One World One Heart Give Away is Coming to an End

The One World One Heart give-away comes to an end tonight at 10:00 pm Pacific time.  We will use the Random Number Generator to pick the number of the winners of two of these heart pendants.  Yes, we said if there were more than 100 comments we would give two away and looks like we more than doubled that number.

We will do the draw tomorrow (Feb 12) morning and will contact the 1st and 2nd winners right away.  If the winners do not respond by that evening, then we will do another draw the next day on Feb 13.

This has been a lot of fun and even a little overwhelming as some of you may feel as well, with so many participants -- Wow over 900?!!  We tried to visit as many of you as possible and was really neat to see so many interesting blogs and "meet" the people behind them.  We plan to drop by and visit you later when we have more time.

Thank-you to everyone who participated and took the time out to leave such nice comments. Good luck to all of you in the draw tomorrow!!

It's a Brooch and Pendant All in One!

I'm so excited about our new design.  I really like both brooches and pendants but sometimes wish they could be worn either way.  It would just make them more versatile.  I bought a pendant converter that slides onto a brooch pin which is okay but doesn't work on a lot of brooches since it depends on where the brooch pin is positioned, or it does not hang right.  And then, how can you make a pendant into a brooch?  Well you can, but it isn't that easy.  So, after a lot of brain stretching, I finally came up with a design to make a brooch and a pendant all in one! And yes, it coverts back and forth very quickly and easily.  Want to change it from a brooch to a pendant?  Just slide your cord or chain into the holders in the back and Voila!  Instant necklace!  The holder even "locks" the cord into place so the pendant will not fall off.  We have three designs we have made so far, one of which is shown here, which is for sale on Etsy.  

The technique used for this brooch-pendant is a faux cloisonne where I started with my own original drawing and sculpted a mould.  From that mould I make the design form by etching and using pure mica powder pigments for color and then antiquing and glazing with a polymer-resin type glaze.  The piece is fired between each application so by the time it is completed, it has been fired at least 4 times.  Then for a smooth and crystal clear, glassy finish a heat gun was used at the end.  As a matter of fact, the pieces are so glassy and shiny, it is very difficult to take good photos due to the reflection.  So if you see any "haziness", it is from the camera and not in the piece.

We also have optional cords in various colors for sale as well in case you don't have one of your own.  They are a "Softglass" rubber cord which have a silky feel to them and drape really nicely.  We have made them stronger by running 49 strand flexible wire through them and double securing at each end.  I have more drawings and ideas in my head yet so look for more designs coming soon!

Hello Walls ...

Well, it's been a bit since our last post.  Been really busy blog-hopping and checking out other participants in the OWOH give-away.  There are a lot of talented people out there and is really nice to connect with other artists in some way.  I know I said I would share how to make a signature stamp but you will have to wait a bit since I'm still putting that together.  Been busy trying to get more items together to sell on Etsy as well as making some stuff for our new home. 

This is our first brand new home and is so nice to move into a place that no one else has lived before you with new floors, new cabinets, new plumbing, etc.  When we decorate (or redecorate) a place, we pick our floor covering, wall colors, trim etc. but overlook one little thing.  We still end up with the same generic outlet and receptacle covers.

One house we lived in had light switch covers that glowed in the dark which I thought was pretty cool as you could always find it!  Hmmm, I think I will have to make some of those -- will keep you posted on that!

    

So...., I'm on a mission to banish the humdrum outlet covers and add some artwork to our walls.  We're also making some to sell on Etsy -- and will post a few at a time as they are completed.   We also do custom or specialty orders so if there is a design or something you are looking for, give us a shout and we'd be happy to see what we can do.  In the meantime, check out some of the outlet covers we've done for other people on our flickr site as well as the matching decorative accent tiles that can be mounted just like any other ceramic or clay tile.

One World One Heart Give

We are participating in something really cool this year.  Seems like a lot of fun and a great way to meet fellow bloggers and make some new friends.  Click on the picture link above to find out more about it.

For this event we will be giving away one of our Tapestry Heart pendants.  Each one has a Swarovski crystal embedded and a glossy polymer-resin finish for protection. The centre heart is in magenta and gold and the other two are in magenta, green and gold.  We made 3 hearts and so the winner will get to choose which heart they would like.  If we have more than 100 participants, we will give away 2 hearts with the runner-up getting 2nd choice.

So how do you win one of these heart pendants?  If you are an active blogger, please leave a comment on this post only.  Tell us which heart you would prefer and why and make sure there is way of e-mailing you in case you win.  This event ends on February 12th and that is when we will make a draw and announce the winner.  The cut off for the draw will be at 10:00 pm pacific time February 11th.

Looking forward to meeting you all and have fun!

Our Signature Cane

For some time now we've been experimenting with a way of "signing" our work.  We now have several methods of doing so, depending on the individual piece.  For instance, some of our necklaces fasten with a lobster claw and a chain extender to add a little extra length if desired. The beads shown above are a few of the ones that were custom designed to match the individual necklace.  When you flip the bead over, you will see our signature:

This was made by creating a "signature" cane.  I tried capturing a few photos to give you an idea of how it was made.  I started by forming the letters.

I then filled all around and in between the letters with clay, packing it as tight as possible.

Then the more difficult part is reducing the cane to a smaller size.  Some of the outside design was lost in the reducing stage.  I discovered that if I wanted to maintain that detail I should've wrapped more clay around the outside before reducing.  Anyhow, this one didn't turn out too bad for our first try -- I'm sure the next one will come out much better.

Now we have a lot of cane slices to put onto our signature beads as well as other pieces like this brooch shown below:

I'll show in a later post another technique on how we made our "signature stamp".

Old Love - Renew Love

I Y hearts . . .   As a matter of fact, that is the theme this blog started on and next month on Valentines day will be it's first anniversary.

This year we've come up with some new styles of hearts to sell on Etsy.  These new designs are a variation on vintage by applying mica powders, paint, inks and metal leaf to give a tapestry or brocade effect.  We adapted the technique in Donna Kato's book, "The Art of Polymer Clay - Creative Surface Effects".

This new spiral heart pendant design came about in a different manner. Sometimes the design I start out with evolves into something else.  For instance I was originally designing a heart toggle but discovered this heart made a great pendant instead.  I find my inspiration comes in many different ways. Quite often I will wake up at 3:00 am with an idea in my head.  I just can't seem to sleep so I will head to my studio for an hour or so to develop my thoughts.  I can then go back to sleep and have sweet dreams about what I'm going to do later that day!

We've "Gone Wild" on Etsy

We are finally up and running on Etsy and our shop is now set-up and open (just click on the Etsy Gallery to the right).

We decided to start out with some of our Animal Prints and will be adding a variety of other pieces each week.

Because each item is individually handcrafted, they are all one of a kind and so once a piece is sold, it will be replaced with something different.

So hope you enjoy and keep coming back to see what's new.