Window Ornament Swap

This was our first International Polymer Clay Swap on Facebook. I was excited that 20 Artisans decided to participate, from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and the USA.
I thought Window Ornaments would be fun and a bit of a challenge and it was! I think we’re more used to creating Wall or Tree Ornaments, but challenges can be good for the creative mind and the results were pretty amazing!
I paired up people randomly as best as I could as most were willing to ship internationally. My partner was Kimberly Idalski. Kimberly is a multi talented jewelry designer. You can see her post about this swap here.
She did a lot of research about the Province where I live. British Columbia’s provincial flower is the Dogwood and the bird is the Stellar Jay, a cocky Bird that loves to hang out at Beach Parks and wait for the bread crumbs to fall. Actually feeding these birds in Provincial and National Parks is prohibited, but this doesn’t stop them from coming to your backyard!

I love these birds and I think Kim did a pretty fine job representing them. Beautiful, isn’t it! I’ve got it hanging in my studio against a back drop of Cedar which happens to be my view from my little window.

Look at the fine detail! Kimberly double sided the flowers so when they turn on the chain, front and back look the same and the encapsulated crystals can sparkle.

Love it! Thanks so much Kimberly.
I sent Kimberly something she likes which are Butterflies. As I mentioned…go visit her blog if you want to see what I made for her.
Here are some of the other participants’ blogs…

Alenka Obid http://pepita-handmade.blogspot.com/2012/08/window-ornament-swap.html
Kimberly Idalski http://kimisjewelryandgifts.blogspot.ca/2012/08/artisan-polymer-clay-swap-window.html
Vanessa Betcher http://vanessasclayadventures.blogspot.ca/2012/08/window-ornament-swap.html
Leila Bidler http://www.lbidler.com/apps/blog/show/18400894-facebook-swap-organized-by-tina-holden-
Anne Roncalli http://leboudoirdanne.canalblog.com/archives/2012/08/27/24975703.html
Nadia Gennari http://easywom.blogspot.it/2012/08/international-polymer-clay-swap-la-mia.html
Manon van Kempen: http://www.manonvankempen.com/1/post/2012/09/window-ornament-swap.html
Ilenia Moreni: http://leggendesegrete.blogspot.it/2012/09/international-swap.html

Good to the last drop

We usually say that about coffee, but here I actually mean that about resin. Not the UV resin you’ve heard me talk about so many times before, but the Little-Windows.com resin. Yes, it’s definitely my new love! It’s a 2:1 ratio resin rather than a 1:1 ratio that most other resins use for combination of Resin and Hardener. I find I just can’t go wrong with this one. I posted a little about it back in April. I’ve tried 1:1 ratio resins but sometimes ended up with beautiful but unusable tacky pieces which I sadly had to toss. And UV resin, while it has great uses, the annoying thing is that you can’t mix opaque stuff into it. And for the LW resin, I don’t have to wait for the sun to shine (here in the North, haha), or plug in my Aluminum foil lined Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) UV oven. Blablabla…ok here is a little idea with a bit more blablabla attached, lol. Notice the teardrop ends of the beads? I’m entering these in the 52 earrings a year which I have fallen behind in. I’m planning on catching up!

I normally use these cute silver little headpins with the round ball ends or the plain flat hammered end ones which I have so many of. Then this idea hit me…why not make some!!

When done working with a batch of resin, as instructed you can wipe the cup with a paper towel to then being able to reuse the cup. But now I make use of those last few drops before wiping it. Well,in case you’re wondering how I then cure them…here they are…

I just used Scotch Tape and taped the pins onto the shelf above my head. They’re not drippy at all, but you could place a sheet of printer paper underneath just in case you have your coffee there or whatever, lol.

Mine are black because I used Fran’s magical black powder that is used with her Dichro tutorial (the video of which you can watch in my April link above). You could also use glitter or colorful embossing powders.

Stay tuned for asap…

German Bead Soup

It’s time for the Bead Soup Blog Hop and our 2nd Reveal for August 11th! There was one a week ago and the last one a week from now. It was split up because there are 400 participants!!
A few weeks ago I blogged about all the wonderful things I received from my Partner Stefanie Teufel of Germany. Here is a recap of what she sent.

