March 8 Swap / Osmomarčevski swap

  The girls from Izdelovalnica malih umetnin organized again a swap between Slovenian polymer clayers (of all levels). Well, this time they went international as one of the participants is from Serbia.
   Dekleta iz Izdelovalnice malih umetnin so spet organizirale swap izdelkov iz polimerne gline, ki je tokrat postal mednarodne narave, saj se nam je pridružila tudi udeleženka iz Srbije.

  For the swap everyone had to make a set of a necklace + ring or bracelet or earrings or brooch (mainly from polymer clay, but allowed to be mixed media) and send it by March 6, to be at the destination by March 8, the International Women's Day. The interesting thing about this swap was that you knew only who you have to send your item, but don't know who will you receive it from. It means it was not a one to one swap, but a circular one.
   Za swap je bilo potrebno izdelati komplet ogrlice + prstan ali zapestnico ali uhane ali broško delno ali v celoti iz polimerne gline (navodila v celoti so tukaj) ter ga poslati do 6. marca, da ga prejemnica dobi do 8. marca, kot darilo za dan žena. Najbolj zanimiv del te izmenjave pa je bilo to, da je bil "krožne narave" - vsaka sodelujoča je vedela samo, komu mora sama poslati, ni pa vedela, od koga bo darilo dobila.

  Here's the set I've sent to Tjaša:
   To je komplet, ki sem ga poslala Tjaši:

    I have to admit my first idea of the surface treatment was a little different, but did not work out as I wanted, even if the result was interesting. I'll show some other time. I hope she likes it and will wear it sometime.
   Moja prva ideja za površinsko obdelavo je bila sicer drugačna, a ni izpadla tako, kot sem želela, čeprav je bil rezultat kar zanimiv. A o tem več kdaj drugič. Vsekakor upam, da je Tjaši komplet všeč in da ga bo vsaj kdaj tudi nosila. 
 

  Let's go now to the "receiving part"!
The sender of the package for me was Sandra. She made this beautiful set in my favourite colours!!!! She said she made the set before she knew who was the recipient, so it was a really nice coincidence.
   No, pa gremo še na skrivnostni del swapa!
Točno 8. marca sem prejela paketek, pošiljateljica katerega je bila Sandra. V paketu je bil ta čudovit komplet v mojih najljubših barvah!!! Sicer je bilo to le srečno naključje, ker je pripravila komplet, še preden je izvedela, komu ga mora poslati, a pravijo, da naključja ne obstajajo ;-).

  Thank you, Sandra, very much!!!
   Sandra, najlepša hvala!!!!


  If you would like to see what have the other participants made - go here. The site is in Slovene language, but you can see the pictures of some beautiful sets.
  Če vas zanima, kaj so ustvarile ostale udeleženke, si lahko ogledate tukaj - videli boste nekaj zares čudovitih kompletov.

  Alenka

First Remake / Prva predelava

  I'll take you a few months back to the results of the Autumn swap: 7 participants had to make two different series of beads in autumn colours, and then in the second phase create a necklace with all the 14 different beads received from all the others.
  Danes bi vas rada popeljala v čas pred par meseci, ko sem sodelovala na Jesenskem swapu: 7 sodelujočih je izdelalo po dve različni seriji perl v jesenskih barvah in v drugi fazi izmenjave moralo izdelati ogrlico iz vseh 14 različnih perl.

  This is the necklace I made in that occasion:
  To je ogrlica, ki sem jo izdelala takrat:

  The difficulty was in creating a single necklace using all of the beads and they were so different between them (except one pair). I wasn't totally satisfied with the result and since then I was searching for some ideas to change it.
  Težavnost izdelave je bila v tem, da je bilo potrebno izdelati eno samo ogrlico z uporabo vseh perl, ki pa so bile zelo različne med seboj (razen enega para). Takrat s svojim končnim izdelkom nisem bila povsem zadovoljna in sem ves ta čas premlevala, kako bi ga spremenila.

  Today I can finally show you the remake!
  Danes vam lahko končno pokažem predelavo!

  I've put the beads more apart, using antique copper rings as spacers:
  Perle sem postavila bolj narazen in vmes dodala rinke v antično bakreni barvi:

  I added a leaf pendant, with the small leaf bead on it ...  

  Dodala sem tudi obesek v obliki lista in nanj obesila še perlo v obliki lista, ...

... a bird bead and a piece of green linen fabric:
... nato pa še tega ptička iz polimerne mase ter trak iz lanenega blaga:

  And this is the final result.

  In to je sedaj končni rezultat.

