Fini Friday!

Hello Hello!!!!

I've been out and about most of the day running errands and collecting nifty things along the way!!!
While what I'm mentioning here is not strictly finishing creations, I did bring home materials and tools to help me finish some, start others and help make others looks pretty in photos!
Speaking of photos.... let me show you what I mean!



Isn't that an intriguing little cache of objects?
Let's progress from left to right on our tour.
On the left is a small tray with a mirror for the bottom. This will most likely be used for displays at shows, possibly also for creation photo ops!

A tiny cabinet is next up, with a few shinies spilling out from each drawer. The chain and flowers I will use for future creations. Indeed, already I have a few ideas! The tiny cabinet can be sanded and painted or stained and I've a few ideas for using it as a display, but also as a creation itself! Perhaps a few Faerie treasures in it .... hmmmmm... we'll have to see what happens next!!!

We continue on to a block of alphabet stamps. I plan to experiment with these both with images on paper and in clay!

The silvery "C" shape you see is actually a bracelet form! One of the balls unscrews and so larger-holed beads can be popped onto the metal and then secured by screwing the ball back onto the form. I'll have to see what I have in my oodles of beads for those with larger holes! This will be fun!

And lastly, the wonderful leafy and scroll-with-flower backgrounds you see will likely be used to help with creation photo ops... but you never know where gorgeous textures like these will pop up around here!

So, there we have it!! A fabulous start to a long holiday weekend says I!!!
Have an amazing weekend and wonderous holiday!

Whimsy Wednesday!

Today is a little different Whimsy Wednesday!
I have photos from Art-A-Whirl this last weekend to share with you!
I'm happy to say that quite a few creations found their people and much fun was had!

The first photo is of a fellow artist and fabulous lady with awesome dreds who purchased one of my Mood Beads intending to grace her hair with it!
Here she is!


The second photo is of Meg of ScribbleNest. Meg makes wonderful, whimsical hand-felted creations and was our booth neighbor at the show!! She fell in love with Fae Forest Stream and that is the necklace creation you see flowing around her neck!



We're all so excited by this adoption!

I have more to show you this week, so check back by later!!

Fini Friday!

Hello Everyone!!!

I have new nifty shinies to show you today!!!
Do you remember when I won the Rings & Things drawing for brushed copper beads?

I've experiments to show you using some of those beads!
I hand-coloured resin and painted it on two pairs of those beads. The first pair were used as a brilliantly-coloured focal in the earrings you see below...

Title: Fire Tribe
Ingredients: Hand-coloured resin on copper, lead-free pewter, base metal, surgical steel earwires

I wanted to experiment with a bright opaque colour and this red is just sizzling!

The second bead pair were more round and flat and I wanted to use the coloured resin like a glaze slip on ceramic. So, I mixed in some blue/green/glitter pigment and painted it on!

As you can see below, this particular pigment didn't really show up against the copper. I do love how the resin drips down on what was then the underside of the bead and pooled to hard there. So! I decided to incorporate that into my design!
And Voila!

Title: Space Age Faerie
Ingredients: Hand-coloured resin on copper, Czech glass, sterling silver.


Teaming the hand-coloured beads with similar flat, iridescent rondelles, a textured-look star and dangling from a sleek circle gave these earrings a very modern look, while tying in the pooled resin artifact stunningly well!

And now I'm loading up and loading out to head down to the Waterbury Building in NE Mpls (MN, USA) for the Art-A-Whirl ! Stop on by and see me if you're in the area!!



Legalese: I have received the following products free of charge from rings-things.com and I am honestly reviewing them. I have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received: all brushed copper beads pictured above.

Whimsy Wednesday!

Hello!!
I'm excited to show you a new batch of creations that made their debut at the Psychic Faire this past weekend!
They are Fairie Message Bottles!
A beautifully hand-written Message From The Fairies scroll and two other treasures (could be charms, could be stones, could be...? only the Fairies know!) that match the message on the scroll all lovelingly contained in a petite bottle chock-full of glittery-goodness! A matching arcane label is carefully hand-applied to the outside of the bottle and the sturdy cork is securely seals in the contents! (At least until it uncorked so as to read the message and fish out the goodies inside!)
This is all done by inspiration and intuition so that even I don't know what message and treasures are in which bottle once the corks are on!
Photos ahead!
The scroll and bottle:


The finished bottles:


The finished bottles in their display box:


As you can tell, I had a lot of fun with the great amount of informal structure and freedom to create with these and rest assured that more will grow into creation in the future!!

