skip to main |
skip to sidebar
But please pronounce it Fronkensteen. Yes, I am a fan of "Young Frankenstein". I might even be able to mess my hair up like Gene Wilder's in the movie, but I doubt I could do the wild look.
Whatever.
I'll introduce you to Lizzy now. Lizzy's name came out of nowhere and so did she. Would you believe she started out as a bird cage that had the wrong size? I got asked if I could make a bird cage with a bird inside (which actually rekindled my polymer clay "career" that had got stuck in its baby shoes, but that's a different story). My first attempt was too slim, so I put it away. As with many of my unfinished projects, though (gee, sounds like I have thousands of them lying around while there are only like ... *mumble mumble*), I looked at it again and again. I rarely throw away a messed up piece because I like how failure can be an inspiration for something else.
The more I looked at this "non-cage", the more it looked like a skirt to me. One too many Georgette Heyer books maybe? (Note: Re-read your Heyers once more.) And finally I took a heart and added a little bodice and puff sleeves. Not that bad, but what now? Put it on a wire hanger? Make a pendant out of it? I thought of putting a body in there, but I had no idea how to do it. Polymer clay, yes. But how? How?
The dress spent quite a while on my desk until I finally decided to make a head. I found I am not a great head maker. A little piggy nose, fat eyebrows (I still use to underestimate how big a speck of clay can become if you flatten it, but I'm working on it), and huge hair, but at least tied in a knot. As it had only been my third attempt at a head, I still felt it was ok (don't ask about the two heads still lying around here, I am afraid I won't be able to put them to good use! ;-)
More time went by. Then, on another inspection of the dress, I saw the long wire ends still sticking out of the sleeves.
That's when my "Fronkensteen" genes started to move. Polymer clay around the wire, a neck, ah, you should have heard my mad laughter. Unfortunately there was no lightning and thunder. It would have been nice and fitting.
Little did I know how difficult the process would prove to be. For a trained polymer clay artist it wouldn't have been a problem, I'm sure, but for me - oh my, I can't count how often the wire went bouncing back just when I thought the clay looked good now. I even tried to make a pompadour to keep her hands together, but I didn't like the look of it. To make a neck for the head was easier, but it turned out to be a little fat.
Into the oven she went (had to be the oven, no lightning, you remember?) and out of the oven she came like this.
The wire color was shining through the clay and the poor girl had the "uneven elbow disease". I thought some lace for longer sleeves and some jewelry for the neckline would be a good idea, hm, and something to fill up the skirt. More lace maybe?
When I showed Lizzy - told you the name came out of nowhere - to my online friends, I got a few more suggestions ... and was told whom she reminded them of. Very funny indeed. Lizzy will have to spend lots of time in therapy! And I almost cried from laughing so hard.
Today was the big accessory day. First I made a wire crochet stole for Lizzy. Although I used the smallest hook possible with this wire, it got - hm, let's call it luxurious. It wasn't easy to bend, but I think it's ok even if it hides the bodice and the sleeves.
Then Lizzy got a simple little necklace with a tiny freshwater seed pearl that doesn't look so tiny on her as she is only 2 inches tall herself.
And last of all I filled up the skirt. If you look very closely at the two pictures above, you can see the red wire peeking through. In daylight you can see it better. Now that she is not that lightweight anymore, she also stands better.
There you go. That is Lizzy. I don't know yet if she will get any siblings, but I promise to keep you up-to-date on the subject.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Fronkensteen ;-)
.... how difficult it is to stay concentrated and not lose patience when a very loud cat is sitting in front of a closed door?
When I started to work with polymer clay, the upstairs kitchen became off-limits for the furry inhabitants of this house. As the fur tends to creep in under the door, it's hard enough to fight it off without having a wild chase around the table with hair flying in all directions.
