Not sure what the Monthly Muse is. Each month I will be your Muse by providing an inspiration challenge. The idea is to step outside your comfort zone, try something new and have fun. This group is open to all artistic mediums.

Playing along is easy…you can join in any time throughout the year. Upload your photos to Flickr, add them to the Monthly Muse Flickr group and tag them with the corresponding monthly tag. For example this month’s inspiration will have the tag MM3.

The morning sun is still low in the sky, casting long shadows across the landscape. Once the sun is higher, everything will sparkle like it’s covered in diamonds.

I did manage to find a little time to make something for January’s Monthly Muse inspiration…

I’ve been hard at work on the color mixes for the Kato Spring 2012 polymer clay color recipe ebook and hope to have it ready to go soon. Next on the agenda is working on taxes and cleaning my studio. It’s amazing how quickly the mess gets out of hand. What are your plans for the month of February? Anyone working on something new and exciting?

Onto learning new things. I think it’s important to continually learn new things, whether or not you do something with that knowledge is another matter. My journey with polymer clay began when I took a couple local adult ed classes from a local art teacher one winter for something to do….I tend to be a hermit in the winter. One of the classes was making cutesy Christmas ornaments out of polymer clay. Cutesy isn’t really my style, but I fell in love with the material. The other class I took that winter was painting a paint stick Santa. I enjoyed the class and my Santa turned out very cute, if I do say so myself. It wasn’t something I wanted to pursue, but I’m still glad I took the class.

The only other art/craft related class I’ve taken was for a beaded caterpillar bracelet several years ago (shown above). Again, I enjoyed the class and learned some new skills, but it wasn’t something I wanted to pursue. I really enjoyed the few classes that I’ve taken, limited as they are. So, why haven’t I taken more classes? Mainly due to lack of local availability and/or lack of funds.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a local shop (really local as in 3 blocks from my house), offers classes in lampworking, fused glass, wire wrapping, mosaics, stained glass and more. The best part is that the classes are very reasonably priced. Oh yeah, I see many classes in my future. Now, where did that money tree get to?

Today I wanted to share what Veronique Hoffmann (Fimomaus) created with this color palette.

The combination of the crackle look with the flowers (in the photo below) is very eye catching. Veronique definitely wins the prize for participation in the color palette a week challenge. Ok, there’s not really a prize, but if there were, she would win it. She was far and away the best at keeping up. Be sure to check out Veronique’s other work.

While mommy and baby were at the hospital, we had our two year old grandson. I forget how much energy a two year old has…wore me out. Yesterday we had his slightly delayed birthday party.

Now on to the new monthly inspiration project…

The Muses from Greek mythology are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. Each month I will be your Muse by providing an inspiration challenge. The idea is to step outside your comfort zone, try something new and have fun. This group is open to all artistic mediums.

Playing along is easy…you can join in any time throughout the year. Upload your photos to Flickr, add them to the Monthly Muse Flickr group and tag them with the corresponding monthly tag. For example the first monthly inspiration will have the tag MM1.

And here is the first Monthly Muse inspiration. Mesh and denim shades (Marina, Dark Blue and Twilight Blue).

Sweet spring colors make up this week’s color palette a week (CPAW).

Margarita, Sweet Lilac and Cockatoo

This brings to a close the color palette a week. I hope you have enjoyed the color palettes. You can always go back and hit some of the color palettes you missed or revisit some of your favorites. You can find all 52 color palettes here.

I’ve been thinking about a monthly inspiration project for 2012, so stay tuned…..