"To be told" - Earrings

Grungy, worn, rustic... all of these descriptions come into my mind seeing the feather earrings. The polymer clay charms are looking like worn and old relics. 

Maybe the feathers are really a symbol because the earrings have a tribal vibe for me. Images of people sitting around a fire, a deep voice with a slightly rough edge is telling old stories while the night surrounds them.

This is how they look at the backside ;)

Actually the length is something in between, not too short, not too long. 

In case you are wondering: The feathers are also from my growing polymer clay bead stash I am hoarding. I am trying to use them all, piece for piece. May take a while but one step further! (...not that I am not making more new beads than I actually use ;))

You may also get them here in my etsy shop in case you would like to give them a new home and new stories to be told!

"Peacock's pride" - Earrings

 

Peacock's pride - The purple, the blue and the green, all of it together, they create the bright and colourful effect that I connect with the beauty of a peacock... and also as bold! The lampwork beads are made by Julie Wong Sontag from uglibeads. 

Around the tip of the feathers I wrapped them with copper wire, fine wool and seed beads. 

The earrings are really light weight (yes, like a feather ;)), the move easily with the wind and the slightest touch...

...and they are really endless long!

They are in my shop here :)

"Dreaming" - Bird mask made with polymer clay

Do you know this kind of surreal feeling: Hey, I actually made this? 

I have it with this bird mask. 

It is made with polymer clay (Fimo classic as well as a lot of other scraps of clay I had at hand... some of it even neon yellow!). At first I used a paper template to cover with metal foil and then a first layer of polymer clay and bake it. In a second step (a step that took weeks, I just worked on it from time to time) I created the beak and added the feathers. Every single feather was cut in shape and formed onto the mask. Just a very basic and simple shape with clean lines to make a feather but because they are all different, it is working really well. 

I covered the baked mask with surface prep from Christi Friesen "Swellegant", added a first layer of black acrylic paint and then several layers of "Swellegant" silver. It will fill out little gaps and small details are lost. But that is perfect because then it looks more and more like one single piece and not a combination of different pieces. In the last coat of silver I added the darkening patina while it was still wet. After it dried I coated it at first with the sealant before I added highlights with the silver again on top. I am using this order now since I sometimes had the problem that even after waiting for several days to let the metal coat and the patina dry, if I would add new metal to highlight raised areas it would also oxidise.  

The curve of the side nicely goes into the curve of the beak. 

Just look how well it turned out with the beak and the nostrils and the tiny wee feathers around it. The beak was just smoothed out by hand before baking and I left it as it was afterwards. This has the effect that in all that irregularities the silver and patina formed their own organic pattern.

For a boy... for a girl... and one for a friend...

This stamps I made for a friend. He wanted some stamps for his niece and nephew for christmas. For her everything connected to ballet and a princess... and for him all the things connected to farming. So here we go...! 

(the background of the ballet shoes I stamped with textured wall papers!)

Of course a farmhouse...

...and ballett shoes...!

...a dancer...

...and a crown...

...next to a John Deere...

(Yes, this is for the same boy who got this T-shirts!)

You see, the dancer can stay on her tiptoe...

...either with her hand going up or just dancing in a round...

...the stamps for the niece...

...and the ones chared...

...every farmhouse needs a little fence...

...and a tree...!

...and someone has to wake every one up in the morning...

...a tiny tractor stamp...

...all of the stamps can be combined...

...looks nicer with a cloud at the sky...

...a horse is liked by both!

...the measurement is in cm, so you can get an impresson how big (or rather small) the stamps are...

All of them together in one box... 

...yes, some of the stamps are really big ones!

This time my hand for some kind of size measurment ^^

The last stamp I show you was not for one of the kids but a friend if mine. 

You see the surface? This is not an effect I created by controlled carving... but by just cutting over the same space again and again! Love the effect, sometimes the best is not to be too controlled...

A lot new ones... all made out of brain energy!

 This is how the rubbers were called. Some cheap one from a no name brand... and the wrapping around the erasers / rubbers said: "Brain energy!". You can image, I just loved it! I got it from my supervisor in the lab, encouragement on all life aspects! Thanks! :)

A hibiscus (or better known as hawaiii print) flower...

...just a something-flowery line...

...feathers....!

(think I will have to work a little but more on the top...)

 ...all of them together...

you can get the idea about the sizes :)