"The whole universe - inside my hand" - Art Elements Component of the Month [August]

Edit: I am sorry for the late blog post. I had problems with my login. :(

Time just seems to fly. I am not sure where the year went by, let alone summer...

Everything is okay but I need more time to actually stop and realize this. I try to find some time in between, to have a day without any plans, to just sit on our balcony, drink some coffee and do nothing.

Still, I am at unease and realize now more than ever, that I have to take care to stop more often. To make it a habit and not the last safety line. I tend to overthink, to worry, to panic... and then to freeze. I work hard to differentiate what I can do and influence and what I just have to left to chance because I can't do anything about it. It sounds easier than it is especially if your heart is in it.

*sighs*

I don't want autumn and winter to come. Every year I like them less. Trust me, I have no problems being cozy in summer time! ;) But I hate the dark times more and more, I hate the cold and even more the dirty snow and ice in a city, and even more that the days seem always to be too short. Yes, there are a few beautiful days and it is nice when I am on holidays and maybe in the country side. But a few nice days... in contrast to a lot of wonderful days in summer? No comparison.

So here I am contemplating and rambling and whatever while it should be about the gorgeous beads from Caroline (you can find more of her beds here). She send them to us for the august "Component of the Month" (COM) challenge over at Art Elements (AE). They are little treasures and I played with them a lot, just looking at them (yeah... reading this again, it sounds a little bit strange? But I do love the tactile quality of beads).

Choosing what would go along is a quite meditative process and this time it got me thinking. Maybe it were the stars, maybe it was reminding me of the nightsky you can see during summer time on Formentera (we didn't manage to go there this year, one of the reasons I am a little bit down)...

I went with the combination of earth and sky. The more rustic beads combined with the shiny nightsky. I tried to link it all together by adding these small amber glass beads as spacer to repeat in a more subtle way the gold. I wanted to tie it together without overwhelming everything.

I also repeated the blue and gold using the same amber glass beads and some blue glass beads at the end. For me it holds everything together. While there are a lot of different colours, surfaces and textures used, I always try to get them coherent by the general shape of the work (here the bead sizes along the necklace) and like these repeating colours. By the way, the necklace can be worn as a choker or as a long necklace. Both works very well because of the nice weight of all the beads (you need some weight for a necklace to have a good fall).

Since Caroline send three beads, I used the big one for the necklace and the smaller ones for earrings. No, they are not meant to be worn together but of course can be! While the creation of the necklace was a nice flow as soon as I knew which beads I wanted to use and what kind of feeling it will represent (for me at least ;) ), the earrings were another story. I took them apart several times. Too much, to big, too.... I don't know. Often just not right. One version was combined with some gorgeous silk and it looked really good, but way too loud.

I love big and strange and weird and loud jewelery, don't get me wrong. But it has to be coherent. With the silk added, it seemed like two different stories. So it was a no again. In the end I used a very simple design. I turned the ends of copper wire so they would not go through the beads, wrapped it on top and finished. Let me tell you, simple as they are, they look stunning when worn! The pictures just don't give them justice.

Thank you so much Caroline! I really enjoyed working with your little galaxies!

And now please have a look what all the others made!

Guests
Cheryl Zink
Kelly Rodgers

Art Elements Team
Diana Ptazynski
Cathy Spivey Mendola
Niky Sayers
Laney Mead
Susan Kennedy
Claire Fabian (you are here)
Lesley Watt
Lindsay Starr
Caroline Dewison

"Far, far away" - a kind of steampunk and overdue challenges

It is still not finished... What if I told you that this was from our january / february challenge at the german polymer clay forum I am participating (polymerclaykunst)? The topic was "Gestirne / Metall" (celestial body / metal). 

I painted my own little galaxy behind a cabochon using different nail polishes. It reflects the light just stunningly and it seems to go very deep (shades of blue and violet). I tried to catch this on the photo but it is difficult. 

The pendant I made with polymer clay (fimo classic) and coated it in swellegant bronze that was treated with darkening and the blue patina (the paint line from Chriti Friesen and I still don't know how I managed to live without it ^^). 

Coming to the next challenge topic: "Traumzauberbaum / Mosaik" (dream-madic-tree... sorry, german just allows beautiful word combination that are not translateable / mosaic).

Here is a preview of the piece I am working on for this challenge. A mosaic of leaves and wigs and flowers... here you can see the patina solutions of a copper surface.

And of course a hidden dragon fly... :) Just now need to go on with these projects...

New organic structures! My first beads in this year...

...or rather my first finished ones. There is a lot more laying on my table waiting to be sanded and painted and sealed. Maybe not all in this order! Next to started necklaces (yes, like last year I want to grow on creating them), silk wrapped bangles, a lot of beads (hey, I have to really see them next my beads to see if they connect somehow...!), new silicon and polymer clay molds and pattern stamps, paints and papers... and... ehm... all not in my work room but rather in the living room! I don't want to work alone, I want to sit next to Rumpel!

