I've Been Feeling Psychedelic Lately...

Dum dee dum dee dum. Feeling very productive lately. That's always a good feeling. I hate it when I feel sluggish and can't seem to accomplish anything. D:

Yesterday, I finished sculpting and glitterizing over 25 polymer clay leaves, which are about to be baked in the oven after this post is written. They'll be added to ear cuffs as a dangly adornment like in the photo below. I really love making these ear cuffs because they truly are made by me... I twist the wire into the desired shapes, securing the crystals carefully by weaving really thin wire, and finally adding a sparkly dangly leaf bead that I sculpted and coloured by hand. Pretty amazing! :)

I planted four oregano cuttings into little Styrofoam cups, in the hopes that they will propagate new plants. It's not really the right time of year for this, but I'm trying anyway. I've covered each plant with a ziplock bag, in an attempt to keep the humidity inside, and encourage the roots to grow. I'll keep you updated on these little guys.

I finished a nifty little Psychedelic Tattooed Lady illustration, which was TONNES of fun. I really love any excuse to use lots of colour with very little fore-thought. This piece was done with watercolours and ink, on bristol paper. She's pretty tiny, measuring at 3.5 x 5.5 inches, and is for sale for $45. Contact me if you're interested, first come, first serve. :)

And lastly, we tried out the slow-cooker, aka crock pot, for the first time. The Pot Roast was perfectly moist and fell off the bone, and the veggies were just the right hard/soft texture. Next we're going to try making Sweet and Sour Chicken (with rice). Should be good! :)

Polymer Clay Leaves

Namaste! (nah-mah-stay - hello in Hindi)

I've been away from the blog-o-sphere working on some artsy projects - and I finally feel like I'm getting back into the groove of things. I think it really helped for me to make some posts on my inspirations and favourite things, to get the fountain of inspiration flowing again. What have I been working on?

Polymer Clay Leaves! Yippee! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

Olive green sculpey clay, with copper mica powder.

Close up - I really love the effect of the shiny copper against the desaturated green. 

Time to add teal glitter for that extra magical sparkle!

This collection is going to become a necklace, earrings and an earcuff - one of the prizes
for my giveaway contest winner Angie Bailey! 

Close up ^^

The beginnings of the ear cuffs for my other winners ^____^

Polymer clay leaves... now just have to add a couple more...

Polymer clay leaves all lined up, so you can see the different sizes.
The larger leaves are for necklaces and the smaller leaves are for earrings and ear cuffs.

Make sure to check back for pictures of the finished pieces!

Polymer Clay Dragon Sculpture

Pink Dragon Sculpture

I love sculpting! It's such a fun challenge. I think my favourite part of the process is when you get to start decorating, though! Adding the different colours of Mica to the clay, and seeing it transform into a beautiful shimmery surface; and adding the glitter... is the best!

Polymer Clay Dragon Sculpture

This is my first dragon sculpture, and I want to give her a good name. Any ideas? 

Krafting with Kids

Greetings!


Nearly every weekend my mom's friend comes and stays with us, with her two children and dog (otherwise her commute to work would take 5 hours there and back).

It's my opportunity to get away from the computer, give the crafting, painting, business, and Etsy a rest, and just have some fun. Last weekend I brought out the polymer clay, beads, and paints, and the three of us set at creating!

Here are some highlights from that day (accept the first photo) Click to enlarge:

Us at Playland gobbling candy apples. I'm wearing the hot pink scarf.

This is ten year old Marcus' Leaf. He sculpted and painted it all by himself!

This is fifteen year old Lauren's abstract piece. I love how colourful it is!

 Marcus asked me to sculpt something boyish for him. 

So I made him an evil alien scull pendant! 

He painted it gold, an I attached it to a chain for him. 

I also painted red flames on his hand. :P

My Faerie Door

Lately I've been experimenting with polymer clay (specifically Super Sculpey), in an attempt to make a Faerie Doll.

I got a little side tracked when I saw the Faerie Doors/Portals of  Royal Kitness and just had to try and make one of my very own.

I wish I had taken some before photos of the Faerie Door, it looked A LOT different from what actually came out of the oven.


So I burnt my first sculpture pretty much to a crisp. It got all warped, blackened at the top, and looked really quite strange. But after the smoke cleared, and the stinky/toxic smell of the clay went away, I kind of liked what I saw. The piece took on an unexpected, slightly unnerving, macabre, and twisted appearance.

This is my little Faerie Door! It's full of Red Capped Toadstools/Agarics, surrounding the entrance into the realm of the Fae. I brushedit with gold paint, accentuated some of the back details, and from wire I'd baked into the clay, I hung some Swarovski crystals.

It really makes me think of something straight out of the movie the Labyrinth. It must have been so much fun to design those sets!

Here are a few more shots. I added a touch of atmospheric setting to them. Click to enlarge them.