Month: February 2018

In my Folksy Shop

A while back I decided to make life easier for myself by taking my faster moving items (tutorials and materials packs) out of my Folksy shop, basing them solely on Etsy.  That way I didn’t have to fret about the materials packs being sold in two places at once, or manually e-mailing out the tutorials.  This was particularly important because most of my customers are over in the States, and tend to buy things while I’m asleep!

But because my Etsy shop is busy, it’s kind of sucked up my attention, and I’ve rather neglected my Folksy shop.  This is a shame, because it’s got some lovely pieces in, and they deserve a good home!  And they could probably also do with some new friends from the legion of half finished or finished but undocumented works which are cluttering up my new storage (more on that another day).  So I’m going to be working on refreshing the shop over the next few months, and thought I would start by reminding myself (and you) about some of the lovely pieces in there, starting with my Egyptian Collar.

A few years ago (OK a lot of years ago since it was pre children and the oldest boy is nearly 8) we went to Egypt.  This was the result of a long obsession by both myself and Dr. Indecisive Beader with all things Egyptological, and it’s inspired quite a few pieces in the years following.  This necklace was inspired by the amazing collars we saw both for real and in various paintings.  And as a special offer it is currently reduced from £75 to £60.

Egyptian Collar £60

The collar forms part of my ‘minerals’ series – pieces focussed around a central stone. The stone in the collar is a lovely matte Chrysocolla, and it’s captured with Miyuki delicas, then joined onto a herringbone band, which uses changes in bead size to form a flat, circular collar which sits really nicely round the neck.

More Cabochons

So I’ve been playing again on the cabochon front. A chance discovery during a session of poster paint salad spinner painting with my youngest (google it) led to a very painterly set using the run off which reminded me of Monet’s Water Lilies.

That led immediately to another set using the kid’s paints, doll’s cups, and basic acrylic dirty pour techniques.

And then another couple.

Because these are all made using water based paints I won’t be selling them as I’m concerned about their durability in wear (although I am making things for me with them!) but panic not, because I’ve moved onto doing mini pours with actual acrylic paints, which are waterproof when dry, so will (hopefully) lead to some saleable versions. I say lead to as this is a whole new technique, with a new set of challenges, particularly around colour selection, so I’ve got a way to go. It took a year to get the Pebeo method right, so it may be a while, but it’s fun trying.

As well as the different patterns formed the acrylics come in a wider range of colours than the Pebeo, and are of course mixable, so I can finally make cabs with some of the colours Pebeo don’t offer such as fuchsia, pure white, black, and lime . Which is good as I use a lot of fuchsia!

Anyway, watch this space and I’ll let you know how I get on, and if and when I have some ready for sale I’ll let you know. In the meantime I have some lovely Pebeo ones for sale in my Etsy shop, and hope to list some more over the next week or so. If you favourite my shop in Etsy you’ll see any updates or new products in your personal front page, or keep an eye on my Facebook page (I post all shop updates there but Facebook might not show them in your newsfeed, so it’s always a good idea to pop in every so often and see what I’ve been posting).