King of Clubs

Have never done Steam Punk before and have only done a microscopic amount of sculpting with clay, and that was just Paper Clay over cloth on doll faces.

I signed up for this class with Nefer Kane on Adele Scortino’s site for the very reasons above. Learn a little about Steam Punk so I can move on from there, learn to sculpt with polymer clay and mostly because i just love love love this pin. 

However, as is the case with most classes, the way things begin is the not way they end. I started out well intentioned to make the Queen of Hearts, but ended up with a King of Clubs. I tried to go female, but my hands created a male, but it’s all good.

I went from what I was there to do, which is this…

and finished up with this.

I know one eye is a bit wonky, but that’s much like his creator and we all have one eye that is smaller than the other…. (and now every one of you will go to the mirror to check, you did didn’t you)…. I had a happy kind of accident with the lips. I used a black colour of a product called Smooch (found at stamping stores) and didn’t like it. To dramatic. So I got some hand sanitizer and washed it off and it left a shade on the lips which is fine because it looks very natural. All in all, I am very happy with this for a first time with polymer clay.  Next…………..

Lemons to Lemonade

Sometimes as the saying goes, when you have lemons, you make lemonade and that’s what I did.

While hubby was away overseas I asked him to see if he could find some fabric to make place mats for a friend, so nice cotton with pictures of island themes. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to find as it is here in North America. What he did get, was actually a happy accident. It definitely would not work for place mats for indoor use, but as our friend said, it would for an outside table or on a boat etc.

When I realized I wouldn’t be able to make the place mats I wanted I got my muse working to give me some suggestions. “Of course she said, how about this”………….. Brilliant, that’s what I’ll do. Off to the fabric store to get some strapping and back home and sew sew sew because we planned to visit our friend today.

This is what we gave her and put your sunglasses on for viewing. Bold bright and beautiful. For someone who uses an electric wheelchair and gets out to do much of her own shopping, this is perfect. She will be visible by cars and others,  and for people in wheelchairs anything that draws attention to them, is so much the better for their safety.  The straps are just the right length to have the clerk in the store hang the bags on the arms of the wheelchair. I love them. What fun.

So what do you think??????  Flashy new grocery bags. I think they are great and I have fabric left over to make my own and who knows, maybe a dolly will get a holiday wardrobe from this trip to Barbados…

Parsley Ice Cubes

I go from one extreme to another don’t I. A couple of days ago it was all things dolly, then comedy hour thanks to the Yeoman Warden of London Tower, and today is a cooking and health topic.

Parsley ice cubes you say. Well, it’s true. With all the rain and cool temps we’ve had, it produced a beautiful batch of parsley, the best ever. The fragrance is strong when cut and tastes so good.  Did you know parsley, simple little parsley is jam packed with health benefits. One of particular note is help with stiff joints. If you want to know more, and why wouldn’t you, click here.

Today’s offering is cooking and health tip. I went out and cut a lot of that parsley before it could go to seed before it gets fully utilized. Break the pieces off the stems, don’t be to particular, just remove the larger stems, keep the rest they are just as good.

You will want to rinse the parsley  several times in cool water. I did mine 3 times. There are little critters that you don’t really see until you bring it in, mostly little white flies, totally harmless, but do rinse the parsley well.

From there just chop it up a bit to make it small enough to fit into your ice cubes trays. It doesn’t have to be microscopic size, just chop it a little.  Remember to enjoy the aroma and chew on a few pieces while you work, yummy.

Fill up your ice cube trays, I fill mine about 3/4th full. They I pour cold water over them and poke the parsley down so most of it is submerged. Doesn’t matter if some is sticking up. Pop it into the freezer and wait overnight.

In the morning, look what you have. Transfer them to a box or bag in the freezer and just take two or three cubes when you make soup or stew or ????? and it‘ll give your meal a little boost.

I’ve always used parsley, but didn’t think to freeze it. Remembered hearing about this years ago but just didn’t act on it. So get out there and pick your parsley while it’s at it’s best….

A bit of silly for this morning

Yeoman Warden at Tower Of London. He’s the kind of guy you want to take you on a tour of anything, he’s just got that perfect gallows humour….. So if you have a little time, or come back later to watch the rest, it’ll be worth it…. Hilarious…..

