Let the Redecorating Begin...... and meatloaf man.

Yesterday I bought the PERFECT retro piece for our dining room. Mom and Auntie J found it at the local Sally Anne (Salvation Army Thrift Shop for those not in the know). I am completely in love with it. They delivered the piece for twenty dollars..... unfortunately they broke the glass and smashed the front lip of the credenza. I'm going to have to find someone local who cuts glass and finishes it so I can have new doors made. I'm not sure what I'll do about the front lip of the bottom piece. They have refunded the shipping cost and offered to take some money off the purchase price but it's a charity shop so I'll deal with the loss. I will also remember in the future that the delivery people from thrift shops may not consider their cargo as precious as I do. It may be smart to find my own means of transporting large pieces in future.

Here is the piece in it's natural environment.

I really do love it. I hope I can get the blemishes fixed. Anyone out there know how to replace the melamine trim? Or where to find melamine trim from the fifties?


Here,
for your viewing pleasure
is Maggie's

MEATLOAF MAN!!!!

Before the sauna.

and after.
He was delicious!

Knitted DMC Floss Bracelet with Beads. From the Archives.

Quite a while back I made this tutorial for HA Kidd and co here in Canada. They are the folks responsible for beads and findings for sewing and DMC floss. A fabulous company all around.

We have company this week, Auntie J is visiting, so I'm using this as an opportunity to sift through the project archives and put up some things you may not have tried before.

Enjoy!

1. Wind one skein of
DMC color variations floss
onto a floss holder. Feed
the loose end of the floss
into the beading needle and
load on 60 beads.

2. Make a slip knot 12cm from loose end
of floss. This slip knot will be your first
cast on stitch. Cast on four more
stitches to have five in total.

3. Slide five beads up closer to knitting,
placing first bead right up against needle.

4. Start knitting row, pushing a new bead up
to the needles before every stitch. Knit 6
rows in this pattern. You will use half of
the 60 beads for these 6 rows.

5. Continue to straight
knit without beads for
55 rows (or when
unbeaded section measures
15cm). Finish piece
by adding 6 more rows
of bead knitting. Cast
off on the seventh row,
without beads.

6. Finished piece should
measure 19cm for an
average wrist width.
Add or take away knitting
rows to increase or
decrease length as
desired. Use a big eye
beading needle to sew
the raw thread ends
back into piece before
trimming.

Nail Fill and a Daisy

I had to do a back fill on my nails and decided to replace the roses from two weeks ago with a daisy.

I like 'em!

They feel like spring!

I left the round sparkles and the glitter in there.

I could only find time for one little daisy. It's embedded in the nail so it's flat on top.

New Things.

I've been busy working away on a commission this week, but not too busy to create other things too. George has also been busy getting in my way.

Honest, I slather affection on him constantly! You'd think he was starved for it the way he insinuates himself on everything we are working on. I think it's his way of slowing down the creative process so we don't miss anything. He really is helping!

Here are some new things I've done with some of the Five Sisters beads I got last week.

Simple drop earrings on a turned head pin. Took five minutes to make two pair.

A matching wrapped drop pendant.
Sometimes the simplest things are the best ones.

Here is the new fabric I got from Hootcouture to make Mr. Jimmy and I our spring outfits. It came speedy quick and wrapped in a pretty little dotty ribbon. Can't wait for a couple seconds to rub together so I can start sewing.

BEADS!!!!!! Five Sisters Purchase. YUMM

A little while back I ordered a small bunch of beads from

Five Sisters.

It was a teeny purchase but I was treated like a queen.
Fast and inexpensive shipping, and...
BEAUTIFUL BEADS!!!

Here is what I got.

I tucked my hand in so you could see the size of some of these pretties.
Maggs and I are already wrestling over who gets what.
I'd better get a second order in soon.
I'm pretty sure Maggs can take me.

I tossed together a quick pair of sky blue drop earrings because I couldn't bare to not have them with me all the time. I needed the spring time cheeriness of the blue to inspire me for the commission I'm working on this weekend.
It's going to be fabulous, I can already feel it.

Polymer Cafe Magazine for February is On the Shelves Now!

Here is a sneak peak of what you can find on pages 28 through 31 in this February's issue of
Polymer Cafe Magazine.

I'm really excited about this technique, It is making it so much easier to deal with teeny sculpted flowers. I am using my nail techniques with the polymer clay.... so


what I've been doing with acrylic liquid and powder on my nails.....


we can now do with polymer clay!!!


Like this!

Or like this!
This is the same technique I did for
Polymer Cafe Magazine,
but done in colour instead of metal tone.

Get your copy of Polymer Cafe quick!!!
and let me know how it works for you and your projects.
I love the feedback it makes me a better teacher.

Gisele of
http://www.giselecrafts.com

Made my Singing Angel From the Christmas issue of Polymer Cafe and set me this fabulous pic of her piece sitting on the magazine shot of my piece. Looks like they're old friends having a chat and a giggle.

I LOVE IT!!!!
Thanks so much Gisele.
Was great to meet minds with you.

UV Gel Eye Test Piece

Here is the test eye I made from the UV gel .
I think I like the other one better. This eye seemed to grab hold of the paint and not let go. It got cloudy after baking also. I like the technique but like the polyclay technique better.

Same as before, I made an indent using a pencil to accept the eye.

Here is the eye in the clay.

Some lid worms are added.

Lid worms are smoothed with knitting needle then smooth flat paintbrush. I also added an eye pin so I could add some dangles later. I baked the piece at 250 for ten minutes.

Some Genesis colour is added. then the piece is baked again for five minutes.

I added more detailed paint but pretty much know at this point that this technique for eye making isn't going to work as well as the other. I baked it again for another five minutes to set the pigment.

I decided to frame the piece in bugle beads.

I added an amber dangle.

and as always a bow.

Here is the finished piece.

Polymer Clay Eye Test Piece

I thought I'd better test bake a couple of the eyes I've been working on to see how well they make out in the oven. I've had terrible experiences when I've not done tests with pieces being ruined with oven heat, either melting or yellowing.

Here is the test for the polymer clay eye I did with Genesis paint. Keep in mind that the over all sculpted piece is no more than two cm wide, the eyes themselves are a half to three quarters of a cm . Also keep in mind that this is a rough test, there are fibers from my sweater and fingerprints in my work and they're staying there. I will take great care in the finished work but with tests I don't like to waste the time.

I started by filling the indent of this pretty metal finding with Fimo soft and smoothing it over by rubbing gently with my fingertips.
I got the metal finding from
Snapcrafty

I used a pencil end to create an indent that was roughly the same size as an eye ball.

I added the eye ball.

Added a worm of clay for the top eyelid.

and another worm for the bottom eyelid.

I used a knitting needle to smooth out the join lines in the clay and start to sculpt out the shapes I want.

I used a small flat soft paintbrush to smooth out the whole thing so there were less tool marks and fingerprints. Then I baked it at 250 for ten minutes.

Here I've added some blush to the brow ridge and the cheek area using genesis heat set oil paint. The eye has made it through one oven test and come through with flying colours, there isn't any yellowing or melting. I baked it again for five minutes to set the blush.

Here is the painted piece. I'm pretty impressed with this technique for eye making. I can go back now and make more eyes with greater detail.

I cut out a piece of black felt the same size as the back of the piece and sewed some lace to the edge of it.

Then I glued the metal finding to the felt.

I added some beads and a bow.

and I tried out some options for wearing the piece.

This is what we went with.
Maggs has taken ownership of this one.