Roses

When I order beads, I sometimes throw something into the cart spontaneously, not even because I think it's drop dead gorgeous or because it immediately gave me an idea although that happens as well of course.
Actually it's meant to be a challenge for myself, and as I never know if I'll be up to the challenge, those are often sale items or small baggies.
A while ago I added four red resin roses to my cart. Four sounded like a small enough number for me to manage.

What I don't like much about bead embroidery is just glueing a cab on without giving it an extra bezel to keep it there safely. Blame that on my complicated relationship with glue. If I use a bead, I like to sew through the bead holes and immediately feel better about it.
Obviously a bezel didn't work for the roses and there were no holes, either, so I just have to trust the glue to be as sticky for them as it is for my hands.

Red always makes me think of black, and black and red together always make me think vampires and gothic vibes, so it wasn't a surprise that I chose black seed beads and matte black firepolished crystals along with the roses.
I tried around for a while, but finally found that I liked the flat background best. I couldn't resist adding skulls. I picked the grey instead of the black ones that I have because they sparkle a little more.
Voilà, my "Gothic Roses"!

A few days later, I thought about making another pair right away, not dark this time, but light and sparkly. I would have liked to make the exact same design, but the only other firepolished crystals that I had in the right size were purple/blue which definitely didn't work with red.
What I found instead were some crystal rondelles that I had bought at the craft department of a local shop for their sparkle - magpie alarm! ;-) They were in my drawer for years, but now their time had come.
Luckily I also still have some of the crystal AB skulls and don't they fit perfectly for my "Ice Roses"?

If you want to see the sparkle even better, you can check out my very small YouTube channel which I only have because I seem to be unable to convert the videos from my old camera, so not just the sound will upload on my Instagram.
I'm such a technology freak sometimes ;-)

Oh, it's a fluid!

Who would have thought?? ;-)

I went to the crafts shop yesterday to show them my alien. The first salesgirl looked shocked, she said she had never seen anything like this. At least she didn't think it was something I cooked up in my mad scientist's lab. Instead she called her coworker and lucky me, it was the one who sold me the can and remembered (I know, I'm hard to forget).
She didn't even think about not exchanging it for a new can although I had mislaid the receipt, she only worried about how they should get rid of the alien can. Probably they shot it back into space or maybe they called Mulder and Scully, who knows.

Meet - the resin. Fluid, clear, beautiful.


I have two test pieces waiting at the moment which I have no scruples to hide from you if they don't work out. I want to keep at least a tiny bit of my dignity.
If they work out, though, I'll be happy to brag about it and maybe give some of you back your faith for an attempt of your own. Cross your fingers for me!

Grumpy - and an octopus

I guess it was bound to happen.
You can't just go, buy a can of resin and expect it to work right away. A new technique, even if you just want to seal something, needs time. Practice. Patience. An increasing moon in the second house of Venus in retrograde.
Heck, yeah, I have no idea what I'm talking about!

But how embarrassing is it to say - I wanted to open the can and couldn't. There were two clasps on it and when I tried to take them off I broke my favorite pair of scissors (earned the hard way by spending too much money on cat food, it was a gift from my cat food shop, but it was such a good one!). Then I bent up the lid all the way around. It looked a little like modern art, but I tried to get IN there, thank you very much!
Finally I did. At first I thought there was a layer of whatever on it, but I guess it was dried whatever, eh, resin. I got rid of it and hopefully stuck a wooden stick into the resin. Ehm, wasn't that supposed to be kind of, eh, like, eh, liquid? Yes, that was exactly how I stood there. Actually my whole face was one big "eh".

I had read the instructions. This can had not been in the cold for a few days, so what was going on here? I read the instructions again, this time in Finnish. You never know what you miss if you only read the German ones. After noticing that I held the paper upside down, I went back to the German ones after all.
"Put the can in a hot water bath for 10 minutes." I'm not a cook, but that is my easiest exercise. Pot, water, stove, let the water sizzle, but not boil. 10 minutes exactly. Ping.
Another attempt at stirring the mass, but this time it tried to eat the wooden stick. I checked the can again. There, it said "resin", not "alien sticky blobby mass from Vungula IV". Hm, maybe another 10 minutes. Maybe it's like watching milk. I should just let it do its stuff whatever that may be and do something else.

What about that abandoned bezel whose color I didn't like for the Septarian? I could make something for it from polymer clay. I measured the bezel, mixed some blue and black. A deep water scene with seaweed in green and white. Little silver fish. This turned out to be much more fun than watching the can.
From time to time I went over to the stove to check on the alien. It tried to eat another wooden stick, but apart from that it stayed unchanged. Ugly words floated around in my head.

Where the octopus came from, I don't know. He happened, like many of my designs happen, but once he was in my head, I immensely enjoyed the process of wrapping seaweed round his tentacles and the other way round.
The eyes were last. I wondered if I should give him a cutesy look, but suddenly these slightly evil eyes were staring at me. I tell you what, I don't say that often, but I love him just the way he is and I think I'll keep him for myself.


As for the resin? After wasting energy for about an hour I gave up on it. For now, that is. I won't let a transparent alien beat me, no sir!