Almost Good Enough to Eat

Combining ideas into one sweet treat of a necklace a la Fulgorine and Lisa Palveka and the Sutton Slice.  I really enjoyed putting it together and had a couple of people say that it looked like a cookie....lol.

It was a fun donut focal bead to make.  Three cheers to the sutton slice!

Not just another pretty face

I have to say after making the first little face I was hooked.  I put this little creation together last night after I was off work.  I have a few other ideas perking in my brain on what to do next as well as put something together for Illustration Friday... this week's theme is "Space" - so I am thinking of something I can put together on a tile.  I think I just like the idea of putting those little people in costumes that come from some back lit place in my brain and I just run with it.  No roadmap - just a lot of fun.

Another little person I created. I wasn't really sure where
the head dress came from...sort of medusa like.

I really am finding that creating these little
images is super addictive and I've got about a
few other ideas to add to this collection I'm growing.

A little woman tile

I received some absolutely fabulous faces from a purchase I made on Etsy...  I was feeling in the mood to create a tile - and this is what I came up with.  I'm really quite pleased with this first attempt!

An Etsy Addiction

Over the past couple of weeks I've been looking through Etsy for some deals on items I had wanted to pick up but couldn't find them in places like Michaels.  I have to say that this is becoming a bit of an addiction - I can find ring bases, necklace bezels, Washi tape (darn it!), molds for my polymer clay and silly cute Kawaii items.

My addiction is starting to cause me to re-think things.  I'm spending money and I've yet to make any form of income through my polymer clay work.

I think I need to step it up, start using what I've bought and open my shop.  See if I can sell anything :P

Woman of the Sea

I have just been enjoying making some characters in the past few days and I just enjoyed the fact that I can make them, they don't have to look a certain way - they're just mine.  It's been a nice break from doing housework!

Please bare with mne as I try to figure out how
to use wire with my polymer clay!

I added tin foil to the wire for filler.  I figured
this was the best way to do it so the little
character I was making didn't end up weighing
300 pounds :)

My little starfish... I loved how it turned out!

My little characters skirt... not at all typical

She's slowly coming together, skirt in place
and then I put together her arms and upper body.
I wanted her top to look like rolling seaweed
strands with little pearls.

All together at last.  I added some acrylic paint
to give her a more earthy look.  I also removed
the tin foil from her head - too bumpy to
use tin foil, so I just used the clay.

I really like how she turned out, being this
is the first time I've ever attempted something
like this :)

I added some knitting yarn to her for hair
and to give a bit more va va voom.  I think
she needs a bit more hair to fill things out.

I was really pleased with my little Woman of the Sea. First time I'd ever done something like this before and for a first attempt I'm really happy with the outcome :)  I think all she needs now is a bit more yarn for her hair to fill it out a bit more, but I'm really happy about it.

I've got a couple of books on making polymer clay characters and since I'm in the mood ot make more... I think I'll give those books a go and see where it takes me.  It should be interesting to try to follow step by step rather than the last couple of projects I've put together where it's all been done rather willy-nilly out of my head.

Three Lovely Ladies

Last night I just felt that I had to start making something.  I though I might make some charms, buttons.... not quite... I made three lovely ladies.  I just felt like creating a little characters - it was going to be a full body but at the end I just felt they looked better as is.  I think that creating more of these are in order, bigger - with a full body.  I'm excited!

Three Lovely Ladies who were absolutely so much fun
to make.  I was able to use my new cutters and some mica
for a little sparkle on the woman in yellow.

I created some fun hair on the woman in green from some
embrodery thread I had in my cupboard.  I just wanted a
funky look

Three Lovely Ladies hanging on my wall

 I made the three lovely ladies smaller than I had originally intended, as this was a first attempt.  I found that two of the ladies became headless after the baking process, so I had to add extra clay to the back and add some liquid clay to bond the heads to the bodies again.  Next time I'll do a bit more blending of the head/neck so it doesn't happen again.  I'll also re-inforce it with a bit of wiring.

I really enjoyed putting them together :)

A serious case of being all over the place

I seriously have a case of being all over the place lately.  I feel like I've got a million and one things I'd like to do and pretty much make myself no time to do it.  It was a very weird feeling... I don't know if it's because I got some awesome books from Amazon... or my trip to Michaels today.  It was and is just an overload of what do I want to do... and what do I want to do with it - I'd like to start selling the things I start making because I've been spending a lot of money and not really making anything with it.  I seriously need to stop buying things for a while... lol... but it's so much fun.  Ah well - let's just call it retail therapy.

With my little adventure in shopping at Amazon I picked these books up when I went shopping with some Christmas gift certificate money I had still floating around.  I have to say these books are very inspiring!  Also, not too bad to understand as well which is handy because I'm still learning :)

So now I have to figure out what it is that I would like to do... do I go into doing some buttons... do I go into making some sculptures, buttons, designs.... aahhhhh. See this is where I end up going - in so many directions that I end up not doing anything. SIGH!

