Back From My Holiday & Design Team Announcement

Hey lovely peeps I'm back from my holiday in Rochester NYC.  I was there for an art convention with 26 other artist who I know from ATCsforALL.  We had a weekend of making and trading art - although I'm sure there was much more socialising being done than art as most of us had made our art for trading before we arrived in Rochester. 

Now onto the Design Team - before I left for Rochester I applied to Oak House Studio's call out for new Design Team members and while I was on holiday I received an email from Lynnda who owns Oak House Studio to say I had been successful.  Now to keep quiet about it for nearly 3 weeks has been really difficult - but yay now I can shout it out to everyone and I can tell you that you are in for a treat as the stamps and inks are just lovely and I get to play and get creative with them.  So don't forget to subscribe to this blog or get email notifications to keep up to date with what's happening and not to miss out on the tutorials/instructions I'll be posting.

Before I go here are some photo's from the art convention.

Huggles with Sarah 

Outside the Brainery with Cindy, Ann, Sarah and Karen

Collage of the art room and the artists 

Working With Fimo Air Dry Clay

I've been playing with Fimo air dry clay today I've not used this before and found it to be quite 'wet'.  I used a Teflon sheet to roll it out but it still stuck it.  I think I need to either add some oil or corn flour onto the surface before rolling.  

I found it too wet for using with the molds as well - they didn't lift out as easily as other clays I've used in the past (elephant and key) - maybe if I left it out to 'dry' for half hour it would work better.

I did however like to mold it in my hands (hearts).  I found it malleable and easy to use.  

These will be painted with acrylic paint once they are dry and if I like the final result I will be making some more of the hearts to take to Arizona in January for ARTzona where a group of talented artists will gather for a weekend of art, art and more art. 

Oh and I used a cookie cutter for the gingermen - they are a trial run for a swap over on ATCsforAll called 'twisted Christmas .  Not sure I'll be using these as I have another idea using felt to make them with.

I'm linking these to Handmade Monday over on the Handmade Harbour blog. 

Have a great week.

Anita

Another Piece of Wearable Art

Oh dear I'm late posting this today.  I was going to do it yesterday but woke up with a niggling headache - which didn't turn into a headache but you could feel it might do - yeah weird I know but there you go.  Anyway here we are at the start of another week and getting closer to Christmas.  It's quite frightening when you see someone post on twitter that there are only XXX amount of days left.  

I've been busy with a few craft fairs not many and I'm glad as I've had an absolutely amazing response to the Shrink art bracelet I posted last week.  I've already had people ordering and paying up front for them - which is great.  I've also been making quite a few Christmas cards for customers.


This week I made a necklace with some polyshrink that was left over from another project.  These bits make for unusual shapes which in turn makes the necklace impossible to recreate and totally unique.  I've used the same design on the pieces just because I like it and it was already out.  I've used doubled up lilac satin ribbon instead of using beads because I like the idea that you can adjust the length of the necklace to suit the outfit and neckline of your clothing.  

Lilac Shrink Art Necklace with Czech beads

Here is one of the cards I've been commissioned to make - 

So there you have it. Now that you've seen what I've made why not pop on over to Wendy's blog to see what all my fellow crafter's have been making. 

Anita

All Made Up

Last week I posted this picture showing you the start of my new collection.

If you follow me on twitter or have subscribed to my facebook page then you will already have seen the pieces made into a bracelet.  If you haven't then here it is all made up and ready to be sold.  

I've had some amazing feedback from people about the bracelet.  At a recent Christmas Market held by a ladies networking group I had the bracelet on display and everyone of the ladies who showed interest in it held out their wrists to try it on.  Normally I have to ask if they want to try anything on - but not with this one nope they all wanted to try it on.  Which I think is a good response.


The first sample piece that I made was made in lime green and that colour seems to be the most popular even though I offer to make the bracelets in the customers choice of colour.


I'll leave you with a photograph of the original piece. 

Why not pop over to Wendy's blog to see what my fellow designers/crafters have been up to.  We have an array of talented ladies and gents and if you are a fellow designer/crafter why not share your makes - we always like to see what others have been up to.

Please do leave a comment of what you think - it's always nice to know that I've had visitors.  There's always tea & cake on offer :)

Anita