"Red riding hood" - Earings

Okay, you my say, why call the earrings red riding hood when they show... red tiny houses? Honestly? I don't know! Since I started naming my earrings I just went with my gut. If an idea, a word, an impression comes into my mind, I go with it. The creation process itself, from the bead to the jewelery, always goes together with an image in my head. This idea consists not only of shapes and colours but especially of moments and emotions. 

The idea of creating houses with polymer clay is not a new one. There are tons and tons of images if you start googling polymer clay house (you may add bead as a search tag). But every single one if different and special... and... I just wanted also to have some house beads! I went for a beautiful dark red and used paynes grey acrylic paint as contrast. It is not as hard as black even looking nearly black. Trust me, it makes a great difference! :) 

I combined them with clear facetted czech glass beads. They look like frozen water and are by far belonging to my favorite beads ever. I repeated the colours of the house with the black and dark red drop. Just darker... grey to black and cherry red to blood red. 

Even while house beads are playful and I named the earrings after a fairytale... the earrings itself have a more grown up and somehow sincere feeling to me. I am a little bit surprised by this but hey, I really like it too! :)

Even if the houses are not too big, the earrings itself are actually quite long. It seems that I am in love with long dangling earrings at the moment. Maybe because I was surprised how well really long earrings fit myself! 

One thing I really learned creating my own beads and earrings: There are shapes and colours fitting everyone. I even had the perfect fitting pair for a friend who was never ever wearing long earrings just studs. Her features (don't get the wrong idea, she looks great!) were really difficult for any hanging kind of earring. We tried and she even convinced me that only studs were working for her. Then she visited us over a weekend (really spontaneous, she texted me late in the night and arrived early the next morning... she lives at the other side of germany) and joined me at the fair I was selling at (company is so great to have!). She looked at all my earrings and finally had one in her hand she really liked and even knowing her "problem" she tried... and they fit perfectly! They just had an unusual shape (you can see them here). There are earrings for everyone :)

On my table... Blue wings - Polymer clay bead

I will try to show you more of my work in progress or what projects I currently am working on. There are so many that are taking a long time but I still think it may be interesting to show them to you. Also to prove that I am still creating a lot of things, that I am just not showing too much of them.... because they are not finished. 

I try to allow myself the time to work slowly, to get the right components, the right idea for the composition. Several months ago I set myself the aim to create more necklaces. I have so many images in my head but the way from there into reality is a long one. Especially because they are ever changing.

The wings are made with polymer clay (Fimo professional, I am not happy about it... I want my Fimo classic back!). They will be the focal point of a necklace... now I just have to arrange everything else and maybe create another bead for the center. We will see :)

Can you see the rather crusty textures? And the different layers of colour and metallic spots?

...maybe on the other wing ;)

And an idea about the size... 

The backside is just rough and in a blueish grey. Is it strange that I also really like how organic the surface appears and already thinking about how to incorporate this into new beads? :)

"Coke and candy" - Earrings

After the name for earrings came into my head... and I wrote it down... it somehow appeared to me that one could get the wrong impression! But then I thought that it may even fit better in regards to the time of art deco. Also have a look at the beautiful redhead, she is looking like she would enjoy every aspect of live even the darker sides.

I made the circles with tin from a candy box. Don't ask me where I got the box because I had it for at least 15 years or so. The inner parts were starting to rust therefore I took it apart. The flavor was cola (as you may already have guessed). So... the coke actually comes from coka cola and not the other stuff and candy from the simple fact that it was a candy box. 

Although... it could also be true for the redhead ;) Okay, it is late, maybe I should stop writing. 

But I really like the earrings, the images combined with the glass daggers. Now I just have to find more of these candy boxes! If you know where I may get them, please tell me.

A beaded little bird - made by Lachafa a long, long time ago!

You know this moment, when you unexpectedly find something you had for a long time while looking for something else? Something that just makes you smile? This was true for me with this beaded little bird. A colibri my sister made for me years ago... years... something between 8 and 10 years I think... I tend to ten. 