The fact that there is a closed door is particularly hard for Ponder and Esme. It starts with a soft sound that changes into a yodel (Pon) or wild squeaking (Es) pretty quickly. Ponder takes it even harder than his sister. Even when he hasn't been around me for an hour or longer, he seems to feel that I'm behind "The Door" suddenly and he just won't have that.
So imagine me trying to roll clay with my hands while nerve-wrecking yodelling comes through the door, so loud that I'm afraid the neighbors will get me for torturing my cat. Imagine me trying to poke holes into about 40 beads while the yodelling starts to be accompanied by scratching on the door, not to mention the attempt to climb the door. Yes, Ponder walks up doors and it's a very distinctive sound.
I'm weak and can't stand that for very long which is the reason why it took me a few days to make all the beads.
I had started with the big focal one. The smaller ones are not as clear in their pattern, but that is why a focal is, well, a focal.
The necklace is not finished yet. I still need to string the beads and add a clasp, but I was curious to see what it might look like.
And now I have a purring black cat in my lap, happy that I came back out of the mysterious room, back to him, to serve him, in good days and in bad days. Doh.
Do you remember the wire teardrop with the lampwork beads from the last post? I think it started this.
I asked myself "Why not using beads with this?" At first I thought about an icycle, inspired by the weather outside, but suddenly blue wire and tiny beads turned into a sparkly cocoon.
Ice led to fire and here comes a sneak preview at a set of two pairs of cocoon earrings that will hopefully be listed in my shop soon!
Seems I am on the fruit trip, even if not intentionally in the first place.
I buy my wire online in England, from wires.co.uk and I love their colored copper wire. I could buy the list up and down and back up again and when a parcel arrives, I sit down, hold the spools into a light and giggle like a little girl at the beautiful shine.
So it is easy to match wire and beads tone in tone and you have lots of possibilities to experiment with different color combinations as well.
This is one of my favorite colors, a beautiful metallic orange although I think the seller calls it honey.
It's a bright and happy color and was perfect for these earrings. They remind me of a puddle of orange juice that is trickling down in a spiral. What better to use as accent than a clear glass rounded cube with AB (aurora borealis) finish? I like ice cubes in my orange juice!
Recently I bought some purple and black glass beads.
I have used them with black and purple wire before on this spool knit necklace. Here I put the black beads on the purple and the purple beads on the black wire for the perfect mix.
For this pendant I wanted to go tone in tone, though. After I started I found it began to remind me of a berry, so instead of going for a plane disk I made it domed.
On the pendant I had stopped at a disk because when I decided it was a berry, it was too late to make a ball out of it, it would have been much too big. What about berries for the ears? It still is blackberry season, hmm. Thought, said out loud and done, here is the result. Yummy looking blackberries for your ears.
Let me think, what else do I need for fruit salad? One idea already came from a forum friend (thanks, Cindy!), another one is welling up in my mind just now ...
It had to happen some day, I guess. And I can't even blame it on the cats. Of course Ponder was sitting on the pinball machine yelling for me to hurry up with whatever I was doing at the moment and of course he tried to jump my shoulder, but the fact that I pulled out one of the drawers of my plastic storage case and hit the bead box with it is only the fault of my own stupidness and carelessness.
He sure loved the sound - clickety, clackety - of beads flying everywhere and was eager to help me clean them up, but I threw him out of the room and closed the door.
Only when I already had retrieved most of them from the corners of a big room (isn't it amazing how far these fellows can fly?), the thought to take a picture came to me. I also didn't feel like dropping the box again, so all you get to see is the epicenter which really was the easiest area to clean up.
I can be more than glad that these were not the really small beads.
A few ones tried to hide inside my armchair. Not with me. No bead will roam free in this house if I can prevent it! ;-)
This was a sign to me I desperately need to organise again, also the cheap beads like these ones *sigh*
I haven't been to many fleamarkets lately, for different reasons, so I was really looking forward to the one today. Unfortunately it started to rain after a while and it is no fun trying to recognise things under a wet plastic foil. I was hoping to see some old beads or jewelry that I could take apart, but all I got jewelry-wise was a clasp for one of my WIPs from a commercial supplier.
