Crackle Medallion Scarf Jewelry

I always wanted to use inks more with my polymer clay but found them to be rather intimidating due to them being difficult to control and work with.  Barb Fajardo's "Crackly Goodness" tutorial gave me the jumpstart I needed to overcome my fear and I have now been challenging myself to experiment further.  The "crackling effect" was not really what I was after but more the gorgeous rich colors the inks can give.  My main  intention was to make buttons but I then decided to experiment further by creating other pieces such as eyeglass holders, shawl pins, earrings and finally some new scarf jewelry pieces.

These are some bails and matching beads ready to assemble.

Some of these are now available at Linda's Quilt Shoppe's booth at the Quilt BC 2013 show that is on until this Saturday.

Quilt BC 2013 - Canadian Quilt Show

The Canadian quilt show is in Penticton, BC this year and officially starts tomorrow.  It is put on by the Canadian Quilters' Association and is generally down east and not at our end of the country.  We would love to make a trip down there to take in the events but we have another quilt show to prepare for coming up in Salmon Arm in 3 weeks.

Linda's Quilt Shoppe will be selling a good assortment of our handcrafted buttons, scarf jewelry and other accessories at the merchant mall.  Some of these include our new eyeglass holders which we have created in various styles.  They are all a brooch + pendant combo so they can be worn as a pin or hung as a necklace on the braided leather cord that is included.

The quilt show is on from the 16th to the 18th and you can see more info if you click here.

Quilt Canada and New Scarf Jewelry for Summer

I am finally back into blogging again now that we are finally getting caught up on our summer orders.  We actually spent the last few days recovering from our busy time by visiting with family.  This was followed up with some rigorous house cleaning and studio organizing which was also neglected a bit from all the rush.

We are also happy to announce that a good assortment of our new buttons, scarf jewelry and accessories are now available at Linda's Quilt Shoppe in both the Kelowna and West Kelowna stores.  Linda will also be in the Vendor's Market at the Quilt Canada show in Penticton this Thursday to Saturday (May 16 - 18).  Everyone is quite excited as the Canadian Quilt show doesn't come to our end of the country very often so it should be well attended.  Many of our handcrafted items will be available at Linda's booth.  One of the items will be a selection of our scarf jewelry.

We now have a new line of scarf necklaces for the summer which we have titled "Soft Elegance".  They are much lighter with our own handcrafted clay bail making them more suitable for the warmer weather.  We searched around for the perfect scarf and found these gorgeous polyester ones.  They came in a wide range of colors so was a lot of fun matching up the clay colors in different designs.

The scarves are light and airy and feel really soft around the neck.

You can see the various styles and colors available on our website.

Black and White With a Touch of Red

The gigantic concave leaf buttons we created have also been a big hit.  We had a request for them in black and white and I love how the red lady bug really pops.

The fun thing about making buttons for both yarn and quilt shops is that each type of store prefers different styles.  Some tend to go best with the yarns and other natural fibers where others work well with the larger quilt patterns.  Some of our buttons happen to cross over and are popular in both areas such as these. They are quite large so would make an awesome accent for either a quilted or felted bag.  They  would also be fun to add to a sweater or quilted jacket.  These are available at Heather's Fabric Shelf in Kamloops as well as  the Falkland General Store in Falkland and Linda's Quilt Shoppe in Kelowna.

New Shops Selling our Work

We are pleased to say that Linda's Quilt Shoppe in Kelowna, B.C. is now selling a selection of our most popular buttons and accessories.  We were really impressed with her large store and the wide selection of colorful fabrics.  The many quilted pieces hanging on the walls and even from the ceilings were fabulous!

They also have a huge classroom for quilting classes and weekend retreats.  Their classes look like a lot of fun and include everything from a "Kid's Sewing Camp" to "Quilt Therapy" and "Quilt til you wilt".

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Kelowna Yarn & Needlecrafts are now selling our shawl pins as well as our buttons.  The owners, Ann and Stephen, are a warm and friendly couple and Ann is well known for her knitting classes.  If you like to knit, crochet or felt, you can check out the unique patterns they have available on their website.

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The Dragonfly Quilt Studio is rather small but is well organized with a beautiful selection of fabrics and quilting accessories.  Our new scarf jewelry is now for sale in this beautiful shop.  I made this dragonfly design special for April, the owner.

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The 4th location we added to our list of stores that are now selling our work is the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm in Lake Country which is just east of Kelowna.

Darlene is a fabulous fibre artist who dyes, spins, weaves, knits and felts with the yarn from the alpacas that are raised by her and her husband on their farm.  She sells a large variety of her work in their beautiful Gift Gallery.

We spent some fun time coordinating our shawl pins and scarf jewelry with her beautiful fibre pieces.   Here I am modelling one of our stick shawl pins on a beautiful felted alpaca stole she created. 

I am currently working on some new special pin designs just to go with her beautiful creations.