Saturday 11 April 2015

Late butterfly!

Feeling bad about missing the butterfly party that was hosted by Alenka of Pepita Handmade. After a frustrating day yesterday of trying to learn how to build a butterfly cane I spent a few hours(lol) looking at butterflies on Pinterest and came across a tutorial on origami butterflies and thought I could manage that.
While looking through my Japanese paper collection today I found this pretty butterfly paper so decided to use it for the origami.


I've always wanted to try more origami beyond the basics. This is a variation of Akira Yoshizawa's origami butterfly that comes from this blog. This was posted to celebrate his 101st birthday....creator of modern origami.


Phew! I managed to meet this challenge after all. I hope you like my little butterfly and will enjoy hopping around to all the other participants blogs to see their wonderful butterflies! Here's the list again.

1. Alenka (Pepita) 
2. Monique (A Half-Baked Notion)
3. Beti Horvath
4. Kathy Lindemer
5. Kepi
6. Christine Altmiller
7. Amy S.
8. Dini Bruinsma
9. Cynthia (Antiquity Travelers)
10. Alicia
11. sheilaposter
12. Therese Frank
13. Rebecca White
14. Rachel Mallis
15. Liz E
16. Ana (ACBeads)
17. Jasvanti Patel
18. Carolyn
19. Nan Smith

Friday 10 April 2015

Happy Birthday Butterfly Blog Hop and the 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge continues......

Alenka of Pepita  Handmade is hosting this Butterfly challenge to celebrate her birthday. We were tasked with creating something butterfly themed. I totally fogot about this one and have nothing to share. I guess I've been so caught up in the PC Challenge with a weekly post that my brain couldn't contain all of my commitments. Sorry but I will be visiting everyone's blog to see all the lovely butterflies! Enjoy!!!! Here is the list of the participants. ( ignore that last name!)

1. Alenka (Pepita) 

2. Monique (A Half-Baked Notion)
3. Beti Horvath
4. Kathy Lindemer
5. Kepi
6. Christine Altmiller
7. Amy S.
8. Dini Bruinsma
9. Cynthia (Antiquity Travelers)
10. Alicia
11. sheilaposter
12. Therese Frank
13. Rebecca White
14. Rachel Mallis
15. Liz E
16. Ana (ACBeads)
17. Jasvanti Patel
18. Carolyn
19. Nan Smith



Wow, it's week 14 of the #2015PCChallenge  and I've managed to post an entry for every week so far! If you knew me you'd know how unusual that is. Always very enthusiastic at the start of a challenge but I tend to drag my feet as it progresses. Not the best with follow through ! However this challenge is different because I'm having so much fun playing with the clay and there is such amazing variety of techniques and tools to experiment with  Anyway here is a summary of the last few,weeks:
Week #8 : stamping and gilders paste


Week#9 : lace cane

Week#10 : flower cane earring beads


Week #11: First time with chalk pastels and Helen Briel texture sheet.

Week # 12:More cane work.


Week # 13: My favorite project this month....cuffs made using texture sheets and gilders paste. Love them!

Week # 14: Pan pastels are wonderful on polymer clay!

This is a weekly challenge that I'm participating in on Facebook. It's amazing to see the talent and variety there is in this art. If you want to see more here is the link. I'll be posting my contributions periodically on my blog but every week on FB.

Have a wonderful Spring weekend. I hope you get lots of sunshine where you are!

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Bead Swap is Complete!

So Johana finally received the bead package that I sent her so I can now reveal what she sent me. I posted the photo of her package a couple of weeks ago when it arrived but if you didn't see then this  is what it looked like. I love her logo and packaging.


And without further ado, here are the great goodies she sent.

Everything is made by Johana except the pretty pink Czech glass beads.
Such a sweet enameled copper bird and co-ordinating filigree beads and fabulous enameled floral headpins. I think what I love the most is the beautiful handmade copper leaf clasp with the green floral accent. Unique and just my cup of tea!!!!


This is going to be a fun challenge for me with the colours and style way outside my comfort zone so wish me luck and tune in on May 3rd for the big reveal of  the Bead Peeps Swap and Hop when there will be many fabulous creations from over 200 jewelry artists!

Now I can reveal what I sent to Johana since she has now seen everything. Here again is my twisted vision of what she received.

And here is what it looks like it living colour. 
There's quite a bit of my polymer clay creations including the bird focal, earring dangles, swirled coin beads and rustic teal beads. I added Scorched Earth's raku bronzy scales, some Mykonos accents, citrine and chrysocolla beads, Czech leaves, resin big yellow beads , gold painted wooden beads and lots of antique brass findings and charms. I can't wait to see what Johana makes from all of this!