Still it is rare for me not to find anything at all and this time it was not different.
Here is a bead set from the 50s or 60s maybe? I haven't found out anything about the company yet, but the graphics on the box seem to be that old. When I took it, my sister told me to watch out so the beads didn't fall out because the box had been secured with a rubber band. What a surprise it was when I opened it and it was still sealed! I have no idea if I will only use it as a prop or as deco, but it was so cheap I had to take it. I still remember the coasters made from beads like them from my childhood. I loved to play with them because they felt so heavy and funny to the touch and if you don't squeal on me I'll even tell you that once a thread ripped because I handled it too hard and the beads were all on the floor. Don't tell my mom ;-)
Yarn. I am not the best knitter in the world and I only knit while having my "phases" as I call it. At the moment I have a sweater I work on. It's a simple pattern and I am confident about it being finished around winter 2012. I only knit while waiting at the vet's usually, so progess is very slow.
But how could I resist this great offer? I looked at the yarn (produced in the small town that the fleamarket was held, I always liked this company's yarn and especially their crazy sales, but that story is too long for this post) and asked the guy at the booth how much it was. The way he stood a little aside of the booth should have told me he didn't want to have anything to do with it and he also told me why. "My wife has just gone, well, eh ... She'll be back in a minute." So we had a pleasant little talk until his wife was back. I had just seen the plastic bag with the yarn, but she said there was more and pulled out a tote bag with an unfinished sweater. Sadly she told me she couldn't knit any more and offered me the WIP, the yarn, two pairs of needles, the description and even the tote bag for just 7 $. The yarn is a silk/virgin wool mix, what a great deal! I felt bad for her and almost wanted to embrace her and tell her that. I think she was happy we had a nice talk and that I was so happy about my purchase. I won't be able to finish the WIP because there is no chance one wouldn't see the difference between her knitting and mine, but this will be one of my good fleamarket experiences.
Have you ever heard about a "reading clock"? Don't feel bad, nobody I know has. Unless they went to school in Göppingen, my home town, and even not all of them know it. I am trying to find out more about this "Lese-Uhr" that was produced in Göppingen as well and which was used in my elementary school to teach reading. I found a picture of an older looking example, not from plastic, but cardboard, it seems, that has been pictured on a school museum's site. I think I'll write to them and ask if they can help me out with more information.
This clock I found at the fleamarket also. Number three in my collection. The lady selling it asked me if I also needed a box with magic tricks or chemistry stuff for kids. You should have seen her face when I told her the clock was actually for myself.
Not bad for a rainy day, huh? Now I'll have to save change for the next one - with beads, I hope!!
Aaah, spring may be coming after all. At least there were three flea markets in one little town today. There had only been one this year and so we - my sister, the tall guy and I - were pretty excited and in hunting fever. I wasn't expecting too much, maybe a book or two, but although there were many commercial dealers with goods from screwdrivers to sweatshirts, there were also a few private sellers.
I ended up with two books, a nice little old ashtray with a polar bear standing on top (the seller said, as no one in the family smoked, her mother had used it as a bowl for peanuts), a strand of blue goldstone and this:
Seriously, for about six bucks I just couldn't resist. I had been looking at something else on this seller's table and then saw a box full of beads (also some glass pearls that I already sorted out). I took a peek, the seller saw it, looked at my necklace and said "if you are making necklaces, you can have the whole lot cheap, it's my last rest". I know there isn't anything spectacular in there, but for that money I will have some use for them, I'm sure :-)
The tall guy and my sister were also happy enough to find a little something. I can't wait till the season really starts.
By the way, good thoughts for Mr. Prairie Dog are appreciated, I hope he is just too excited at the moment to eat because so far he has spurned all the delicacies we have offered him :-(
P.S. I had to try and make something with the blue goldstone beads. A night picture, so it's not too good, but you'll get the drift ...
