My Unicorn has Landed in his new Home

  It's been quite a while since I've participated in the Journal Cover Swap - a one to one swap in your favourite technique. My swap partner was Byrd Tetzlaff and I have witten about the journal cover I received from her here. Yes, it was almost a month ago!!!

  My package for Byrd most probably took a trip around the globe before finally landind in US as it needed THREE WHOLE WEEKS to arrive to her!!! Usually my mail to US needed 1 week exactly. This time I was really worried that it has been lost or stolen and I was already thinking about making a new one and send it to Byrd by registered mail.

  However, after three weeks I have received the good new from Byrd that the package has finally safe and sound at her place.

 Before I show you the final result let me first tell you a little bit about the process in creating it. 

  First, I had to decide on the subject of the cover. Byrd and I had a little chat about our preferences. She said she likes just anything, from canning to textures. She likes whimsy and fairy-tale stuff, textures and abstracts. Well, I've decided for a fairy tale figure with wings. A fairy seemed quite difficult, because I'd have to create a human face, so a Unicorn came to my mind as it was also a figure in Slovenian fairy tales.

  Second, I had to choose the technique. It was supposed to be a favourite one, but I still don't have one, I'm still learning. I tried with little canes, first, but didn't like the result very much. The second attempt was with thin extruded polymer "cords":

 
Thin slices were cut from the "cord":

and then pressed on a white sheet of polymer clay:

This is the finished Unicorn:

drawing source

The unicorn was cut out and placed on the flat cover, then the wing were cut out and added. I tried several techniques for the background, but nothing worked, so I've decided to use acrylic paints and make a "skinner blend - like" background with sunrise (or sunset) colours and visible texture:
   

  There was still something missing, but I didn't know what. After a short consult with Kitty the journal cover was finally finished. She told me that her painting teacheres always emphasised that a picture needs a frame - and so I' did:

  I'm so sorry for the quality of the picture, but I took it late at night under a lamp, hurrying to finish and package it, to send it the next day. At that time I didn't have the energy to create the proper conditions to make a good picture.

  So, my Unicorn has a new home, now, with Byrd in the US.

  Believe in miracles!
  Alenka

Gift receiving Thursday / Obdarovani četrtek

  Last Thursday was a gift-receiving day for me, even if it wasn't my birthday. Coming home from work I've opended the mail-box and there were two envelopes from United States waiting for me!!! Can you imagine - two in the same day. I'm not getting packages from US very often, so this was a great surprise (even if I was expecting both of them)!
  Prejšnji četrtek je bil dan za prejemanje daril zame, čeprav ni bil moj rojstni dan. Ko sem se vrnila iz službe, sem v poštnem nabiralniku našla dve kuverti iz ZDA. Dve kuverti na isti dan!! Glede na to, da ne prejemam ravno pogosto pošte iz Amerike, je bilo to veliko presenečenje (čeprav sem obe pričakovala).

  The first one was a yellow envelope with a nice handwritting from Lori Anderson - and I knew exactly what was inside: do you remember, some time ago I won a giveaway as part of her Bead Soup Book Tour. And this was the content of the envelope:
  Prva pošiljka je bila rumena kuverta z lepo pisavo od Lori Anderson, za katero sem točno vedela, kaj vsebuje. Se spomnite - pred nekaj tedni sem bila srečna dobitnica nagradne igre na Lorinem blogu v okviru njene Bead Soup Book turneje. To pa je bila vsebina kuverte:

different threads I will certainly use for jewelry making. Lori, thank you very much!
 različni trakovi, ki jih bom, seveda, uporabila pri izdelavi nakita. Lori, najlepša hvala!


  The second envelope was from my journal cover swap partner Byrd Tetzlaff - I've blogged about her here. And the content of this package was a total enigma for me - well, not really, I knew it was a journal cover ... but had no clue about how it looks.
  Drugo pošiljko je poslala moja partnerica v izmenjavi naslovnic dnevnika Byrd Tetzlaff, o kateri sem že napisala par besed tukaj. Vsebina te pošiljke pa je bila velika uganka zame - no, ne ravno neznanka, ker sem vedela, da vsebuje naslovnico dnevnika ... vendar pa nisem imela pojma, kakšno.

  My heart almost stopped when I saw the package was weirdly flattened and there was a label "item from abroad arrived damaged" on it. I was so afraid to open it and find a broken cover ... As the curiosity was stronger than fear I opened it immediately and a sigh of relief was the next thing everybody heard.
  Kar zmanjkalo mi je sape, ko sem opazila, da je škatla čudno sploščena in da je na njej nalepka z napisom "pošiljka iz tujine je prispela: v poškodovanem stanju". Kar strah me je bilo, da bom notri našla polompleno ploščico ... Vendar pa je bila moja radovednost veliko večja od strahu in naslednji glas, ki ga je bilo slišati, je bil vzdih olajšanja.

  This is the journal cover Byrd made for me. I like all the bright colours and and the mandala like pattern very much. Thank you, Byrd!

  To je torej naslovnica za (umetniški) dnevnik, ki ga je Byrd izdelala zame. Zelo so mi všeč svetle, živahne barve in vzorec, podoben mandali. Najlepša hvala, Byrd!

  I've sent my cover for Byrd the same day as she did, but she still hasn't received it :-(  I'm getting a little worried about this delay ... hope it will arrive safe to her. Of course, I can not show it yet .... you will have to come back again.

  Naslovnico, ki sem jo izdelala za Byrd sem poslala isti dan kot ona, vendar še vedno ni prispela do nje :-(  Počasi me že skrbi, da se je pošijlka kje izgubila ... res upam, da bo kmalu prispela na cilj. Ravno zaradi tega pa vam je še ne morem pokazati, zato se boste morali vrniti še kdaj na moj blog.

  By the way, tomorrow I'll be hosting a giveaway on this blog, so you're welcome to join me.

  Mimogrede, jutri bom objavila nagradno igro na tem blogu in vas vse vabim, da se mi pri tem pridružite.

  Be happy,

  Bodite srečni!

 

  Alenka