Making Things

I pulled a weird muscle in my chest this week and couldn't move much, so I've been mainly writing magazine articles and experimenting with jewellery techniques. I've also had a bit of an
etsy frenzy and put a lot of new things in the shop.

Then I saw the state of the dining table and decided I really ought to have a tidy up. Whenever I'm on an artistic roll I just can't bear to put things away -one random thing will often spark up another idea, However I can never find the tool or stamp I need, as it's usually being sat on by the cat or bunny....

I tend to do most jewellery and polymer clay at home, keeping the Nottingham studio free for the big frocks and teaching, it means I can easily fit chores in around baking polyclay in the oven or waiting for glue to dry. I can also have a browse on t'internet for inspiration...

Speaking of which these are my attempts on some of Christy Friesons peppermint twist beads - I love her work so much but her swirls and things never look like octopuses, sigh... perhaps it was the blue colour...mine have come out just a little bit too like cthulu...

I had a go at some Halloween candy canes too with a steampunk edge - these are now available in my shop and I'll do a tutorial too, I used Donna Kato's candy stripe technique as a base then got a bit carried away with cogs and gears and rust. I know candy canes are christmassy too but I just felt like doing some purple and orange ones...Candy canes are such fun but I can't say I like the taste particularly, I'm more of a chocolate girl. Polymer clay ones are much better;)

I used a bit of iridescent powder and some liquid clay as glaze to make them really shine at the top swirl. The steampunky bits were dusted with metal powder and then grunged with acrylics. Then I popped them back in the oven to set.