New series of pieces.

I recently set to work creating an iris cane, from an ikat cane, from a checkerboard type cane..it is what is known as a complex cane! It was a fabulous activity, and resulted in some new pieces.
First up – the cane -

Really a very cool looking cane!
Next I made some beads from the ‘ends’ – the bits one smooshes up. There was quite a bit of ’smooshed’ in the end.. which made some very cool beads and pendants..including my first attempts at a Vernal Twist. They were hugely successful vernal twists – but the beads were still cool. For the first time in a while I actually made them into jewellery instead of listing them on BeadsByHaffina.

This is just a fairly simple pendant made with a slice of the iris cane, backed with black clay and then a wire wrapped bail added and strung on black leather. Would be quite wearable by both guys and girls.

This one has a great pendant that looks a lot like waves crashing on to rocks, and it finished with Amazonite, Czech crystals, miracle beads and silver findings. It is probably my favourite bead from those that I made.

This one is really simple, but effective. A very swirly pendant on an adjustable leather necklace. It can be worn with either side of the pendant showing.

Lovely swirly pendant, with some Amazonite and Oynx, strung on a handmade kumihimo necklace. Kumihimo is so fun to make, with so many possibilities.

I also made a couple of beads to make into earrings from the Ikat cane before I made the iris cane. I strung them with some Amazonite, Czech crystals and Swarovskis.

I have a couple more cabs that I made at the same time, both of which I have plans for – namely – one wirewrapped and the other seed beaded..I just need to sit down and do it.

There was one more thing I did with the iris cane. I have been playing around with sculpture. I wanted to do a face. My first nights work was not exactly great….

It is very very pink..but its scrap clay.. colour wasnt really a consideration. The next day I reduced a piece of my iris cane down to a very small size – about 2mm wide.. cut a couple of slices and added them to the face, then worked on the features some more. And now we have this….

Quite proud of it really. I might paint it to make it less pink, and more skin coloured.

So that is some of what I have been up too… amongst the rest of my hectic life. I really should try to blog more here.

I’m still here.

I know I havent posted here much lately. So many balls in the air, and not enough time to learn how to juggle properly! LOL
I have been creating quite a few pieces, many for challenges. I wrote a ‘to-do list’ about two weeks ago.. just for things I needed to make by the middle of October – it was 11 items long! I’m just over halfway there!
So let me show you…

Steampunk Polymer Clay

This is a polymer clay piece created for the ArtFire Polymer Clay Smoosher Guild. Its my first attempt at Steampunk.

Organic polymer clay

This is a pendant I created for the monthly challenge on Aussie Polyclayers (another forum) – the theme was Organic – and this piece very much just ‘evolved’. I’m very pleased with how it turned out. And it turns out eyeshadow is great for adding shimmer to clay.

Wire Weaving

This piece is a wire weaving necklace I made as part of learning a new technique on the BeadingForum.com.au We were challenged to try wire weaving, and I came across a similar design in Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.

Herringbone bracelet

Herringbone bracelet

This bracelet was made for a monthly challenge on the BeadingForum.com.au in the Seed It section. The challenge was to make something in herringbone that fit the theme of ‘Dragonscale’. I love how this one turned out. There are some bits I would probably do different if I made something like it again, but it was a fun challenge.

Polymer clay buttons

These buttons were made for the monthly challenge of the ArtFire Jewelry Designers and Jewelry Supplies Studios Guild, which had the theme of ‘Autumn Leaves’. They are fairly large butterflies with eye shadow shimmer and leaf texture.

Jens Pind bracelet

This Jens Pind bracelet in square copper wire was made for the monthly challenge of the ArtFire Chainmaille Guild. The stones on it are Fancy Jasper, that I got in a recent Migems group buy. I really love this one, the square wire is awesome! The theme for the maillers was ‘Fall Finery’, which I happened to pick, as a joint winner of last months challenge.

Ok, one last one, and this one wasnt a challenge or required or anything else..but it probably is the piece I am most proud of at the moment.

Polymer clay golf ball

I made this golf ball out of polymer clay, or more precisely, polymer clay over a wooden bead. I used green and brown eyeshadow to make it look ‘used’. Then I coiled some rings out of 14 gauge repurposed copper wire and made a Byzantine link to attach it to a key ring. I made this specifically for my nearly 93 year old grandfather, who is a golfer. It looks like its heavy, but it is actually quite light, due to it having the bead inside.

I have made some other pieces, especially beads and buttons and some mens jewellery. There are heaps of new items at HaffinaCreations and BeadsByHaffina, as well as some special pieces at HaffinaAgain on Zibbet.

Hopefully I will get my other pieces completed so I can show those to you as well.

Stress induced creativity!

It has not been a great week of so in the real world for me and my family. There was a few days when we thought that one of our clan was seriously ill. Thankfully he is now on the mend.
However the stress of waiting for test results did have at least one positive. I had to find things to occupy my mind and my hands, so I made some things.
Firstly I made some polymer clay bits and pieces..some of which I am really, really happy with.

