Summer!

Hello there and happy summer!

I am sorry for being so infrequent lately, but I have been really really REALLY busy.

The stuff that I promised to post last time is still on hold, but rather replaced with a little summer celebration (most of it coming to the shop later today).

I hope you enjoy it and that you are having a smashing summer!

 Cheeep! Pendant

Summer in the City Pendant

Summer in the City Earrings

 Marine Burdies Earrings (private collection)

Simple Beach Life Earrings

 Ice-Cream Peacock Ring

Ice-Cream Garden Earrings (sold already)

Wishing for summer breezes...

I have been super busy lately and missing the sun (oh, Holland, why art thou Holland!), so I am just squeezing in two little additions to the shop (later this evening). 

Sunshine, happy chirrups and the sound of rustling leaves:

Images on polymer - and heeeeeeeeelp!

Hey there! I hope you are enjoying your spring. It's Koninginnedag here in the Netherlands, and the weather turned rainy last night and will apparently stay so next week, which spoils my plans a little, but oh well.

So, images in polymer - there are obviously a lot of ways that you can achieve them (caning, painting, transferring, carving, backfilling, etching) and I was experimenting a bit this past week with some of the techniques, mostly  carving and backfilling and transferring.

First, let me show you the carved pendants (they will be in the shop later today).

I love the flower one so much I almost kept it. The birdie one looks better in person than in the pic and was hard to photograph because of the varnish applied to it, but is not as pretty and vintagey looking to me as the first one. They are both carved and then antiqued with acrylic paints. But they were carved before baking though - I find it much easier (and obviously much more forgiving).

And now to transfers...

The only transfers I did before were on baking parchment with inkjet printer and those were good enough for what I wanted to achieve, but this time I wanted a proper clear transfer so I tried the toner one. I read up on it galore and then set forth to do what I thought would be a straightforward and quick process. Oh how mistaken I was! Seriously, I have no idea what I'm doing wrong and have been reading up on it afterwards as well to no avail. Let me show you my troubles:

1) Snakeskin ring

This transfer turned out the best of them all, but that is due to the fact that it's a busy pattern, so you can't really make out if there are mistakes. However, when I applied a layer of liquid FIMO and re-baked it, it bubbled up in tiny specks. In stuff that I wear I really don't mind little imperfections, but it is definitely a mistake and I can't figure out where I'm going wrong.

(I adore huge rings btw.)

  2) Fly ring

In this one you can clearly see two problems - first, there are still little hairs of paper that I couldn't get off for love nor money, and second, due to trying to @#Y^%% get rid of them I rubbed off a part of the fly's left wing. How do you get rid of all the paper!? I mean, if you leave it there, as soon as it dries it creates a milky film over the image, and if you rub more it smudges the image. Which leads me to

3) Japanese print ring

No picture since I screwed it up completely (and it was my favourite image!). Same thing as with the fly, I was trying to get rid of the paper from the black hair of the girl in the picture and at some point the black just smudged all over her porcelain face! And there was still a white paper film on the hair!

And finally

4) Liquid clay transfer (decal attempt)

Also no pic, since it was ruined.

I put Liquid Fimo onto a picture, baked it, soaked it in water, started rubbing paper off (it wouldn't peel in one go) and just straight rubbed off the whole image from the clay!

I really don't get it! Please do share your advice, if you have any, I am getting desperate!

In the meantime, I am itching to do some etching (hah!) but want to sort out this transfer rebus first! 

Spring gardens blossoming

Very flowery mood over here. I have even planted some flowers on the balcony! (I have a red thumb, hence my excitement). I am truly enjoying this spring and all the sunshine. The thing I love about Holland is the time the sun sets during the warmer part of the year - we are currently at 9pm! Woohoo!

Therefore, I give you a few gardens (some of which, you can also find in the shoppe)

Here I almost went into summer - think orient, sipping cold tea under a canopy on a fresh warm summer evening...

Hope you are enjoying your spring as well!

Jungle is massive!

After a long and hard battle with a man-flu type of cold (in other words - I am the worst whiner when I get sick), I am back to posting ;)

Despite my horrendous cold, I was actually quite busy, and apart from a few bits and pieces that I'll show you in one of the next posts, I have finished a new jewellery collection! Woohoo!

As you can see, it's called "Jungle is massive", which only means that I am still into that tribal groove and going towards my most beloved huge, enormous, oversized jewellery (I want it even bigger, believe you me). I am loving crochet for allowing me to go huge and stay light.

Most pieces are already in the shoppe, and now I let you browse and I hope you like what you see. (And, of course, I would love to hear what you think)

Cheers!

First the earrings:

This pic is to show you the size:

Then rings:

Bracelets/bangles:

And finally, my favourites of the collection - necklaces:

Welcome to my tribe!

Well, I've been away for a while, but I come back with results! ;)

I have finished what I call "welcome to my tribe collection"! I am very pleased, even though my hands are a complete wreck from all the crocheting and stitching. 

 

(Gross, I know, but I had to share!)

And now to the hopefully prettier culprits, without further ado, tadah...!

I started small, just to try how it would work...

BLUE

Then I made a sort of a prototype of what I wanted (I am keeping this one for myself)....

RED

And then I was in full swing!

MAROON

POWDER

BUNT

GREY

And then to something completely different, yet in my mind totally on the topic:

PODS

I will list them all (except the red one) in my shop tomorrow and hope others like them as much as I enjoyed making them.

I am also finishing up the work on the website and will hopefully get it running properly tomorrow as well - woohoo!

Enjoy and do leave a comment, I would love to know what you think :-)

Cheers!

Seasons in fibre

My house guests have gone :( and I'm back to being busy. 

I mentioned in the previous post that I am currently very much into fibre jewelry an I hope it lasts. The first four necklaces are already listed in the shop. They are each dedicated to a season:

SPRING

SUMMER

AUTUMN

WINTER

They all consist of felted wool beads which I then embroidered, crocheted pieces and yarn constructs and I really had fun making them, even though it takes some time, especially the felting part, since the beads are quite big (the one in the first pic is almost 5cm in diameter).

 Now I am working on some necklaces that I am really excited about - they are inspired by colourful African jewelry, especially high chokers. Actually - they're not, since I didn't really research African jewelry, but they are inspired by what in my head African high chokers would look like :)). I find fibre materials so appropriate because they are so light and there are so many ways in which you can use them. (me excited). Also, my dad brought me some really nice wool and I want to work on a few "monumental" pieces :)) Oh my, I have so many ideas and so little time. I really wish days would last at least a couple of hours longer.