Lake Country Art Walk Come and Gone

I hadn't blogged in a while as the last few weeks had been so busy with hardly any extra time to spare.  Dave and I had both been putting in long hours working on fall orders for the local stores that sell our work as well as preparing for the Lake Country Art Walk.

The Art Walk was last weekend and is hard to believe it has now come and gone.  We weren't as exhausted afterwards this year thanks to the extra help we had this time.  The show was so busy I didn't get a chance to take any pictures during, but did manage to get a few pics of our set-up the Friday evening before.

This is Dave and our sister-in-law Pat resting after doing our set-up the Friday evening before the show.  Pat and her friend Brenda were a great help all weekend.  We also hired an art student to help as well so there was as many as 5 of us to help take care of customers.

This was our earring display along with our flip flop pieces.  The theme this year was "Shoes, A step forward" so we had to have our flip flop jewelry to go along.

This was one of our jewelry displays.  Also included were some special scarf jewelry pieces on some gorgeous silk scarves.

This was our new sweater guard clip display.  The sweater guards were a really big hit and we had nearly sold out of them.

Some of the sweater guards here were in our new faux turquoise colors (the green and red) using the Cabezel moulds.  I will share the new color recipes I used to make these with you in my next post.

Sweater guard in new faux green turquoise

Sweater guard in new faux red turquoise

Just a Happy Customer

Here in Canada we don't have too many places we can purchase our jewelry or polymer clay supplies.  It is difficult at times to order south of the border and even though there are companies that offer huge discounts, the cost in shipping and U.S. currency exchange can end up being more in the end.  We are very fortunate to have Shades of Clay as our major supplier of Kato clay as well as so many other tools and items at a very reasonable cost right here in our own country. Even though they are more than 5000 kilometers (3000 miles) away from us, they are still a Canadian company and we don't have customs and high shipping costs to deal with.

Shades of Clay has been around for quite a few years and last year Wendy Orlowski took over the company from Margaret, the previous owner.  Wendy continues to give the same excellent service and is working even harder to build up a wider selection of cool items for us.  The latest news is that they will be bringing in some of the Pebeo Fantasy Prisme paints and zentagle markers which I am very excited about.

So why am I telling you all this?  I am not being paid to promote Shades, but just a happy customer and wanted to share that with you.  We are also both Canadians and therefore we like to support one another.  It is wonderful to find a supplier that you can work with directly and can supply so many items that we need.

Anyhow, I cannot write a blog post without showing you at least one picture.  Here are some new flip flop sandals we are working on for this year.  The flowers are from the new canes I showed you earlier (you can see them here).  Since we live at a beach (lake) and there are many lakes with beaches surrounding us, our flip flop jewelry is generally a big hit at the summer shows.  We decided that this year was time to come out with a new look and this is just a sample.  The cords on these pendants are a type of "buna" called "softglass" which is available here.

It is already warm here and is nice to be wearing summer clothes and flip flops again!

New Stacking Type Buttons

I've had requests in the past to make some plain buttons in solid colors and never gave it much thought at the time.  I later came to realize there are not that many types of buttons easily available today that there were years ago.  I started out making a few smaller type buttons in various shapes and colors which then evolved into several more sizes so they can actually be stacked or layered for a fun look.

I used this layered method for decorating several pair of flip flops in some bright and cheery colors and are fun to wear at the beach or around town.  (I shared a tutorial on this in my previous post.)

Because these buttons are made from Kato polyclay, they are very durable and can be thrown into the washer and dryer.  This makes them very functional and can be used in all types of sewing projects and are especially great for children's clothes and accessories.

These buttons are now listed in our Etsy Shop and ArtFire Studio and will be available at Heather's Fabric Shelf soon.

Tutorial - Decorating Flip Flops

Flip flops are my shoe of choice during the warm summer months and I have several colors to coordinate with my clothes.

