Supplies and a Great New Hat

I've been starting to stock up for the holidays. Soon I need to order more clay and jewelry findings. This week I got enough little jars to keep me making specimen jar necklaces for a while, 50 to be exact, got them from judgedredge on eBay. Also a whole quarter pound of itty bitty watch parts from ChaoticSupplies on Etsy which should keep me supplied to make steampunk cephalopods for quite some time.



I also got a goody for myself. This absolutely amazing vintage bowler from Dress Up Doll Vintage on Etsy. She even included a cute matching scarf.

This week I'm working on new jewelry. I have quite a to do list that includes Frankenpods for halloween (yep, frankenstein cephalopods).

Lots of supplies lately

I always have fun when it comes to shopping for supplies. Last week I had some new clay cutters, clay, and nice brass wires come in. Then I bought some rhinestones at a craft store that I used on my latest Cosmic Octopus.

Today I had beads, gold and silver wire, clip-on earring findings, lobster clasps, more hair sticks, and a grab bag of gemstone cabochons.

So my plans for all these goodies?

The clip-on earrings I got because I've had requests for them, I'm going to offer to switch out the hook earring wires I usually use for clip-ons for whoever wants them.

The precious metal wire is for my specimen jar necklaces. I thought mixing it up with a little gold as well as silver would be nice. The brass wire is for those larger bubble shaped bottles I got a few weeks ago. Their going to be in the tradition of my Perma-Pets and Specimen Jars but a little different.

I can't wait to show all the fun new things I'm making.

Having fun

I'm getting more prepared for the art shows coming up. I got a 3rd large table and a little side table for my checkout area, a new cashbox (this one actually has a working lock!), and a few other things. If it ever stops raining this week I need to do a test run setting up the canopy and tables.

I also got yet more supplies. This time a collection of little bottles to fill.

Fun Supplies

Twitter is a wonderful thing, I was talking about how I wanted some old mechanical watches for parts and one of my friends put me in touch with a store that sells vintage items. I got 12 lovely but broken ladies watches.

Now what do I use these for? Well the innards get used for my steampunk cephalopods, I now have cuttlefish, octopus, and squid in this style. The cases are all quite pretty and I'm thinking of using them so make mini shadow-boxes. Whether they'll all be necklaces or if I'll use the wrist watch cases for bracelets I haven't decided yet. In any case I'm having fun taking the watches apart.

I have some ideas for switching up the steampunk cephalopods a bit. First of all a more feminine version in red an gold rather than gray and brass.

Goodies Arrived

My supplies arrived today and I'm all excited to start making stuff with them. Click the picture below to go to flickr and see it all labeled with what everything is.

Also in the package were a couple other cool things with the package. First this is what I saw when I opened the box which I thought was really great. Also this incredibly bright pink tote bag, cute but not my thing so I gave it to my mom.

New ideas and waiting for supplies

So I ordered some jewelry supplies Thursday night. Lots of nice goodies to play with when they arrive. I ordered from Firemountain Gems and they have lots of cool stuff and an even cooler assortment deal. I had picked out 12 items that I wanted and it came to about $46, little notice on my shopping cart said that if I ordered 15+ items I get the discounted prices for them, so I picked out 3 more things and guess what? The cost actually dropped to $37! Now that's pretty cool.

So I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive, according to FedEx that will be Thursday. In the meantime since my wrist still hurts I'm planning new designs that will use my new goodies. Some of the things I ordered are little glass bottle pendants, I'm thinking tiny Perma-Pet necklaces.

I also got some nice pastel gemstone beads and I was thinking about making some winter cuttlefish using translucent clay mixed with a little blue and white and tinting with pearl ex in various wintry colors.

Not entirely sure how I'm going to decorate them yet but I ordered some blank barrettes and hairsticks.

I'm sure other ideas will come to me once I have my little paws on my new supplies and can start playing with them.

On A Roll and Paintbrush Cleaning Tip

My sales have been picking up lately which is really great. However now I need to make some more jewelry to replace the pieces I've sold.

I'm also solidifying an idea for my commissioned sculpture, I'll share it once I'm happy with my plan. Now I need to order supplies, I'll be doing that this weekend.

Got some a cool new sculpting Squidoo lens to share Introduction to Sculpting in Polymer Clay.

Tips for all of you who paint with acrylics. Get some Dawn Power Dissolver it clean brushes beautifully, even ones that have paint caked in them of you let them soak in it for a while. I cleaned up all my brushes last night and even managed to salvage a few I thought were done for. I have no idea if it will work for paints other than acrylic but it's worth a try and if it doesn't work you can clean pots and pans with it (works great on those too, I cleaned my countertop grill with it today and that is usually pretty tough).