Paisley Lizard’s 2020 Blog Year in Review

Well, here we are ready to turn the page on another year. And what an extraordinary year it has been. I won’t dwell on the pandemic or other dire news headlines of the year. Instead, I’m reviewing my creative journey as documented here on my blog. Creatively speaking, it was another productive year although I didn’t post as frequently as I have in some other years. I’m going to say it’s been about quality, not quantity. LOL

Most of my makes for the year of 2020 were inspired by monthly design challenge themes from the Art Elements blog team. I am so grateful to the AE Team for the inspiration. It’s not that I couldn’t come up with ideas without the prompts – I have endless lists of things I want to make. But I will admit that having prompts keeps me from procrastinating or from being overwhelmed by too many ideas. Rather than recount my creations by monthly theme, I’m going to sum them up by the type of make. Most of my creations for 2020 fell into one of four categories: jewelry, beads, embroidery, and sculpting. Plus a couple of one-offs.

Since this blog began primarily to regale you about my jewelry designs, I’ll begin with the jewelry designs of 2020. I didn’t make jewelry every month, or for every theme, but there was still, somehow, a pile of new jewelry designs. Many of which you can find in my shop on etsy.

Collage of assorted boho jewelry.
These are most of my new jewelry designs from 2020. I started by making components with Pantone’s Color of the Year – Classic Blue- in January. Then came a collection of bee-themed designs in April, followed by butterflies in May. I went a little crazy with some Halloween silkscreens in September, and carried on with “gothic” spider and skull designs in October. I finished up the year, in November, with some miniature mushrooms.

As you may have noticed, most of the jewelry (well, all of it, except the bird skull hoops) featured my polymer clay beads and focals. In addition to making the beads and focals for the jewelry this year, I also made some beads just for the sake of making beads. These are available for your jewelry designs in my shop on etsy.

Collage with assorted polymer clay beads
For the “berries” theme in January, I made an assortment of raspberry and strawberry headpins. Then for the “letters” theme in February, I made pastel “bloom” bead sets (the backs of the large beads are stamped with the word “bloom”) and some rainbow connectors stamped with a self-affirmation.

As I created the collages for this post, I realized I spent a good part of 2020 sculpting with polymer clay. I’m still not any better at creating facial features, so I’ve used molds in some designs. But I’ll get there eventually – I did rather well with the skulls. This apparently was the year of the “stash tin” for me, but I also re-purposed a few glass jars. You can find some of these in my shop on etsy.

collage with polymer clay covered jars and tins
In January, for the “berries” theme challenge I created two fairy house jars: a strawberry and a pumpkin. Yes, pumpkins are berries. And actually, strawberries, technically, are not. Little figurines and a stash box happened in March for the “gnomes” theme. There were Green Woman and Green Man stash tins for the “summer solstice” theme in June. Not for the theme, but also sculpted in the month of June, were Rose and Violet flower dryad stash tins. In September, inspired by some urban fantasy novels I’d been reading, I created a Snow White stash tin. The “blue” theme for September inspired a frozen lake naiad stash tin. September was a very eclectic month for me, with a third stash tin featuring a Desert Poppy nymph. For the “gothic” theme in October, I turned a glass jar into a skull planter and covered a mini-coffin box with a fallen angel skull and wings. Lastly, in November, for the “mushrooms and toadstools” theme, I converted a small glass jar into a fantasy mushroom.

This year I tried a couple of painting techniques that had nothing to do with polymer clay. First I made dot-mandalas on some rocks borrowed from the landscaping around my apartment complex. I say “borrowed” because I returned them to the wild after the paint cured. I also painted a wooden casket using a crackle medium, and decorated it with a skull pendant that I painted with Vintaj patina inks.

Dot mandala stones and distressed coffin box collage
The painted rocks -inspired by the “mandala” theme in August – have different designs on the top and bottom. Within a few weeks of my returning them to the wild, they had disappeared. I hope they bring joy to the people who picked them up. The distressed casket box was inspired by the October “gothic” theme.

Polymer clay is still my medium of choice, mostly because it is so versatile, as you can see from the range of beads, jewelry, and sculpts. However, embroidery has become my second go-to when creative inspiration strikes. There were some months where my only creative projects involved stitching.

collage with assorted embroidery hoops
My embroidery projects for 2020 began with a “letters” theme in February. Then there were bees and butterflies in April and May. June was a sunny summer solstice inspired hoop. For July’s “hollow” theme, I made my first double-hoop design with a wreath of seashells. For the “mandala” theme in August, I designed a sacred geometry pattern that incorporates painted fabric with stitching. And finally, in September for the “blue” theme, I stitched this cute little weevil.

The final design challenge theme for 2020 was “All Things Christmas” and I admit it took me most of the month to get into the spirit. I wasn’t exactly ba-humbug-ing or anything. I was just, frankly, feeling lazy. But I did manage to finish out the creative year with these three little winter greenery hoops.

embroidery ornaments
These 3-inch hoops are perfectly sized for tree ornaments or for hanging on a wall display. The holly, mistletoe, and juniper branches are stitched on linen fabric.

I’ve been more fortunate than many this year, being able to work from home full-time since mid-March. My day job still occupied my weekdays, but I had my evenings and weekends free to be creative. There have been sporadic shortages of polymer clay due to the pandemic, which makes me glad I took up embroidery last year so I still had something creative to occupy me. I ran low on thread around the time stay-at-home orders were becoming wide-spread. This creative year would not have been possible without the folks who worked to pack, ship, and deliver art supplies.

Many thanks, again, to the AE Team for the inspiring design challenge themes. Thanks also to my readers and the folks who make time to comment on my posts. I don’t know where 2021 will take me creatively-speaking, but I’m looking forward to a new year of possibilities. I wish you all the best for the New Year and hope to see you back here in 2021. Btw, you can also follow me on Instagram, where I post about my art a little more frequently, but with fewer words. 😉

4 thoughts on “Paisley Lizard’s 2020 Blog Year in Review”

  1. Donna Lee Little

    Tammy all of your designs and pieces are really beautiful. I fell in love with your rainbow connectors! ❤️🥰☃️

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