Amanda’s Musings

A few posts back I mentioned completing a custom order of cupcakes and pies. The order was for Liza of Lillybuds and she’s listed her special bouquets using my creations on her website. Take a moment to look around her site but here’s what she’s been creating:

Liza’s bouquets are also in the current edition of Notebook magazine so look out for them if you have a chance to. Congrats Liza! You can also visit her Etsy store to see more of her amazing work.

When Keziah was born I made her a few special gifts. Some were hand sewn, some knitted and some were painted. I am determined to do the same thing for Lucinda. I really don’t want her to grow up thinking that I didn’t have time to make her special things. On the top of the list is a hand stitched felt book. In order to see what I mean you have to pay a visit to my old blog. Here are the links:

Keziah’s Felt Book
Malachi’s Felt Book

A page from Malachi’s book

A page from Keziah’s book

The second book I did was for my little nephew Malachi and his had an Aussie theme. I had a great time designing these as I went. Now my plan is to come up with one for Luci and one for Malachi’s little brother (my second nephew) Ty. This will be a work in progress for a little while and I will attempt to do the two at the same time! I did make a start today at last by pulling out my large pieces of felt and seeing what I’ve got. Turns out I’ve got a lot! So here’s the first shot in a long WIP!

I just love bright colours, especially when it comes to kids things so I couldn’t help but take some extra pics of the felt all lined up.

I have no actual plan as to the theme for these two books, usually I just work it out as I go so it will be interesting to see what they turn out like this time.

I’ve just listed some new items in my Etsy store and put two of them in my Wahmania store also. Here’s a sneek peek:

I worked hard this week and got this custom order finished. I really enjoyed creating these little pastel cupcakes and lemon meringue pies on pastel plates. I quite like the glossy finish too and am almost inspired to create some little tiny chocolate sundae’s and other desserts.

While I was busy claying I had another go at creating a few other things. I quite like the red and black group which will be a necklace and earrings:

I did create a few other things but I won’t clog up this post with more photos. Sometimes I wonder why I put up pictures of my latest creations. After considering this for a bit, I think its simply because I appreciate feedback on what I create. In my non-online world I don’t have discussions about creativity, design or art with many people as it never comes up. I don’t really show many people my creations outside of the internet (in the sense that I am braver on here than in real life) and so this is a good place to connect with those who are like-minded. I don’t think its so much for ‘praise’ but more for genuine feedback. Gradually I’ve gained confidence in what I do but I have a long way to go in understanding the polymer clay medium. At the same time, I’m really looking forward to getting back into painting again. I have my painting cupboard all ready, full of oil, acrylic and pastel paints and have kept all my spare canvases from uni…..ah one day! I’d appreciate any feedback on the things I’ve posted here. Without refining my skills I cannot improve. Thanks for those who do give feedback, its very much appreciated.

In the last few days I’ve had three separate orders so I’ve been busy. Its so nice to have a custom order and get back into claying again, even if I’m juggling things between two kids. The exciting thing is that these sales will be enough to train two Malawi pastor’s in AIDS and HIV knowledge.

On top of this, I feel as if I’m back in the saddle as far as creativity with Keziah. She sat at the table for a bit and played with her playdough today while I polyclayed. That was fun!

So, here’s my bit of creativity for this week so far:

I wasn’t the only one being creative in our house today. Michael got very clever with Kezi’s lunch and she quite enjoyed eating it too!

This week I received the prize pack for the MadeIt t-shirt competition. In it were some dainty notepaper, cards and gift tags from Truth be Told, a felt lady badge from Anna Laura and a tiny bottle of rocky road scent from Bottled Up Emotions. Lovely items!

Lately I have been sitting in my swivelly office chair for long periods of time due to sore back etc that comes with this stage of pregnancy. This has allowed me a bit too much internet browsing time and thinking time! Here’s a few things that have been running through my head:

1. I’ve been reading Alan Alda’s book ‘Never Have Your Dog Stuffed‘ which has gotten me to think about the series of MASH a lot more than usual. I’ve found myself looking up the ‘where are they now’ links on imdb.com and even discovered that the actor Larry Linville who played Maj. Frank Burns not only died but was married 5 times. I don’t know why this is interesting but it is.

