Searching For Hidden Magic Part 2

Few more tries with stamps and clay. I still don't like the colors, except for the red/orange/yellow one. There were few more, but I was too anxious to cut out the shapes and I didn't have time to make pics :). There's one pic of the pieces on the tray before baking though, just for a sneak peek. I have to make some "ordinary" pendats for few gifts so I am sticking with simple forms for now. And I am still warming up, it has been quite some time since my last all-days-just-claying period. Maybe this is the start of a new one, we'll see. Oh, and I tried another thing from new Donna Kato's book (The Art Of Polymer Clay - Creative Surface Effects) - shading with ink pads and stamping on clay. Really nice results and rather simple to do as well. I just haven't figured out yet how to work with transparent clay, so I am not stamping in layers as she shows. I like it all the same.

Searching For Hidden Magic

I've seen a technique called hidden magic on few french sites (Parole De Pate and then links to other sites) and I just had to try it. At first, it looked quite impossible to get some good pattern out of clay but with some practice I got few quite interesting sheets although colors seems horrible. I just used some scrap clay with clay gun to make rolls for the base. Later I will try some more with hopefully better color combination.

You Make Me Smile...

Lovely and talanted Jessica nominated me for You Make Me Smile Award. Woooow!!! That's awsome! Thanks so much Jessica! I'm sooo honored! Please go to her site and check her art, she makes amazing cards and other stuff, plus really fantastic photos. Her art will surely make you smile, too. It makes me smile for sure.

I have to nominate few other people for this award (if you are nominated and read this, pass this award on to others that make you smile), so here we go:

• Isa with her Fimo by IC blog - she makes fantastic polymer clay jewelry and other stuff and I always find inspiration while watching her work. I just love the color combinations and shapes she is using - something I still have to learn.
• Iris Mishly makes me smile with her blog Polymery Online with links to wonderful, useful and inspirational sites of other clay artists. On her blog you can find links to her other blogs, like her flickr album - besides providing tons of links she is also an amazing artist.
• Lunes is the founder of The European PolymerClay People forum. I hope her work and energy she is putting into it will be rewarded soon - with clayers from around the Europe joining there in daily chats, exchanging of ideas and information and showing off their work. You can join too, it's free! Check her homepage to see her lovely work.
• Godelieve with her StampingMathilda blog - I'm sure she doesn't stop by at my blog but I want to give her this reward all the same. I check her blog almost daily and I am amazed every time to see what can be done with paper and stamps. Her work is really fantastic and she posts pics of her new work daily, so there is always a lot to see.

There are quite some blogs and sites I check quite regulary that makes me smile. So, in a way, this reward goes to all of them. Thanks again, Jessica!

International Bead Swap

Swap!!!! I love swaps!!!! Do you??? Wanna join our swap???


I am the host of the first bead swap on EuropeanPolymerclayPeople. If you are a clayer or a bead maker, you are most welcome to join our swap! You can read all the rules and register on the above mentioned forum under Challenge section. Just in brief - register by sending me an email with your nickname and name and postal address), then make 2 beads sets with 10 beads. When the registration time is over (at the end of the month), you will receive 2 postal addresses to which you will send your beads by the end of November. You will get 2 sets of beads in return, by post from 2 different participants. Easy, right? And it's not that hard to make beads! Why don't you try and join us? The more people play, more interesting it can get. So..... welcome!!

Ok, now this is really annoying. My last two posts dissapeared, with few pics of Nina and her friends at her birthday party last week. Also, as I can see, the pics of my ATCs dissapeared as well. What the heck is going on here? I'll post Nina's pics some other day again, I wanted to show you my second "magic" witch wand today. I made one some time ago for a swap and I promised to a friend who was ill at that time that I would make one for her in case she is not able to participate. I made this one some time ago and I am waiting to give it away (which will be this Friday, I think) and I haven't made any pics. Well, I did that today but I have a new cam and I haven't figured out everything yet, so pics are not really good. I think I will have to join a course to learn about photography.
















As usually, when I want to do something, Lin was in the way and was interrupting me all the time. But beside Nina he is obviously my greatest admirer and he likes my work. He also seems to be a good guardian, so this wand is safe beside him.

Just trying something new... I always have problems with loading pics to blogger and arranging them, so maybe this is a better solution.

Few More Things

This week was awful. I'm exhausted. So what am I doing up on Saturday morning at 7 am, when I don't have to go to work and I am home alone??? I have no idea, I just couldn't sleep any longer. This time of the year is just horrible - during the week I get up at 6.30 am and it's still dark. It's soooooo so hard to wake up! Luckily I have some extra hours at work so I can sleep few minutes longer every morning. We will change time at the end of the month and I hope it gets better then.

This week was full of different activities, and most of them didn't include any art creativity. Oh, I did make a clay picture for my dear fellow worker who retired last week. I don't like it, it's too gaudy but it was her wish to have a picture like that. It still needs some finishing and I am not showing it until next week when we have farewell treat for her.

My child will turn 10 next Friday. I just can't believe that, but I know it must be true because we are so busy with getting ready for the sleep over party. Invitations are sent already, 15 kids plus some moms will fill our apartment next week. I have to find some ideas for games or something to keep the kids occupied for some time, otherwise they will just run around and yell all the time.

Few more pics of my "summer" work.

Old Beads - New Necklaces

I have a box full of necklaces and braceletes right now, ready to be sold. I know at least 2 persons were hardly waiting for these pics, so here they are. :)

I made most of these during my summer vacation on Croatian seaside. I just had to use the beads I had and now I almost run out of them. It is time to start making new ones - I still have quite some canes left, but I can make a thing or two with the beads of the same kind and then I get tired of the color and pattern. Cane making is something I really enjoy, so it should not be a problem. Making beads is more time consuming, but that has to be done as well. I have head full of ideas what to make but there is only one problem - days are not long enough for everything I need and would like to do.

Comments are welcome, as always. Have a wonderful day!

More ATCs

Hello again,

I have been quite ill for past few days... well, almost a week. I had a virosis and this has been the most terrible version of virosis as far as I can remember. I haven't felt so bad in ages. I really should eat more vitamins and healthy food in general.

Before I got ill I finished few more ATCs. Here are the pics of the past and recent ones.

Here are my first 3 ATCs ever. Please don't laugh (although it makes me laugh every time I see them) :).














I saw pics of these girls on the internet. Again, I don't remember who the author was, I think they were drawn to fabric bags. I like them and copied them, drawing while watching the pics on the screen. The water color part for finish turned out prety well, I am rather pleased with the result. I guess I am not giving them away since the idea is stolen from someone else.









And few more, just the way I like them. At least most of them :). You can read about pics and stamps and such in previous post.













P.S. The next two posts are from today as well, I just didn't want to put all the pics together, it looks ugly and too crowded :).

Some more ATCs

Some more (mostly) stamped ATCs. The 3 top ones were made with the Hero Arts stamps. Aren't they cute? Birdies were made with white embossing on white vellum. I've seen that on StampingMathilda site, which has been a great inspiration for me for quite some time. You can find a link to her site on the right in "Blog Links" section.