Just summer - white and blue

There is something with a matt white and this sparkling, deep and clear blue, that calls summer to me. Pure summer on Formentera in spain. Dry heat, burning sun, the jewel coloured sea, all the white of the houses, the rocks, the sand...

I miss Formentera. 

I will keep these earrings. Strange enough because the colours are so not me. Also this is the first time I wanted the polymer clay beads to remain like they are. Without any colour or antique effect, without the shine of gloss / lacquer. Just pure matt white, a little bit offwhite maybe. 

The white beads are made from polymer clay (fimo) and again a new mold. I will show you my mold or rather the patterned item I used to create the structures in another blog entry. 

The glasbeads are swarowski bicones. Nothing sparcles like a swarowski ;)

And then I had a problem: How to take a good picture... from something that is just white (and my digi is already a little bit senescent... sniff). As you can see I tried dark wood (my favorite), light wood...

...and just something in another shade of white...

...and a bright green! This is our fridge painted in Pistachio 02. I so love this colour, it always makes me smile in the morning :)

Koffermarkt - take your case!

Or in my case: My box. A "Koffermarkt" is a faire or market where all people show their goods in a suitcase or trunk. Or... a big cardboard box! I asked if that would be okay because I don't hase any cool old vintage trunk. Just small modern samsonite that I can take inside a plane to be faster... not good for a faire ^^

The evening before the market Rumpel drove me to Ikea where I bought the cardboard box. Back home I took a big cutter and a lot of silver tape... 

...have a look at my finished box! (and please ignore the background... ehm...)

The stuff inside are the things I am already using at markets. Stuff I collected or made over time. 

I included a card holder at one side...

The lid is taped to the box creating a (surprisingly!) stable hinge. I used some cord so it will stay in place after opening. It goes slightly backwards because I don't want the lid to fall forward after I put all my stuff in it.

...you can see how much tape I used! And yes, the lid close easily... and the hole box is in fact still working after being closed! I also stored all the decoration and the earrings inside for the transport. Nobody was more surprised than me that it actually worked on soooo many levels ;)

The bird was from my picture wall at my former apartment. I glued a little cardboard stripe to the back and now I can attach it with a cloth peg at the open lid.

The bird was a printed vintage picture (I believe from Karen at graphics fairy), glued on stable cardboard, cut out... and I painted the edges and also enhanced some colours on top. 

I attached some plastic mesh with pins to hold my earrings. The red mesh comes from a onion...

...the yellow from potatoes. I also like to use this kind of mesh to create patterns with polymer clay.

Some rubberband in a normal picture frame.... Nothing faster to make (and redo!) than this!

I found the etagere (three tier tray? I don't know the right english term) at a flea market. So nice to hang and show earrings.

...and I always forget to take pictures from the earring studs I make. They sell really fast so I have somehow to manage this in the future ;)

A closer look at the potatoes mesh I pinned inside the lid (I removed all the mesh before closing because the pins go through the cardboard).

Oh, and the cream background is fabric I also bought at Ikea (1 euro per 1 m...). It is glued on with double side tape. Now I just realize that I also should have taken a picture with the box closed so you can see that it is still working as a box. Next time! :)

Here it is inside the shop that organised the"Koffermarkt" in front of an old ceramic oven.

The market was not a big success in term of sales. Not too many people found their way to us. But I meet very interesting persons, got a lot of coffea, sect and cake, bought gorgeous cards (I love to send postcards) from artist selling there and... last but not least (or to be true, this was the best of all): I made this box! The idea came up to my mind and it all worked out! I was smiling the whole evening (after crafting. Rumpel was already sleeping, so the first thing I did in the morning was showing him the box... yes, the first thing! He did not even get a chance to go to the bath room before!) and was smiling even more at the market because it worked so great!

Such strange things that can make one happy from time to time.

Flowers and leaves - earrings and dolls

One of my new molds (have a look here): Flower / Leaves earrings! I used this mold below. With my pasta maschine (set up at 4 or 5) I got thin sheets of transparent polymer clay (fimo effect). I used aqua acrlyic colours, acrylic paint (Reeves) and Inkagold (Viva) for the colouring.

