Scrap, Overconfidence, Bling, and Stamen

This Just In From Our Shameless Commerce Division:
Well... at last, the tutorial I've been promising for... golly, months (?!) is done and up on my Etsy Shop. Phew! I hope I never have to write a book!

I've tried to make the tutorial as accessible as possible so the very beginner can understand it, yet there's a fair amount of bits and tricks that the intermediate clayer will enjoy and appreciate. Heck, if you're a well seasoned clayer, but never gave a thought about tossing your scrap in the trash bin, you too might enjoy this tutorial.
(Note: If you are interested in why I wrote this tutorial - besides the need to make money to feed my starving family - check out this post where I... well... give a little background on why I... um... wrote it.)

From The "Don't Take Life Seriously" Desk:

From The "Don't Take Life Seriously, But Love That Bling" Desk:
(Humorous bad word alert - my apologies to all those under 13.)

And, finally...

From The "At Last She Finally Shared Some More of Her Work" Desk:
Below is my homage to Jeffrey Lloyd Dever (aka "the man with the golden spit" - or so I hear) and all Jeff's wonderful wire work... I call it "Purple Brooch with Stamen".

Please, don't ask why the strawberry is purple or why there are stamen poking out of the top of the strawberry. Sometimes I just make stuff up.

Acknowledgement: My thanks to my teenage (over 13) son for those two funny (but fowl languaged) bit's I shared above. There are days when he sends these kind of things to me non stop. Perhaps that's why I'm always missing deadlines and only posting on this blog every few weeks *coughmonthscough*.