Wedding order

I have spent this week working on a special order for a wedding: 150 lime charms for wine charms, flower bracelets for moms, and pendants for bridesmaids, everything in purple and lime.

I quite like this colour combination myself :)

Lime tutorial and soft fimo

FIMO clay became very soft recently. That is either my hands are hotter now, or they changed the formula of clay. Even Fimo classic is very soft, not to mention Fimo soft. You don't want your clay to be soft when you are trying to make a cane :) A few days ago I had to make a lime cane for one order, most of which is translucent clay (Fimo soft). It was so soft, it reminded me a used chewing gum. So I had to leach out some oil of it: placed a thin sheet of clay between two sheets of paper, put a heavy box on top of the stack, and left it for a few hours. I didn't even have to pass translucent clay through a pasta machine. I have just stretched it with my fingers.

After a few hours I have managed to make a lime cane:

A little request :)

Please do not ignore this post :)

Your opinion is very important to us!

As I have been writing before I am a lucky member of a wonderful big and friendly group of crafty people called "Newcastle Craft Mafia". We have knitters, jewellery makers, artists, clothes makers and others in our group. We are trying to promote everything handmade, make "handmade" popular with general public.
So now we have an idea of making an online magazine, full of creative ideas and modern trends.
Leeanne, a co-founder of our Mafia, has prepared a survey to help us choose the right ideas and directions for our future magazine.

I would be really really grateful if you could take this survey. It will take you only a minute, but this way you will help 25-strong group of crafters, and with this you will help promoting "handmade" (isn't it what we all want? :) )

TAKE THE SURVEY

Thank you!
PS. Add our blog to your blog readers! More interesting stuff to come! :)

Beads in metallic frames

I keep playing with various metallic frames I've got. I wrote a tutorial on using them here.
These are some new bracelets I've made with hollow metallic links.

My bead swap stash

I am taking part in a lovely game called Bead Soup Party, organised by Lori Anderson and today I received my lot of bead goodies from Kella, and I love every bead! Particularly a handmade clasp - dragonfly, I think it is absolutely fabulous! And a lovely blue pendant!



Isn't this dragonfly a piece of art?
I am not sure what I am going to do with these treasures, but I am sure I will come up with something by Febuary 10th :)
Thank you Kella!

Waiting for spring

Making flower bracelets and wearing three at a time :))
Just kidding :)) Although I like it how three bracelets look together. Nice and bright.

Posted them in my Etsy shop
Following my experiments on making beads with metallic frames I have made a few more new shapes.


I am not sure how to use them yet, other than using them as pendants :)) Do you have any ideas?

Apple pendant and apple tutorial

Just a cute realistic apple :)


An apple tutorial below. Make an apple out of translucent clay, paint it with powdered yellow pastel first, then paint half of it with red, and another half - with green pastel. Add leaf and other details.

My first interview

Everything's very simple, nothing fancy :) The organizers of Beads Perles blog have asked me for an interview and even have translated it to Spanish. English version is in the same post below pictures.
I am very flattered and honoured :)

Amy's flower cane

Amy has kindly shared pictures of the cane she made following my tutorial

I think it came out beautifully, and I love the colour and the detailed stamens of the flower. Amy promised to make this cane in many colours, I can not wait to see them all! :))

Bead soup party and bead swap

I am in!



Check out Lori Anderson's blog for details

My new beads

I have bought these metallic open flower charms a while ago, planning to fill them with polymer clay, but then I forgot about them. A wonderful work by shimshoni reminded me of my flower frames, and soon I came up with these flower charms:

I am not sure yet, which way to use them, as a necklace or as a bracelet. I have tried to take pictures of different ways of using them :)


Here you can see that they are like little padded cushions :) They are very pleasant to touch :)))
I took photos when making one of those charms, so if you like you can find a little tutorial below :)

I prepared a millefiori sheet and a few open flower charms. I have bought these charms on eBay, I can even give a link

Place flower frames on the sheet of clay. One of the frames will remain in the charm, the other one is only used temporarily.
Press frames into clay, using your roller.
Cut out the excess of clay around the flower frames.
Lift clay and frame off the working surface.
Carefully stretch the clay sheet, so it becomes raised over the metallic frame. Keep an eye on the edges of clay sheet, don't let them pop out of the frame. Donna Kato taught us this thick at the Polymer Play Days last summer :)
The other side of a sheet. То, что получилось с изнаночной стороны.
Cut off the excess clay.
Two parts of the flower are ready.
To make a flower puffy, you have to place a piece of scrap clay inside it.
Put scrap clay on one half of a flower.
Take the second half of a flower out of the second frame.
Put it on top of the scrap clay.
Now pinch the edges of a flower, hiding the ugly inner sides of flower parts under the metallic frame. You can use a toothpick to push the most stubborn bits inside.
The clay has to slightly overlap with a metallic frame from both side of a flower. This way the frame will not come off the flower after baking.
Here is the resulting puffy flower charm.
I smoothed the surface of charms with corn starch. It removes fingerprints and makes it easier to sand charms after baking.
All charms - baked, sanded and glazed :)
I also have round open charms in my stash, I will definitely try to work them out in the same way. They are a lot smaller than these flower charms, I still did not come up with a pattern for such the small circles.

PS. Sorry for such a long post, I hope you liked it :)

Thimbles

I have not been maintaining my English blog for awhile, but I am back now! :))) Happy New Year everyone, may all your wishes come true in 2010!

I have been busy with Christmas markets all December, and did not have time to make something new. A friend of mine asked me to make some thimbles for her, I made a few, and then realized, that I can not stop making them! :))

Here is my collection of 10 thimbles, and I don't think they are the last ones yet.

All together:


And separately. Little frogs:
Sheep, sunflowers and poppies:

And all sorts of flowers:


Thimbles were made for decorative purposes only, I am afraid they can not be used as they are supposed to be used :)))