A Sassy Conspiracy

I was inspired to make this necklace by a line of jewelry from Birks called Biker Chic. I had almost the same chain in my supplies, so i figured i could do something pretty similar. In the original, the pearl segments are strung, not wired, so i’ve used 3 pearls per segment instead of 5, and I’ve also used Swarovski crystal pearls instead of freshwater pearls, but otherwise the design is pretty close. Its close to 40″ long and weighs a lot (the sterling chain is solid). it can be worn plain, looped or as a bracelet. Made it for mom for her birthday :)

I made two psanky style eggs for Easter this year (the other one turned out ok but i haven’t gotten photos of it). I say psanky-style since its a non-traditional motif, but it still uses the same batik-like technique. Its not an original design (i spotted the design online somewhere) but i really loved it and wanted to try it. I think it probably took around 4 hours to do, using 3 dye colours. For those who don’t know about this technique, its a method of decorating using dyes and wax resist. You start with the palest colour you wish to use in your design, dye the egg, and then using a kistka filled will molten beeswax, you draw on that portion of the design. the wax protects the colour underneath (resists subsequent dye colours). You then dye the egg the next lightest colour (in this case, red), and do the same thing. My final dye bath was black. I chose not to have any white in my design but you can start drawing on the undyed egg if you wanted white. I used a pale pencil to sketch out the basic parts of the design and most of it came off in the end, but i can still see a few lines, unfortunately. When you’re finished, you then put the egg in the oven at very low heat and watch it closely – when the wax turns shiny and starts to drip off the egg, you pop it out and using paper towels, rub the chunks of melted wax off and use some of it to shine up the egg. Traditionally, you leave the eggs whole and let them dry out over time, but I’m always scared they break before they’ve dried out… the smell… You can see the pin hole on the top of the egg in one of the photos where shawn blew it out for me.

I keep forgetting to upload the rest of my christmas projects :P These are sterling silver with onyx and labradorite – hoops, ear wires and headpins are all handmade. I’ve run out of headpins so i got creative and made these little spiral numbers – i think they turned out better than the regular headpins would have. These earrings are heavy and have lots of movement (made for a gal who likes to shake it!)

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Another product of my stash-only/one-evening Christmas challenge! Acrylic paints and ink on illustration board (~11×17″). I picked up a 3-pack of illustration boards for my Zombie valentine last year, and i keep forgetting how awesome this stuff is to work on (other than it warps quite a bit, but framing solves that nicely). The colours looks so fresh and bright, and it takes lots of washes without falling apart. The Willipus is for William, whom his parents quite adorably dubbed The Willipus when he was but a wee little guy. He’s still technically a wee little guy, but man is he growing fast :D

Also: octopi are fun to draw!

5×7″ scratchboard of a red fox. I was worried it’d look like an arctic fox without the colour, but definitely not poofy enough

I would have liked to work on the paws more, but this was part of a Christmas challenge i gave myself: stash-only supplies and an upper limit of one evening crafting time per item (btw, we celebrated Christmas in march this year with our friends to give everyone some more crafting time and a break from family Christmases). Overall it turned out well, and I enjoyed working within these constraints. It was very… calming(?)… to not have the option to fuss with little details for days, lol.

I’ve wanted to try doing a typography type poster for ages, and after i got sad puppy eyes from the boy because his other valentine lacked in ~ahem~ sentiment, i made this second valentine. Turns out typography layouts are hard and take way longer than you’d expect. I’m pretty happy with the results though!

i <3 your brains, baby. This is my first attempt at papercutting, and it was way more fun than i expected. next time, better paper and blades though!

This week I learned that dear boy has wire-wrapping skills – who knew? :)
I was volunteered to make charms for a fundraiser at his work, so after agonizing over bead choices for a couple of hours, he and i spent the evening working on these together, and ended up with 132 little heart charms. There may be more in our future too, depending on how sales go. It was actually pretty fun – it was nice doing this kind of project with him – and they turned out much cuter than I’d hoped! The damn headpins are very stiff though, my palms are sore from the pliers today!

Mixed media tag with a little ATC-sized painting of Elliot in acrylics, for mom. :)