Fairies - Art Elements theme of the month challenge

This month's theme challenge at Art Elements was "fairies" chosen by Caroline. Even though I had taken time off work, I didn't manage to create a lot. The time was required to simply get back to recharge my batteries. The first days I made nothing. I had a lot of plans but my body just wanted to sleep and do nothing at all. Maybe drink some coffee...

Still, I played with different materials. Most importantly, I started my new water color sketch book! Yay! And I have to tell you, it works like I want it! Water color paper makes it easier. I may play with different brands in the future but probably will go on binding my own sketch books. The coptic binding makes it so easy to have it lay flat and paint in it.

Fairies was a difficult topic for me. Because as much as I enjoy seeing the cute, beautiful or playful interpretations of this theme, it is not me. So taking a deep breath, I thought about the other stories about fairies or the older name fae. If you are into fantasy literature, then you may know that in this world fairies and fae are actually describing different things. Not that it is "right" in the true meaning of these words. Fae is the older one, fairy rather the description that over time became the name itself (yes, oversimplifying here!). But in fantasy literature the name fae is often used for all the fae creatures, the seelie and unseelie court, while fairies is often used to described a certain type.

No, this is not important in general, but it helped me getting my ideas. I am a roleplayer since being a teenager and I also played a lot world of darkness (still doing) including changeling. So I went into the ideas of the unseelie court...

...and went on to the wild hunt. Keep in mind, this is all in my sketch book. There are no perfect paintings but rather ideas and experiments. For my wild hunt I went on to playing with layering to the extreme. There are a lot parts I went overboard (no going back with water colors) but I embrace them because they help me learn.

I also played a little bit with clay and made some new faces (I use the sculpey face mold, I think the most used one worldwide for faces? ;) ).

I had a lot of plans for them, since I wanted to create some earrings with the tiny ones and some beading with the bigger ones (yes, seeing all these gorgeous beaded creations of Art Elements members made me give it another try!)... but... somehow the time was gone. But as soon as I have used them, I will show you the results!

My husband and I managed to at least take a few days off for a small trip. We went to the Scharmützelsee and there we stumbled over this little place. I think it is magical.

Then a few days later back in Leipzig I stumbled over this place. It is not really as green as the one above since it is simply a green corner next to buildings but it made me smile!.

Last but not least I wanted to show you an old project that I still thought was fitting for this month's theme. I so love to use beetle wings in my work and I have made quite a lot of earrings with them. The colours look gorgeous especially in the sunlight.

I hope you enjoyed this month's theme challenge and please have a look at what everyone made!

Guest Artists
Vic
Divya
Alysen
Kathy
Tammy
Kimberly 
Hope 
Alison 
Cat 
Sarah 

Art Elements Team
Jen 
Jenny  
Niky 
Laney 
Claire (you are here)
Cathy 
Marsha

"Memorabilia" - A kind of mixed media earrings, between new techniques and childhood memories

I was inspired by old paintings refined with gold leaf on wood of saints or virgin maria. There were some quite old ones in our home and they are a childhood memory for me. My father had from his travels and my grandparents these typical paintings. Thinking of it, I have to say, that they are actually a kind of mixed media work! It is this style that you somehow often find in temporary work (even if the topics and motives are different). 

The image is transferred on polymer clay, the halo was refined using gold coloured leaf (not real one) and the small charm then covered with resin. The sides are roughly cut to enhance the impression of old charms. My last image transfer on polymer clay was done quite some time ago. I don't know why sometimes I am "forgetting" a technique and why I start using it again from one day to the next. But this is my first transfer that I overlaid with resin. There were some troubles but it all worked out in the end. 

The ear wires are pure brass while otherwise the used metals are a combination from bronze alloy, steel and brass giving an old, vintage impression. I really love them!

The dark red glass beads move beautifully and even while the earrings are quite long, they are not heavy!

You can find them in my shop here :)

"Arrows" - Delicate tribal earrings with polymer clay charms

Tribal, ancient... a kind of a modern take on the stone age? 

These earrings are really delicate and (at least for me!) small. They move lovely or as I prefer to call it "dangle". I made the little arrow head charms with polymer clay. More and more I tend to use super sculpey firm if the desired style/work allows for it. It has such a great strength to work with it. Even while you work on one side, the other side stays firm. I know now why people love to use this clay for sculpting (although it is still a little bit in the soft side for Rumpel and the sculptures he creates... but I honestly don't know any other polymer clay brand as firm as this... but we ordered bees putty summer firm now to try it).

The golden accents are made with gold (coloured) leaf and antiqued with acrylic paint afterwards. My favorite colours is Payne's grey from Reeves. While I have small/middle sized bottles from most colours, this one I  have in a really big bottle!   

I even already listed them in my shop here! :)

Colour and texture... tiny wee ear studs!

Finally I started making some new ear studs with polymer clay. I had enough for a while after I made several hundred or so ;) I usually love to create them to test new textures, patterns, colours as well as strange other treatment (from eye shadow to resin...).

But even so after too much repetition, even if the repetition just lies in the fact that they were all ear studs and nothing else, bores me and actually makes me resent to create more. At least for a while...

This is true with nearly everything I do. I need to experiment with new or at least with different materials and techniques to reset my mind. To create is really essential for me, I am often joking "it keeps me sane" but it is rather the truth than a joke. 

It leads to a real mess of started but unfinished projects I have. Some are finished weeks, months or even years later, some won't ever be finished. The difficulty lies to realize what may be true and let not too much time go by. 

But as you see, I found my love and joy again to create tiny wee ear studs with polymer clay! All of the shown one are done using super sculpey firm. Except the last ones I also applied gold coloured leaf before I added some acrylic paint. 

I tried this layering of the gold leaf and the acrylic paint with the ear studs for the first time and love the results. Now this is why I make them: To play, to experiment and still, have a beautiful creation in the end! Now I'll have to apply this to larger beads and pendants too (or other stuff....).

PS: Just so you know... I also throw a lot of experiments in the trash! The ones that didn't turn out well. But since I only made tiny wee pieces, it doesn't hurt at all :)

Broken gold

Polymer clay (fimo classic) in a dark brown, gold leaf (no, not the real one, just golden cheap metal but still so beautiful!) on top, crackled by rolling over the clay, covered with fimo liquid and a lot of layers of shiny gloss!