2. I found a great idea for a display on my online fellow polymer clayer’s flickr page. Tamara from Block Party Press covered her display in brown paper. This has gotten me thinking about using this as a basis for our next SIM display. This is good news because it means that my brain is finally starting to think more about SIM again. Its been switched to other things for a few months. I was thinking along the lines of it implying God’s gift to us, or the words, parcel, present, favourite things….more thinking needed on that one.

3. This is the big week. Wednesday is the day. I had so much time on my hands that I was able to work out that I go into the hospital at 4.30pm Tuesday CANADIAN TIME.

4. I have decided that I really enjoy getting to meet new people. This is news to myself. This is not something I used to enjoy. Might have something to do with being housebound (or swivel chair bound) a fair bit lately.

5. I want to sit and have a look at the connection in the Bible between creativity and God. I’m guessing the words ‘In the beginning God CREATED the heaven’s and the earth’ would be a good place to start seeing as this is Genesis 1:1 (first verse in the Bible).

6. I miss painting.

That’s enough thinking for a while I think. After Wednesday I may find that I have more middle of the night thinking time but instead of sitting here with two free hands to type away, I’ll only have one.

Today was the inaugural Made on the Left Market at the Hyde Park Hotel. If I wasn’t 9 months pregnant I probably would have had a stall myself. Instead I went down there with Mum and Michael and had a great time walking around meeting quite a few of the Etsy girls I’ve been chatting to online for a while. The amazing thing is that the fabulous five (Dara, Jacquie, Ali, Rosanna and Sarah) who organised the market have had only 8 weeks to do it. The turnout was great, it was packed when we arrived after lunch and they said that the crowd was thinner than before lunchtime!

Those I got to meet included:

The Tiny Little Girl
Aussie Patches (we’ve met previously)
Planet Lime
Letters For Lilly
Get Silvered (also met before although like myself, she was visiting today)
Ramsden Designs
Dara Art (also met Dara previously)
Rosanna Elizabeth
Odd Girl Out (we share the medium of Polymer Clay)
Tiny Monster (I didn’t get to meet you because you were dealing with customers but I did see your stall)
J2aney (another fellow polymer clay artist)
Desert Bloom (who I had a great conversation with about having babies!!)
Scrapindipity (again, you had customers so I didn’t get to meet you)
The Broken Magpie
Holly Courtney (we met last year also)
In Mono Designs (Feli - we also met previously)

It was nice to meet you guys and put names and faces together. My Mum was smiling at me because I was introducing myself by saying ‘Hi, I’m Polyclarific’ instead of ‘I’m Amanda’ but that’s how we all recognise each other, via our online shop names.

Finally, the most exciting thing was that the market got advertised on both the TV and radio as well as in papers around Perth. I’ll be in line to have a stall at the one that’s held next year and hopefully it will be doubly as successful as this one. Good on you Ladies!

Despite feeling completely fatigued I made myself sit down and play with clay the other night. I really miss being clay creative on a regular basis and just haven’t been able to do it since moving house. After next week (the big day is July 16th) I’m not sure how often I’ll get to do it either. Anyway, here’s the result of mucking around with the clay. I actually did some more claying last night for a PCAGOE charity entry and if I get a photo of it I’ll put it up as I quite like the result. That might be it for a while though!

Result of the ‘mucky’ end of the cane, I actually like this imperfect end much better:

I also managed to create this little brooch of roses, not baked yet though:

Digging around in amongst the things that made it to our new house I found this sheet of embroidery. I’m not sure exactly what you call it but most of us would have seen the finished product in our grandmothers houses as doilies or tablecloths. I quite like it, I like the quality of the fabric and intend on completing this one. I want to try to get the stitching very fine, high quality just like my Nanna used to do. I found a second piece which was half done (not shown) so I’ll try to do that too. Anyway, I love finds like this and the fact that it belonged to her makes it even more special!