Work in Progress: PYOP Ornaments

Yesterday Brie and I went to The Pottery Stop to work on pottery for the first time in months. I'd been thinking about doing some smaller pieces...something manageable where I can work on several at one time while I wait for parts of them to dry.

I'm using my usual wax resist technique on these ornaments but I thought I'd try something a little different and not just use a black background (which will turn into the outlines of the drawings on my piece). So on some of these I am experimenting with dark brown and gray backgrounds, for a softer outline.

So on the top right is an image that may look familiar...I've used Whaley on a few items before but I love him so I painted him again. The bird in the tree also may look familiar...

The two bottom images are Tuscan scenes I've been thinking about painting for a while. Just reminiscing about Italy a bit...

The fifth ornament, on the top left, is still blank...wasn't sure what I wanted to paint there yet. Brie (always helpful) suggested Sean Connery in a red diaper a la Zardoz (if you haven't seen that movie, it is totally bizarre, but worth checking out for his outfit alone!)

I was thinking more along the lines of an elephant with a pretty blanket on its back, or perhaps a pirate ship, or a little city scene. If I'm gonna do Zardoz I'll definitely have to do some practice sketches first and not just freehand it.

More pictures to come when these are done...and they will be for sale in my etsy shop!

New ornaments, necklaces, and other items in my shop!

Check out these new listings in my etsy shop!


Elephant felt Christmas ornament



Three purple hearts and flowers felt pins



Set of 4 felt owl Christmas ornaments



Pretty posies medallion felt necklace in shades of gray



Pretty posies woodland medallion felt necklace



Purple heart felt pin



Red poppies medallion felt pin



Woodland flowers medallion felt pin in light green



Woodland flowers medallion felt pin

In other news, I seem to be sick again...but I also got a really cool custom order for 15 felt flower pins last week, so that kept me somewhat busy.

I tried to make each one a little different. Didn't they turn out nice? :)

Leaves in all colors!

I finished lots more batches of leaf coasters and have posted them to etsy...go take a look!

Brown, Tan, and Ochre Leaf Coasters

Leaf Coasters in Shades of Blue

Burgundy and Brown Leaf Coasters

Gray and Black Leaf Coasters

Any other ideas for color combos?

New etsy listings: felt flower and leaf cuffs

Happy New Year to everyone!  The past few days have been...uh...somewhat productive. Haha, I spent a lot of time reading books and watching HGTV instead of doing anything useful. Sometimes you gotta relax and do nothing though, right?

Today I did manage to get the new cuffs up on etsy!

Felt Flower Cuff Bracelet in Purple and Lavender



Felt Flower Cuff in Red, Black, and White

Felt Leaf Cuff in shades of green

Felt Flower Cuff in Blue and Turquoise

Leaves and bugs and Robin Hood

Ok so I'm still fairly sick but at least yesterday I recovered the use of my brain! I've been working on some new felt accessories for my etsy shop.

All of the blog reading the other day came somewhat in handy, I got some new ideas for crafty items to make, and different ways to list them.

I started by making this ladybug gift set, which I adore!

I've also been thinking about making a felt cuff bracelet for a long time, I keep seeing them in craft books and online. I wanted mine to be all forest-y so I did leaves (and an acorn, on one). Why foresty? Because of this:

Yeah, that's Jason Connery (yep, son of Sean!) as Robin Hood in the 80's TV series. I've always liked Robin Hood things and I must admit I was mildly obsessed with the show, even as a kid. Check out his fantastic armband wrist-cuff things!

As I recall, Kevin Sorbo had some pretty sweet armbands in Hercules as well.

Although his armbands usually had lots of metal hardware and stuff on them. (For what? Did he attach things to them, and pull like a boat trailer or something?)

In any case, here are my felt leaf cuffs.

It was a lot easier to photograph on a towel than on my own wrist! However, it made me think that these might make nice napkin rings too :)

 All three cuffs (the acorn one is not quite finished):

The ribbon is kind of thick, I think for my next batch I would use something smaller.  

A look at the backs. You can see a little stitching, but not tons.

What do you think?



Some birdies to welcome the spring!

Between a bunch of parties and other fun things this weekend, I found time to work on a few new pins for my etsy shop. The first pin came out exactly as I had imagined it...two cute little birds in love!

The second pin was kind of an experiment, to see if I could even make a cockatiel that small on a felt pin. It actually did not come out the way I was expecting, although it is still kinda cute.

 

More pins coming soon!

Etsy items for the week

Just posted some more appliqued felt tags to my etsy shop...here they are!

Kind of a woodland, forest-y set.

Kites! Ready for warm weather and spring breezes!

Valentine's Day...or "You Are All"

I spent this past Saturday making valentines with my friend and her 6-year-old daughter...what fun!

I used to love making special valentines when I was a kid. These are the ones I received on Saturday...my favorite is the heart person which says "You are all" (or "You are all heart," depending upon your interpretation).



Like most kids, we usually got some cheapo box of generic valentines to give out to the whole class. My brothers and I found it vastly amusing (in a toilet-related way) to save the valentine that said "You wipe me out!" to give to the kids in the class we did not like. It had a picture of an alien on it, which I never understood...maybe they intended this in a "aliens take over the world and wipe out humans" sort of way? I prefer the toilet interpretation.

I had a couple of etsy treasury features this week--Never Tired of a Snowflake, Sunny and Bright on a Gloomy Sunday, and  Sunny Spring Flowers.

Also, I worked on some more heart pins on Sunday and have one up in my etsy shop already--go check it out!

Custom Order--Purple Heart Pins

Mike, who I used to work with, put in a custom order this week for some of my purple heart pins to give as gifts. He wanted two pins so I made a bunch for him to choose from:

I haven't made these in a while but I'm thinking they would also be nice to sell in my etsy shop for Valentine's Day. Yay for custom orders!

Octopurses!

Today I finally finished my two new octopus purses!



I love how glam the blue/green one looks with the sequins. The orange one is just kind of plump and cheerful.

It reminds me of when I was in middle school, and we had the opportunity to get pen pals in French class. My best friend asked for a boy pen pal from France. When he first wrote to her (in English), he said, "My name is Sebastian and I am quite plump." I love this.

I just listed the purses on etsy as well, go take a look!
 

Coaster frenzy!

I just posted a bunch of new sets of coasters to my etsy shop...new colors and stuff! :) Go check it out!

What's new...

First, a sneak peek at my octopi purses! I have selected lining fabrics and will be working on the stitching this evening.

Also, I just posted a bunch of new items to my etsy shop! More flower pins, hoot owl necklaces, a birdy felt tag, and some woodland bookmarks.