Fini Friday!

Hello Everyone!!

Today is a quick post as I prepare for the Psychic Faire at Lake Harriet Spiritual Community Center!!

I'm returning to this wonderful little Faire in a beautiful building nestled in the magnificent heart of Uptown Minneapolis!

So!! I have the finishing touches (or perhaps not.. if I get wild and create pendants out of some of these!) on the Fairie Shapes that you saw on Wednesday!

I poured resin over the shapes, some of them were painted with hand-coloured resin, some accented with glitter. This was a lot of fun and I'm pleased with these as a first batch! My vision was to use the resin, particularly the coloured resin as a slip on the polymer clay, much like the slip and glazes ceramic artists use on their clays and ceramics. Indeed, it seems the concept hold true for these differing materials! YAY!

There are a few other pieces that I hand-coloured in that photo as well but you'll just have to stay tuned to see what happens next with those!!

Whee!

Whimsy Wednesday!

Hello Hello!
Late is better than never and so here we are with this week's Whimsy Wednesday post!!

I've had the idea for a while now to do Fairie Objects d'Art so I broke out my polymer clay and created some beads and knick-knacks or pendants.. whichever they become.
These are stamped with words echoed and inspired by Messages from the Fairies themselves and I had a lot of fun with this first batch of creations!

Here we are, all of them, after the baking...



Next up:
Painting them with resin! Glitter or iridescence of some sort will definitely make an appearance!
Stay tuned!

Fini Friday!

A little later than usual, but here is the Fini Friday post!!!

I can show you this now as the partner to this Creation should have received this and might even be wearing it as I type this!!!

This is a Custom Creation for a very special gal as a Graduation present!!!
She requested an Ouroboros .. which is a snake biting it's own tail. This symbol is said to represent infinity, and the never-ending cycle of life.

Here it is:
Title: Ouroboros: More Than Meets the Eye
Ingredients: Czech-pressed glass, Memory Wire, Copper Wire.


See how the clasp was created so that the snake would look like it's biting it's tail? I bent the Memory Wire at an angle so that it would hook over the body just before the tail section, and then wrapped it with red copper wire because, really, I loved the whimsy of representing a snake sticking it's tongue out!
The mixture of textures and patterns in the snake are subtle details and reinforce the "more than meets the eye" intention as does the whimsical tongue-clasp.

So that's it for Fini Friday!!!
I'll see you next Wednesday!!

Whimsy Wednesday!

The wind is ushering in this Whimsy Wednesday post! As you might have guessed, the wind is quite strong in my neck of the woods today, keeping a little bit of a chill to an otherwise sunny and beautiful day.
Perhaps that is why I was drawn to work with highly polished (wind-swept), precisely cut materials (a cutting wind) today?

So, there we have it.. the theme of the day must be Wind and Whimsy!
I have two pair of earring creations to show you today! Both were created from repurposed heart charms and Swarovski crystals!

Title: Vibrant Heart
Ingredients: Swarovski crystals, repurposed metal heart charms, glass, metal, gold-plated surgical steel earwires (hypo-allergenic).

I love the way the crystals play with the light as they swing back and forth in the middle of the heart charm! Pure whimsy, say I!

Title: Heart's Jewels
Ingredients: Swarovski crystals, repurposed metal heart charms, glass, metal, gold-plated surgical steel earwires (hypo-allergenic).


I love how the little rhinestone "jewels" peek out from behind the Capri Blue Swarovski crystals! Also, I've always loved the royal combination of blue and gold (Egyptians, anyone?).

These creations speak to me of summer fun... the nicely finished heart charms get a kick of whimsy, motion and colour from the vivid crystals. These are perfect for dressing up or dressing down!

And with that, I'm whirling away!
See you Friday!