Blue sky and buttons!

After the last post with the snow I just had to take a pic of the sky outside right now. It's been such a gorgeous sunny day today and looking outside from our back door the sky was sooo blue....
I've been busy again with the button making. They have proved to be so popular that I have started stocking them in my own shop on Folksy too...well I have to be able to afford to buy more clay somehow! I've been trying out Kato clay the last few days and I have to say that, although it takes a LOT of conditioning, it really is lovely to work with. Here are pics of the buttons I finished today. Just wish I had been able to capture the lovely shine on these after all the sanding and polishing!

March Snow and Challenge Necklace Auction

Yes we have yet more snow this morning! The poor mini daffs that were doing their best to flower in our garden look a bit weighed down don't they!? I don't think the snow will last long, the sun has been out a couple of times but we do have heavy snow showers forecast for during today so maybe we will get even more.

On a different note....Incy and I have decided to auction off the necklace we made to raise a bit more cash for Comic Relief. So we are taking e-mails for bids over £20!! Come on folks...it's a gorgeous bright necklace and will look great in the spring and summer months!! It's also a one of a kind...what with the lovely embroidery done by Incy and the handmade lampwork beads that I made there is a lot of value in it!! But best of all it will mean more money for Comic Relief so all proceeds will be going to a really good cause!!! I will even pay the p&p myself so no extras to pay. Send an e-mail to either myself (see my profile page) or Incy with your bid and we'll announce the winner on Comic Relief day!!!

Combined medium challenge!

Over on the Crafter...oo forum we decided to do a different sort of challenge where we worked together in pairs so that we could make something using the mediums of both people. We could make anything we like but it was to be in vibrant colours!

I had Sam from Incy Wincy Stitches as my partner which was great and we decided we would make a piece of jewellery combining felt beads which she would decorate and glass beads that I would make. Sam also stitched a great little pouch to put the finished piece in.

So, this is what we came up with...

We will be selling the necklace to raise money for Comic Relief!

Lampwork beads and knitting

I've finally got round to lighting the torch and making some more lampwork beads! It's been a while as I've been distracted with other things. Mainly playing with polymer clay and making buttons as you may have noticed! Anyway, here are 2 sets of beads, one made in pandora glass which strikes in the kiln to all sorts of colours and it's a case of waiting to see what comes out. These ones were great... lots of purple, blue and soft green! I've put some black spacers with them to make them even smarter.

The other set are a lovely, deep ruby red heavily encased in clear with white spots. These are fun to make and I think I could get addicted to making them.

The other thing that was distracting me from my beadmaking was that I actually started doing some knitting! Having bought my lovely new knitting needles from Pennydog I just had to have a go and see if I could actually remember how it was done...it have been at least 15 years after all. Well, apparently it's like riding a bike! So, I found some soft, fluffy mohair that I have had sitting waiting all that time to be turned into something. I have several colours but when I saw the purple it matches the needles so well I just had to play with that. Of course, in retrospect, the colour matches the needles so well that I can hardly see the stitches! Well, I thought a scarf would be an easy thing to start with and decided to add a second colour in random stripes. I think I'm also going to add some beads and buttons, after the knitting part is finished, to jazz it up some more. Here's how it looks so far...

Don't forget to add a comment to the bead giveaway post as I will be drawing a winner in 2 days time!!

Yet more buttons!!

Still playing with the polymer clay and have a couple of new sets that will be going up for sale in the Crafteroo Folksy shop for Comic relief as all the other sets have now sold!

I'm also hoping to make a pendant and earring set with these 3 pieces below. If they still look ok after baking then I will sand and polish them and then add findings to make the pendant earring set.

Polymer clay buttons

I spent all day yesterday making more buttons to put in the Crafteroo Folksy Shop for Comic Relief. I ended up with 3 sets so not bad! 2 of the sets I sanded and polished to a lovely shiny finish so they look extra smart. They'll all be on sale here later today!

Fused glass drop vase

A couple of weeks ago I attempted my first drop vase! It still needs some polishing work around the rim but that will have to wait until I can spend some time out in the shed with the wet belt sander.

Midnight Rainbow

This morning I have another fused glass dish to show. Fresh out of the kiln is Midnight Rainbow. A really dramatic look to this one, lots of contrast between the colours and the black and the straight lines and the curves of the finished piece.