  Which one do you prefer? The before or after piece?
  Katera ogrlica vam je bolj všeč? Tista pred predelavo ali tale po njej?

  Be happy!
  Bodite veseli!

  Alenka 

Two days after .. & Autumn swap / Dva dni kasneje ... & Jesenski swap

  Two days after the situation is back to normal - the snow is gone almost at all. A few reminders are left on the shadowy sides of land ...
  Po dveh dneh je pri nas pogled skozi okno spet običajen. Sneg je skoraj povsem izginil, le nekaj spominčkov je ostalo na senčni strani pokrajine ...

  In October I have participated in another Slovenian (polymer clay) swap organized by Izdelovalnica malih umetnin. All the participants had to make two sets of 7 beads in autumn colours, any technique, diameter 1,5-2 cm (0.6-0.8 inches).
  Oktobra sem sodelovala v še eni slovenski izmenjavi izdelkov iz polimerne gline, ki so jo organizirala dekleta iz Ustvarjalnice malih umetnin. Vse sodelujoče smo morale narediti po dva seta 7 perl v jesenskih barvah v poljubni tehniki, obsega 1,5-2 cm.  

These are the beads I made:
To so perle, ki sem jih izdelala jaz:

 Everybody then received one bead of each set, that means 14 different beads:
 Vsaka je nato dobila po eno perlo iz vsakega seta, torej skupaj 14 različnih perl:




 and make a necklace using all of them.
 ter iz njih morala izdelati ogrlico, tako da se uporabijo vse. It was not an easy job combining such different beads in a single necklace, so I tried to pair them and put each pair on the same place at the sides and I also made some green spacers from polymer clay. This is the result:
 Glede na to, da so bile vse perle med seboj različne, to ni bila lahka naloga, zato sem jih poskušala razporediti v pare po podobnosti in perle iz para postaviti na isto mesto na vsaki strani. Za "vmesnike" sem izdelala tudi manjše zelene perle iz polimerne mase. To je moj rezultat:

 I'm not sure this is the final version, I could make some more changes as I'm not totally satisfied.   

 Po moje to ni čisto zadnja verzija in bom naredila še kakšno spremembo, ker nisem povsem zadovoljna z rezultatom.

  You can find the necklaces of the others participants here.

  Ogrlice ostalih sodelujočih si lahko ogledate tukaj.

  Be happy! / Bodite veseli!

  Alenka

Summer circular swap / Poletni krožni swap

  V slovenščini lahko prispevek preberete tukaj.

  I enjoy very much participating in swaps. The first of all was the February 2012 swap Valentine's heart, organized by a Slovenian team of 4 polymer clayers Izdelovalnica malih umetnin and then every month followed a new one. For the summer months they organized a Summer circular swap.

  Let me first briefly summarize the rules of this swap: the 4 organizers (from Izdelovalnica) have collected the initial set of 40 polymer clay pearls, focals and other pieces made by themselves. They have sent the package to the first participant that had to take 5 to 8 pieces out and put the same number of pieces (made by her) in. She had one week time to make something from the pieces she had taken out, but not more than two pieces of jewellery. Then she had to send the "renewed" set of polymer pieces to the next participant and so on.

  I was the fourth one in the line and my reveal was scheduled on June 16th. Here is the set I have received: 
 

   Happy as a child I was changing the position of the pieces, combining them in different sets, chosing some of them, then changing my decision again and again ... fortunately there was a deadline for sending the package out to the next participant, and I made this final decision

   There were mainly two criteria I adopted: first, the coordinated colours (as there was a limit of two pieces); and second, I wanted to take the pieces that differ from what I have made until now. The pumpkins were made by Flo; the golden pieces in the middle by Metuljcica and the bottom pearls were made by Roberta.

  For the golden pieces Metuljcica got the inspiration from the Buddhist prayer mills, what recolled to me the red colour (that happens to be also one of my favourites) and the golden tassels as a kind of threads of life ... resulting in this pair of earrings:

  This is also my #22 pair of 52 pairs of earrings a year. 


  The rest of the pieces in matching colours I immediately imagined as a part of a necklace. My starting point were the colours in both Roberta's pearls, but there was no way to achive just the same shades as she did ... so I decided to make a skinner blend from yellow to dark blue and use it to make small pearls from each shade. To break the symmetry and expose the pumpkins a little more I decided to insert between them some wire. I'm quite happy with the final result, what about you?

  The creatins of the other swappers are posted here - well, all the texts are in Slovene language, but you can always admire the pictures :-) You can always use the online translators, but they usually create quite a fun translation ...

  Have fun,
  Alenka