Foils

In my last polymer clay class with Pam she showed me quite a few different techniques for image transfers and towards the end of the lesson we had a quick play with foils. Lots of things can be done with foils from getting a nice crackled antique look to imitation dichroic (sp) glass. Not being a big fan of dichroic glass I decided to play around and see what else I could come up with using these different coloured shiny pieces of plastic.

Pam gave me a small piece of black foil to take home and I’m afraid I’ve fallen in love with it. The pieces below are white clay covered with black and I really like the sort of scratched and slightly mottled look. They make me think of photo negatives…….don’t know why.

So the one pendant that I loved the most became this necklace.

I’ve also branched out and made some brooches using my stampotique stamps. Love these gals. They’re so kooky and out there.

She’s my favourite.

Not the best picture…sorry. Stamped on to a denim coloured clay because I think they would look good with jeans and shirts.

Just another necklace with a crescent shape that I stamped with script and added the wings.

 

The days just seem to be flying by. I’ve started a bit of Christmas shopping already and over the next few days hope to make start on the Christmas cards. It’s such a busy time and I always like to try and get to the shops before the school holidays start because it’s bedlam by then.

Technorati Tags: polymer clay,foils,stamps

Clay and Stamps………

…….a winning combo.
Do you like these? I have to say I’m a little in love with them at the moment.  Pearl clay is just like it’s name, a creamy colour with just a slight sheen to it. Very carefully applied this gorgeous swirly flourish stamp to the clay (sometimes the stamp can slip and I end up with a double image) and then baked. Added a gunmetal chain and toggle and clasp with eyelets to strengthen the holes and hey presto!



A similar one but round and with an antique brass coloured chain. Fairly long so it can just be slipped over the head.

This pendant is about 4cm in diameter.

Ok….this is not for the faint hearted. Huge black enamel chain with gigantic links and a large (almost 5cm diam.) pendant. It’s long too. Are you brave enough to wear it?

Actually I just tried it on again and it looks pretty good. Even with my daggy around the house T shirt and old tracky daks with the bleach stains and several different coloured paint splashes on them.

Anyway I’ve put these up on my Artfire store hoping they eventually go to a good home.

Technorati Tags: polymer clay,stamps,artfire,black enamel chain

Cup Cakes, Leftovers and Lost

It's our son's 28th birthday tomorrow and I got the bright idea to make cupcakes thinking they'd be quick and easy and I'd have them made quicker than you can say"what-a-stupid-idea-and-you-know-you-hate-cooking-and-what-were- you-thinking". If you could see my kitchen you would probably pass out. How I get in such a mess when I cook is anyone's guess. After scrabbling around in the pantry trying to find patty pans, sparkly sprinkles, and the like, then trying to locate the cupcake pans and then mid beating one of the beaters fell out and cupcake mixture splattered everywhere, then the spoons I was using to fill the patty pans fell in the mixture..... I could go on. Anyway they're cooked and now I just have to ice them and see what kind of a mess I can get into again.
I made this with the left over beads that I stamped from the previous post. Lots of different beads, wire wrapped some of them and just did simple loops for others.I was really pleased the way these stamped beads turned out.
Some freshwater pearls.
Little silver charms.
It's designed to wear with the toggle clasp in front.
One good thing came out of today though. Last night while watching the second last episode of Lost, my eyes were so sore, it felt like I had the whole of Scarborough Beach in them and when I woke up this morning I couldn't open them properly. Damn, conjunctivitis and I had just been to the doctor the day before for a flu shot and I knew I would never be able to get back in to see him today. So I went to our local chemist all prepared to beg him for some eye drops and we'd sort the prescription out later with the doctor to be told as of the 1st of May you can now buy drops for conjunctivitis over the counter without a script. Yay. How hard is it to put eye drops in your own eyes? I kept missing my eye.
I'm going to miss Lost even though it was the most confusing, convoluted series in the history of television series. Are they in heaven or hell, is the past, present or future, how come Hurley never lost any weight, Jack and Clare related? and is Loch a good guy or a bad guy, I always liked Loch, he had a lovely crinkly smile, I don't' know.....even though it was confusing I never missed an episode.

