Hand Crosses For Tactile Prayer

Wow! I’m continually surprised by the number of people who find my website because of these hand crosses I form out of polymer clay and shape to fit the hand. Due to this supply and demand issue, I struggle to keep them made and on my website for individual sale. I do find myself accepting and filling orders for them all year long. To order, contact me from my website with how many you would like and any deadline you need them by and I will let you know if it is feasible. I keep many photos on my website of past orders as examples. Specific colors, text, imprints, and patterns may be requested when ordering. However, I make each one individually by hand so they are all unique.

I was recently asked to make 150 of these hand crosses for my hometown church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Orange, Texas. This is where I grew up, receiving my strong foundation of faith, while attending church from birth until leaving for college, and attending St. Paul’s Day School from Kindergarten through 4th grade. On October 20th, St. Paul’s joyously celebrated 150 years of ministry in Orange, Texas. I was fortunate to be able to attend with my sisters and mom and to share the festivities with lifelong friends. These hand crosses were given to every woman in attendance at the anniversary event. It was such a blessing for me to receive this order from a place so near and dear to my heart.

Hand Cross Order created by Nancy Denmark for 150th Anniversary Celebration of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Orange Texas.

Close up images of many of these groups of crosses may be viewed on my website as examples of what I can make to order. I have photos showing many examples of how I have customized them for special group orders. Here are just a sampling of themes available shown below.

Hand Crosses As Prayer Tools

I make these hand held crosses with polymer clay and shape to fit the hand. They may be used as a tactile focusing tool for personal prayer and meditation.

Polymer Clay Hand Crosses For Prayer & Comfort

A local ministry recently ordered 50 hand crosses to be included in comfort kits for cancer patients. Working as a prayer is inevitable as I work on an order like this. Even though I was pushing an overdue deadline, while preparing for large shows at the same time, the power of the end use of these hand crosses, slowed me down to form each cross with an intention of prayer.

“There are some people who, in order to pray, use as an excuse the fact that life is so hectic that it prevents them from praying. This cannot be. Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer.”  – Mother Teresa

Dear Lord, help me to always fill my work with you, with focused intention, in continual dialog with you.

A New Twist On Mardi Gras Beads!

I think half the reason I love Mardi Gras is because I love Mardi Gras colors! This piece was a blast to make as I built my polymer clay pendant frame around the details of the Donna Montez fused glass cab.

A New Twist On Mardi Gras Beads

This gorgeous piece has sold but I’m on my way to a bead show to buy from my favorite glass artists. These four talented ladies call themselves the Texas Hot Flashes. Some of our collaborative creations are shown in their Guest Artist Web Gallery.

Better run so I get some good pickin’s on the best beads…clicking the above image will lead you to my web gallery of these new collaborative glass and polymer beaded pieces. Watch for more to come from what I buy today. I’ll be like a kid in a candy shop!!!! Can’t wait to feast my eyes upon the colors!

Color Makes My Heart Sing

“Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no. Just as one can never learn how to paint.” ~Pablo Picasso

I am committed to working on the photography of my sterling jewelry and updating my web galleries featuring it, but after spending a week photographing sterling silver on gray I was in need of a color injection. Over the weekend I squeezed in a little bead stringing. Working with polymer clay and beads adds color to my life literally and figuratively. It is hard to verbally explain how much color feeds my spirit. Color has the power to lift me in indescribable ways. How does color speak to you?

I state on my website in many different ways how therapeutic these varied art forms are for me as I playfully experiment with a continuum of color and texture combinations. The trails of inspiration that lead to the colors I combine are rather endless. This color combination was inspired by one glass bead I worked with many months ago. The solid color polymer clay beads lend opportunity for me to feature some fun textures. My random assortment of beads I string with them just add to the play of texture and color.

Click the photograph below for more info on my website.

PURPLE, GREEN, TURQUOISE, BLUE, & GOLD SHORT BEAD SET