Handmade easy stamps and some random thoughts

I actually create all the time, even if time is rare and work is stressing me out quite a lot these days. The balance between my love for research and the stress involved... I don't know. *sighs*

But I joined "Life Book 2016" and also just a few days ago "Wanderlust 2016". Both are mixed media online courses. Experimenting with different materials, techniques, whatever is something I enjoy as well as need. It keeps me sane. I did a lot of painting and stamping a few years ago, then changed to polymer clay, went to jewellery, had a break for metal work and ceramic clay and now like to play with paint a little bit more again. It is all not exclusive. What really changed is that I lost my fear to waste material or to ruin something by overdoing it. I allow myself to play and learn and let my hands remember what they used to do ;)

The online courses allow me for something I enjoy most: To watch how other people create! To see how they use their tool and fingers and everything else! This is getting me to play more, try out some new things and get some tips and tricks. Most of the time the lesson itself is just inspiration.

For one of my paintings I used some of my old craft foam stamps (the tiny dots as well as the negative space). What I made I'll show you the over the next days (hopefully as well as with some new jewellery!). 

The craft foam stamps work perfectly with stamping ink as well as acrylic paint and I just made some more! I used dots (I have a lot of different sizes) that I bought ready made, cut myself some strips and other organic forms... and also there are ready made shapes like the flower or the "blob" that I just glue down on some background like wood to create a stamping block.

Super easy and fast to make, really cheap and versatile and until now none of them broke. I also made some big background stamps with just tiny dots. Keeping in mind how expensive they often are, is even more a reason to create simple shape background stamps by myself. 

As a side note: I dapped the paint manually on the stamps. If you use a roller with acrylic paint or just stamping ink and a little bit more pressure, you'll get perfect stamped images! I just like the irregular ones for my backgrounds. :)

The Bead Peeps Swap and Hop 2016

EDIT: At first a sorry for the late blog entry. I actually set a date in advance because this weekend the 25th wave gothik festival takes place in Leipzig (to think that we are part of this for nearly two decades... hu.. I am old! ^^). But... it seems I made the mistake of setting the time at exactly 0.00 and blogspot understood that this meant from the 15th to the 16th. 

There is something special in taking place in exchanges with (often known but more often unknown) people around the world. It is challenging oneself, at least it is challenging me, and I think this is important as well as really, really enjoyable! Linda Anderson started the bead peeps swap and hop and is actually organizing everything. Moreover, after doing this once, taking on all the workload (which is quite a lot with so many participants all over the world), she did it again! Thank you so much Linda! :)

In short: The general idea is to exchange beads and material, send it out to the other person and create with them! Since you don't know what you get, this can be really challenging. I think we all settle mostly for known material, favorite beads, colours and shapes. To get something unknown and to have a set date until one has to create something, gets me out of my comfort zone.

It also happened this year. My partner is Inge and she actually create lampwork beads herself. What I got was a beautiful collection mostly of her own handmade beads. I have the deepest respect for art beads and the work involved creating them. She added also more beads, from wooden ones to crystal glass, semi-precious stone and ceramic. It filled a whole box!

You can see the beads a little bit more detailed below. See the ammonite (actually one of the beads I still didn't use although it is my absolute favorite!) below? It sparkles with silver below. Also some of the other beads had sparkling accents but hard to catch on camera.

I also did something I really hope Inge won't be too angry about (or hopefully not angry at all!): I actually took some of her beads and etched them. I like the shades of blue and green and wanted to get more into the impression of "sea-glass". I think it enhances the pattern on her beads even more.

I wrote about the challenge a blog hop like this can be and actually, as beautiful as Inge's beads are, it was a real challenge for me! The reason was actually the size of the beads. I am not used to work with such big beads. I know a lot of other people who do, but not me. I do create big earrings and big necklaces, but the parts they are made of are mostly not big. 

