Little Birds

I have been spending a bit of time this weekend drawing up some ideas for projects I'd like to try.  I was also talking with my hunny about starting to sell some beads and things I make online, he's all for it!  I think so far it's been pretty productive... and surprisingly relaxing this weekend.  I've just decided to be mellow... and let creativity happen when it happens.  Also I've been staying away from playing on my iPhone which I have a tendancy to do when I'm bored and watching TV.  Strange how I seem to multi-task those two together.  Instead I've spend the weekend picking up a pencil and drawning in my book.

One of my little creations I had thought about making was 3 Little Birds.



Three Little Birdies in Shadow Boxes

 I thought I'd make little birds and place them in shadow boxes and give them unique backgrounds and see how it went.  Trees with flowers, a sunny sky and some paper cut out clouds.  As I was working on my little birds I've decided rather than placing them in 3 separate shadow boxes, that I'd just put them in one.  I think it just was due to the size that I'd made them... thought they'd look better all together.


The Basics of the Birdies I started to create

 I started out with three bird shapes.  One in a blue, one pink and one brown.  I had wanted a more red looking bird, but the mixing took it to a pretty in pink and I had some leftover pink that I was able to encorporate in the design of the pink bird which made me pretty darn happy.  That clay I had was from one of my earlier canes that I had tried to make when I first started.... back in November!





First Birdie... I wanted to wire wrap it's
legs to give it a bit of pizazz.


Having never wire wrapped anything before I thought I'd give it a try with my first little birdie.  I took some thicker bronze wire and wrapped some silver around it to make it stand out and then placed some beads on it to make it look a little more interesting, while keeping the bird itself very straight forward and minimal in design.







Little Pink Birdie... the beginning of
something beautiful!

 Starting this one's little head design... not quite sure where I wanted to take it, I was thinking of placing a little flower on a wire stem and putting it on it's head, but it just didn't look quite right so I decided to encorporate several wires and let it kind of look more like a mohawk.


My little pink birdie with it's
 unusual mohawk :)







Here is where I got to encorporate the older cane that I had made back in November for the chest piece on this little pink birdie.

As I was showing my hunny ... he thought it might look good in a flower pot as well as the shadow box I was planning on putting it in. 

See.. so many ideas!  I can't help but get excited to think that there is so much I can get my hands into....that sometimes it's hard to focus on just one thing!


A decorative little pink birdie



Encorporating the old cane, kind of made my day because I have it in my box of clays... wondering if I'd ever had any use for the stuff, and there you go.  Making it a bit more pretty and decorative.






My very decorative brown birdie


It was a bit funny with the last birdie.  I was sitting thinking what I could do with this one that I hadn't done with the other two.  I figured I didn't really do any tail feathers on the other ones...so I ended up improvising a bit and make some green decorations with some wired feathers. 

I was thinking if I had actually made it long enough, but I like how they've turned out.

The Shadowbox... before the magic.  LOL.

The potential shadow box that I'll be putting my little birdies in once they've been cooked up and I've found a proper background.  I'm thinking of placing some scrapbooking paper in the back... maybe a nice light blue with polka dots if there is one, and then I'll add a polymer clay tree with some clay flowers/leaves.  From there depending on room I might add a sun, and some paper clouds that I'll glue in there.... all depending on room.  I was thinking of maybe rather than doing a polymer clay tree branch I might try putting a real one in there and then glue/wire in the flowers..... I'm not sure yet.

But I think so far I'm liking the little birdies I've made.  I'll cook them up later this afternoon and then when I get a chance I'll start building up the landscape.  Maybe a bit of dirt, grass, rocks... all in clay to give it dimention and depth.

From there I think it will come together.   I'll glue in the birds to the clay...since I'm not sure how well something like this would bake in an oven and I don't really want to risk it.

So there you go.  My afternoon delight... and I think I'm going to call it a day as my back is starting to ache from being bent over those birds!  But it was fun to get creative as I've not been drawing anything for yonks.  I need to get back into the happy... and today puts me off to a good start.

Wall and Fridge Art

So even though I've been looking at working on some miniature foods with the awesome books that I received this week, I keep rolling back to doing little bits of wall/fridge art.  I'm not sure if it's just because I find it a bit easier to let my imagination go on these things and it's a lot less finicky... and I'm not so worried about perfection.  I just enjoy it.

So this is what I've been up to this past week.... and it's been fun!



A day at the beach

I have to say I enjoyed my Day at the Beach bit of wall art, because for the first time I made those little palm trees, and didn't reference anything for this picture.  I used old scrap clay for the base and the trunks of the trees and then rolled out combinations of colours to make the ocean, sky and the little crab.  It was fun to make and took a bit of time to put it together, but it was seriously fun  (yes, I know ... it was fun!! Heh.)

My bit of a skyline

 My skyline put together and I threw in a bit of wire to holdup the moon.  It was again placed on some scrap clay and then colours placed over top, outlined in black... throw in some wire and a moon and I think it turned out to be rather fun and colourful.