Before I press the clay into my mold I either brush baby powder / talcum powder on top of the mold or the polymer clay sheet. For this effect I prefer to put it on the clay...

...to be able to cut the clay. I just cut the polymer clay with a normal scissor! I follow the shape of the leaf and then curl the single parts carefully with my fingers. 

Here another project I am working at: My flower / leaves head! I want to paint it... but I am a little bit afraid it will go wrong. I know, stupid, if this happens: Try again and/or paint again! But... still.. ehm...

The head was made with a staedtler mold and after baking I added one leaf after the other. Here the finished look after baking.

I added a silver tube bead in the back. I cut the fimo with a scalpel and then with a little bit transparent fimo and a lot more of liquid fimo fixed the bead. You don't see it at the front.

Sorry, I couldn't decide on the pictures... so I share all the different viewpoints!

I am making more doll heads right now, also some hands, arms and legs... some are dreamy like this, others are a little bit more strange, steampunky or even creepy... 

Now I just have to add colour... 

Back to the earrings for a direct comparison: The also were made with transparent fimo and looked like the flowers / leaves on the head before I painted them! 

Silver - Blue - Leaves

Another variant of my new molds made with leaves and other plant parts (to see the other earrings as well as my mold making process, have a look here). This time I used a blue fimo effect colour (one of their new jewelery colours). Of course, you don't see a lot of it anymore but it still gives a slightly transparent effect. You rather see it if it is missing (I hope you know what I mean). 

I used acrylic paint in dark grey (from Reeves, my new favorite colour for getting antique and aged effects, better than black because it is not so bold) and brushed with my finger tips silver Inkagold (Viva) on top. While the acrylic paint from Reeves would adhere perfectly after curing, you have to add a protective layer for the inkagold. I used shiny gloss. Also you have to be careful adding the gloss / lacquer because the Inkagold is watersoluble. Not the biggest problem if you carefully add one layer add a time but I just wanted to let you know before you try it and ruin your result. Even with this drawback I want to use the Inkagold because the metallic effects are so beautiful. There is no other paint I tried (from acrylic to renaissance wax to lacquer, last one NOT suitable for polymer clay... sighs... I had to learn the hard way...) that sparkles so great in the sunlight. Sadly my camera as well as my camera skills are not good enough to capture it. 

Big ones.. big words...

The earrings are rather big but I love the bold dangling polymer clay beads combined with the also bold and sparkling glas beads. The original colour of the polymer clay I used (Fimo effect) was a kind of rose (rose quartz). I just added a lot of layers of paint: Dark grey for enhancing the stamped letters (Reeves) and Green-gold Inkagold (Viva). I am not sure if I used more (I think this was the case), but to be honest, I can't remember. The painting process is a rather organic process, I have all my colours around me and just try a little bit of this or that to add... sometimes I remove it again... 

The stamp as bought in south korea... and the text doesn't make any sense (you can see it also in cards you can buy there, really cute and see but their english or french is rather unique ;) ). But I like the single words and phrases I get after stamping at random places and the size if perfect. ^^ 

I took these earrings with me to the last two fairs I participated in... (the last two weeks and the only two I attended this year) ...but I am still tempted just keeping them for myself!

From the lab... to earrings!

I really love this pattern! The circles and pointed squares, the deep impression I got in the polymer clay (as always: Fimo classic). The mold or stamp (or texture plate ^^), whatever you like to call it, was something I found in the lab. It was part of the boxes our filter pipette tips are coming in. On the top you don't see it but I needed a box so I took the "holder" platic part out of the box... 

(in the picture below, for two different filter tip sizes)

...and then I saw this! Can you see the pattern? I loved it at first sight and had to try it...!

I really like the results I got. Here a long oval shape in blue, turquoise and grey...

...or these earrings, reminding me on little ceramic tiles. I also made some with white clay and different colours on top, just need to take pictures ;)

Water and dragonflies!

