"From summer to fall" - Earrings for the 3rd Oktoberfest blog hop

This earrings were made for the "3rd Oktoberfest Blog Hop". Initiator and hostess is Rita from Toltec Jewels. Have a look at the creations and work from everyone in this blog hop (yes, being german the name is a little bit strange for me - in a good way, it makes me smile... but also think of a lot of drunken people... ehm... ^^). You can find a list of all participants on Rita's blog here.

I already had some beautiful beaded beads made by Rebecca from "The Curious Bead Shop" (the czech glass leaves beads are also from her) used here. One of my friends saw them and also made me some more beaded beads. She is working with beadwork for quite some time and also the ones that taught me all the bead work you ever saw on my blog! I have a lot more beads made by her for me... now I only have to dare to use them! What is interesting for me: Every kind of beaded bead you can see online seems to be a little bit different due to the person creating them. Even with all the tutorials out there every person seems to adapt and create their own way.

For this berry-like earrings the beaded beads went perfect with the glass leaves. Simple and sweet :)

"Caught sunshine" - Earrings

The idea for these earrings was in my head for a long time. They look quite simple and I love how they fall and move. But actually it took me a while to really get them the way I imagined them. I started with the tiny beads on the wire and connected them to the bigger jump rings... and... they were awkward. I combined with different kind of beads at the end until I used the tiny drops (czech glass beads from  "The Curious Bead Shop"). Weight, size, colour, movement... it all came together. Definitely not my last earrings in this style!

The seed bead mix is one of my favorite glass bead mixes. Actually it was a really cheap one I found by luck in a shop that is selling offers from other shops. I took all mixes available but still my stash is quite limited and I used already a lot of them. *sighs* I will probably find new mixes...

"Broken Pieces" - Earrings

No, I am not sure were the names for my jewelery is always coming from. Sometimes I have a clear idea what words or meaning I want to incorporate. Also what I don't want to be included or is not fitting for me. But now for this earrings the name just came up and I knew that was it. 

The big blue beads with the crackled surface are actutally polymer clay beads I made. I treated the surface with paint and embossing powder and other powders and gloss and... whatever I find. This is a new kind of surface for me but one I am in love with. I am testing the boundaries, how resistant the surface is, how I can vary... This technique limits as well as it opens new possibilities. Whatever I try, how many other challenges and method I am going to explore, the one material I am always coming back to is polymer clay. 

The glass beads are czech glass beads I got from Rebecca's "The Curious Bead Shop". 

Where I will be tomorrow!

Image from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sonderposten-Kunst-Kreativmarkt/739122192765584

This is where I will be tomorrow! My first (maybe also my only) market this year (participating... I already visited some ^^). If you are in Leipzig and have time, please come along and say hello! For more details, pictures, details about the music and other events taking place, have a look here at their facebook page.

The best is: It will be at the Lene-Voigt-Park just in front of our apartment! From 11 am to 18 pm :)

Image from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sonderposten-Kunst-Kreativmarkt/739122192765584

Sky chef!

I took this picture while I was waiting for my next flight (the third at that day). This was the plane from the flight before (Seoul - Frankfurt). I just wanted to have an image of the plane... and then after seeing the taken image I realized that my reflection on the window was also captured... sitting right above the sky chefs! ^^

Somewhere - Nowhere

Polymer clay beads - Rough and organic and crackles... and... just me!

I Just love them! Finally (really finally... I want to use so many exclamation marks... and write in upper case... and bold...!) finally I managed to create crackles on polymer clay beads I love!

I am still absolutely tired. Last two weeks were exhausting and I also had a bad cold for the last week (but still had to function). Tomorrow being monday is just too soon! 

But... in between I played a little bit. Being inspired by surfing too much in the internet and realizing what kind of aesthetics resonates with me. I just ordered for over 100 euros beautiful lampwork art beads (they were even a commission) and a tutorial  I love (most of the time I don't like buying/using tutorials... I want my beads to be developed by me only but this was for special glass beads that are just stunning... I will write more about this in the future). 

Like most people that are working with polymer clay I tested a lot of different colours, paints, powders, lacquers... Especially crackles are something I always wanted for my beads. The right kind. I got a tutorial for heating polymer clay before, using powder, inca gold... and I also tested every paint I had on raw clay and a lot of crackle paints on raw and baked clay. Most of the later ones just were not stable on the bead and fell of in big flakes. 

Now I found a combination that worked for me. Crackle paint, embossing powders, acrylic paints, stuff to integrate (no idea how to call this)... 

