Patina compass challenge and Mojo- "Just fly!"

"Just fly!"

Yes, I know, I am late... not too late looking at my clock but still... To be honest I am glad I made it at all. Not because of the work itself but of getting some decent pictures. I really should make a decision what new camera to buy (but a new laptop has priority... sighs) because with no day light my digi cam is just defeated. I love my digi but finally it is in it's last moments. 

You know this moments when you would love just to crash the camera *put any technical device in her insteadt if you want*.. throw it against the wall? 

But enough of my rambling! Kathy invited us for a little challenge, she send us a compass rose and wanted us to create a patina on top with whatever we have at hand. Therefore I overcame my desire to buy vintage patinas right now (I need another motivation/excuse). 

Back to my compass. Somehow I wanted to go a teeny wee bit over the top and combine the compass with a wing bead (you can bead it = it is a bead) I made from polymer clay (fimo). I tried a lot with different colours on the metall compass but they all didn't come together with the wing. Until I pressed some clay against the back of the compass (I just love stamped metall findings!) like a mold and made a new compass.

Trust me you can't see any of the original colour anymore. I used the dye oxides from Christi Friesens swellegant in different blue shades and acrylic paint (Reeves) in paynes grey and white. 

A little closer look at the wing... and the facetted beads are czech glass beads from "The curious bead shop" and the other beads including the white stringed beads are all from recycled jewelery. 

I also added some patina on other findings... whereever I could. White acrylic paint and blue swellegant dye oxide.

Actually I may have to rearrange it because the white stringed beads are from an old necklace and it loves to turn around... but I really love the white against the other elements! Any idea how to solve this?

The piece above the compass is a brass finding I glued on some paper, sanded the edges off and sealed it. The little dangle on top is again made out of polymer clay and covered with bronze swellegant paint.

So... if you are still with me I hope you have also the energy to jump over and have a look at Kathys at BayMoon and all the over participants of the challenge! :)

Just right here: patina compass challenge

And speaking of challenges: This is also for Heather's "Jewelery Making Mojo Challenge", week 2 "Bead soup". After having my two main parts I really just grabbed what where lying around on my table and tried to make it fit! This is where the old stringed beads as well as my new curious beads came in... and why I put some paper on the brass finding in the middle because otherwise I was not fitting for me (I put a lot of different colours on top and sanded them all off again ^^).

Rumpel - more of his work

This statue was made by Rumpel. He gave him no real name but calls him "dicker Mann". This belongs to his older work (I will show you more). Now he started to work again this time using polymer clay for smaller statues. Originally he made a kind of wax statue and then made a mold for casting. But seeing me working with polymer clay got him also to try it.

He uses now sculpey super firm because even fimo classic was to soft for him. I have to admit that I also love sculpey super firm to create molds! It holds all the details so perfectly and fimo classic does not really stick to the backed sculpey super firm. 

Rumpel also made the wooden frame for the man and he now hangs in our living room between the two windows. Like a little shrine ;) I tried to capture this in a photo... but our windows go out to the south. Maybe I will make one when the sun is not shining (but sorry to say this, I hope this won't be the case anytime soon! ^^). 

Dragon flies, new shapes, challenges and bead mojo!

On earrings everyday they started a monthly earring challenge. They show you an inspirational image and the goal is (like the name of the blog already indicates ^^) to create earrings!

Here are mine. I went for structures, shapes and colours. Can you find all the matching details? ;)

The orange glass beads are old recycled ones I found in a second hand shop here in leipzig. They have some bowls with parts of broken jewelery inside. Yes, I nearly took all glass beads they had. Some of them are a little bit worn or old pressed glas but I love to work with something that already has a history. And hey, the orange is striking!

And then I added czech glass beads (the small green and big blue ones with picasso finish), some cotton thread, metal beads and the small blue beads are swarowski wax beads. 

I never ever worked with this shape before so thanks for the inspiration! :)

The inspirational image!

And just to add a little bit more interactions... This is also my part for Heather`s Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge.

The challenge of week 1 was: Take part in a challenge! 

Your Assignment: 
Pick a contest or challenge, make something or start something! Blog about it or share your entry on the Facebook group. 

Done :)

Inspirations: Critter (Berlin)... or... lunch in Berlin!

I got this photo from a friend in Berlin (the one with the pink advent calendar!). Called: Lunch in Berlin (Mittagsessen in Berlin) ^^

In case you wonder: This was the view out of her window!

Blue flowers and a tiny wee beading tutorial...

Yes, a really tiny tutorial but hey, I already sketched it so why not show it? ;) 

Heather Powers from Humblebeads gave out a Super Bead Sunday challenge yesterday. It was inspired by the super bowl in the US and while I am neither in the US nor a fan of this game... I loved her inspirational colour palettes and had to play along! 

I made with duo (twin) beads and seed beads (15/00) small beaded flowers (or also just circles / mandalas... you name it). They are really simple but I love their look. I added a lot of czech glas beads with picasso finish (I got them all including the duo beads from The curious bead shop), some chain and metall drops. 

There are quite long, without the hook 8,5 cm (3,5 in) and with the hook and the beads on it 10,5 cm (4,1 in). The slightly touch my shoulders if I move my head. But there are really light and due to this play nicely while moving.

Oh, and here my tiny wee tutorial!

String 8 duo (twin) beads. Go through the first bead again. Make sure you got through all beads 2 times in total (always the same hole) and make a knot to secure. Then  go with the thread through the outer hole of a twin bead, take 2 seed beads (15/00) and go through the next twin beads. Make sure the thread is hold tight. Again go through all beads in the outer ring 2 times and make a knot afterwards.

