Wrapped

Started playing around with my new p’leather cord this morning and this is what I came up with.

No…not a necklace.

A warp wrap bracelet.

Just knotted and threaded some pretty multi coloured dyed Fire Agate 8mm beads and added a clasp. Just wrap around your wrist three times, do up the clasp and your good to go.

I’m starting a couple of new sections in my Artfire store over the next few weeks. One will be supplies and I’ll start adding polymer clay pendants, connectors and various other things that I think people might be interested in adding to their jewellery making supplies. The other section will be called “Not Quite Perfect” which will consist of pieces that might have a small flaw e.g. a small scratch, or dent, etc. or experimental pieces that I’m not quite happy with, all at a greatly reduced price.

Pieces like this…….

…..and this…..

 

The first one a brooch, personally I love it, the quirkiness of the stamp is my cup of tea, but my daughter and my son’s girlfriend said it was too big 6.5 cm (2.5”) diam. I always think big is better!

The second one is also a brooch, but I’m not happy with the shape of it and I have a better idea for the next one. 5 x 6.5 cm (2"x 2.5”).

So keep an eye out because when this relentless heat finally leaves us after 2 weeks of above 35 degree day and 25 degree nights, it will be all guns blazing (my extruder gun anyway).

My Day So Far

Got up and switched on the TV, not something I normally do first thing in the morning but I wanted to hear the latest on the terrible earthquake that has rocked Christchurch in New Zealand. The second one in 5 months. This one much stronger and more destructive than the previous one. 2011 has been the worst start to a year. We’ve had floods and  cyclones of biblical proportions along the eastern states, and here in the west we’ve had terrible bush fires in the south of the state and cyclones and flooding in the north. Mother Nature is really testing us.

Turned the TV off because it was very sad to see so much devastation. Sat outside to have my coffee but didn’t stay long because I could here my next door neighbour who lost his wife suddenly on Christmas eve sobbing. His grief and sadness were just too much to bare.

So……I’ve had breakfast, cleaned all the junk off the kitchen table, decided to put in a load of washing, but before I did that I decided to quickly paint a small canvas, that way it could dry while I did something else. But before I painted the canvas I remembered I had some meat that needed to go in the crockpot. Just as I was about to do the meat my phone buzzed, SIL sending me her next move on Words Free Scrabble game. She’s been playing with the me, DD, and DS and killing us all and not just by a few points. Her scores are so outrageous that we’re contemplating a Scrabble intervention. We storm her house, confiscate her phone, have it analysed by IT professionals (I know people) and find out what app she’s using to cheat have an unfair advantage over us.

So the washing is in, the crockpot is on, I played a word for a whole 13 points and this is all I’ve got to show you in the way of creativity.

This is a pendant I made a while ago. I applied black foil to the raised areas. I love the slightly distressed look of it.

I’ve used a new product for the stringing, it’s called p’leather and is made of  “specially blended polymers to look and feel just like fine Grecian leather”. But I’m hiding the top of the necklace because I’m not happy with the closure I made. It’s a work in progress.

Still Working on Them

Just a few things that still need some work done to them, sanding and glazing etc.

Tried my hand at some carving.

And some pretty in pink stuff.

Still too hot to do much. I’m just a big blob of feeling sorry for myself sweat. Roll on autumn. Autumn, how I love thee, let me count the ways, temperate days and cool nights, blankies on the lounge, cardies and jumpers, closed in shoes, soups and stews, I could go on.

Technorati Tags: pendants,polymer clay,carving

Sometimes You Think of an Idea………..

……only to realise it’s a stinker, just like rotten eggs. I wanted to cut some discs from a log of polymer clay and was trying  to think of a way to cut them so they were all even. And then it came to me, a light bulb moment, why not use the egg slicer. I’ve used it to slice mushrooms and  strawberries so why not clay.

Hunted around until I found it in the junk  admin drawer and couldn’t wait to get started. I’m on a winner here, maybe I could patent the idea.

Laid my log of clay across the bottom. Already I can see the first problem. A slight curve, oh well I can straighten it up after.

Now comes the part where I shout out with excitement at my new found “invention”.

 

Not so fast dearie.

It’s not quite turning out how you imagined.

So then I had another idea. I could just use the slicing strings to measure the slices by gently impressing them into the clay and then continue cutting with my blade.

 

It’s ok, just so so.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

But other things were a little more satisfying. I’ve got all these little beauties ready and waiting to get baked.

I console myself with the fact that even though my invention didn’t work out, at least at my time of life my brain occasionally works…..to a degree!

Cyclone Yasi

Well the already beleaguered people of Queensland have just gone through another one of natures furies. Still reeling from the worst floods in living memory in the southern half of the state, now they have just experienced the biggest cyclone ever recorded. A category 5 cyclone (the biggest),  with winds up to 270k an hour and flooding rain.

Northern Queensland bore the brunt of this event and from all accounts as of this morning there have been no reports of deaths or serious injuries which is fantastic news considering the enormity of the cyclone. The good news is that 3 babies were born during the storm, 2 of them in evacuation centres. Guess what there second names will be?

So to give you and idea of the size and scale of Yasi check this out.

A radar image of the cyclone superimposed over a map of America. How awesome is that!

This photo was taken in Cairns during the preparations and cyclone proofing of businesses in the city prior to the storm arriving  and just shows the indomitable spirit of Queenslanders.