Fimo Braided Bangles

I found this tutorial on Pinterest and since I had some Fimo hanging around (from when I made this tree for my mom's birthday a couple years ago) and a day off by myself, I figured I would try my hand at some clay bangles.

Making the tree gave me a better idea of what to expect from the medium, so this time around I found the time spent softening the clay more relaxing than frustrating.

I had intended on making these 2 sets to match the dresses I made for my graduation events that are coming up next week, but sometimes things don't work out as planned.
The pink bracelets match the fabric well, but are just the tiniest bit too big for my hands.  The green ones fit great!  But, they don't match the dress.  Oh well.  I am sure someone with bigger hands then me will love the pink set, and lord knows I have enough other clothes that will match the green ones =)


On a side note.  I am officially, completely, absolutely finished with Graduate School!  This is so very exciting, but it is also a little scary.  So much of my time has been dedicated to school and homework for such a big part of my life that I need to learn what it is I like to spend time on.  Last night I literally stared at nothing for a good half an hour.  Ryan made me promise that I wasn't going to just do that forever.

Let's try this again

I may be the worst blogger ever.
I have had at least three different blogs over the past several years, and I have never been able to post consistently.  Part of that I am going to blame on Grad School, but part of it is just me.  I get on kicks where I love crafting and blogging about it, and then I get distracted and a year later I think, 'Oh yeah! I have a blog.  I should probably post something.'
So, let's try this again...
A few things are different this time around:

I am finished with Grad School.  My hooding ceremony is 8 days away!  This means no more readings, papers, classes to distract me.  No more things I *should* be doing.  No more guilt for doing things I want to do instead of working on a paper.

I have a super awesome camera that my mom got Ryan and I for Xmas in 2010.  Ryan takes amazing pictures with it, but I am still less than awesome in that department.  I will be working on changing that.

Lastly, Ryan has put a lot of effort into a website for me.  It is still under construction, but I am hopeful that it will be finished by fall.  So until then, I need to get myself in the habit of posting, and posting frequently so that all of his hard work is not in vain.

Placemats

I found the pattern for these at PinkPenguin  This lady is a genius crafter who kindly puts up tutorials for many of her projects.  The instructions were easy to follow and the finished project was so worth it!

These placemats were definitely a challenge!  It took me about six hours to make each one.  This was way more time than I had originally budgeted for.  I made some mistakes, but I learned every step of the way!
I had so much fun making these, even with some minor setbacks.  I am so happy with the way these turned out.

Thanks so much PinkPenguin!

Magazine Beads

I cannot take full credit for these wonderful little beads. I found a how-to on instructables.com and just ran with it. 

There is definitely a learning curve, but once I got the hang of it I couldn't stop. This is one of those projects that I can spend a whole day on and not even realize it. 

It is also great for my love of using even the smallest scraps. I use magazine pages to make coasters, but there are often small scraps of paper left over that would otherwise just be recycled. With these beads however I can now use those scraps to make a few beads from. I know I am crazy, but the variety that I get from using these scraps keeps me interested in the beads even longer.

I just love watching the beads form and the patterns that different pages will make. Color like this is so intriguing to me.

Magazine Coasters

I have been making these coasters for a couple years now. I made a couple for myself. My mom saw these and wanted some for her house. Ryan's mom came to visit and fell in love, I sent her some for mother's day. 

These are really quite easy to make and I love watching the patterns develop. Ryan does not like the abundance of magazines now in our home, but I have them nicely contained in my “studio”. Actually I think the abundance of magazines is why I got my own studio in the first place =)

The earth-friendlyness of these is also a big plus. All the pages I use for these are pages that dont end up in the trash.

Plus they are just fun!

Wedding Totes

I have had the idea for a wedding line of totes in my brain for over a year now. So last summer when my cousin called to tell me she was engaged I was thrilled. For her of course! But also because I finally had someone to make the tote line for. 

Then a few months later Athena called to say she was engaged! Wonderful!! More colors I can work with. 

Two of my favorite people in the world are pledging their love to the most important person in their lives. I am beyond happy and I can't think of any better way to congratulate them, than with something I created specifically for them using the colors they chose for their special day.

I had so much fun making all of these pieces. They turned out remarkably close to the images I had floating around in my head. I was lucky enough to be in Jessalyn's wedding this summer, so I used my bride's maid dress to match the colors (almost perfectly). For Athena's I only had a description to work from, but I think the bride-to-be was pleased with the end result.

So brides-to-be contact me for your own personalized totes! These would also make great gifts for the bridal party!   

Happy Birthday Momma!

One of my favorite parts about being an artist is the random places I draw inspiration from. And the way that inspiration evolves until a final piece is created. 

Around valentine's this year we brought out a Lolita hand-painted wine glass at Hallmark. It was a tree with two love birds sitting in it.  I loved the idea, but wasn't thrilled about the painting as a whole. The image I had in my head started out as a stand alone tree sculpture with some hearts mixed throughout the leaves. After a couple months of trying to figure out the intricacies of creating such a tree (I have never really dabbled in sculpture at all) my idea morphed a bit. 

I knew from the beginning that this would be a gift for my mom, but I was not sure which occasion it would be finished for. My new idea was still a sculpture, but a wall hanging instead of stand alone. Fimo would be the medium of choice. I collected the colors I thought would be best for my liking, but also mom's décor. I sat down one night and just started sculpting. The end product was better than I could have hoped. The wood grain turned out beautifully and the glitter in the leaves was subtle yet eye-catching.

The only bad part...fimo is hard clay, my hands ached for about a week afterwards. It was however, incredibly worth it!