Fun with Biscuits etc. Not a Tutorial. A Journey Down My Creative Process, Such As It Is. . .

Start off by having a silly idea while trying to get to sleep.

Wake up in the morning and think "Why not? What have I got to lose?" etc etc and wander into the workshop. After all it is still Lockdown pretty much and you are going slightly nuts like everyone else. . .

In line with the aforementioned silly idea, take some of these. . .

'These' being what are known as 'biscuits', which shouldn't be confused with what are normally thought of as biscuits round here as they are distinctly inedible, even if dunked in really hot tea.
They are in fact small pieces of plywood used to accurately join two sheets of wood, as in a worktop. Useful things, only I didn't get on with them particularly, even with the proper biscuit jointer power tool thingy. I have plenty of them lying around though, and have previously used them every now and then in bead related projects. (I have no idea if Americans call them 'cookies' or not. . . Quite probably. Whatever. . . )

Now take some of this stuff, which is 2mm diameter approx blue plastic 'wire' from the large reel of it to be found in the shed, left by our house's previous owner. I assume it is strimmer wire but I can't be certain, and am not that bothered what it is. I am just aware of it sitting there awaiting some sort of use. (My strimmer uses those little plastic things rather than plastic wire, which though a bit pricey, is so much better. The wire ones are a complete and utter total pain.)

Lay the biscuits on a thin sheet of polymer clay and cut round them. Bake and then glue the resulting poly clay pieces onto the biscuits. Tidy up the edges.

Drill 2mm holes in patterns or at random intervals in the poly clay fronted biscuits.

Cut some short, roughly the same size, lengths of the plastic wire and poke them into the holes in the biscuits. Try different length bits on each biscuit. Look at the results and go "Hmmm.. ."

Decide to paint the biscuits with bright colours that will set off the blue of the plastic bits nicely.

Decide you quite like the results and glue the bits in place.

Think "Now what?"

Sleep on it. Not literally, obviously as that would be a bit spiky.

Next day, decide to see what one of the simpler ones would look like as a pendant. OK, a bit obvious maybe, but worth keeping. Looks like a little scrubbing brush, but in a good way I hope ;-)

Try one out as a brooch. Kind of funky, but as the plastic bits on this one are quite long the whole thing kind of hangs down instead of sitting nicely on the chest or lapel or whatever.
Try to stabilise it with some upcycled wire grid. That works pretty well. Another keeper.

Now, get distracted by the model railway figures you just bought, and ones you had around anyway. For fun, put the two retro, cute kids on the more minimal biscuit as though standing by a fence or somesuch. Nice. But how to use this as a pendant as it's flat and horizontal, not vertical. Maybe a tallish wire loop would do the job and allow the piece to be hung on a chain or something. That could work. I like. . .

For more fun, put the milk churn carrying man in amongst some shorter plastic bits, like he's walking through grass. How about a wire grid to maybe allow the piece to be strung somehow? The grid obviously needs some electronic components and an image transfer abstract tile to finish it off. The electronic bits also go with his shirt.

I like this 3D effect. The figures have a sort of environment to exist in.

Box carrying man can also get in on the 3D act, with a grid and another image transfer abstract tile above him as he heaves his box through the rather small opening in the 'fence'.

The question "Why?" doesn't need to be asked unless the answer "Because" is sufficient for you, because that's all the reply you will get ;-)

These can be weird pendants or equally weird small ornaments for the mantlepiece.

Just what you've always wanted ;-)

Now call it a day and wait for the next silly idea. . .

Jon x

They came, they saw, they faved, they went away again. . ;-)

Well, I had a great idea the other day. I would get all my beads I saved from deconstructed necklaces that never quite worked out, all my experimental beads that didn't quite fit with others, and some beads I like but haven't used for anything and most likely won't use for anything, photograph them and list them as a big destash (auto correct says 'deaths'.  .) sale. I could publicise it on Facebook etc etc. So I did that.
I got a nice response, so thanks for the views and faves, but it didn't turn into the stampede of bargain hunters snapping up beads right left and centre that I was hoping for ;-) Never mind. You can lead a camel to water, they say, but you can't make it put on a blonde wig and dance the Watusi. . . Wait, maybe they don't exactly say that, but you get the gist.
I'll keep the destash section going for a week more maybe, then de-activate the listings, as they are kind of filling up my front page somewhat.
I have had some sales though, just not anything in the destash sale. .

