks at work getting ready for a big event (186 hours at the office over a period of 14 days, including both weekend days), I am finally able to get back to my beloved clay! And today this little fellow...

...helped me reach a milestone of 300 etsy sales! I had been hoping to get there by my one year anniversary but I missed it by two weeks (my first sale was on July 27, 2009.) But no matter...last year at this time I was just hoping I'd hit 100 in a year!
I love knowing that my little beads are all over the place and nothing is more rewarding to me than someone shelling out their hard-earned money to buy something I made!

A big thank you to every customer!!

Bead: He's a Fancy Fish!