And relax.....

Over the last couple of days I've done lots and lots of making.  How so?  Well, one of my constant dilemmas is that I don't have a set workspace, but for the most part I have tools and some materials in the kitchen and everything else lives in the cupboard under the stairs in the living room so I can sit on the sofa and watch TV or listen to music as I'm playing around.  I keep wondering how easy or not it would be to make myself a workroom in one of the bedrooms whilst the children are still young enough to share.  But I keep feeling as though that's really over-indulgent of me (I prefer to be around for the kids and I do a lot of making at night when they are in bed) plus I like pottering in the kitchen and sitting on the sofa when I'm making.  Anyway, I cleared some more space in the kitchen and as a result got lots done whilst the kids were playing.

First up I had a revelation.  I can't wear earrings as everything makes my lobes itch like crazy (ok, so I've not yet tried titanium or gold but I'll get around to trying them sometime).  Anyhow, I thought I'd have a go at making some ear cuffs out of some bits of copper I had etched.

This is they before they've been liver of sulphured. They're kind of cute and I plan to add a couple of dangles to one or two of them before I take some proper pics and get them up in the shop.  And obviously I'm wearing a couple of them all the time.  Have you ever tried getting a picture of your own ear?  Seriously hard to do.

Next up - earlier in the week I read on Beatnheart's blog about a polymer clay tutorial sold by Ginger Davis-Allman in her Blue Bottle Tree Etsy shop.  I was suitably impressed and so bought it and this weekend was the first time I'd had a chance to play around.  I didn't make many bits and bobs but here's the outcome.

I don't know why this pic is sideways - blogger won't let me turn it around.  I have a couple of pieces of ammonite, one fossil and one piece of rock where an ammonite was extracted so I used them to texture three pieces of clay.  I love ammonites.  These aren't done yet in terms of being painted/finished but they're getting there.  I'm quite pleased with them.

These three pieces were textured with a couple of old belt medallions.  Yes, the colours on all of them are pretty similar so I'm going to have to do way more experimenting with different colours but my brain gets stuck into a green-ish purple place more often than not.  More on that later.

Some pods.  I quite like the pods, I just need to use them all now.

I made another bangle stack. These are probably for me.  I'm going on holiday with the kids next week and realised that I don't often wear jewellery so i figured I should make something that will go with mostly everything I have.  Again, the groove is a neutral pinkish/purple/green/black/metal thing going on.  Dinge.  I like dinge, it goes with a lot of things.

Some necklaces - etched copper, a Buddha pendant (left as-is, for now) and a key assemblage piece.

Some earrings using etched copper and beads, etched copper ammonite (again) that's a bracelet. 

Another sideways one.  This was my experiment in making those bright shiny Buddha cases look aged and grungy.  I've a couple more of these somewhere so I shall grunge them up too.  But my experiment was fun - I used gesso, alcohol inks, embossing powder and my heat gun.  My heat gun nearly killed the whole thing because these cases are made of plastic.  There's no metal or glass in these at all (although the Buddha's themselves are stone).  But the heat-gun made the clear cover go all warpy but in the end didn't do too much damage.

Then because I was playing with embossing powder I decided to try and add some silver dots to the pods - I love when bead artists do this with real silver on glass beads.  I think my technique needs some refinement (as in, not doing it when I'm cooking tea for the kids) but I'm liking this a lot.  In fact I've realised that all I need is to keep hold of a felt-tip pen that's lost its juice and I can use that to dab the ink or the PVA glue on.

In the meantime the postman came and delivered these babies!  Wowsers.  These are a lot bigger than I thought they'd be, even from the description that was given.  Excellent.  And yes, they are that purple, greenish. goldish colour again.  I've decided to stop trying to get away from it and just go over-board with the purple green gold thing.  Once I get it out of my system I might be able to do other colours.  

Funnily enough my current costume commission has been from someone who wants a fusion belly dance costume in, you guessed it, purple and green.  She might find herself with some crystals on it.

So all I've got to do now is settle in and get some jewellery made.

And to finish?  In amongst all of this my 4-year-old geek son wanted me to find the teeny tiny sonic screw-driver for his teeny tiny Dr Who and friend.  I'm sure you can imagine how easy it is to lose them?  Anyhow, what can I do?  I dug a lolly stick (the rolled paper kind) out of the drawer (I keep them at the moment because you can make light-sabers for teeny tiny Star Wars figures....) and using the kids felt pens made a new sonic for the 11th Dr.  My son did a 10th Dr version for the 11th Dr's friend.

Men at work.  Best not get in the way.

Jewellery Display Ideas

This morning has seen me coming up with some new ways to use some of the items I already have and make them even more useful in terms of displaying my handmade jewellery.  I've set myself a task this year and have booked myself into a craft fair each month for the rest of the year.  So I wanted to make sure that I could get everything set up as quickly as possible and have it look good too without having to spend any extra money.

First of all I took out my print tray and considered screwing in some little eyes so that I could hang earrings but then I had an idea......why not use some of my card-stock and make cards that could slot into the sections.  Each card has two holes and then the earrings (and a few other things) are hung on the cards.  Customers can then take out the card and even buy the earrings with them still attached to the card should they wish to.

Positioning is important and I need to play around with where things are but overall I'm happy with this - and the tray fits on my easel so I can have it standing on the table or lie it down flat and the cards make sure that the jewellery gets seen.  I've also added a little price sticker onto the top right corner of every card so the earrings are not marred by having a price label directly on them.

Here's the tray propped up against my dolly/body:

Next up was a way to display and house all of my handmade bracelets.  I have a cute little case and again was going to screw in some hooks but that idea was thwarted by my inability to actually screw the things in once I had drilled a little hole.  How pathetic.  Never mind, necessity being the mother of invention I remembered I had a couple of metal coat-hangers left so I cut one up and using my pliers and the strength I do have, I fashioned a wire hanger that sits on the top edge of the opened case and onto which I have hung some bracelets.  The rest of my handmade bangles can sit in the bottom of the case.

I used another length of hanger wire to make a similar hanger for a similar sized box that can stand on one end and have a few necklaces draped across it.

Also in my possession is an ornate tray that has a slight verdigris on it and although I didn't have enough length of wire to make another hanger, I did have enough to fashion some hooks that slide on and then they can have jewellery hung on them inside the tray.  The pic doesn't do this set up justice and the beauty of the separate hooks is that I can use them on either the long or the short side of the box making it more versatile.

So now all I have to do when I get to a fair is position these various devices on my table and then artfully arrange my necklaces on the dolly body and some of my vintage and vintage looking frames so that they can be easily seen.  Although I will confess that I do love how they look when they are all piled around dolly body's neck:

Now that the kitchen is clear I shall make another cup of tea and see what everyone has been up to over at the 100th Handmade Monday blog hop.