I mIss the old MSN GROUP

You know when we made the move here from Multiply I had hoped that this would be a good thing.. It started out great, but what has happened to us...lots of people followed us here.. but we did lose a lot with the move.. I miss the old MSN group.. I miss the emails we got when some one Posted on the board.
I miss the Hints and and fresh ideas were shared I miss the friendships we made and most of all I miss the laughs we shared.... may be everyone should moved back to the yahoo group!!! ..Don't get me wrong its quiet there right now. but at least some one posed once in awhile.. and when they do I get an email telling me they did....
Sounds LIKE I miss a lot of things doesn't it
SARAH

I also wish this was a more active groop. Wilma

Hi Sarah and Wilma!
Well, that's three of us here, anyway! Are you working on a project???? I'm working on a Santa and plan on finishing up this month. I'll be happy to post a picture, even if it's just us. Maybe the others will join in again!
Wilma, I was so happy to see a red button on my computer! Thanks for dropping a line!
Hugs.....Diane

Hi Sarah and Diane,

I guess three is better than none. I am not working on anything right now but am getting in the mood. Maybe "talking" to other santa lovers will give me the kick in the rear I need to get going. Would love to see your photos when you get around to it. I started a Santa using Judith Ks videos quite a while ago. I was pretty happy with the way the face was turning out but it got so big I decided it would have to be in the oven all day.....lol. I will have to start over and limit the amount of clay I use.

Diane, I see you are in Virginia. I have a son that lives in Virginia Beach, is that anywhere near you? I hope you were spared damage when Irene went through. Wilma

HI WILMA!!
This is great! We SantaMakers need to talk! (I'd use an Emoticon here, but it doesn't work!!)
I live in Northern VA, west of DC. We didn't even have much rain from Irene. How is your son??
I just reopened my album and posted a photo. It's a 5" head that I've had done for a long time but haven't been able to finish. I now have the opportunity, so here goes!
I don't know how familiar you are with this site, but if you go to "Gallery" and "last uploads" my head photo (ha) will be there.
Happy to hear from you! Hope you get back to sculpting!!!!!
Hugs...Diane

Hi,

I am going to get my clay out today and get started. If I can figure out how to post a photo, I will post my huge Santa face as a work in progress. I started out to make a porcelain Father Christmas a few years ago but emded up finishing him as a Mountain Man, I still have the mold I made of my sculpt so could still make a Father Christmas with it. Diane, I couldn't find your photo in the gallery. My son in virginia Beach was pretty lucky............they had torrential wind and rain but no flooding and only lost some shingles off the roof and damage to their new fence.............guess they will get another one He works in DC , so rents a condo in Arlington there which got some damage from the earthquake .
Off to dig in my clay. What kind of clay does everyone use. I like ProSculpt best of any of the clays I have used. Wilma

Wilma, that's great about your starting again! It took me awhile to figure out how to post, so if you need help give me a holler. I'd love to see your work in progress, too!
I'm glad your son's ok. Works in Arlington but lives in VA Beach???? Does he have a family down there?
I like Prosculpt, too. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking of maybe entering Jack's scholarship contest that ends this month. If I can get it done in time I just might.
I'd appreciate your take on my Santa head. To see the photo just go to the top of this page with all the Santa pictures with "Santa Community Forum". Under it is the bar with all the topics. Click on "Gallery". Next you'll have 2 bars at the top under all the Santa pictures there. The lower one will have "Last Uploads". Click on that and the head at the beginning of the first row is my new post ..."Teddy Bear Santa". If you click on any of the pictures they come up bigger (but you probably already know that!)
I've enjoyed hearing from you and hope that we can use this to spur each other on!
Happy sculpting!
Diane

Hi again, Wilma!
Hope that you and yours have enjoyed a good weekend. Very wet here, which is good. The farmers have needed it.
I tried to get into the gallery today and the picture I posted didn't seem to be there. Neither was my album! I stumbled on the reason why. I can get into the forum here just fine, but I had to login to the area where the gallery is. Maybe that's why you couldn't find the picture.
Anyway, I'm so pleased to have been able to connect with you. Hope that you did have a chance to "get into the clay"!
Diane

Hi Diane,

I will go back to the gallery and look again. We had a great weekend, except I wish they could get all the forest fires out. We get quite a lot of smoke from them off and on.
The story of my son living in Virginia Beach and working in DC is that he retired from the navy after 22 years and they owned their home in Virginia Beach. He was accepted a really good job in DC but their 2 boys were still in school and they didn't want to move them....................and of course, selling a house today is not easy so he rented a condo in Arlington...........about 7 miles from where he works ..and stays there through the week and goes home on weekends. The boys are in college now so his wife spends about half of her time uo in DC with him. Works for now for them.

