I’m Back……

…….with absolutely nothing crafty or handmade to show you. It’s been very busy at work this week so I haven’t been in my studio for over a week. I’m so pooped when I get home it takes me all my inner strength just to make dinner then I flop on the lounge and it’s only 7.30 and I’m struggling to keep my eyes open.

But I have discovered a couple of fantastic apps that I have been playing with on my ipad. The first app is called Whims and if you love fonts and typography you will love this. It’s been described as instagram for words and it’s a lot of fun and there are some very clever people creating amazing whims.

You can change the font, size and colour of your words also the background colour and it’s extraordinary the way some creators have manipulated some keyboard characters to “draw” pictures.

Here’s a few of mine.

It’s a free app, so go and download it and have some fun.

The other app that I really love is Wider Image. It comes from Reuters, the worlds largest new agency and it’s a photo journalism app. Amazing images from around the world with the story behind the photo by the photographer. Lots of information, with facts and statistics and the ability to follow favourite photographers. I could spend hours looking at the photos and reading the photographers stories.

I’m hoping work will slow down a little next week and I can get back in the studio and create. Because as my Whim says, I just like making stuff.

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Today I Baked

And it wasn't clay. Today I baked a cake from scratch and not from a packet. I mentioned to Carmen the other day that I was going to attempt one now I had the use of a great mix master and she scoffed......yes scoffed if you please. So I decided to text her evidence of my culinary efforts which started a texting marathon that lasted long into the afternoon.

The day we discussed the whole cake making thing, she gave me all these instructions (more like demands really) e.g. Don't use self raising flour, use plane flour with baking powder, real butter not margarine, make sure the sugar and butter are beaten to within an inch of their lives, eggs must be room temperature, proper vanilla not extract etc. etc. etc.

 

 

You can see we're not the best texters either......baby boomers, what can I say.

 

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Beads

I've painted, splodged, smeared and dabbed several layers of paint. Thinned the sheet in the pasta machine and made bead guts with scrap clay then covered them with the painted veneer. Here's the unbaked results.

Some large beads.

And some large and small.

I'm loving the effect. Crackled, marbled and the odd splodge.

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New Studio

Changing circumstances in our family have necessitated moving my studio to another room, well two rooms really. Lucky me. So now I’m at the other end of the house with easy access to a water source should I need it (plus a toilet in close proximity).

So my wonderful sister-in-law came over and had me all moved and organised in under an hour. DH always complains I’ve got so much stuff and I always deny it, but after moving rooms I’m kind of inclined to agree with him (although I would never admit it).

I could never work out why I was reluctant to work in my old studio in the afternoons and now I know why, it was the light, or lack of. The new rooms have bigger windows and the rooms are much brighter.

My new studio

One of my desks next to the window with the added benefit of a window sill for a bit of extra storage.

I wont show the other room as it’s a bit cluttered and messy but I’ve managed to set up a photography table next to the window with the hopes of getting decent photos.

This is what I’ve been working on since I moved in. Different shapes, paints, textures etc. and these were all taken by the window of my new photography set up.

This one below is a mixture of periwinkle blue, coral and smidgeon of black acrylic transparent paints. They have a lovely shimmer which isn’t evident in the photo.

Not quite done with this shimmery sage green flower. Possibly a bit of antiquing and sanding.

 

Below some pieces that will become earrings.

More potential earrings using the same texture as the first pendant.

So who knows what kind of creativity (if any) will emerge from my new studio, only time will tell.

Technorati Tags: polymer clay,polymer clay pendants,earrings,studio,acrylic paints