Cleaning up

I am amazed what sometimes comes out of leftover bits of fimo!

Today I decided to clean up my work-table. I had a lot of scrap pieces from cane ends or very very old and "beginners" canes that have been sitting in a tupperware. Inspired from silastones.com' s blogger page I decided to make beads out of the bits and peaces.

Two of my favorite outcomes form this "clean up" are the green swirl beads and the wrapped up ones, shown in the photo's. I think I'm going to continue making wrapped up beads, you can use so many shades and colours to get different kinds of effects. I've seen paper beads like this and always found them very inspiring and pretty! Just wonder how I'll use them in jewelry!

After being so disappointed on Saturday because I didn't sell anything at the fleamarket I am now even more exited to have sold more beads on this swiss ebay thing (ricardo.ch) today. I have put everything on there to sell with lower prices and better photos and voila! I do hope this continues!! I need to get cracking with producing more I guess and really get out there and get known so that one day I can earn money instead of only spending all the time! :-)

Early in the morning I went to the Fleamarket with my things in my napsack. I spend hours on preparing everything, making labels, prices etc. To my dismay I didn't sell one single thing! I got a lot of compliments but no one bought anything!

Maybe it just wasn't the right place to sell my things, perhaps the prices were to high, I don't know. I am a bit disappointed but I wont let it get me down. At least I finally got the courage to sell my things.

I have now decided to put everything up on the swiss-ebay thing and see how it'll go there. I've sold some beads there already so maybe I'll get some sales there. We'll see.

....I've also created my german blogspot. There is not much on it but it's a start! :-)

http://reddaisykreationen.blogspot.com

The Label's are done...

On Saturday I might have the chance to sell some of my things. I'm exited about this yet it makes me nervous. I have a lot of trouble putting prices on my creations and don't really know what to ask for. I need to figure that one out, soon!

So I need to get my stuff together. I'd like to make some lables to put on my things and perhaps even with a homepage address. This would mean making a new homepage, in german. This would take a lot of time aswell.

Plus, I'd like to add some more things to my collection which means taking time to create and then decide what I want to sell. Also need to think about how I want to present my things.

*sigh* Wow, I have a lot of work ahead of me! Good thing I've got a couple of days off work!

A Jar I made for a friend of mine. She told me what she liked and voila! Here it is.
I'm not that happy with it but it's cute. I hope she likes it!

Something new

It always fascinated me, seeing picture transfers on fimo, I don't know why. I thought that it way too complicated, so I never tried it.

I found a great book in the library about all sorts of different ways of making beads and jewelry on Friday and they discribed how to do transfers in such an easy way that now I just had to try it!

Here's how I did it:

Photocopy an image. (If you use words, it'll be reversed) (I copied something from Ikea, I hope they wont sue me!) Mold your pendant with fimo in the size and style that you want it in. Then, apply a very thin coat (I use Q-tips) of peppermint oil (the book said Eucolyptus, but I only had peppermint and that worked fine) and slowly put the photocopy on the fimo. Do not move it anymore. Then, apply some more oil on the back of the paper but do not drench it, it'll otherwise smear the picture. Leaving the paper on bake your fimo pendant according to directions. After the fimo has cooled slowly take off the paper and voila! There you have your transfer!

It's so easy that I think I'm just gonna go wild with this, hahaha.............

I bought this fimo "magic bead roller" yesterday, after seeing it on someone's blog. The woman who had this on the blog had really pretty beads and so I thought, "why not!" in hopes to save my self a lot of time when I roll my beads. In hopes that the patterns don't deform when rolling. So I exitedly went home with this magical thing in my pocket and I was already disappointed after opening it. It had pink clay on it!!! So it was used! I guess I could have gone back to town to return it but I was so eager to use it....so! I cut my clay and added the bits to the roller as pictured in the instructions....I tried, failed, tried again and I was so disappointed by the whole thing because the beads just never came out nice! You first have to press the clay through this strange thingy so it fits and that alone already takes too much time....in short: why did I buy this? Am I doing something wrong? Anyone have good expiriences with it?

Sometimes I find it difficult to be patient. Patient with my self and my crafts. I would love to create more, faster and sell sell sell but right now I don't always have the energy nor the calm to sit and work at the crafts table. And sometimes I'm just full of self doubt and wondering if this is worth while. It's an expensive and a time consuming hobby yet I love it, I love putting my creativity into the fimo and it's colours.

Time, Patience, Energy.

*sigh*

There is still a lot of space for more beads!

After doing pretty much of nothing in the last couple of days (due to a new job) I had the huge urge to sit and work today! These are two of three canes that I made today (the boyfriend has my camera so you'll have to wait for a bit before I can post more photo's). I have also created some new pendants, and beads which I'm really happy about! I just love creating and working with colours. Unfortunatley it's getting warmer now and for the first time I felt what it means working with clay that is too warm. It just doesn't work! If we have a hot summer this year I'll have to work in the fridgerator!! For storage: I bought a couple of plastic boxes yesterday from ikea. Now I have tons of space to store my canes and beads!

My work table

from this.....

.........to this!

I decided it was time to have a good working space. I used to just work in the kitchen and moved all of my stuff back and forth which wasn't very fun expecially if I was in the middle of something. So now I have a good working space in my room where it's brighter, friendlier and just more comfortable. Most importantley, I can just leave my stuff there.

small pink rose beads

yellow flower beads

This is my yesterday's work. I put them up for sale to see if people are interested in this kind of theme. What I find hard at the moment is putting prices on the things I make. Sometimes I think I'm too expensive other times too cheap. Figuring out the worth of something is tough, for me at least. I guess with time I can go up with my prices but for now I'll just stick to them.

Finally I have a pasta-machine to make my fimo-life a bit easier!

I sold my very first beads two days ago! It sure puts a boost to my self esteem having someone buy my beads. It also motivates me to continue, to go bolder, bigger and out there *smile*. This could be the beginning of a beautiful adventeur!

Using up the gray that I made two weeks ago and trying the black/white rose cane

Oh I love this! My daughter was happy to receive it as a gift!

My first salt+pepper glas shakers. I just love the combination of the black-gray-red!

So just in case you haven't noticed, I'm trying something new out with my logo in the pictures *grinning*. Not sure If I like it yet. It's kinda dominant. Never mind though, loooook at my new jewels. I am really happy with them! I really like the butterfly design, it's a nice contrast to the gold. Other colours will probably work wonderful as well. So I have many new projects in my head and have lot's to do in the next while! *smile*