July 29, 2012

#18 to #21/52 Earrings

  It's been a while from my last post and during these weeks I was able to produce only some half-finished posts that were never published. My brain was overloaded and needed a break, I guess. After a one-week vacation on the island of Rab (Croatia) without any computer nor mail nor internet distraction, I'm finally writting again. I'll try to summarize in the next few posts during the next days most of the "lost posts".

  During last weeks I was mostly hooked on the books, again - when I start I can't let go. That means 200-250 pages a day, day after day... It's a kind of "a return to my teenage years" when I used to read until late at night, in my bed with the support of my night light. At that time I read mostly detective stories (like Agatha Christie or Victoria Holt and many others) and romance books, but I specially liked the ones that intensively and accuratedly described the emotions (of any kind) of and between the characters. Don't need to mention that the books for the school's compulsory reading list were not included :-P

  However, let's go back to my earrings of the 52 earrings a year challenge - the last ones that I posted here were #17/52 (week 24) and I created and posted on Flickr more of them. So let's glance through them with a word or two about the inspiration.

  #18/52 EARRINGS (week 25; theme of the week: the half)
The most obvious interpretation of a HALF would probably be to take a geometric shape, cut it in half and make two earrings from the halves. I was not really thrilled about this idea as I made that kind of earrings before, so I tried to find a diferent interpretation ... when the fractions came to my mind. Well, I always liked Maths at school and I gave a lot of Maths lessons during the college period ... 
 
  Unfortunately, one "one" broke during assembling and I was left with the half of the half. Maybe I will make another "one" to replace the broken part or I will just leave it as single earring - it's quite long and it can be worn like that.


#19/52 EARRINGS (week 26)
  It was the week when I was making the Bead soup for Amy (I'm participating at the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party, remember?) and I was thinking about including also a little gift for her. Then I thought: why not killing two birds with one stone??!! (I really don't like this idiom, in Slovenian it's about flies). 
  The inspiratin was the elder flower and I wanted to make it sparkling ... Amy says she likes them, so I'm very happy :-)


#20/52 EARRINGS (week 27; theme of the week: favourite colour)
  If you take a look at my Flickr photostream it's more that obvious what my favourite colours are, so it was quite obvious also my choice for this week's theme. I opted for a mother-of-pearl leafs and freshwater pearls, no polymer clay this time.


#21/52 EARRINGS (week 27; to catch up the current week)
  As I've mentioned before I joined the challenge 52 earrings quite late - my 1st week was the the 13th of the challenge. I'm catching up the missed 12 weeks making one more pair a week when I manage to and this is one of them. These fishes were made from polymer clay quite some time ago, but waited on my working bench to be painted and assembled with wire. On week 27 I've finally managed to finish them (although the picture is all but good).


  I've missed the last two or three weeks of the challenge (have to check!) and today is the last day of the week 30, so I'm still 9 earrings short!!!

  Hope to be more productive this summer while still on vacation, but at home. However, I have also two important challenges this summer: on August 11th the reveal of the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party and on August 15th the final date to send out the Window ornament swap piece... but more about it in one of my next posts ....

July 11, 2012

What I sent to Amy and Giveaways

  Do you remember my cell-like bead soup teaser?


  Well, it arrived to Amy Severino safe and sound, in exactly a week over the ocean. She wrote such a pleasant post about my soup that made my face blushing ... - you can read it here. I'm really not sure I deserve all her compliments ...
  Anyway, I made by myself all the polymer clay "soup ingredients" and I enjoyed very much making them in my favourites colours (that happens to be also Amy's :-)). This cracling technique is very fun to play with, although I needed several attempts with the heat gun to achieve the desired effect. And here's the soup in the original version:



 It was already dark when I've finished the soup and taken this picture, so I'm borrowing from Amy's blog the close-up pictures of my polymer clay beads.


  I think I will make more of this cracled focals and beads, I like them very much and I'm also having fun discovering different possibilities. I can't wait to see what will Amy create with these beads!!!! Our reveal date is August, 11.



  It is also time for different GIVEAWAYS:

** Lori Anderson, our Bead Soup Blog Party hostess is having a big five-part giveaway, where you can win:
 #1 = bits and bobs from Bead and Button,
 #2 = free Bead Soup Book, written by her and soon to be published,
 #3 = Lori's ebook on blogging inspirations,
 #4 = an "I'm a Bead Souper" tote bag or
 #5 = a Mystery Soup hand mixed by Lori.
It's not easy to choose between such enticing prices!!! However I think I would go for her book first and and a mystery soup hand mixed by lori as I love surprises :-)

** Beading Arts is hosting a Tagua nut beads from Equadorian Hands Giveaway. I have never worked with tagua nut beads and I would like to.

