Dressing Table Set

Just spent a hectic but very enjoyable day on Monday, producing our latest step-by-step project for Dolls House & Miniature Scene Magazine.

We thought the dollies need a nice little dressing table set and only the finest silver will do!

I got to experiment quite a lot with this project and loved the challenge. The perfume bottle was made by rolling a spinning top-shaped bead using the snake roller. I did exactly the same to create the little lid for it too. I got the mirror really shiny by using polishing papers on it whilst it was at the leather hard clay stage. I used an agate burnisher for a final polish once it had been fired and it is super shiny, you can really see your face in it!

Thank you to David for his patience as always in photographing every step and for his painstaking precision in making the pictures, pin-sharp and perfect in Photoshop!

My next project is a blanket box for the posh dolls. I haven't made a silver box for a while so I'm really looking forward to this.

Two New Products!!! Art clay Silver Lite & Glass Clay

I've just heard that there are two brand new products being launched that I'm sure we'll all want to know more about.

The first is Art clay Silver Lite. This is fine silver particles mixed with glass to make it 40% lighter than a comparable piece made with art clay. I would imagine it's great for larger pieces and as it's 93% silver instead of 99.9% then I'm expecting it will be cheaper too. The downside is it can only be kiln fired (750 degrees for 10 minutes) and is slightly weaker than Art Clay Silver. Watch this space until I find out more!

Glass clay is a clay-like substane that consists of fine glass powder and organic binders. It can be fired in a kiln and becomes solid glass. It sounds rather exciting to me and I shall be doing lots more investigating to see if it's a product that will work well in jewellery making.

I'm on the case readers so hope it's not too long before I can report back!

Debra's Shrink Plastic Leaves

I love my job! I get to sell 'stuff' then you gorgeous, clever people out there turn it into wonderful pieces of art.

Whenever I post out materials I've sold on the on-line shop, it's exciting to imagine them going off to blossom into some marvellous creation. What's even nicer is when you send me photos, so please keep doing this as I really love it!

The very talented Debra Farrell has made the most amazing leaves from shrink plastic and here she tells us how she did it:

"I used a Creative Expressions stamp in black, followed by Sakura gelly roll pens - the sparkle is fabulous and shows up much more after being shrunk. I tried the Cosmic Shimmer Paints but they fell off when shrinking! The secret with the pens is to use them like paints by overlapping sections - it doesn't look that great before you shrink but as you can see (and they look better in real life) once shrunk the effect is lovely"

We now have shrink plastic kits available on the on-line shop, complete with the glitter pens that will produce the beautiful effects on Debra's leaf so why not treat yourself?

You'll be hearing more about Debra very soon, she's incredibly creative and I know you will love learning from her so watch this space!

Lunchtime Crafting

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm on Create & Craft TV tomorrow at 12pm with the lovely Nigel May.

I'll be adding cubic zirconia to some teardrop shaped earrings to give them lots of bling, I'll also be showing everyone how to create silver shells using moulding putty. These are beautiful and made even lovelier due to the fact that I collected the shells from Llan Steffan beach in Wales. I spent a wonderful 3 days there cycling up and down the coast line with David, so they hold special memories for me that will be forever preserved in precious silver!

Inspired by Delightful Dragon Flies

The end of another Introduction to Silver Clay Workshop has me yet again pondering on how lovely my delegates are and how talented and creative they are too.

The lovely Sue was an expert sugar crafter and her cake decorating skills will certainly be a real asset as she starts her journey with silver clay. Emma regaled us with tales of her dragon fly making and how she creates the wings. After a couple of hours she was cajoled into her car and arrived back in the workshop with one of her creations, which she very kindly gave me. Thank you Emma, it's nicely nestled amongst the valentines tree I made, that I can't just bear to take down yet.

Emma assured us it was easy to make her gorgeous dragon fly. This got me thinking how great it would be to have an 'open day' where previous crafty delegates can come along and share their skills. Emma is happy to come and show us her dragon fly so we can all take our own home with us (complete with Fantasy Film wings...you have to see this stuff it's brilliant!)

Sue would love to share her sugar paste techniques and how these can be transfered to making silver clay flowers. I'm itching to show off my paper beads and I know there are beaders, paper crafters, glass bead makers and other very clever people out there who could teach us a thing or two. So let me know if you'd like to be part of a crafty day like this. I'm happy to host it here at my home in Huddersfield or can find a suitable venue if there are too many to fit in my conservatory. If we all club together to cover the cost of materials and refreshments then it should be a really fun and very enriching day.

Let me know what you think, you can come along to learn or share and learn. the choice is yours, either way we'd be very happy to have you along.