She made it with silver wire and seed beads. I have more beaded little things from her but I especially loved this bird! It was part of an advent calendar she made for me. 

The orange and white belly...

And sitting on my hand... :) I will have to find a new place for him, he should not be hidden in a dark box anymore.

"Hints of red" - Earrings

Okay, yes, I started also to use my own new beads. I love this drops with the hint of dark red going over to a pink colour with all these tiny wee crackles! Tiny...! If you start wondering about my sanity, I think Rumpel may agree. All the time I am running to him, waving some new beads in front of him and shout in a very excited manner: LOOK! SEE THE CRACKLES! THE BIG ONES! TINY ONES! AND... ORGANIC WEIRD BUBBLE HOLES! (imagine this scene going over and over again ^^)

He nods seriously and says: Yes, very beautiful.

Every single time.

I just love him :)

The balance of the earrings is a the lower part due to the drops. It draws the eyes to the crackled beads while the beautiful czech glass beads give a nice accent... without them it would not feel finished for me :)

Inspirations: Moments (Formentera, Spain)

Summer is long gone. But here is a moment we caught from formentera. Want to be back there...!

"Sylvan stories" - Earrings

Originally I planned to create these earrings for a challenge but I didn't manage to make them in time (or rather to take pictures in time ^^). 

I used real moos... and a lot of czech glass beads. The leave were part of Rebecca's Curiosity Kit. 

...and.... uhm... the rings were originally red and for sealing tubes from the hardware store. I just painted them with acrylic paint in black. 

I played around, just wrapping them with wire and glass seed beads... or hanging some drops and beads onto them.

...and more pictures! They are really organic in the truest sense of the word... and they probably won't last forever. But I love how they look and feel :)

Here one impression about the size with my universal comparison tool - my hand!

On my table...

On my table: Since I am not showing you all the stuff I am working on... don't get enough daylight anymore to take pictures... or just have too many work-in-progress pieces... that I decided to join 

I am making a lot of earrings at the moment. These little ones are always my bestseller on fairs. For me there are a great opportunity to test new treatments and colour combinations, pattern and structures... but they don't cost to much in term of material and time. Okay, for time it is only true if I make a lot at the same time... otherwise they will take long. But since this is also something I would also do to test and play, it is a win/win to also have something to sell. 

They are also the little dots of colour people like to take away from markets because they are not too expensive. My little sister Lachafa told me (and she is one not having a lot of money to spend at that time) that if she is going to a market or a fair she wants to buy something. Take something with her. She was right because I am like her. If I visit a fair I want to find and buy something beautiful even if it is just a great postcard! A small treat for myself... :)

I also played with techniques, new pattern, made some mold from vintage buttons (a friend visited me with her whole button treasure box!), new stamps, new powders I bought (from a nail art store by the way)...

While I love the text and the colour, I am not sure whether this butterfly pendants may be a little bit too big. I used a wooden base (scrapbooking area at the craft store ^^), glued some old paper on the backside and used polymer clay on the front. 

And while we are at crafting stuff... I also played with old book pages, stamp ink, crackle paint... I am using this for my boxes :)

Inspirations: On the streets (Sao Paulo) and the winner of my giveaway

I am back from Sao Paulo (brasil) and while I was there for work, I got away for some hours to have a look around. It is definitely worth a visit even being so absolutely controversial. I was surprised how much I like the city (if you can still call it that being on of the biggest cities worldwide... or megaplexes?) and one of the reasons was the streetart. In nearly every corner we went through (uhm... I was sitting in cars for hours... just couldn't take pictures during the ride...) had a broad range of streetart. On every wall, every corner, every house... and it was so diverse! The next time I will be there I want to take some time just to go around, stop every three meter and take pictures :)

Since I am back now, I also draw the winner of my giveaway / aka call-for-help. Thank you so much for all your great comments! I used random.org and the winner is:

Mischelle10. November 2014 22:30

I love them all. I really love the long beads, but the drops are gorgeous. I really do love the bird too.