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  Moja pošiljka "župce" (za 6. Bead Soup Blog Party) za Amy je prispela srečno na cilj, v točno enem tednu preko oceana. Amy je o tem napisala tako navdušeno objavo na blogu, da mi je postalo kar nerodno in nisem prepričana, da si res zaslužim tak kompliment :-P Hvala, Amy!
  Kakorkoli že, vse kose iz polimerne gline sem izdelala sama, pri tem pa se zelooo zabavala s tehniko razpokanja (cracling). Kar nekaj poskusov je bilo potrebnih, da sem dobila pravo mero razpokanja, točno tako, kot sem želela. Sicer pa bodo tudi ostale plahtice in koščki našli svojo uporabo. Zgoraj je tako slikica originalne "župce", ali kot ji Kitty pravi "mineštre".
  Zdaj sem pa res radovedna, kaj bo Amy naredila iz njih!!! Najin datum razkritja izdelkov je 11. avgust 2012.
 



July 6, 2012

Brown-ies for me

  Hello! I'm half day late, I know, I promised a picture of my soup for yesterday evening, but some things came in between ... However, I don't wanna make you wait anymore and here are the brown-ies I received from Amy Severino :-)


  I have to say brown is one of the colours I wear quite often, I like blue as well and I'm very happy with the bead soup. Have you seen the small suns on the brown metallic beads (bottom right ones)?



  And the blue night drops?



  They are gorgeous!! I think that the "out of my confort zone" challenge will be the size of the beads. I work almost exclusively with polymer clay beads I make by myself and have never worked with such a small type of beads... However I think I will have much fun playing with them!!
  Have you noticed the tiny orange seed bead? It probably fell in the soup by mistake, but I think I will take it as a little clue ...  
  The reveal date for us is the middle one - August 11, 2012. See you then ... if I don't decide to give you a teaser before ... you never know, just check the blog from time to time!



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  Malo z zamudo sicer, vendar z veseljem vam končno predstavljam "župco" (bead soup), ki sem jo dobila od Amy Severino :-)  Poimenovala sem jih kar "brown-ies" zaradi barve in ker bodo zame neke vrste piškotki, s katerimi se bom lahko igračkala nekaj časa. Najbolj so mi všeč rjave kovinske perle z malimi sončki in temno modre prosojne perle, v povečavi na drugi oz. tretji sliki.
  Cilj te izmenjave je namreč spodbuditi drugega izdelovalca nakita za "ustvarjalni izlet" izven običajnega območja udobja - z drugimi besedami to pomeni, da narediš nekaj, kar do sedaj nisi delal, pa naj bo to barva, vrsta ali oblika perl, materiali itd. Namen je torej razširiti območje razmišljanja in ustvarjalnosti.
  Rjava barva je meni kar domača, saj jo pogosto nosim, tudi modra mi je všeč. Največji izziv pa bo zame predstavljala velikost perl - s tako majhnimi namreč še nisem nikoli delala. Moj nakit je večinoma skoraj v celoti iz polimerne gline, torej iz večjih kosov, ki jih sama izdelam. Tale drobižek bo moja igračka za nekaj naslednjih tednov torej :-)  
  Ste opazili tisto drobno oranžno perlico, ki je po vsej verjetnosti po nesreči padla v vrečko s temno modrimi? Prav žari izmed ostalih! ... hm, hmmm .... ideja!!!
  Z Amy sva izbrali srednji datum razkritja, to je 11. avgust, in takrat bom na blogu morala objaviti slike izdelkov, ki jih bom naredila iz prejetih perl in koščkov, ki jim seveda lahko po želji dodam še karkoli svojega. Pri tem ni potrebno, da porabim vse koščke, moram pa obvezno uporabiti obesek in zaključek.
  Seznam vseh sodelujočih lahko najdete na uradni spletni strani Bead Soup Blog Party, kjer so objavljena tudi vsa navodila in pravila za sodelovanje.
 
 

July 4, 2012

I've got it! I've got it!!!

  What a surprise in the mailbox today - the package from America arrived save and sound!!!


  I was almost afraid to open it ... a deep breath and go!!! Safely wrapped in a lot of bubbles I've found a nice package with an accompanying letter: 


  After unwrapping the ribbon, six curious eyes around me, I've opened the book-like package and I've finally seen my soup. I have to say it was a very very pleasant surprise. Thank you, Amy!!!
  However today I feel a bit naughty (blame it on the full moon) and I want to leave you hanging in suspense until tomorrow .... So, see you tomorrow night!!

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  Danes me je ob prihodu domov čakalo prav prijetno presenečenje - težko pričakovana pošta iz Amerike. Kar malo strah me je bilo odpreti kuverto, a sem bila hkrati preveeeeeč radovedna. Kot tudi še trije pari oči okoli mene ...
  V oblačku mehurčkov je bila varno zavita luštna embalaža s prijaznim spremnim pisemcem. Počasi sem odvila trak, odprla zavoj in našla "župco" (bead soup) zame. Proznati moram, da je bilo presenečenje prav prijetno. Hvala, Amy!!!
  Ker pa se danes počutim malo nagajivo (za to lahko mirno krivite polno luno) in želim skrivnost zadržati še malo samo zase ... bom slikco vsebine objavila jutri!!