The Muse, MacGyver and Me

Yesterday I took myself off the the Craft and Collectibles show at Claremont. I have to confess I spend more time in the antiques and collectibles than the craft section these days and I bought this necklace (of course I've pulled it all apart) because I knew those cream tubular beads were the right colour to go with some wallpaper focals I've made.But they were terribly bland and blah and ordinary and when I got home I was looking at them trying to come up with an idea to jazz them up a bit. Well as luck would have it, the muse just happened to pop by for a quick visit and said.....why don't you stamp them.....brilliant idea I said....but wait a minute, how am I supposed to stamp something that's tubular.....and she just shrugged her shoulders and said....not my problem, I just give you the idea and it's up to you to bring that idea to fruition.....so I said.....but don't you do both?....and she said....nah, that's just an ugly rumour someone started......and poof! she was gone.
So I thought, how would MacGyver tackle this problem.
Well for a start he'd definitely have a piece of wire handy.
And he'd know without a shred of doubt that the wire should be threaded through the bead.
Then I guess he'd look around for a stamp the approximate width of the bead.
Ink up the stamp and very carefully roll the bead down the stamp until it was covered. Of course he'd use two hands because he would have an assistant to hold his camera.
And this is what he would end up with.
So when I've finished putting the necklace together I'll post some photos.

I Have No Bead Knowledge

I really should get to know the names of all the different shapes of beads and also what they're made of. I just go in the shop and pick out whatever I'm drawn to and I always forget to ask what they are, I'm too impatient to get home and start making something. I'm failing 'Bead Knowledge 101 '.
The colours in these beads drew me to them, green, yellow and black flecked small squarish ones and larger oblong faceted ones. See....I have no idea what I'm talking about here. But this I do know, the little black ones are crystals.
Now this pair have some recycled silver plastic beads, small black crystals and olive green drop crystals. Am I starting to sound knowledgeable yet?
Ok, small round yellow ones, silver pumpkin shape ones, silver filigree bead caps and small black crystals.
Now here I know what I'm talking about. Cream coloured wall paper glued to grungeboard, black hand stamping and gun metal eyelets and earing hooks. I made another pair last night and included them in with some bracelets I made for a work colleague of Brighita's. I just loved them so much I made another pair for myself.
They've got a sort of faded vintagey look to them. It's so gratifying to be able to use elements other than beads and I'm starting to use a lot of my mixed media stuff of which I have heaps.
Dinner preparations call (damn it). Chops and salad tonight because I'm struggling to come up with something creative and delicious. Wish I was Oprah, then I could have a full time chef!

ATC's and some kitsch.

Had a class last night with Kelsey. It was called spotlighting and as the name suggests it's all about highlighting an area of a stamp. We were supposed to do 3 ATC's, two on gloss card and one on cardstock. As usual I only finished one (I'm as slow as a wet week). It's quite an effective technique and the idea is to stamp 2 of the same image, cut out the part or parts you want to highlight from one of the images and leave the background black and white and colour the highlighted part or vice versa. The part of the image that is highlighted is then glued to a black background with a slight border all the way around and raised off the image with foam tape. Photo is a bit blurry but hopefully you get the idea.
I hadn't been to class for a couple of months so it was lovely to catch up with some of the girls namely Svetlana, Charmaine and Nicole......hi girls......waving!

I've been op shopping lately and on the look out for kitchsy jewelery that I can pull apart and re-purpose. Here's my latest stash. I have great plans for these. (I think).

This is a partly re-purposed necklace I made yesterday. The black plastic coated chain was an op shop find but the beads aren't. Wanted to buy some that would co-ordinate with the opals pendant I made that has green, orange, pink and black swirls through it. Sounds quite vile I know but I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.
And this is just a pretty ordinary pendant that I put together yesterday as well. You might remember this. I had made it into a bracelet but I wasn't happy with the way it sat on the wrist, so I pulled it apart and just added a few beads. It's plain and simple and if I may be so bold as to suggest......classic?
Well I should go and do something constructive I suppose, washing, vacuuming, cleaning cooking, or I could just sit at my desk and play.....mmmm....big decision.

More Memory Frames and Sly Dreams

Just thought I'd show you the process of making one of the memory frame charms. I was reading Tim Holtz blog the other day and he had used clear UTEE mixed with Distress Embossing Powders with what he said were fantastic results. So thought I'd give it a try and use up some of my DEP (not that keen on them anyway) and see what happens. It's quite a thick mixture once it's melted and the distress bits sink to the bottom, so a bit of a stir is in order. I used "Shabby Shutters" because as you know green is my favourite colour. I used a mold from Krafty Lady, 5 different sizes of domino shapes.A little trick I gleaned from reading Margot Potters blog and watching one of her Youtube videos. Saves having to drill a hole in the utee/opals after it's set. Bend a piece of wire and after the uteee/opals has been poured and before it starts to set lay the piece of wire into the mold and hold it (with tweezers, it gets hot!) until the utee/opals starts to set. That way you have a ready made bail.
It's a bit difficult to see, but round about where the blob is on the mold is where I've laid the wire.
Here I've laid a memory frame over a stamp.
Poured the utee.
Let it set then gently pulled the stamp off.