Finders Keepers is done !

Finished her last night. She went on quite a tear overnight and gathered up all kinds of this and that for her stash. I found little piles of things here, there and everywhere, I guess she spent quite a time deciding on just the right things. 

Although you can’t quite see everything, she found keys, mini spools of thread, silk no less, buttons, bobbins, one of my mini playing cards and even a hammer. Guess that’s for protection?????

After all that work, I decided she could keep them, so I helped her attach everything to her pockets, she even hung a couple of things from her tail. Smart imp that she is.  I was going to surprize her with this little hat box I made for her yesterday, but she found that to and was trying to hide it from me….didn’t work, I found it.

She found my gears for my steam punk things to come soon, and thankfully she only took one of the big gears.

 

With such a cute face I had a hard time being mad at the mess she made, but she did get the shake of the finger….. She’s done and I just love her to bits. Probably the cutest little doll yet, and I did give her ears, they just made her complete. Thanks for creating her Colleen. She’s a very special little lady.

Round Robin Doll #4

I decided not to let time slip away from me like it did for the this months round robin swap, I got busy today and worked on the doll I got at last nights meeting. I was so happy because this doll has hair and stuff, not a lot of thinking to do this time. The story for this one as the book reads, is that she’s following in the footsteps (if she had feet that is) of Cher and others like her in the entertainment field.

My contribution to the cause was to add to her Divaness by giving her a boa (how cliché is that). Her gown was down the floor, but I peeked under it and discovered this wonderful diamond pattern fabric and I just couldn’t leave it covered, the colours just had to shine. So I ruched the front of it to make it look more like something stage like, at least I think it does.

  

The last thing I added was a microphone. So where does one find a mic for a doll, hmmmm, decided to make one for her. Very quick tutorial for you on what I did.

At the hardware store you can find all kinds of interesting things in little drawers. I found these little bit of metal that were long and thin about 1” or so long. Don’t know what they’re for but they were a good size and length. I found a wooden bead in my stash that would fit on top but it was a bit big. I flattened out some black polymer clay, wrapped it around the metal piece and smoothed it out.

Then took the bead and pressed it onto the top and took more flat clay and molded it to the bead. I cut a piece of screen placed it on top and used a bit more clay to hold it in place, then a second layer of screen just to make it show up more and gently smoothed out the clay again. I pushed some large size jump rings up the handle and pressed them into the clay, then baked it all as per the manufacturers instructions. When it was cooled off, I just glued on some cabochons, and presto, one doll size microphone.

My work here is done and she’s ready to move on next month to her next doll maker.

 

Round Robin doll #3

I’m not sure if others are afraid of hair or don’t  like doing hair or just wanted to do something else, but this is the 3rd round robin doll I’ve worked on that came to me bald. I decided on a headdress with silk tied in knots and added some crystal beads for a bit of sparkle.

Her poor little hands were added by the last person but, as was noted in the book that came with the doll, needed some TLC to fix them. I tried to make gloves with 3 different fabrics, but that didn’t work. Much easier to just make hands into gloves with the fabric to begin with. I thought about what to do and them it came to me. There were extra bits of the fabric in the bag, so I made some ruffles and added a bit of lace and now the hands look more like gloves and any imperfections can be viewed as wrinkles in the gloves.

Poor thing also needed her makeup fixed up. She didn’t even have a nose anymore, I guess from being handled a bit and maybe the face wasn’t sprayed. Don’t know, but she’s better now.

I finished up by giving her a beaded scarf. i used the same fabric as the veil for Stitch in Time. It feels and drapes like silk, but is actually a poly type cloth. Really great find. She’s off to the meeting tonight and lets see who I bring home for round  #4. I hope this one has hair…. ;o~

Steampunk

It was bound to happen, I’m being  infected by the Steampunk  bug. What a bug. I have a few  parts now, and as I find things to dismantle, I’m fairly certain that I will build on my collection.

With starting something new, comes the books, correct. Well my books have arrived and as always someone has to take the blame for it. This time it’s Laura Lundsford and her recent dolls where she’s used the Steampunk theme. Very nice dolls and you should at least be an intermediate doll maker because her instructions assume you are familiar with the process of making dolls, but very creative dolls none the less and a style all her own.