I did organise some of my stuff and got my large Santa head out. I guess I could finish it and make a mold to pour in porcelain and that would shrink it some. I think I probbly have too many undercuts to do that though so I don't know for sure what I will do with him...........maybe just start over. Have you ever used Living Doll Clay? I bought some at Michaels the other day but don't know of anyone who has used it. I will have to see if I can figure out how to post my Mointain Man. Wilma

Hi Wilma!
Glad you had a nice weekend. I'm looking forward (I think) to this one. FOOTBALL!!!! I grew up watching it with my Dad. I sometimes wonder why I watch it, though. Stress every Sunday afternoon!! 9/11, too. My husband, Greg, works for the FAA with Homeland Security, Washington airspace. He's got Sunday off this weekend. They might call him in. I don't know.
You said about fires? I hadn't heard of them in Oregon! Is that where you still live? The ones in Texas are so tragic. I'm sorry that you have them around you!!!!!!
Wow, grown grandkids!! I have 3 children: 2 boys and a girl....oldest is 32. Then we have Justin, who's our only grandchild at almost 7. He's a real joy.
I'm glad for your son that his arrangements are working out, but that still has to be hard. All that travel. Greg drives 3 hrs a day. Just don't know how he does it. I couldn't!! He plans on retiring next year, but we'll see. His schedule is crazy, too. Always has been.
Are you proficient in procelain? I've never tried it. Sounds difficult. I've never used Living Doll Clay, but I saw it the other day at Michaels. I bought (sent for) "Delight" from the Paperclay co. It's an air-dry clay. I figured it would work for Santa's belt, as I want it to have a leather look and Santa is too small (even at 3 ft!) to emboss real leather.
-----My Christmas clock just went off! Greg bought it for me when we were at The Incredible Christmas Place this summer. (It is a wonderful store! in Pigeon Forge, Tn.) Anyway, the clock goes off like a cuck-coo (had to look up the spelling for that one!) clock, but the face of the clock opens up, bells spin around, and little lights blink in time to the music. It plays 6 different Christmas carols in soft bell chimes. It's so lovely. It sounds tacky, but it really is gorgeous. I have it here in my sewing room to remind me to get up and stretch once an hour. Don't you find that you can sit for hours and keep working??? Not so good.
I'm looking forward to seeing your mountain man! It's not too bad to download a photo. Start on the front page...click "Gallery"...login in (again, probably) on the top bar, right side...then you'll see "upload file" on the top bar. From there you're good to go!
Well, I'm so pleased to be corresponding with a fellow Santanian. (Just made that up. Does it work?? ) Feel free to tell me about your life, kids, etc, if you want to. I hope that we both have a new Santa by this Christmas. (Because of health reasons I haven't made one in 7 yrs!)
Have a wonderful day!
Diane

Sorry to take so long to reply. The fires we are having are nowhere as severe as the ones Texas is having. The largest one we have going on has burned 114,000 + acres and there are 4 or 5 other ones.We have fires every year and you just hope it does not come too close. We had one that came to within 2 blocks of us andwe had to be evacuated .........not much fun. We have a whole house filter so if it is really smoky out I just keep the house shut up and run the filter.

I have mostly made porcelain dolls. When i started out I used molds and made reproduction dolls..........probably made 150 or more of them. I only have a few of them left ..............I sole the rest, mostly in crafters malls. I love working in porcelain and using china paints, It spoiled me for using other kinds of paints. I did some sculptures in earthen clay that I made molds of to pour them in porcelain. I find mold making a real pain...........it is messy and time consuming. The first mold you make on a sculpture is called a waste mold and is not the one you use to produce your doll. I made the waste mold and poured the doll part and sanded the greenware until it was very smooth, fired that and made a production mold from that to use for my finished doll. The porcelain dust really began to be a problem for my lungs so I haven't worked in porcelain for several years. I am finding the techniques in sculpting with polymer clay is totally different and I haven't found a paint I really like. I want to try Genesis paint, I think that might be more like painting with china paints and hope I will be happier with my results.