The domino tiles have been stamped with black Stazon ink and I also, after I had taken the photos, smooshed the stamp pad over the memory frames with black just to colour the raised pattern.
By mixing the DEP with clear utee/opals you are supposed to get this grainy, flecky kind of effect which to me isn't all that evident. But I do love the colour and I've managed to use up some of the DEP which probably would have languished in a drawer of my desk for ever and a day.
I'm feeling pretty chuffed today. The black and ivory necklace in the post below is SOLD. One of the ladies I work with has bought it as birthday gift for a friend.
Totally unrelated, but do you ever wake up from a dream and just wonder why on earth you dreamt that particular dream. Well I had one of those last night. I was on Dancing with the Stars and my partner was Sylvester Stallone...I know.....what can I say! I was all frocked up in satin and glitter and fake tan with a lovely tiara and we swanned around that dance floor like Fred and Ginger. I tell ya, that Sly, he's light on his feet (must be all that boxing) but the weird thing was, he was dressed as Rambo! Someone psychoanalyse me please! Did we win?.......don't know, woke up for one of my numerous visits to the toilet. Damn my bladder to hell!

Bamboo Tile Stamping and threading

I've taken these photos to show how I threaded my bamboo tiles and also the best way to stamp them.
First the stamping. The best way is to lay the stamp flat and even, then ink it up and bring the tile to the stamp. Less chance of it slipping and the image becoming smudged. Lift the tile straight up and off. Now the threading. I've used hat elastic and as you can see I've threaded it through both tiles to join them together.

Pull it up so it's firm and reasonably tight and then tie a knot. Tug the ends really well so there's no chance of it coming undone.

Snip off the excess quite close to the knot.

Then ease the knot over so that it's sitting above the hole. This step requires a bit of pulling and tugging and lots of swearing. I used a bamboo skewer to poke the knot down into the hole and then from the opposite end I pulled and tugged until the knot disappeared inside the hole.

And here's what it looks like. It was rather awkward putting it on my wrist and taking a photo at the same time, so I've slipped it over a bottle of glazing liquid so you get the idea.

This bracelet consists of nine tiles and it fits my fat, chubby, chunky wrist quite well. But I tried it on Brighita's slim petite wrist and it was a bit loose, so probably seven or eight tiles would be enough. The pictures are from an Artchix collage sheet and they fit perfectly on the tile. I glued them on with a gel medium and when that was dry I've sealed them with Mod Podge gloss.

Just some more tiles. The top ones have two coats of silver metallic paint and I've stamped them using one of my little stamps I got at the craft show (see the previous post). The second row are plain tiles and I've stamped them using Archival Ink in black using a text stamp.

So let me know what you think and if you can think of another way of threading the tiles together I would love to hear from you.

Craft show buys

Last Friday I went to the Stitches and Craft show at the convention centre along with 5 million other women (and a few men). I always go with high hopes of new and innovative stuff that will get my creative juices bubbling. But alas, the same as last year and all the previous years. Heaps of stuff for textile artists patchwork, quilting, sewing machines etc. Very little for paper and paint people like me. But I still managed to buy some bits and bobs.
Some stamps. The flower stamp is for practising the brushless water colour technique that Kelsey taught us. She uses a stamp from a Tim Holtz set I think but I can't justify buying a set of several stamps when there maybe only one of the set that I'll use. So this one will have to suffice and besides I quite like it. The very small stamps are for my bamboo tiles that I'm still experimenting with and I think I've solved the threading problem. Will post some pics later on in the week. Some Pandora style beads. $2.00 each beats $38.00 - $150.00 plus any time.

Some chains in silver and a bronzy, goldy colour. They're a metre long so I'll get quite a few button bracelets out of them.

And some beading books. I always seem to charge headlong into things with little or no knowledge about whatever it is I'm doing, which is beading at the moment, so though I'd better arm myself with a couple of 'how to' books.

So that was my craft show outing. Exhausted when I got home and with a much lighter purse but I console myself with the fact that I helped to stimulate the economy.Well done me!