hoopla the necklace

Finished my hoopla necklace today. Picture to follow whenever our camera battery gets charged. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the other one.

Going out of town at the end of this week for what will essentially be two weeks of travel. Heaven help us all.

At least I'll have some time to work on my crafty to-do list. Hopefully.

paper beads

In looking up altered book things I came across this nifty bead tutorial from A Storybook Life.

Polymer Tuesday

In the midst of my metalsmithing frenzy I happened across this and now am aware of the very great lack of a small clay dragon in my life.

hoopla

My class was So. Much. Fun.

full of craftitude

In addition to my class tomorrow, I'm going to try to find time to whip this up for father's day for Matthew.

Can't wait

This weekend I get to make this pair of earrings in this class at Panopolie. I'm so excited - I hope it lives up to my expectations. Also that I neither make a fool of myself nor set anything on fire.

Play doh and Poly clay

Inspired by this post that has been the talk of the polymer clay interwebs recently, I undertook some experimentation to see if I could use play doh instead of wax to make a bead-in-bead structure (ala this tutorial from Desiree). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures yet, because other things (not the play doh concept part) went wrong with the piece I was working on, but I thought I'd go ahead and write up the steps, and add pictures when I have some.

1. Pick/make your inner bead. Make sure it is fireable and small enough to move around freely in your intended casing. (One of the primary fail points in the first one I made was that the inner ball was too big and too irregular to move pleasingly)

2. Cover your inner bead with play doh until it is the size you want bead+cavity to be.

3. Allow play doh to dry (theoretically) or bake (what I did). Sand to remove imperfections. (Fail point #2: I initially tried to apply outer bead layer without baking play doh first - it doesn't work because of the smooshiness)

4. Add clay for outer bead. Make sure you have vents for the play doh (and expanding air, for that matter) to come out. Bake.

5. Put piece in bowl of water overnight.

6. Rinse piece. The play doh - even baked - dissolves in the water.

Voila! Finished bead without the difficulties of locating/working with wax.

Typing this up made me excited about the possibilities all over again!

wow

My garden is just doing ridiculously well this year. I don't know if it's the new fertilizer (tomato-tone, though it hasn't been confined to the tomato plants) I've been liberally tossing about or what, but it's really exciting.

The bees certainly think the stand of bee balm at the west end of the garden is exciting.

My deal-finding prowess is finally, well, prowessing. My garden is filled with clearance plants and most of them are thriving.



Of course, if I mention bargains I can't forget about my fabulous snapdragons.

Even my poor strawberries-and-cream lilies that have been dragged hither and yon the past several years (and are still ingloriously stuffed into a pot) are blooming like mad.

I'm so thankful to have my own bit of earth to poke around in!

accomplished

``Your list of the common extent of accomplishments,'' said Darcy, ``has too much truth. The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no otherwise than by netting a purse, or covering a skreen.
Bebe's second birthday purse, made from this wonderful pattern out of fabric from a thrifted shirt.

shiny little things

I've been hemming and hawing about knitting/crocheting jewelry for some time; this gorgeous piece by Kirsten Skiles pushes me to 'just do it.'

Someday

I want to make this rainstick. Perhaps even in a jewelry size.

note: I've been off by a day all week. Just pretend I posted this on Tuesday.

gift bags from book jackets

I took a class Monday at the library and learned how to make gift bags from book jackets. It was easy, quick and fun. Just the way craft projects should be. (Plus I got to use the book jacket from one of my favorite books to read to my son.)

cryptic

I love the smell of playdoh. That is all.

doodles

I'm a little obsessed with fish lately. Pursuant to my new interest in altered books, I picked up a copy of "A Flyfisher's World" for free at the used bookstore.Just what I needed - more books around.

bounty