I know you need more books to and please feel free to blame you reduced pocket book on me, it’s fine. This is the first book, yes the first, there are more than one. This one is fabulous, not just the ideas for making jewelry which is the main focus, but the illustrations are the same fabulous inspirations and will cause you to be inspired whether you like it or not.

The next book is by none other than Christi Friesen. She’s the first one I discovered doing things in a Steampunk way. This book is cover to cover how to do it. The illustrations are clear and lots of them, showing you how to do this and that, using polymer clay, and covers tons of mixed media projects. Fantastic.It’s a smaller book but full full full of information.

The last book is the Bible of Steampunk and it truly is. You can read up on the beginnings of this topic. Full as the other books of illustrations both black/white and colour. This is one of those books you can flip to any page and be enthralled with the information. It’s not project oriented, it’s a learning curve. I love love love this book, it’s also hardcover which I like for the amount of times I will pick up and leaf through it. If you’re confused like I was about this crazy thing called Steampunk, you won’t be after this.

All three of the these books will make your head explode from inspiration. I would recommend any of them if you have the least bit of interest in the subject matter. Every one of them is beautifully put together, easy to follow and  will make your muse delirious with ideas and will promptly shove those ideas into your head. Happy creating.

She’s coming along nicely!

Finders Keepers is so darn cute and almost don’t want to finish her because she has so much character, but I am almost done, just have to add her sash, her hair, bonnet and turn her loose in my workroom to find her choice of bits and bobs to carry with her.

I found the sweetest little buttons in my stash for her bodice, I think they were with the buttons that I received from my neighbour. They are little vintage pearl buttons measuring 1/4th of an inch, flat on top and a short shank on the back made from the same material as the buttons, I also found these cute little cameo buttons on an eBay site. I wasn’t actually looking for them, they just appeared on a site I was browsing, and knew they would be perfect for dollies.

Another day of no distractions and Finders Keepers will be done. While waiting for her bodice, she discovered a window and spent her time watching what was going on outside. She’s a very curious little imp.

A close up of her buttons, aren’t they pretty. I still have 3 more of the pearl ones and a few of the cameo’s, so another cutie like this could be in my future.

From the front…………

And from the back, again she rushed over to see what I was working on at the computer. Very inquisitive, nosey more like it……. Yes, I do relate to my dolls.. ;o)

Did you know?!?!

Prisma pencils are no longer made by the original company….. No they aren’t. Have you noticed that your pencils keep breaking and breaking when you try to sharpen them? Have you asked questions at stores where you buy your pencils, why they keep breaking? I’ve got the scoop for you…

I went to stock up on pencils recently, at our local art store. Later that day, I was sharpening those Prisma pencils and they kept breaking. One of the pencils even split all the way down almost the full length of the pencil. So I went back to the store.

I saw one of the employee’s and asked him if I could pick his brain a little re: the Prisma pencils. He said sure, what do want to know. So I asked him, “why do these pencils keep breaking when I sharpen them? They never used to be this bad, in fact one of them even split all the way down, and I wasn’t even really sharpening it yet, I had only made one turn of the pencil in the sharpener. Once in a while if I pushed to hard on the pencil and the sharpener they would break, but now I’m using a very light touch and the same thing keeps happening.”

He told me that Prisma was sold to another company and that company had replaced the quality of the pencils with the volume sales of them, which now compromises the quality of the pencils. To make a long story short, he recommended that I switch to an electric pencil sharpener. He does his artwork with pencils and said it’s what saved him the frustration. So I did. Now all my pencils sharpen no problem and I’m not throwing them in the garbage anymore. On a return visit to the store, I also learned that the company that bought Prisma pencils, is the Rubbermaid company.

What????  Rubbermaid???? Really…… So there you go. Volume sales over quality of product, yet again..

This is the brand of electric pencil sharpener that I bought. Some people aren’t convinced that these work, so speaking only for myself, it works so well that I haven’t wasted anymore pencils. One tip using these types of sharpeners.When you put the pencil in to sharpen it, listen for the motor to gear down and that’s the clue that the pencil is sharpened. Don’t keep pushing it in farther and farther…. I was able to buy mine on sale, so watch for discounts, you won’t be sorry…