She knew I like Copper so she included some chain, a Toggle and Focal Heart in that metal which I used as the basis for this necklace. I didn’t use all the beads as I only had so many copper bead caps and wasn’t sure how else to pull off the larger beads or how to incorporate the odd smaller beads work with the large, but I think this one works!

Here is another view. The focal with the Green Agate bead



I used the Jade and Coconut beads for these Earrings…

I filled the little glass vial with sand and all the small beads that would fit in and used the green jump ring to hang from a simple necklace that has African frosted flower beads.

So I was able to use most of the beads.

Our Wonderful Hostess, Lori Anderson, Pretty Things

Summer Bracelet Fun

I’ve been making and selling a few bangles and none received more compliments than the one I chose to keep for myself. So I’ve decided to share it, in the form of my latest tutorial.

This tutorial is fold as in 2 parts. First I show how to create the crackles and craze with the full tutorial of "New Crackle", then second, how to create round and flat round elasticized bangle bracelets. The tutorial will shows a modification of the crackle. Nothing gets wasted when you use the crackled veneer for other projects and then use the left over bits to create these types of bracelets.

The Bangles are unique in that the 2 halves interconnect with elastic. You can also create these bracelets with other veneers such as Mokume gane, milifiori canes or my Batik technique which I think is a lot of fun.

This 15 page tutorial has more than 40 photos as guidance with the detailed step by step.

I’ve listed it in my Etsy, ArtFire and Zibbet, so one can choose their preferred Market place. There is a bit of a bonus with a percentage discount on ArtFire (Comment and Patrons). The other markets don’t offer this yet.

Ok, but what about if you already have the ‘New Crackle” Tutorial? Well, you could just create your own bangles I suppose, lol. I was thinking of offering just the bracelet as a project part, so one can use their own technique along with it and just learn my tips and method, but it gets to be a bit confusing when listing. This was the case with my Batik Flower tutorial, where I offered a tutorial with the technique and the project and then the project alone. I sold very few of the project alone that I stopped offering it.

I could use some opinions on this…

Busy Bee

And how to keep up with it all. I’m buzzing like a bee, both mentally and physically…back and forth from item to item, things to photograph, chores to be done like laundry, things to be written up and tagged, my turn cooking dinner, appointments, and some days I have that sense I didn’t get much done even though I really have when I look back. It’s been almost 2 weeks since I posted and meant to much sooner. It’s become too easy to use Facebook, but am realizing THAT part is becoming almost too overwhelming. For a while I got added to a whole bunch of different Groups and there are so many for polymer clay now. I mean how much can you handle and keep track of!? I decided to stick with a couple, but needed to go ‘no notification’ just for a while. I’m almost afraid to be left out of the loop!…but just don’t have the time and energy to social network as I’d like to. I know it’s good PR, but something has got to give. I also belong to a Beader’s Cafe since I also do beadwork. And the swaps I’ve participated in. I really enjoyed those and they really help renew that creativity. Just mailed my last item. I hosted a Polymer Clay Swap on the Facebook Group with the same name. Window Ornaments is or was the Theme. I can’t show you yet as my partner Kimberly hasn’t received hers yet, but soon!! August 15th is the deadline and we’ll be doing a blog hop then.
Anyway…this past week I spent a lot of time making these!!

…not enough! I need another batch this coming week, lol. If you feel like making these, I have a series of tutorials . And here are other things I’ve been making to turn into earrings and pendants…Maybe you’re familiar with my Batik and Shimmer (also found on ArtFire). I have two tutorials for this technique. A lot of people I meet ask me how I make them and when I describe it, it seems way over their head, especially for someone never having worked with polymer clay before. But…the occasional person will say “ohhh, is that like Fimo?” YES!! and that makes me feel excited in a good way. People don’t call it Philo or Filo anymore!! you know…that pastry stuff, lol. Used to get that a lot. Not anymore. Yay!

I’ve also made a few other pebbles for jewelry. Maybe I should just sell the beads…


There are many other things non-polymer clay but more resin in nature…


I could show you more things I made, but that would mean taking more photos. Next time! Tomorrow is a reward day. A visit with an old friend I haven’t seen in a few years and then a couple of hours at the Lake!! yay…see you soon.