Have a Heart – February Component of the Month Reveal at Art Elements

This time I really have to say sorry. To Jenny as well as the rest of you who came here from Art Elements (where the component of the month is hosted) to my blog in the hope to see what gorgeous heart I got and what I created with it. I managed the creation part, but let alone have some time during the daylight hours to take pictures... didn't happen. The last weeks were quite full with work, more work, illness, did I mention work?, some family related things...

Somehow the part to take the pictures, edit and upload them seems to take way longer than anything else. Not that this is true. It is rather that I still need to buy a new cable for my digital camera (or rather finally buy a new one! If you follow my blog you know that I plan this for years now...). Until that I have to use my phone. It is not that I don't like the camera at my phone. I have a Huawei and the camera actually is quite good. But it makes too good pictures in the sense that it already changes the image. I hate that. I want to do my picture editing myself and don't want to first readjust my image before I change it again... arghs! I have to admit I just used the preinstalled app, maybe with a different camera app it wouldn't happen. 

Jenny asked us whether we had any preferences (colour, pendant or cabochon, ...). I just said that I would love to be surprised. So she send me this blue heart with the golden crackle. Now we come to my other dilemma (my blog post sounds rather grumbling, no? ;)). I like the heart and the crackle and the wire stitches to hold and mend the broken heart. I just don't do hearts. I can't explain it. Of course I knew this from the beginning and I chose to go along since I love challenges and I know that the only way to overcome this kind of hesitation with materials, shapes or colours is through using them.

Not that that it worked with yellow so far...

...but with pink!

I was tempted to incorporate the heart to a mixed media piece, I even had several perfect fitting backgrounds. But it felt wrong, it felt like the easy way and not a challenge so I used it as for was it was: A pendant.

I shredded an old chiffon neckerchief. On one side of the necklace I braided the fabric while on the other side I let three strands lose. Maybe I will braid them too in the future, not so sure about the rawness...but I like the look. 

I connected the fabric and the heart to a bronze chain. Bright gold was too golden for me (and I don't have real gold here just brass). To repeat the blue and to bring it all together, I added blueish beads to the bronze chain.

I am quite pleased with the organic look of the combination of fabric and how from the blue heart the blue beads seem to grow up. 

Only not so sure about the side with the open chiffon stripes...

So, thank you again Jenny for this heart. I got more comfortable to work with it while I tried different things and the next heart will hopefull be a little easier for me to work with (and as I said, I am not sure why hearts are so difficult for me even when I like them!).

If you are curious how the other hearts looked like and even more what the other contributors and guest at Art Elements created with theirs, please have a look at their blogs!

Guests: 

Rosantia Petkova

Shai Williams 

Sally Russick

Elaine Thornton

Art Elements team: 

Lindsay Starr

Laney Mead

Claire Fabian (you are here)

Sue Kennedy

Diana Ptaszynski

Caroline Dewison

Lesley Watt

Jennifer Cameron

Cooky Schock

Niky Sayers

Cathy Mendola

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Tentacles just for me!

Mine! 

Mh... maybe not a really grown up way to start a blog entry but... a true one! ;) 

If you are following my blog a little it longer you may now how much I love the work of Christi Friesen. I have all of her polymer clay books and always enjoy her playful style! I think she is also a very good example of how you can teach your tips and tricks and knowledge but not for people learning to copy you but to develop their own style. 

The most important things I learned from her are: More is sometimes also more and embrace your thumb prints on the clay! This may not sound much but it was something really important for me. It took away my fear of wasting material and just to try and play. 

I have my own style with polymer clay. One I believe you can recognize (maybe not with all but with a lot of my beads and jewelery ^^ but I am also still growing). But maybe you can understand how much it means to me to have something in my hand made by Christi.

She put up a pinterest challenge some time ago where she posted inspirational pictures taken by her and asked to come up with ideas and inspirations coming to our mind seeing them. The one inspiring her she would use to create a heart and send it to the person having the idea. Yes, that was me! ^^

May I say it again? Mine! :)

I am not sure what I will make with the heart but my first idea was to use it as an ornament. I still have not finished a blog entry from last christmas (just reminding myself now ^^) about an ornament I made. I promise you it will be weird. But I have the idea to have one day a lot of weird and odd ornaments as well as children... and every evening during christmas time one can choose an ornament and we will think of a good night story inspired by the ornament. Yes... it will also be a weird and odd story, has to be! ^^

You can't carve enough stamps... ever!

Okay, I guess my topics are a little bit onesided at the moment apart from my inspiration pictures. But carving stamps is really something which neither needs much time nor much (or expensive) material. And also not much space!

And this scorpionfish is quite a beauty!

I am using my linoleum carving tool(s), a paper knife, a brush to get the small parts out of my rubber, a pencil and a little bit of paper for the design and of course some carving material: rubber also known as erasers ^^

Here you can see all my stuff and the scorpionfish during carbing process.

And finished:

I will use the bigger leftovers for other stamps.

I had a bigger one which was also harder than most other erasers. You have to try which consistency you like best for carving. The harder the rubber is the better you can carve small details in it but with softer rubber the stamping process is more at ease and at the beginning it is easier to cut. But please have this in mind even if you start your first carvings not that you try a complicated pattern with too soft rubber so you may not get disappointed (and also keep in mind: you can use every carved stamp, if it happens not to be the one you wanted, make a stamp for a background out of it!).

 Other stamps from today or the last night: a compass rose (or wind rose)

And yes, hearts are not my favorite thing to do, work with or whatever. But one for the list... is okay I think ^^