Yes, it is tiny... but this is how I write / sketch down things like this :)

 This was the first made-at-night picture... still not a perfect picture at top on this blog post but getting better... maybe with sunlight and a new camera the quality will increase again. *sighs*

All the flowers! - new beads

I am playing with shapes, molds and colours. Here are some of my results that I really, really like. Strangely enough: At the same time I am not sure what to create with them! ^^ 

Uhm, yes... I made a lot of pictures. I tried to catch the different angles because especially the three dimensional bead shapes are difficult to catch.

Also I think it is important to show the backside of the beads. Especially because I may not keep them but sell them. The pictures holding the beads in my hand are a way of giving an impression of the size.

The same basic shape but a complete different bead!

I am trying to get my head around how to incorporate this bead shape into a design... also keeping all sides visible ;)

Sometimes I may even like the backside better... the real organic and random structures!

The size would be nice for earrings as well as necklaces or bracelets.

Again the same basic form but a different shape and white fimo classic used instead of turqoise/blue fimo classic.

The colour on top of all beads is acrylic paint from Reeves. For these last flowers I put on a coat of payne's grey first to tone done the other layers of colour. 

...all sides again... from the top to the side....

...to the back (or inside?)!

A little bit bigger than the last blue ones.

Oh, these art beads are no flowers... but made at the same time to test new structures, shapes and molds :)

And the back!

On my work table - fusion of silk and colours, wire and beads...

They are still not finished so just for you a short impression what I am working on for... weeks... no... months now. Not all the time, but you know, here a stolen moment and there another to keep going even if it is slow. I got beautiful silk stripes from urchinflower. We both took part in an event at crafts (the Package Pals!). It took me some time to know what I wanted to do with it. Not due to the lack of ideas but rather the tendency to keep them. You know the kind of keeping where you are afraid to waste them ;)

But then I had a bunch of small metal bangles or bracelets that I bought at a sale. Some of them I already showed you wrapped in embroidery thread. I thought of covering them with polymer clay just to see the silk next to the clay box.

What takes me so long are all the layers and discovering what works for me or not while going on. The first layer are always the stripes of coloured silk. Then I used silk or cotton thread to tighten them and especially to add more colour. I love the rough and open texture, still it is really durable! Maybe you can also see the thin coloured wire I wrapped on top of the thread. My sister Lachafa made such a great christmas box for me including a lot of crafting and jewelery material (all found somewhere in Barcelona :)). A set of bright coloured wire was included. Süße, it is nearly empty now! All used up for the bracelets!

Now I am at the last stage... stages... I add stringer wire as accents and as foundation to hold glas beads and metal findings. Old and recycled glass beads, sparkling czech glas, bird charms and flower caps. And at the end I somehow have to dull down the bright brass and copper wire. Still thinking of how to do this without damaging the silk. 

So probably it will take some more weeks... but at least I could show you a little snap shot of what is on my work table at the moment :)

From the growing bead tile one my table.. finally some finished ones!

As finished bead I see a bead that I have maybe carved a little bit (especially the string holes), added and removed several layers of paint and of course sealed with gloss or something similar. Here we go with some of them... a snail/nautilus like bead. Below you see the backside that I also really like.

I am still trying to figure out how to give an idea about the size of the bead. I am not too happy with images of my hand holding the bead but on the plus side: This gives a good impression. But I am stil thinking just about other objects... only not coins, I think this coin comparison images somehow quite... ehm... bah!

This is the third bead I made for the "Winter wonderland" challenge. But here I added some yellow colour to the bead that was not part of the inspiration picture so I didn't use it. Also I already had the two other beads to create the earrings so I used the third one to play a little bit more.

And again an image so you can get an idea about the size :)

I also always like just small beads useable a drops for earrings. The colour I used on the white clay is not black but Payne's grey. It is dark but the contrast is not so hard.

Maybe you can see that it is rather a dark grey with a blue hint. I completely changed from using black to this kind of grey.

A lot of drops. Not even all but it seems that some where lost on my working table... ^^

I know how great you can work with these tiny drops. The only problem is that they make so much work to create them while being just so tiny. Nearly the same amount of work that goes into a bead ten times bigger due to the same work steps necessary.

Bird skull - somewhere on the way I got there...

With a bird skull made out of polymer clay (fimo classic) it seems to be like with a lot of other "topic" beads. Somewhere on the line... I also make one. I also made owls. And other things... ;)

I like the look. Just to go freehand without the pressure to be perfect. The imperfections are what make the look organic... and gives it a rather tribal feeling. I added copper wire and oxidized it with the green patina from swellegant (Christi Friesen).

I was also asked to create one with night-glowing polymer clay! On top of my polymer clay to-do-list!

"Winter wonderland" - earrings

This are the earrings I made for the "Winter Wonderland" - 11th Blogger/non-blogger challenge. The inspiration was a painting from Dini Bruinsma ("Winter forest"). I made the beads out of polymer clay (fimo classic in white) and added several layers of acrylic paint (Reeves) to get all the different shades. I like the organic structures and the feeling of movement inside. 

For the earrings I added two old glass beads I found in a second hand/independent clothing store (Miss Hippy in Leipzig). They had a small bowl with broken jewelery and even just the single parts like the beads. I took all of the glass beads I could find. They are not expensive mostly just pressed glass but I like the feeling that I took something broken that already had a history behind to create something new! Even if the colours are mismatched they complement each other. 

Back to the challenge: The final voting time is now paused because in the same facebook group (yes, fb, I said it....) there will be another event taken place. But even if it is put on hold, if you find the time, go over and write "favorite" under my earrings here (or just like it).... as it is... of course only if you like it ^^ 

For this kind of shape of the beads... I think I will start exploring it a little bit more :)

Oh, and that fabric on top is silk. Just a little more organic touch!