I am a retired RN and miss working but love being retired.........lol. We try and get back to Virginia every couple of years to visit with son and family. We have 3 grown girls and 3 boys and 9 grandchildren. All of the kids except 2 are in Oregon so we get see them frequently . The oldest and youngest sons live away from us. The ex navy one has been in a variety of places so we got to see a lot of the country visiting them. The oldest son is in southern Calif. so it is a little easier to see him. Have a good weekend. Wilma

Hi Again, Wilma!
Thank you for such a newsy reply! I've been at my daughter's this weekend and just got back. She and my grandson live an hour and a half away and that's still too far for me! It's wonderful that most of your family lives near you. And six children and 9 grandkids. That's awesome. I grew up in a family of 5 children. It was good and we were close. Yesterday was 6 years to the day that my older sister died of cancer. She died just 5 days before her 53rd birthday. I truly miss her.
Thank you for telling me about your porcelain making. If you have photos please post them!!!!!!!!! I hope that your lungs have cleared, though. This art stuff can be dangerous! I found out that the reason I felt so awful for almost 10 ten years was because of lead poisoning that I got when I was doing stained glass.
And a retired nurse! I'm impressed. That's one thing I could never be. I love helping people, but I don't handle pain...mine or anyone else's ...very well.
I actually bought some Genesis paints, although I haven't tried them yet. They just have such a super write-up and artists are singing their praises.
Well, it's after 10:00 but I'm going to try and get a little Santa-ing done before I turn in. I hope that your area fires are out!! and that you have a good week. Thanks again for writing! and hope to see some of your photos soon.
Hugs....Diane

Santamakers Facebook Page is now working properly. Santamakers should be able to post discussions and post photos & video's to the page. FB may not be as great as the old MSN, but I think it is the closest way to possibly getting everyone together in one place.

Facebook has "Pages" and "Groups", each with advantages & disadvantages which I explain on the page. Because of this, I also created a "Group" Santamakers too, https://www.facebook.com/groups/275316819153155/ so everyone can decide which one they prefer. Groups allow for organized Photo Albums created by members while Pages only allow a photo to be posted to the page BUT the discussions are more organized. Groups also tend to be more active because "Groups" you join appear on the left on your Facebook wall & also show the number of new posts.

I myself haven't actively made Santa's in years. I've had too much going on and too many family difficulties to keep things running as they should be. Right now my interest is gone. I ended up even locking myself out of this group and finally found a slip of paper that had all my passwords on it. Still, I just can't deal with Santamakers with so much happening. I kept saying things would get better, but so far they haven't.

Still, I hate to see Santamaker's spread so far apart and with some people not able to either receive email from Yahoo groups or able to post on this forum. The Facebook group is self sustaining without the need of much support and as you well know, I'm sure not any help anymore. I think everyone will enjoy Facebook's format and most members are already familiar with Facebook. This board will stay & so will the website. I'll try to get to the website and edit to point to Santamakers Facebook page.

Be sure to "Like" Santamakers once you get to the page, so that you will be able to start a discussion & add photos to the page.
You will need to bookmark Santamakers Facebook page in your browser since Facebook "Pages" are NOT listed under "Groups" on your Facebook wall.

I opted to make Santamakers a "Page" to make it easier for members to organize discussions better. The downfall is that "Pages" do not show on your Facebook wall, nor do posts show on your wall. Members tend to "forget" to visit the page when the link is not readily visible. Members will just have to visit both the Page and the Group and feel things out, play around, upload albums & decide for yourselves.

Personally, I think everyone would have better luck getting everyone together again in the GROUP where it would be easy to create your albums, the group link would be right on your wall even if the discussions were less organized & you can see when someone posts. But it is up to you. I'm just struggling to try to get this group into something that would resemble the MSN self maintaining environment & Facebook is my last ditch effort.


This is the PAGE-----https://www.facebook.com/Santamakers

This is the GROUP------https://www.facebook.com/groups/275316819153155/

thank you so much for the face book page and the group page... It is nice to know when someone is posting a message again... now if we can just get more of use to post there...