Hiding out....

I've been more than just a bit sporatic with my blog.  I'm still buying clay and thinking up ideas for my next little project I want to do.  I've even bought some website names and hosting for some of the ideas I've come up with... why?  Because I would like to be able to sell some of my creations so I have that extra money to buy more clay... do more creating....

I've just been wanting to get creating again and I've just found that my life in the last little bit was just wallowing in discord... which made it really hard to take a break and get creating because my mind was all over the place.  I hate that when that happens.

Over the last couple of days I've been cleaning up around my place - which was my major discord... I just stopped caring, which then led to a massive mess and I'm soooo not good when things are messy and I was just getting sad and mad - why... I still don't know why I let things get so messy.  I just stopped.  I was ... am ... tired.  So anyhoo, rather than wallowing in my blah-ness I decided to get tidying and in turn I started to feel better and now that I have a clean kitchen table I got back into claying.  I wanted to make a name for my new neice that made her appearance earlier last week.

I made her name out of clay... I hope to have a photo of what I've done tomorrow (see, I'm being optimistic with getting back into blogging!)  I'm still trying to figure out a good way to take pictures of what I've done that looks good as my lighting leaves everything a bit yellow... which doesn't make me very happy.

I think I need to figure out how to make my own lightbox.

I have to say that I really enjoyed working on my little project today for my niece, it's been a long time since I actually set down to do anything with clay or anything creative - It just felt good.  I hope they like what I've put together, I'd made one for my nephew when he was born... that looked like this:

Now that I'm looking at this picture... I'm hoping that the squares I've made are small enough to fit in the frame (I got a great deal on a 3 pack)... I've also made a little flower in a clay pot to add a little more dimention to it.  Fingers crossed it all fits.... or I figure out a "creative" way to make the squares fit!

I'm glad to be back and blogging about what I've been doing and I hope to also get my websites up and running so I can share with you my little adventures in that as well!



An Hour at Michaels... Priceless

Today the family and I stopped at Michaels, just to browse.  Of course I know I'm only kidding myself when I say that I just want to browse.  My browsing took me all over the store and an hour later... and almost $100 later (I don't know how it ended up being that price...lol) I've got some new ideas to give a try.

Of course I thought I'd do my Ring A Day... which turned out to be one.  I'm terrible at doing anything for any amount of time.  It's like I've got ADD... there are just so many things to do - and my mind bounces around like it's a ball in a pin ball machine.  All - Over - The - Map.  I'm just hoping with my new little purchases ... I'll be able to do a bit more focusing on my clay and start to get back into it.  I've not done any clay work in month...and quite honestly I'm missing it!

I picked up some frames for my clay, so you can hang a few
around the neck, a bird cage, 2 bird houses, some rings, pinheads,
bead / pearling rods some clay and black embossing powerder.

The start to my little polymer clay terrerium

It was quite a a bit of an eye opener when I did get my bill.  I didn't realize what I'd bought would come to that amount... I also picked up some Valentine's Day bits and bobs... so really, I guess it wasn't so bad.

I think my first project will be my little terrerium.  I picked up 2 bowls like this... of course they may get a little dusty because there is no lid, but I couldn't find anything that was enclosed and small - either they were larger flatter bowls, larger more rounded bowls (all of which would be very awesome), but I'm just wanting to do a few mushrooms, toadstools, little home, trees and grass maybe.  I'll draw out some ideas - just to be sure that I don't end up forgetting something... or maybe I'll just go for it and let the creativity go where it wants to.

Happy 2012

Ok, I'm totally not sure where 2011 disappeared to, but here we are sitting in a fresh brand new year of 2012.  I'm excited and not quite sure where I plan on being by the end of it.  Still early days and I have to say that I haven't got one single resolution for the year - I find I'm good with a resolution for 2-3 days and then it all goes to hell.  This year is a year dedicated to goals.  My goals have yet to be worked out in detail, but I think this is why I'm a bit excited.  Because I have goals in mind and if (when!) I complete them - I'm going to feel like a million dollars.  Why?  Because I managed to do something with myself rather than wallowing in the feeling that I'm getting nothing accomplished... ever.

Time for a change - I'm excited!

One of my goals this year is to make 1 ring a day out of polymer clay (mixed media....included) to spark the creative in me.  Of course I'm planning on plenty of other things... so far my goals include:

• Ring a Day - post here and on Flickr
• Create some clay characters
• Make some clay beads... I've got the books!
• Buy a desk that is exclusively just for my crafts - no more kitchen table!
• Actually get my Etsy shop open and working
• Get my bead website up and running
• ... there will be more, but that's what I've got so far

So there you have it, things to work on and enjoy doing all at the same time.  It's a new year, it's going to be a good year!