This is one of two new pieces in HaffinaCreations on ArtFire. It was created initially in response to a monthly technique challenge on BeadingForum.com.au. Lots of eclectic bits and pieces in it, like goldstone and magnetic hematite.

This is another new piece in HaffinaCreations on ArtFire. The colours in the pendant just called out for carnelian, and tigerseye seemed to fit as well. It is the first time I had made a bail as part of a pendant and I’m really happy with it.

I also made some really cool beadies, which I wont show you all of, cos it would probably bore you to death! But I will show you my favourites.

I haven’t listed these on BeadsByHaffina yet, but they will be soon, along with a heap of other beadies. I have spent a bit of time recently finishing some ones that have been sitting waiting for attention.

Another challenge that the BeadingForum.com.au had was in the Wire/Chainmaille area. We were challenged to try our hands at wire crochet. I can crochet, but hadnt ever tried it with wire before, and I feared that the wire would break really easily, being so fine. So I thought I would start by practicing with just acrylic beads. Well I was soon happy with the results of that, that I made another straight away with glass chips and bicones. I didnt try to do anything fancy, just simple chains with beads, then I plaited the chains loosely together.

This is the first with acrylic beads.

This is the second with glass chips and bicones.

I also have started using Picasa to edit pics and I have to say I am very impressed. Or maybe its just that I am getting better at taking pics, but I think that the pic with the acrylic beads looks awesome!! If only all my pics looked that good!

Stress is not a good thing, but sometimes it can be the catalyst that spawns a burst of creativity, and that is always a good thing!

The saga continues….

You may remember me commenting on my battle with my computer. Well my newly upgraded computer decided to spaz out and refused to boot at all. So I had to take it back, decided to give Vista the boot (more trouble than it was worth, although I miss my snipping tool) and just stuck with XP. All well and good. So I get the computer back from the shop, fire her up, get updates, download a couple of essentials, then get set to load my camera upload program…. only to discover that the computer doesnt seem to realise it has a cd/dvd drive or the second hard drive its supposed to have. So I cannot load anything from discs.. but it was working right before I picked it up.
So I ring my computer guy and he’s like ‘you are kidding me right?’ and I’m like ‘I bloody wish!’
So I’m thinking the cd/dvd drive is stuffed… so I will prolly need a new one… which will basically mean that the only bits that will be ‘original’ will be the video card and the floppy drive… and even then I’d already had the video card upgraded LOL So I pretty much have a newish computer in an old tower… oh except for the USB ports on the front…which seem to have some kind of issue..managed to wreck my computer guys $150 drive..ooops!! Gunna gaffer tape that up… not gunna fry anything of mine!! Thankfully I have a 7 port hub so I dont really need it anyway.
Fun, eh? So added to all this milarky is me trying to take an inventory of my ’supplies and stock’… didnt realise how much I actually had LMAO.. been at it a week (all on my own) and I’m not even half way through..mind you I havent been at it all day every day… one drawer a day basically… plus sorting out magazines, patterns etc.. barely made anything new in ages…. gotta get it done though.
Oh, oh, oh…I nearly forgot.. I opened a new storefront. Not on ArtFire this time, on another new site called Zibbet, so come check it out – HaffinaAgain.

Some days…

Some days it just seems so freaking complicated, or difficult and just plain trying!!
And computers just add to the stress frankly, because they make you lazy, you dont need to write down links, you just save them. You dont need to write down emails, cos you save them. You dont even need to remember all your passwords..cos it can save them. So what happens when you cant access them anymore?
Well you panic, and get flustered, and wanna bash your head against the keyboard, cos you swear its the right password to the right account!
I have spent most of my day trying to get my newly upgraded computer back to some semblance of my normality..and I’m only about halfway there..if that.
I thought they were supposed to make life easier? LOL

Christmas in July!

Yes, I have been lured into Christmas in July. I guess it makes some sense for Australians and other Southern Hempisphere countries to find it a good idea, after all..its usually 40 degrees (Celsius..that’s over 100 degrees to you Fahrenheit types, lol) and snow, ice and roast turkey aren’t usually at the forefront of your mind! Whereas July is cold.. really, really cold… like 4 degrees Celsius at night and 14 degrees during the day.. and some places are colder and some places get snow, so roast turkey and veg and all the trimmings sounds pretty good!
So on ArtFire we are having Christmas in July sales, and some guilds are organising extra promotions too, like the Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild.

HaffinaCreations goes on sale from July 15th until the end of the month. I will be having 15% storewide, and I have a special Christmas Inspired category for anyone who wants to get in early and stock up for the festive season, with more to come. This will be a great time to get a head start on your Christmas shopping!

A just a gentle reminder to drop by and read my articles on handmadenews.org. I have new articles posted twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday. If you have missed any you can see them all listed on my bio, you can also subscribe to my RSS feed. And dont just read my articles, there are heaps of talented writers, and new articles are published daily.

New directions! Again!

