A Serious Attack of the Girlies!

Perhaps it's a reaction to all the hammering, sawing, drilling and red hot kinda blokey stuff I've been doing, but yesterday while ferreting around in a box for something, (can't remember what) I came across a little bottle of nail polish.
"Oh Boy, Oh Boy Oh Boy" shrieked my girlie-muse, who immediately took control. "Nail painting time!"
Painting toe-nails was, as I recall, easy when I was younger, a few deft swipes with the brush and done. But my toes seem further away now and my hand not as steady. Still they are waaaaay down there and no one will notice if the job ain't perfect. After the toes I went all out and painted the finger nails. (The polish will probably take one look at the uneven cut nails, the feral cuticles, the LOS stains, the odd burn and wire scratch and promptly start to fall off.)

Today the girlie attack still held sway.

I cut, distressed and patinaed a piece of brass knowing exactly where I was going, but my sneaky girlie-muse had other ideas

LOOK WHAT SHE MADE ME DO! 

Make a little enameled blue bird on the distressed brass panel. Next aqua seed beads for the wire wrapped loop.

Then she started on my bead boxes. She pulled this out and that out, clearly embarking on a bling-binge. 

Complained bitterly about my pink bead box which is, to tell the truth mainly filled with cobwebs and dust and tends to echo. All kinds of blues and aquas, pearls, crystals, silver, vintage chain, stuff I never even knew I had. She babbled on about wire wrapped dangles and clusters, loops of seed beads, crystal en-clustered jump rings. . .-

I was rather dismayed where this was going and insisted on simplicity. My girly-muse, arms crossed and pouting, sulkily gave in and we finished with this.

 I think our collaboration has turned out well and I may have to turn her loose more often.

Now if I can only get her to clean up the mess.

No 54 . . . .

The house with the bamboo door

Bamboo roof and bamboo walls

They've even got a bamboo floor. . .

This week I have been bending, folding, hammering, burning and inflicting all kinds of grevious bodily harm on metal (and more than a few times to my fingers)
I have learnt
:: hold small thing with tweezers when hammering
:: hold small things with tweezers clamped up haemostats when heating
:: form folding is tough on your nails (use a scalpel blade stupid)
:: LOS gives you heavy stained 'chain smoker fingers'
:: lower the lighting when using the map gas torch
:: do not reach across the afore mentioned lit map gas torch
:: my disc cutters have it in for me
:: my soldering sucks
:: soldering is a great way to form organic shaped holes in metal
:: if you drop something hot, take immediate evasive action 



The result of the playing, apart from lots of rejects and 'this is interesting wonder what I can use that for', is
House of Bamboo

 Rolled some form folded copper and soldered the joint. Mutilated 4 pieces before I got the soldering right. Used a seed bead melted to wire to form the core for some enamelled head pins. The little head pins tinkle on the copper tubes
Pretty happy with them but....



That damn song is now stuck in my head! 

Tool Modification

Everyone is familiar with these hole punches.

The problem I have always struggled with is getting the hole in the right place. Not too far in and not right on the edge.Even swapping the pin holes still didn't work for me.

Was lying in bed last night and had an Ahhhhhhaaaaa moment. Jumped up to write it down, tripping over 2 dogs and waking up DH and the cockatoo on the way!

Today I made a piece of polymer clay to fit into the slot so that when the metal is pushed in, the hole is pierced always the same distance in from the edge

    The spacer can slide out if you need the full depth.

Then I made a small polymer clay 'table' that fits each side of the punch so that what you wish to punch, sits horizontal with the pin.

Cut a centre line on the face of the punch and centre lines on the 'table' to make punching 2 holes opposite each other easier.

Test runs have all worked perfectly.

A quick down and dirty solution that I am sure can be improved

Bead Table Frenzy !

errr I mean Bead Table Wednesday. 
On second thoughts after looking at my desk was right the first time.

And that's just a portion of the mess. I have really out done myself this time - goes around the corners and down both sides.

First I made/found a few polymer clay moulds

Naturally I forgot to take any photos of the steps between, but this is the result. A mob of polymer clay pendants and bezels

A cute little midnight owl. Love how this one turned out so think he's a keeper

 Two little nestling baby birds. The one on the left is on a brown clay background and the other on white. Not sure of these probably need more work.

Two poppy field bezels again white and brown clay backgrounds. Think these are keepers.

3 starfish variations.

A couple of texture experiments. Really like the left one.

And a little ladybird bezel.

Now my penance for all this activity and chaos is to clean up the Grunge Studio. . . . 

tomorrow!

Larger than Life

This is a stick insect I found.

This is how big it was!

Relax! apart from being a bit spikey they are only dangerous if you happen to be a delicious, succulent young eucalyptus leaf.

BTW - only just

About two months ago I borrowed Grant Diffendaffer's book Polymer Clay Beads from the local library. His method of creating textured beads really appealed to me. (Lots of steps, new techniques and new tools and above all surprises) However, I could only read and not do until this week when I was able to fire up my little toaster oven.

Spent a day making texture plates and beads from odds and sods of clay.

 

Just a few experiments and although time consuming I love the outcomes. Next to try are flexible textures for round and other shaped beads.

Oh and I did return the library book after only three renewals! 

Bead Table Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

Trying to work out the time zone differences so that my post arrives on the right day is doing my head in so it could be early or late woteva!

This is the centre of my bead table. 

Absolutely nothing on it.

Or is there?

You will note the bright glow on the right hand side. This is caused by electricity running from our solar panels down to the light bulb.
Finally our system is fully installed and we have power any time day or night. 
No more beading by torchlight!
(Insert audio of loud clapping and squeeling)


I have soooo many ideas bouncing around in my brain, swirling, cannoning of each other, scratched down on any available piece of paper and hoping I can remember where 'somewhere safe' is.
Sorting through metal, enamels, beads, focals, polymer clay, clasps, wire, soldering paste, torches, sheet metal, tools I have, tools on order and tools I lust after.
Life is good.