Saturday Studio Fun

Who knew Saturday could be sooo much fun???? Saturdays have always been a work day for me either playing shopkeeper, teaching at the shop or exhibiting at a show. Now I have Saturdays to myself.....no alarm clock.....tea in bed, whilst watching the news......and doing whatever takes my fancy and I'm kinda liking it....A LOT!!!

So what have I been up to today? Well, I managed to make a big fine mess in my studio......lots of experiments + lots of product = big clean up!!! Been doing some work on an Artsycrafts project......oooh....it's coming along nicely me thinks. This was actually a prototype for part of this project. It has changed quite a bit since I did this but it will give you a feel for the project.

Having spent the morning working on workish stuff (it's not really work but it is for Artsycrafts so I guess I can safely call it workish). I thought I would have a little dabble with a product that the lovely Karen gave me as a gift some time ago. You know what it's like, you always have good intentions of using everything that you buy or are lucky enough to receive as gifts but it always just sits on the shelf. So, now I have time, I'm having great fun revisiting things that I have always loved and test driving new goodies.

This is Crystal Clay. It's a two epoxy clay which cures all by itself in 12-24 hours. Like most two part products, you just take equal amounts of each, knead it together until all the marbling vanishes and you're good to go. The kit comes with a little baggie of bling and a pair of rubber gloves which you have to wear whilst mixing. I have to say the rubber gloves part is a bit of a downside for me......I'm not a lover of gloves but figured if they tell you to use them, then you really should!

I spent ages sorting out bits'n'bobs to embed in my clay, I figured if I was going to the trouble of mixing this stuff up, I would like to make more than one piece. I already had my blanks to hand from the recent Ice Resin play day, so I was all set. It took about 3-4 minutes to mix my clay thoroughly and forever to make up my mind on my design. Note to self......if you pull out every single embellishment that you own, you cannot make a decision. Make it easy on yourself and narrow it down to half a dozen things. Anyways, after a lot of faffing, I'm really pleased with the outcome.

No. 1 - This gorgeous blank was one that I got from the Ice Resin guys and once I got the clay in it, I filled it with jewellery findings. Most of the small bits in this piece are actually decorative head pins with the pins cut off!! As for the dangly crown thingy, I think I got this on a trip to America last year....in fact I'm sure I got it in Michael's on a shopping spree with Linda E.

Here's a close up of the clay part.

No. 2 - Similar technique but I used a pearl in the middle of this one.

No. 3 - Another Ice Resin blank, a gold one this time but as my clay was black it looked good with any colour base piece. I did try the bling out on this one just to see how easy it was.....blimey, those little sparkly guys are beyond tiny. I was quite pleased that I'm not a blingy girl, my eyesight isn't up to much of that!! Quite pleased with the effect though.

No. 4 - Last but not least, a simple butterfly charm pushed into the clay. I used a Ten Seconds Studio embossing wheel to create the stitching border and then figured that as this is a clay, I must be able to use Perfect Pearls of it.......and of course you can......the photo doesn't do justice to the colours of the Perfect Pearls but I think you'll be able to see that it does transform the overall look of the clay.

So what's next? Once these guys are cured, I might just mix up a bit more Ice Resin and pour it over the top, I'll let you know how that pans out.

Hope you all have a creative weekend.
Lin

P.S. If you fancy a go at this you can purchase Crystal Clay at Spoilt Rotten Beads

P.P.S Leandra asked me where I got the fabric that I showed in my last blog post, if you're interested it came from The Bramble Patch in Weedon.....oh my! that's a wicked shop