The first three images show pendants or focals rather. All of them have three stringing holes at the bottom because I love beads dangling from a pendant! I used fimo classic in white. While I normally love to work in bright colours I wanted to go for a rather not so "loud" colour scheme this time. Therefor I used paynes grey (acrylic paint, Reeves) at a first basic colour before I added the shades of blue and green. Like moss grew over them with time...

For the following beads I went for my different shades of brown colours I had at hand. I really like the effects and especially with the "curl" of the bead to the right I have to play more. 

I am not sure if I want to use these rather large beads in a single necklace or just the one in the middle as focal and the other two creating earrings.

Last but not least: One of my tribal and organic style I am preferring more and more. Especially with the large hole on top that allows to incorporate this bead into nearly any design and material. 

I already told you how many more beads are waiting to be painted...? Also.. ehm... from last year? ^^

Stars and only stars!

Mh, yes. 

More about my little stars ;) They are part of the "Creative Xmas Decorations' Blogger Competition" for the english Dawanda platform! 

What else may I say other than: Have a look yourself at their facebook page! There are more of sweet little christmas projects :)

By the way... I love the look of simple news paper to wrap up gifts! Just a nice tape added, some thread and of course a star. 

Catch a star! - Crafty Christmas tutorial link-up

Here we go! Laura from "Bugs and fishes" asked who would like to participate on her Crafty Christmas tutorial link-up. I enjoy tutorials and I also thought this would force me to have some kind of a little break. Yes, I am creating a lot but not blogging at the moment. (Truth to be told, my digi and I are not on the best terms anymore, she got a little senescent and forgets when to focus ^^)

If you know me and blog, then you won't be surprised with my choice of material: Polymer clay! 

I want you to catch all the stars you want for christmas :)

Let's start with the basic material:

- Fimo or any other polymer clay

- cookie cutter

Everything else is optional or can be substituted, but here a little list of what else I like to use:

- knitting needles

- crafting scalpell / knife

- acrylic paints (from Reeves)

- Fimo shiny gloss

- paper towels / baby wipes

- everything to create pattern like stamps and molds

- GLITTER!

Knitting needles, cookie cutter, fimo effect...

...in metallic pearl...!

...you can choose different star cookie cutter! Or cut your own shape with a knife...

Here you can see my collection of random things I used to create pattern. The nice thing with making these little stars is that you just need a simple star shape... and just anything lying around you!

Stamp and metall earrings...

Sugar cube, texture mold out of polymer clay and spices, air-drying clay with plant prints...

Plastic trash from the lab and clear stamps...

GLITTER! You can really use every kind of glitter. The highly expensive perfect pearls or even more expensive (but even greater) Kryolan make up glitter, holografic glitter from rico design... or just simple powder to make your own eye make up! This kind of powder is cheap and beautiful.

Mix you clay thoroughly and roll it out. Then use your cookie cutter to cut out your star! 

Punch a hole with a knitting needle...

If you turn your star around you will see that the hole is not perfect...

Just carefully use the knitting needle to punch the hole also from the other side = perfect round hole!

Of course, what to do now? You may add glitter... press it in firmly!

Nothing shines as bright as Kryolan!

Stampes / pressed against an old earring...

Dots! Just made with plastic trash...

Cheap air-drying clay where I pressed in some plants... cheap to make, easy to use with polymer clay because it won't stick!

Another earring pattern...

Or roll the handle of a craft knife over the clay...!

Normal stamps are also working great! Here I used my nonsense english stamp from korea. My favorite ever!

More lab trash! Gorgeous geometric pattern... to think that it took me years to see this pattern...

You only need a knitting needle for this pattern!

Strangely enough sometimes all you need is a cube of sugar!

One of my pattern / texture molds made from polymer clay made with spices...

Also clear stamps work great (just be careful with clear stamps, clean them off very fast afterwards with a wet or baby wipe).

Already beautiful in this pearl shine!

And another image!

You could leave them like this but... I want to show you what else you can with all your stars!
(Edit: After you baked them :))

Okay, maybe you can see how often I use this acrylic paints. ^^ 

Paynes grey, raw umber, violett are my favorites but I used a lot more. I prefer acrylic paints from Reeves because they have a good quality and stick perfectly on polymer clay without being sticky or plastic like. 

Hey, they even have great iridesent medium!

To make it short: Use good paints, not cheap ones (rather buy one less). 

Now just cover your star with acrylic paint. Yes, make a mess!

Start wiping it off before it dries with paper towels and/or baby wipes...

Just try different colours... or even lay colour over colours (just wipe it always off in between).

Cut out a hole in the middle to create a different shape.

Can you see the different layers of colour?

Just find the star meant for you only :)

Have fun!

PS: To add more shine and to protect the surface you can add one or two layers of fimo shiny gloss :)