Cloves and flowers

Did you know that cloves are flower buds of a tree? I didn't, but I do now.

I just wanted to prove to you that I'm still alive and thought I'd do so with my latest listings. The clove earrings are for the Handmade in Europe challenge "Herbs/Spices". Have you checked out our blog this month? The subject is really interesting, even for non-cooking people like me.

One of a kind wire crochet clove earrings

Let's stay with the flowers. I made these quite a while ago, but was looking for different ideas to use the design. There's nothing like an unorganized stash, I'm telling you. I had forgotten there was the back of a barrette in there and I rather like how the flowers look on it. And then one of my favorite songs came to my mind:

"For those who come to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair ..." Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco". Perfect!

And I even had two flowers left which I used for earrings. Now I can go back into hibernation, right? ;-)

Wire crochet flower barrette

Nine days

When I was in London for the first time, together with a friend and her five year old daughter, we also went to the National Gallery. We wandered around only to suddenly find the little one sitting on one of the benches staring at a huge painting. She couldn't tell us what exactly she liked about it as she certainly didn't understand what it was about, and neither can I tell you what I like about it. Fact is we came back more than once while we were at the gallery, and sat on this bench, staring in silence.

Lady Jane Grey was executed for high treason after being on England's throne for nine days.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche (1833)

This month's challenge of the Handmade in Europe guild had the subject "Famous execution, murders, murderers etc." From time to time you just have to do something different.

Lady Jane was the first one to come to my mind. My wire lace choker is inspired by her execution or should I say, the moment after her execution.

Of course that is an association you need not have. It can remind you of vampires again (sorry, the dark red crystals just do that to me) or just be a feminine piece of jewelry, that's totally up to you.

It's in my shop with more pictures now for you to decide yourself.

From Lemmi to Ignis Fatuus

Lemmi (whose full name was Herr Balduin Percy Hannibal Lehmann) was a bookworm living in a library. I loved him and the stories he presented in the TV series "Lemmi und die Schmöker", translated "Lemmi and the old books". Characters came out of their books to tell part of their story, this was supposed to make children read the whole book. For me it worked although I probably didn't need the encouragement, but I know it worked for others, too. And maybe it would still work today, but Lemmi and his human companions only did their jobs from 1973 to 1983. What a pity.


Now I'm a librarian, at a very different one from the one Lemmi lived in. To be honest, most of our books don't do much for me as it's the technical branch and my technical side - let's say, it's a little under-developed ;-)
And still I love the feel of books even if I don't want to read them. To hold a book, to smell it, to feel the paper - maybe if I were not as technically challenged, I would have tried bookbinding myself. Ok, I did it twice during my training, but I decided to leave it to people who know what they are doing.

One of them is my HIE guild mom Liesan from Ignis Fatuus.
I have to admit it, I'm addicted to her books and so I wanted to show you my treasures. Where they come from there are more, you really should have a look before I can get back there! ;-)

Velvet. I can't help myself, velvet is so, so beautiful!
This was the book I started with. It's looked away safely from cat hair, though.


Seeing this book you know why the other one is locked away at the moment. This velvet-like book is always on my desk and often enough under my cats' butts. It holds my secret ideas ....


Do you remember the Polymer Clay Smoosher Masquerade Ball? This was a fan entry made by Liesan. Isn't it gorgeous? I had to have it!


My latest love are these miniature books, though. Black and blue and so cute!


Then it came to me that they were the perfect gift for librarians ... I'm lucky, the people these little beauties are meant for don't read my blog. When I opened the parcel however my first thought was to keep them *sigh*


And this is not all you can find at Ignis Fatuus! Have a look yourself.

Sales and giveaways - wherever you look!

I already told you about the Polymer Clay Smooshers Masquerade Clay Ball where you can win a fabulous bracelet.
But if you think that was it already, you are way wrong.

Handmade in Europe, my other ArtFire guild, started a great Halloween giveaway game today. There is not just one prize, but a whole lot of them, a coupon booklet for all of the participating studios, among them humble me. I offer a 15 $ coupon for my ArtFire studio.
Come and play with us!


And there's even more.
DaWanda has started a discovery sale. You'll get 15 % off in participating shops that you haven't bought from before, including mine!

Are you as excited as I am? :-D

Challenges

I like challenges. Creative challenges, that is. The other kind, hm, that depends on my mood and how I feel at the moment. I'm thinking new system at work soon or organizing my household, these challenges I really struggle with.
But creative challenges are good for me. Often enough I amaze myself, not necessarily because I crocheted the Holy Grail out of copper wire (hmm, now that would be something ....) or because I copied Michelangelo's David in polymer clay, but because of the detours my creativity likes to take.

I once saw a report about Picasso on TV. He was painting live, on glass. I am not a fan of Picasso, but I loved watching the process. Where there just had been a rooster, there was something totally different suddenly. I don't remember what it was, but I still see that rooster. Unfortunately there was never a re-run or if there was, I missed it. I would have liked to watch it again, being more prepared to pay attention.

Don't think that I try to compare myself to Picasso now, what I'm trying to say is that this is probably the same for many of us. We start something and suddenly our muse tells us to go right instead left.
Last weekend I started working on another piece for the ugly bead challenge. I'm determined to use up all those beads and I saw it before me, but then I broke the wire. That wouldn't have been a real problem, I could have fixed it easily, but all of a sudden there was this other idea which was perfect for the challenge "Harvest" of Handmade in Europe. Of course I could have finished the other piece first, but sometimes that's just not the way it works.

I present "Candy Apple", a one of a kind piece with the brown "branch" necklace and the apple pendant, including a cute little worm that was the tall guy's idea by the way :-D

Where's Flappy Flambé?

You know I'm member of the ArtFire Guild "Handmade in Europe" together with some very talented artisans.
You know that our logo is the phoenix (if you looked at the right column on this blog).
What you don't know is that we had job interviews for logo models. It was a tough choice.

Flappy Flambé didn't get chosen because he is a little wild, so he stormed off to take over our studios. Scary stuff regarding the fact that he is a fiery little dude.
Where is he? Help us find him!


You'll find all the information you need to join our posse right here.
Did I mention there is an award, not to say a bunch of awards?? :-D