In between photographing and listing old beads I have been making some flattened profile bicones. I also have been reacquainting myself with my marbling/crackle technique and reminding myself of its little ways. The results have been good, though I say it myself. I went with more subtle colours which added to the gentle, faux ceramic, faux stone vibe that they exude. . .

The other recent departure for me in my bead making of late has been the manufacture of some simple, unadorned but still rustic beads, intended to compliment my other beads. They have gone down quite well, as they are reasonably priced and come with a discount if you buy with other beads. I think Etsy allows me to do that. Can't see why they would have a problem with it.

Bees in the chimney - I spoke to a local beekeeper on the phone. A really helpful old chap who gave me the lowdown on the issue. He had a wonderful Norfolk accent, and told me the problems trying to get rid of the bees in my 'chimbley' could bring. The upshot is that I will leave them be (bee?) and see if they survive the winter. They don't fly once it gets below 10 degrees, so we can get the roofing work done next month maybe. They have still been coming down the chimney in small numbers though. I blocked the small hole they were getting out of the wood burner through with polymer clay (of course!) and draped an old coat over the front just in case they were attracted by the light. That seems to have stopped the problem. But I'm not opening the door unless gets it gets cold. The old beekeeper said I should light a 'smookey' fire to spook them if they have tried to build anything in the actual lined part of the chimney.
Country living eh?
On another country living note, I thought we were down to just one guinea fowl as I hadn't seen the other one for a day or two. I sadly wandered the edge of the garden looking for the corpse or evidence of a fox of whatever, but found nothing. Nothing that is, until I disturbed guinea fowl two from her nest under the hedge. . . That's where she had been. Nesting, in October! Poor silly thing. Oh well, they are from the plains of Africa, so haven't got a clue about rural East Anglia and things like winter. The eggs most likely won't hatch, and if they do I give them ten minutes before they turn up their little toes and die. The last brood they had lasted about a week, and that was in the high summer.
It's a hard world.
Jon x

Big steps. . .

I've been busy this last few days. Well, I've been busy this last few months on this particular project. We're sorting out the house, ready to put it on the market very soon. We made a list of things that needed doing, about four months ago, and have steadily worked our way through it. This last few days was just the cleaning and putting things out of sight to be ready for the photographer. He came yesterday, so I'm in that strange limbo you get when you have just stopped being busy and can't quite figure out what to do with yourself.
So I haven't done much claying, and haven't posted anything. I have been listing a backlog of stuff onto my shop though.
I did play around with some textures and some bits from the hardware store though.

Too big and heavy for earrings, probably, though I might be wrong. Cool for arty statement pendants though I think.

Still waiting for the house pics and description to come through, to be approved by us, but next time I post we may be in the throes of showing people round, fielding offers and all that stuff. Then all we have to do is find the right house even further out into the country. . .

Waste not. . .

Even though polymer clay isn't ever so expensive I still don't like consigning potentially useful bits to the scrap . . . er. . . lump in my case. (What there is of it gets rolled into a multicoloured clump, like the way plasticene always ended up when I was a kid.)
So when I made these hollow beads I posted about before,

I used the squares cut out of the middle of their inner layers, to make these hollow beads,

Then the squares cut out of the middle of those beads' inner layers got made into these non hollow beads.

Only the little scrappy edge bits left over were fed to the 'lump'. . .

What I liked about this whole progression was that only the first part was planned, the rest was a spontaneous reaction to seeing the cut out bits in front of me.
I'm not trying to maintain that this was a major piece of lateral thinking or a unique insight, just the kind of enjoyable creative diversion we all make from time to time. Let's call it 'Play'. . .

I'm sure I read something recently about how useful play is in the creative process, (the Fall edition of Polymer Arts magazine I think) and I can only concur. The imagination and inventiveness involved in play make it a valuable and precious thing. For reasons I can't fathom those attributes are often underestimated and even dismissed, seemingly just because using them can involve fun, and of course anything fun is somehow not 'serious' and therefore not really the domain of adults/professionals/serious practitioners.
Yeah well, I'm happy to leave the serious work to the Grown Ups. I'll keep playing with stuff and see what I can come up with.
You can join in if you like ;-)
Jon x