I decided to spice them up a bit by decorating them so I rummaged through my ribbon and trimmings bin to see what I could find and then added some of my handcrafted buttons as an accent.  (Some of the new buttons shown are now listed in our Etsy shop and ArtFire Studio).

This is how I did it so you can dress up your own

flip flops to wear this summer!

Step 1 - Cut two 36" (91 cm) long pieces of 3/4" to 1" wide ribbon.  If your ribbon is narrower, you will need it to be longer to allow for wrapping more times.  Here I am using a 1" wide organza which really gives a dressy look.

Step 2 - Wrap the ribbon around the strap stem of the flip flop starting from front to back and bringing it back to the front.

Step 3 - Bring the ribbon up and over the front of the straps, crossing the ribbon so they go in opposite directions.

Step 4 - Going in opposite directions, loop the ribbon around each of the straps once as shown.

Step 5 - While keeping the ribbon taught, wrap each of the straps with the ribbon overlapping it as you go.

Step 6 - When you get to the end, loop the ribbon around to tie a loose knot but do not tighten it just yet.

Step 7 - Add some glue inside the knot and then pull it tight.  I like to use just a regular fabric type tacky glue that dries clear.

Step 8 - Trim the ribbon ends when the glue is totally dry.

Variation:  Here I used a heavier type grosgrain ribbon for these flip flops so rather than tying at the end I instead applied lots of tacky glue and wrapped them around several times to hold.  I used binder clips to hold it until the glue was completely dry.  If your ribbon wants to fray out at the end, you can apply fray stop or the glue itself can prevent the ribbon from unravelling.  Allow to dry and then trim the ends.

Adding Button Decorations

Method 1 - Button with Shank

Step 9 - Cut two pieces of 1 mm thick cotton cord or similar each about 8" (20 cm) long.  Fold one of the cords in half and place it under the flip flop strap as shown.

Step 10 - Bring the two ends of the cord up through the loop.

Step 11 - Tie your button on and repeat for the other flip flop.

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Method 2 - Button with 2 Holes

Step 12 - Cut two pieces of cotton cord or string and bring it up the same way as in steps 9 and 10 above.

Step 13 - Bring the cord up through each of the holes.

Step 14 - Tie a square knot and trim.

Method 3 - Buttons with 4 holes

Step 15  -  Cut two 8" (20 cm) pieces of cotton cord or string and  thread them downwards through two opposite holes (crosswise) of the button as shown.

Step 16  -  Place the button over the centre of the flip flop with one string on the right side "behind" the strap and the other on the left side "in front" of the strap.

Step 17  -  Bring the strings around the strap and upwards towards the button.  Thread the cord up through the other opposite two holes.

Step 18  -  Tie a square knot and trim.

Have a flip flop summer time!

Postal Strike is Over

Yeaaah!  The Canadian government is now making the postal workers return to work and I along with many other Canadians are very happy.  They will be back to work today in order to get the mail back to normal by Tuesday so we have reactivated the mailable items in our Etsy Shop and Artfire Studio once again.

In celebration of summer and this great news ... stay tuned for a free tutorial on some fun ways to decorate your flip flops that I will share with you tomorrow.

Candy Swirl Buttons and Blends

Our flip flop jewelry has a new look this year.  I've been playing around with all types of striped blends and here are a few of the pendants.

This batch was made using the six-step color blend and need the straps added yet before finishing.

I love making lentil swirls from the left-over pieces and here is a batch I made into buttons ready to go into the oven.

Having Fun in the Sun

Finally finished off a bunch more flip flops and posted them in our Art Fire Studio.

Summer at the Beach

Summer is already here -- at least in our area and our summer markets are already starting and gearing up for the coming tourist season.  Since our town is on a beautiful lake with a nice relaxing beach I've been busy working on items that go along with that theme, like the flip flop sandal pendants and earrings.  Here are some new colors with more in the making.

These are fun to do as you can really get carried away with all the designs and colors but they are even more fun to wear!