I am really curious what you will create with my beads! :)

Tiny elefants and skulls - everyone needs pink flowers! (ear studs)

You see the pink flowers? I think you may guess for whom I made them ;) 

Tiny ear studs... skulls and elefants.

As much as I like cute stuff, it is something I am not enjoying to create as much as my organic, more tribal work. But from time to time even I need to work "in cute". ^^

I especially love the elefants (I also made molds of both of them after sculpting). They are not really difficult to make - under one condition - stop trying to be perfect. They are rough, have fingerprints, are not perfectly shapes... but have a look at this tiny beauty: It doesn't matter! One glance and you see: It is an elefant! (or a skull...)  :)

PS: I even have a small tutorial for skulls here (just don't judge the images to strict... they were taken over two years ago and not the best ^^). 

More... and more... and some of them could be yours! (giveaway as well as call-for-help ;))

I had the idea in my of some bigger pendants... these are the results! As you can see they are quite big! At least the two magenta ones are. 

They are all still in the experimental phase: What kind of effects can I get? How do the materials interact with each other? What different kinds of look can I achieve? Tiny crackles or gigantic ones or both together?

Of course I want all. Always. ^^ Polymer clay is a stunning material with so many possibilities!

Here is a realistic (also known as chaotic) view on all of my "test samples". My preciousssssss.......

Back to my yellow challenge. If you are already following my blog for some time you may know how difficult it is for me to incorporate this colour in my work. I already gave myself a yellow challenge in the past. While I really love some of the resulting work I didn't overcome my difficult relationship with yellow. Don't get me wrong, I like yellow! I adore other designs using it in their beads, paintings, jewelery, clothes.

Therefor I went for muted yellow beads (they started as really bright yellow polymer clay). Actually... they seem to speak to me. I am actually really surprised!

Drops! Everybody needs drops! I even bought a lot of ceramic drops a few days ago :)

The long shape I think appeals so much to me because it may resemble so many natural structures, from buds to mushrooms...

Here again you can see how I was playing with the effects: Crackles nearly as big as the bead itself, some are rather wonky and other crusty... 

Bright and pink and red.... the light pink is a little bit too bright for me but the dark magenta is lovely. Also red and white are stunning.

Long and rather flat... next to the rather ling bud-like structures...

Curly? Not completely sure about them...

What else? Long drops, ankler-like bead... and...

...I also had to make a bird skull. The colours and crackle go strangely enough in a weird way perfect with the skull idea.

My always reliable size comparions - my hand.

Still I am not selling them even if I plan to do so in the future. I am just testing their durability and this takes some time. I am always testing my beads if I created them using a new method, technique, shape... you get the idea. 

Therefore I want to combine a call for help with a giveaway!

I would like to give the following beads to one person to help me to test them! Please be aware that they may not be perfect until now, this is why I want to have somebody else to get an impression!

There are some conditions (or rather one): Use them in two weeks after you got them and share the result! I say two weeks after arrival because I know how long shipping can take. Please also tell me if there are some problems so I could solve this for the future. Also if something goes wrong with them (or a single one they may behave different due to treatment and shape), don't be disappointed: I promise to send you new beads to make up to you! (definitely also this kind of bead just in different colour or size).

So, to join my giveaway aka call-for-help all you have to do is to leave a comment until the 14th november, 7 pm (MEZ). You can write whatever you want but if you want to have some inspiration, tell me which ones are your favorites or what is missing for you or what you think could be created with them.

Since I am away from today to next thursday I thought that would be the perfect time frame.

For further entries you could become a follower of my blog, share my giveaway on your blog and/or facebook. Please leave an extra comment for every entry!

These are the beauties you could get for testing: A long and dark blue pendant, a pair of dark red round beads and a pair of strange turquoise/light blue pods. 

Nope, don't have a creative name until now ^^ Also this giveaway is international, just to make sure you know.

Hope you love them as much as I do! Thank you for taking part in my experimental phase of bead creation!