Strangely enough the really big wooden beads helped me to start. I loved them at first sight and it was really fast to find some beads in my stash to go with them: Petrified wood, african recycled glass beads (yellowish! You know how difficult it is for me to use yellow ;)), more wood beads, matte czech glass beads and old bone beads (upcycled from an old necklace). The necklace is simply made with knotted linen cord (not waxed and a little bit rough to my hands, but not rough to wear). This is also my favorite from all I made :)

Some weeks ago I got some faux leather cord from a friend. I have never used it before but liked the combination of blue/turquoise and brown. As different this bracelet below and the necklace above are, their colour scheme actually fits quite well. I also used the claps Inge send me!

The etched beads also came together to become a bracelet. I am not sure if I'll leave the metal (silver plated copper) so shiny or if I want to oxidize it to get a more organic look. Still undecided...

These earrings are all made from beads Inge send me including some of her own lampwork beads! They dangle lovely (and you know, dangling is one of the most important properties of earrings for me). 

I played a little bit with wire and used some more of Inge's lampwork beads to create earrings. I am also not sure if I should not oxidize all of them! ;)

(Please ignore my finger tip! Just saw it now and it is already to dark outside to take more pictures...)

Something I learned this time: A different shape and style to create necklaces. I used two of the focal lampwork beads combined with a second big round bead. The necklaces are really long and they look quite cool on person! A little bit 20ies style last century... Sadly I won't wear them because my upper side is a little bit big and long necklaces look funny with this kind of "natural spacer". ^^

But how beautiful would the look on the right person! *sighs* They move and seem to dance, still, they are heavy enough to not be flimsy... and look at the gorgeous beads! The flowers on the beads below are different all around!

I just have to show you another image (and I tried really hard to restrict myself so the blog post won't go one forever ;) ).

Here a last impression of the beads I started with and what I created with them! 

Thank you so much Linda and Inge! 

Have a look at Inge's creations here and to get to all participants, just jump over to Linda's blog here (as well as what she made). :)

Polymer clay pendants... some colour play...

Not really a lot but a little bit play time with polymer clay. I think they look like they just came out of a painting. I enjoy the effect! :)

These ones were meant for the art bead scene monthly challenge. Life happened but I like how they turned out! Maybe I'll use them someday soon (hopefully!)

The other two pendants you can find in my etsy shop (house and cup of coffee).

Inspirations: Reflections (Leipzig, our balcony door...)

I like how strange and surrealistic the reflection of the world around was looking in the glass of the door. I was standing on our balcony, just turning around and the reflection looked like a door into another world.

"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! :)

"Ephemeral moments" - Where have all the flowers gone...? (Knotted bracelets)

I am just in love with these tiny wee czech glass beads! They are just 8 mm sized flowers, so beautiful with the shape and the colours!

I wanted to create simple, sweet but elegant bracelets that have these tiny wee flowers as central focal point. But also some bracelets that could easily be stacked to create a more bohemian or hippie style.

They are all lovely on their own and I can't tell you my colour favorite, I just can't! ^^

The bracelets are made with waxed linen cord with just easy double knots between the flower beads. The knots are close to the beads but not too close so the bracelet moves easily.

See how the colours of the waxed linen cord complements the colours of the flower beads? Don't laugh but I may have spend even more time just deciding which colour combination I want to use than to create them!

Even though I have the flowers in more colours, you can clearly see some of my favorite colour schemes seeing all the bracelets together! Blueish, turquise, teal, aqua, purple...

You can also find 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 :)

Earrings full of colour, rust and texture - "Full of life" and "Under the blue sky"

We all have all-times favorite bead artists and Kimberly Rogers (numinosity beads) is one of mine. The enameled copper (he numis-sticks) rom both earring pairs are made by her and I also have a little hoard of enameled pieces as well as glass beads from her ;)

The tinned glass beads from Sasha Crow are comparable new in my stash but they were just made for the numi-sticks. Both dark and rustic, with an organic surface and interesting textures.

I love how the beads dangling from the chain creates beautiful movement and even while the earrings are rustic and with patina, they are still also colourful. 

There is a little bit more texture at the top of the enameled pieces because they were too "naked" for me and while I create everything has to have a kind of balance. I used very thin steel wire, braided it (surprisingly easy!) and wrapped the braided wire around. It creates the required subtle but necessary accent. 

The "greenish" one ("Full of life") you can find in my shop here (the blueish/pink one "Under the blue sky" is sold).