I was visiting the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle Washington and found some wonderful inspiration for canes and of course barrettes.
We went to the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit and I was blown away by the beauty and variety of the butterflies. The butterflies where of all colors and patterns as well as shapes. At first I was simply in awe of the wonder of nature. Then I go, I could try to mimic that with polymer clay. I asked my husband to take as many pictures as he could.
The one that I keep thinking about is brown with blues and pinks. It had some wonderful false eyes on the lower wings and was totally stunning.
I can’t wait to get back home to my clay and start working on recreating what I saw. I know that I will have lots of work to get the butterfly to look like the ones that I saw, but I am game to try!
I have so much fun finding new things to use with clay. Recently I bought some leather tools that have great textured shapes on them. I have been using those on my fish, dragons and sea friends. They really add to the critters.
I have also “claimed” some cake decorating tools (like a fondant roller) to make patterns with.
Some of the shells that I recently gathered also make great textures. So do rough sided rocks. Then there are the pine cones, leaves and nut shells that are all over the yard.
I do also buy premade texture sheets and rubber stamps to use. I found that a lot of the stuff I have hanging around the house will work.
Once you start working with clay, everything looks different. It is amazing what everyday objects end up in the craft room to play with.
Here are two yellow fish that showed up in the craft room. They have been turned into pins. I am hoping that they will invite some larger fish that could hang out on barrettes. I could also use a few for focal beads. Maybe smaller ones for earrings and charms. (So many plans and thoughts and fun stuff to do.)
After looking at all of the great Christi Friesen inspired dragon’s post in the CForiginals group on Yahoo, I decided that I needed to jump in and make some. Here is my first one. He is only a baby and will ended up being a pin.
I am pleased with how he turned out. I like his expression. He is just waking up from a dream about his favorite treat, Chocolate!
My parents are celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary. I am so proud of them! I grow up with two wonderful examples of how to make important things to work, My Mom and Dad.
I wanted to make a gift for them in celebration. I came up with the idea of doing a picture frame. I got the frame from AC Moore on clearance and then added clay roses and such to it. I had my sister find out what colors they used in their wedding, since I have only seen the pictures in their album, which are all black and white. (The color choice is a cute story in a way. The bridesmaids wore dresses that where white with very small green polka dots. The fabric was on sale!)
This is a close up of the rose bouquet on the frame. I plan on “sneaking” a 8 X 10 picture from them and getting a copy made.