I admit, I haven’t blogged here much lately. Been busy setting up my new studio, and writing articles for handmadenews.org, and making new things. And I have done some experimenting that may well pay off in a great way.
I decided to try my hand at making clasps out of polymer clay. Mainly toggle clasps. So I made a few, and listed them in my new studio – BeadsByHaffina – as a jewellery component. I had had an indication of interest from a fellow artisan and guess what? She bought the first one I listed! So I had ‘pinged’ the link to it and it went to my twitter – and one of my twitter followers saw it and loved it too. The word ‘wholesale’ was bandied about. And at first this kind of freaked me out, you know, I’m just little ole me, how can I possibly do something like that?!
Then I sat down and though about it, about how I could possibly make multiples relatively quickly and easily without it being a full time job, but maintaining the integrity of individual handmade pieces. I have some ideas now, and I will experiment further to see how that plays out.
Hey, I havent shown you the clasps… here is the one the sold and a hook and eye clasp.

I am really happy with how they turned out. They have wire armatures in them to give extra strength and are varnished to help protect them.

So I have also been working on something for my buddy Jade (she is my bossette on Alundra’s Conundrum and the owner of BunnyRabbitSex – which is a writer’s forum where ideas breed like rabbits!). I made some merchandise for Alundra’s Conundrum (which I believe I blogged about before lol), and I had this idea for something for BRS.
So I looked around until I found a rabbit stamp, and then I made some mica shift pieces in polymer clay. And this is what we ended up with…

Pretty cool, eh? I’m really happy with it, especially as I have struggled with Mica shift on pastel clay. And I can tell you that Jade was very happy too!

Dont forget to drop by and see me in the Craft Techniques department of handmadenews.org, lots of great articles, not just from me, but from all our columnists.

Big News!

I have an announcement to make. I have opened up a second ArtFire studio! Beads By Haffina is the new home of my polymer clay beads, cabochons, pendants, buttons and in the future jewellery components…yes clasps and the like made with polymer clay.
It has only just opened, but it has quite a bit of stock all ready, and I will be adding more each day. So if you make jewellery, or do other crafts that could use polymer clay items, drop by Beads By Haffina and see what’s on offer.

Also, dont forget to drop by my column on handmadenews.org. I have new articles being published twice a week, and whilst you’re there look around and read some of the other excellent articles available.

Reassessment is necessary.

Sometimes there comes a time when you need to take a good hard look at what you are doing. Work out what is working and what isnt. Work out where you can change things to make it better.
I have come to one of these points. I am super busy, and it feels like everything is work. The fun is missing somewhat. That’s not to say I dont have fun, because I do, I have some wonderful friends. However, I am not gaining as much enjoyment in what I am doing. Instead of seeing the positives in a situation I find all these negatives, and no where more so than in my art.
Part of the reason for this is that I dont do schedules very well, which is fine if everything is going well. But frankly everything isnt going well. I have now been sick, with some kind of stupid viral thing, for a month. No I dont have swine flu. It is just a cold, but it is lingering badly. This is compounded by having sick kids for three weeks as well. So this taking a toll physically. Add to that that I dont have my mum here doing all the stuff she usually does, meaning I have to do it. And I still need to meet all my other responsibilities.
I dont mind being busy, in fact I would prefer to have lots to do, I am easily bored, so having lots of different things to do means there is less time for boredom. Unfortunately it seems to got to a point where I dont want to do the work either, cos there just seems to be so much of it.
So after a long, indepth chat with my totally fabulous therapist, I realised it is time for me to get my act together. No more winging it, no more going with the flow… time to get some structure. Time to balance out the work with play better, so I dont skive off because I feel like I dont get any fun time.
So I started this process today… and now I will put it into practice.
This should mean I actually create more, because I am setting time for that, and time for the work and time for doing nothing but chilling.
Hopefully by doing all this I can find my energy again, and my joy and my excitement.
I hope to that by talking about this I can help someone else realise that sometimes you have to reassess what you are doing and how you are doing it.. because you are important.. and if you dont have you, you dont really have anything.

I will let you all know how I get along.

Clay Play!

I played with clay! And I had so much fun! I cant show you everything I made, cos some of them arent quite finished. I decided to try a bit of sculpture. Now I’m not really that good, but I have fun nonetheless, and I definately think I will try some more of it.
So, what did I make?
Well, I made a pig!

And I made a bead that looks something like a face, with huge lips… which has earned the nickname the ‘Angelina Bead’ thanks to a fabulous online buddie!

Slightly scary, lol!

I also covered an old baby food jar with clay.. its not great, but was an excellent exercise.

And one last thing. I just finished creating a piece for the Seed Bead challenge on the beadingforum dot com dot au, and it includes some polymer. Our theme was ‘Rock Pool’ and the piece had to use only one colour family. I made some ‘rocks’ and some ‘mica shift pools’ and then embroidered around them with lots of seedies. It is the largest seed bead piece I have done, and I am very proud of it.

Hey! Speaking of seed beads, come check out my newest article and tutorial on handmadenews.org. I did a tutorial on Even Count Peyote.

Ok, next time I will show you some new chainmaille and an experiment in clay.