I already made these earrings last year but never took any pictures. In fact I stored them soooo well, I just found them now. I experimented with all available textures I got, my own molds and stamps, some metall charms (the dragonflies), other random stuff, that I all pressed into the surface. While the polymer clay was still unbaked (Fimo classic) I brushed some silver eye shadow powder on top. I just found some colours from the eye shadow powder (the sell it so you can make your own eye shadows), but the  are beautiful, sparkling, very fine powder (reminds of mica powder) and... cheap! 

After baking I added a lot of layers (also like always... somehow...) of acrylic paint (Reeves). Last but not least: A thin layer of liquid fimo! After baking I use five to six layers of shiny gloss to get the glas like effect. 

The effect is really great! 

A little note to liquid polymer clay:

I know that there are many tutorials just heating the baked liquid polymer clay with a heat gun to get it shiny. Please don't do this. You overheat the polymer clay and the fume (you will smell it!) you create is highly toxic! And even working outside, you will breath some of it in if you don't have a real gas mask. I am a scientist, working in a research lab... I already come in contact with a lot of not really healthy stuff on a daily basis that I can't avoid. But I try to avoid as much as possible, especially outside the lab and especially what I know to be highly toxic and cancerogen. 

You can find me here today

..and of course I still have to show and tell you something from the Happy Pop-Up Market (it was really great! :))

Shiny leaves - polymer clay, new molds and how to make them

I nearly forgot to take a picture from this pair! The earrings are already sold at the fair last saturday I attended. The first one in this year. It was the Happy Pop-Up Market in Leipzig. The distraction was perfect for my mind. Something else beside my normal work (don't get me wrong, I love the work in the lab, but at the moment there is a lot going on in my mind) and especially besides my worries for my little one, my cat Bisu. 

The leaves were made with polymer clay. I used Fimo effect in jade. One of the new colours that is a mix of translucent, colour and some mica powder. The original colour is beautiful but still... I need more layers of colour, more depths... Therefore I added some dark green acrylic paint (Reeves) and Inka gold (Viva) in copper on top. They are very thin and a little bit bendable therefor not fragile!

Centi (have a look at her blog!) liked my leaves and letters earrings but said that she would prefer some more natural, leaf-like structure. That was motivation enough for me to make new molds. Okay, I already have a lot of molds... but of course you can't ever have too many molds... and also I now have a clay / pasta machine! This allows me to make even thin sheets of clay. I made thin sheets at setting 5 or 4 because I wanted to press the finished molds together with clay through my machine. 

After I made the sheets with polymer clay (I always prefer Fimo classic, Fimo soft don't gets all the small details and even "melts" a little bit while baking) I pressed plants on top. 

The little flowers I pressed again and again in the polymer clay to create a big pattern.

The leaf was pressed carefully but still firm on top of the sheet...

I removed the leaf before I baked the clay. 

Not every leaf has veins strong or big enough to create good molds. If I see interesting leaves I just take some with me and test the leaf by using a small ball of polymer clay. I just fold the leaf around the polymer clay ball... 

...and press gently.

After this you can see what kind of pattern a mold made with this leaf would make. I also like this way to get a small bead "stamped" on both sides. Just bake it and drill a hole in it later using a dremel!

Can you see how different in details, in pattern and especially also in depth the impression of the leaves are on the polymer clay?

Of course I wanted a lot of different molds! 

This are some of my molds. I really love this one for all it strong veins and the pattern they create!

A lot of long leaves pressed on top of each other...

...this one is rather a "typical" vein structure... the one most children would paint if asked to do so.

Even the molds are beautiful...

The other good thing with Fimo classic compared to Fimo soft: You can use water for your molds so the new polymer clay won't stick to them. But I prefer talcum powder. I use the one from penaten (intended for babies). But I also always paint the beads I make. The powder sticks a little bit to the polymer clay surface and if you use translucent polymer clay or a special colour it may be a problem. But the powder works way better than the water!

Here an example of two more beads I made with my new molds. I just have to bake, drill and paint them! Oh, and add several layers of shiny gloss...

Very simple molds to make, a lot people make them with leaves, my own drawers are already full with molds... but still every new mold has its own special beauty! And these mold sheets I can use with my clay / pasta maschine!