Spending a Gift Certificate

Yes, I did it.  I received an awesome Amazon.ca gift certificate for Christmas from my brother and decided to spend it on some books about making jewelery and food with polymer clay. 

The first one that caught my eye was Making Polymer Clay Beads by Carol Blackburn.  I am looking at trying out making some beads and using them in my jewelery designs, because as of yet I've not used it.  So I'm pretty stoked to learn something new and it looks like there are many designs available to learn.

I'm hoping it won't take too many tools and instruments to make those beads, I do have some on hand but I'm hoping they keep it as simple as possible to pull off some really pretty designs.  It will be interesting to see how bead making goes, because it would be fun to add them to my occassional spurts of jewelery design that doesn't look bad... heh.

Then I picked out Tasty Trinkets: Polymer Clay Food Jewellery by Charlotte Stowell.  This is really what started it all for me.  Learning to make little food charms to add to bracelets, earrings, and necklaces.  I have been getting away from this and I thought it would be fun to learn a few more techniques and try it again, since the fun of it hasn't gone away but I've just got caught up in making characters and flowers and jewelery... aahhhh!  So much to do and I'm looking forward to trying to get back into the little charms and maybe try miniture foods.

Which then leads me to my next two book finds.  Sooo exciting!!

Miniature Food Masterclass: Materials and Techniques for Model-Makers by Angie Scarr.  The cover on this book gets me itching to start creating.  From the reviews the book should be good as well I've picked up Making Miniature Food and Market Stalls by Angie Scarr as well and I'm looking hoping to gleen a bit from them to learn just how those miniatures are made and maybe start making them.  I wonder if there's a market for miniatures... are they for Barbies or other small dolls?  I've seen some of those dolls, but I don't know if it's a universal love of small foods or if it's a niche?  Well, it doesn't really matter, because I plan on trying to make them and enjoy doing it first and foremost.

Other than taking a peek through Amazon.ca for some books to pick up with my gift certificate I've been trying to make some small birds, plants and some beads... (the beads I've had some success, but I ended up smooshing the end of the bead I'd tried making and didn't really like the outcome.  So I think it will be back to the drawing board and maybe pick up some thinner metal knitting needles so I can make smaller holes in the beads I make, the one metal dowel I have is just a tad too big for making the holes I'd like... maybe I'm looking for the word "delicate" so the beads can be smaller instead of large and incharge.  Maybe I just need to switch it up a little... lol.

Once I've baked my little odds and ends I've been messing around with I'll take some pictures and show you the results... should be in the next day or so I should hope.  Looking forward to the new year... and I can't believe it's almost the end of 2010.  Where did the time go???