This are the very first beads I made in this style. Just today. You know this moment seeing something and knowing: That's it!? This was my moment of "That's it!". That is me. 

I will have to play more, create more, test them to see how stable the surface will be or whether I have to use further treatments to stabilize the surface. Maybe I may even give some away for you to test (but for this I will have to create more first ;)). 

"Stories they tell" - Earrings made out of ancient and new beads

A lot of "firsts" in this earring pair. They were a birthday present for a very close friend.

Do you see the bronze charms? This are my first ever made pieces out of bronze clay! I used one that I could fire (at least small pieces) with a torch. Okay, it takes some patience to torch bronze (7 to 9 minutes after the heated stage and believe me, the time is necessary... lost some pieces afterwards using less time).. but honestly, the silver clay is just way too expensive for me for playing and experimenting. The gold and silver market value is increasing in a crazy way since 2005. That is not real value anymore, just speculators...

Back to the topic: I already had two molds made (I use them for polymer clay usually). One with an ammonite and on with a tiny shell that I found on formentera (so this one is really personal to me). After torch firing (under non-reducing conditions because hey, there is a lot of free oxygen in the surrounding air) I got a lot of firescale and the copper in the bronze is sitting on top. I removed a lot but am still learning about the effetcs. Some of them could also be beautiful. 

I used liver of sulphur for oxidizing and polished the raised surfaces again. Afterwards I sealed it with renaissance wax (also a first for me, just bought it with the metal clay!). 

And the backside with my tiny signature: One time stamped, one time scratched. The backside is also more bronze than copper coloured because I fired it on a charcoal block so at this area there is a reducing surrounding. I already tried to put the top down but this provides other problems.

I really love how they turned out! I combined them with czech glass beads (the blue and the clear facetted beads) from The Curious Bead Shop and some really, really old glass beads.

This was the next first for me because I was anxious to use these tiny glass treasures. The glass beads on top in the different shades of green are old roman glass shaped as bicones found in Afghanistan / Pakistan (age: 1st century B.C. - 1st century A.D.) and the grey and mottled beads are about 600 years old excavation beads from Dejenne, Mali, africa. I bought them from the ethnic bead shop. 

Yes, most people would never notice but for me there is something magical in holding beads in my hand that are centuries old or even older. They were made and touched by people long gone, you can see the time in the worn look. Still, they survived the time like only glass can and now they are telling a story combined together with old and new in these earrings.

My found objects like the shell from formentera (the island that is so important for me), my first experiments made with bronze clay combined with all the curiosity and excitement, the perfect facetted glass beads made in czech after a long tradition, the old roman glass travelled up so far and the trade beads part of everyday life hundreds of years ago. Some of the beads just went through my own hands while others may have gone through so many hands.

"Treasure box" - For all your memories (polymer clay)

This was a wedding present I made. I already put some shells, sea glass and other findings inside but the idea was rather that this would be a tiny box where they could collect some treasures they find on their way.

I covered an old candy box with polymer clay and painted it with acrylic paints (Reeves) as well as Inka Gold paints (Viva). Especially with the Inka Gold you have to carefully seal the surface because the paints are not water resistant. But they have a beautiful metallic shimmer!

And the backside :)

Inspirations: On the streets (Leipzig)

Look what I found on my way from the institute to the supermarket!

Colour, form, placement... I am stunned how perfect this pictures fit in their surrounding! Also the reason why I couldn't chose to select only one image. Every viewpoint gives a slight but beautiful different impression.

"Tin tales" - Earrings made from bottle caps

I was back in germany just to got a call that we would have a meeting in south korea. So I tried to stuff a lot of work in the remaining few days including saturday and the nights and flight to korea on sunday. I came back last wednesday night (yes, two days travel for 1,5 day stay ^^).

Actually I had three flights per way (Leipzig -Munich/Frankfurt - Seoul - Jeju island). On the way back (Seoul - Frankfurt) I was upgraded to business class. Honestly? If I could always flight business class, traveling would be really relaxing instead of stressful and tiring! Just that working in public funded research is not allowing this option... *sniff*

But right now, having some free time finally, I caught a cold. Bah...! Just Murphy's law ^^

The earrings were made using bottle caps. I always see the collection of bottle caps on the blog of centi and thought there must be something I could also do with them. Since I am not so much into creating magnets I just took my hammer...

I pushed several holes into the flat metal to add a lot of tiny and colourful dangles. The dangles are tiny facetted czech glass beads, old vintages glass beads and just normal silver lined glass beads. I love their bright colours, the movement and mismatched tin.

By the way, can you guess my favorite lemonades? ^^