Flowering Field of Flowers

So this morning I tested out my new pasta maker to see if I could make a great looking tile background.  I wasn't sure if I were to run the colours through the pasta maker if it would stretch to the point where I couldn't use it and it would end up being wasted clay... and well I figured I'd try rolling the different colours of clay individually and then cut them together and joint them by blending the clay joints together with my fingers.  I think it started to come together quite well.   From there I debated on what I would put on the background as it looked as great place for a sheep or two.  But I ended up going with flowers.

I thought I would try building a very simple cane of polymer clay to make some funky flowers, because I had thought of having gold trim around the white of the flower and how would I accomplish that best... I thought a cane would do it.

Here's how the process went:

Putting together the layers of polymer clay.  Wasn't
quite sure how to put in the curves of the hills, but
found if I overlapped the fimo clay and then cut
it, it put together a nice flow and then smoothed the
layers together with my fingers.

The background is complete!  It is about 10x10cm

My attempt at my first polymer clay can ever.  It started
to come together quite well.  I went with a black
middle, white around it, then some red and white then
surrounded by more white and then gold.

The finished polymer clay cane.  Looks like a big
shiny cigar.  I stuck it in the freezer for about 10 minutes
so it was easier to cut and would stop the clays from
bleeding together when I cut it.

The finished product... pretty flowers

I have to say I really enjoyed putting the flowers and blades of grass on the background... really enjoyed putting the grass on there.  I found out that my glittery white, wasn't so glittery and more transparent which made the flowers look a bit funky.  So I know if I'm going to do it again, no glittery white effects Fimo, and just plain white Fimo is in order.  But for a first attempt at flowers, I'm pretty pleased and I've got a few more ideas I'd like to try and see how it goes.

My little link frenzy

You may notice that the sidebar on this blog has pretty much exploded with links to other sites of crafty crafty people.  It was like I couldn't stop.  I know that it may not be search engine friendly to have so many links on the sidebar (I know, why should I care... it's a part of my past that I just can't seem to shake... silly SEO.)  But you know what, I don't really care.  I mean I may know I shouldn't but I just don't care.  I love, love, love finding new sites and there are so many out there that are full of awesomness and written so well that I couldn't stop myself.

I have found so many wonderful creative people that I feel so utterly inspired.  I've got my handy dandy journal and I'm going to start doing some sketches.  I'd like to take a whirl at some wall art again.  I really enjoyed making the last one and I'm hoping today to pick  up a pasta machine so I can roll out my clay... what a time saver I'm hoping it will be... as well the clay will be consistantly one thickness... oh and I can then blend multiple colours and make some nice mixes.... yes... I'm excited!

You can see as I hop from one idea to another I haven't forgotten my plans... yes Christmas, yes jewelery, yes some freakin' awesome wall art that I'd love to create.  I'm just feeling like I could go a million miles an hour and I don't feel like I'm organized enough to do it!

My Journal to get some
ideas on paper before
I forget ... which  happens
 more than I would
 like to admit!

If plans fall in to place today I'm going on a road trip for the afternoon and I'll take my journal with me to sketch out a few ideas that I have for some wall art that I'd like to start.  Maybe some ideas for bracelets that I saw online too... see what I have for time on the trip and keep the creativity going :)

I'm hoping to get my hands on a bit more clay... I seem to keep running out not realizing that these little projects I've been doing, do take up a lot of clay.  I am going to try looking online for some wholesalers maybe or where I can buy my clay cheaper than Michaels... since they run $2.99 each for the Fimo clay that I like working with.

So my plan this weekend is to work on one wall art project, maybe if it's good enough I'll give it away as a present for Christmas this year.  If it's more a work in progress... then I've got tons of wall space here at home that I can add it to :)

Learn to Knit on Circle Looms

This past week I came across circle looms, where you don't use the needles but loop the wool around a circle.  Since I haven't got a clue on how to knit I thought I might look into this a bit further too. Looks like something that I could figure out and enjoy making a few things, like touques, mitts and fun fingerless gloves for work.

You see I start looking around online and I get even more ideas... since I know quite a few people who love to knit and I've only ever tried when I was younger... but I didn't really have the knack for it then, the Circle Loom seems a bit more user friendly and a way that I could try to get into that sort of thing.

See.... so many ideas.  Now just to find the time where I can fit it all in.  Hmm... maybe with the Christmas holidays that I've got coming up I might be able to accomplish some of the things I'd like to do.

Does that mean I have to prioritize!?!  Eeeep.

My attempt at Wall Art

I'd seen some really awesome work at Joe Hurry Creations of one Fimo clay artist Kirsten from Quernus Crafts to do with some 4x4 tree designs.  So I thought I'd give it a try myself as many of the walls in my home are very bare... why not fill them with beautiful art.

Here's my first attempt.

It took me a bit of time to try to come up with a background, but I mixed some
White, Dark Green and a vivid Blue and voila... a swirling crazy
background.