Amanda's Musings

Archive for Wahmania

Sales for May and June – Calling all Cyclists!

May 1, 2008 / Molly / 9 comments

After having a look around the SIM Projects website I have found the project that the Polyclarific profits will be going to for the next two months.

Are you a cyclist? Do you own a bike? Do your kids own a bike, maybe everyone in the family has one? In parts of Africa a bike is something that is out of reach for most. These people get around on foot and are used to travelling long distances along dusty paths. In the country of Ghana SIM has a project (#94020) where around $60US will buy a bike for a Pastor, allowing them to visit those who are needy much faster. The details from the SIM information page are as follows:

In Northern Ghana, dedicated pastors and evangelists bring new meaning to the scripture verse, “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” Because villages are spread out, they must walk considerable distances in order to minister or meet together with other church leaders. Pastor Jacob Wesong walked 4 to 5 hours each way in order to attend meetings with other church leaders.

The Bicycles for Evangelists Project is changing things for Jacob and many others. Instead of tiring by traveling on foot, riding a bicycle cuts travel time and fatigue in half. Now there is more time for pastoring and bringing the Good News of Christ to others. Many leaders who have received bicycles have seen their ministry expand. Not only are they able to visit and minister in outlying areas, they are able to meet other community needs such as transporting the sick to medical clinics.

This vital project is enabling outlying areas to be reached. Evangelists are bringing Christ’s love to those who have never heard, and pastors are visiting and encouraging small, isolated fellowships that they would not have been able to reach on foot.

I hope to make enough sales over the next two months to buy at least four bicycles for four needy Pastors in Ghana. A reminder that Mother’s Day is coming up, maybe you will find something in one of my stores that would be lovely for your Mum. Here are the links once again:

Etsy
Wahmanaia
MadeIt
Mintd

Category: Africa, All Sorts of Things, Etsy, Madeit, Mintd, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, Sales and Competitions, Wahmania /

Only 3 Days Left

April 28, 2008 / Molly / 2 comments

There are just three days left of April which means that in three days time I will be switching to sending my shop profits to a new SIM project. I am investigating an option for the months of May and June and will announce where the money will go as soon as I know more information.

At this point the total amount that will head over to Camp La Joya in Peru is $185. This will be enough to send 5 kids to camp. Like I said, there are still three days left so I might be able to sell a few more things before the end of the month. I would love to be able to send 10 kids to camp so if you are thinking of buying from one of my shops (maybe for Mother’s day), here are the links to my stores once again:

Etsy
MadeIt
Wahmania

I recently started a Polyclarific page on facebook which links to all my stores. A good friend (and fellow SIM worker) Julie Bazal (scroll down to half way on that link) designed this great postcard for me which I am currently having printed. Didn’t she do a great job!!!

Category: All Sorts of Things, Art, Etsy, Madeit, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, SIM, Wahmania /

Daisy Chain and English Gardens

April 18, 2008 / Molly / No comments

I have just added the following items to my Wahmania shop. Soon I’ll add them to my Etsy shop too and a few more!!

and here’s what’s on its way:

Category: All Sorts of Things, Art, Etsy, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, Wahmania /

More Beads are a Coming!

April 16, 2008 / Molly / One comment

I have recently been trying out some new techniques including rose caning (see my previous post) and ‘proper’ mokume gane. The results were quite nice and today I finished off the pendants I’d made last week.

The steps involved are quite lengthy. For anything involving a cane the steps include

Skinner blending
Creating the cane
Slicing the and creating the pendant/beads
Baking the clay
Sanding (with 4 grades of sandpaper)
Buffing off the white film
Dipping in Polish and allowing to dry
Rebaking to set the polish

The Mokume Gane is similar except that I created a flat layer of mokume gane first before shaping into beads.

Here are some of the results followed by the sanded beads/pendants after dipping and before rebaking. They are sitting on my homemade drying rack:

All of these will be for sale very soon in my stores. ALL PROFITS from ALL SALES still go to the work of SIM at Camp La Joya in Peru.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Art, Etsy, Madeit, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, Wahmania /

More New Items For Sale

April 12, 2008 / Molly / One comment

As my sales for Camp La Joya continue I have listed some new items in my Etsy and Wahmania stores and also in my MadeIt store. At the moment the stats for each store are:

Etsy 145 Items
Wahmania 50 Items
MadeIt 15 Items

Etsy US Dollars – Price range – $2.50 – $50.00
Wahmania AU Dollars – Price range – $4.00 – $35.00
MadeIt AU Dollars – Price range – $4.99 – $16.00

Many of these items in the second and third shop are found in my Etsy store also.

Recently listed items include:

And a few more! The felt items above are what I call Art-stitch gift tags. They have a little pocket on the reverse side where you can put a little message. They work well as luggage tags too! Many other colours and styles in store.

Category: All Sorts of Things, Etsy, Madeit, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, Sewing, SIM, Wahmania /

Pincushions Finally For Sale

April 8, 2008 / Molly / One comment

Last year I mentioned that Suki from tamptation.etsy.com has kindly made me a stamp using one of the designs from my moleskine sketches. I had then explained that I stamped the design onto felt and that there would be pincushions for sale in my stores soon. My aim was to put them in the shops over January but seeing as I had the creative energy of a toothpick at the time, it didn’t happen.

They say that things pick up as far as energy goes in the second and third trimesters and for me its turned out to be true. If anything, its more a sense that once we move house and then the baby arrives, I probably won’t have any time for creativity or listing things in shops for a while.

In light of that, I have FINALLY gotten around to photographing and listing my hand stitched (not machine) and designed pincushions for sale in my Etsy and Wahmania stores.

So, here are some of the finished products. I have 8 listed and am also gradually adding some art-stitch gift tags that I still have left over.

The same thing still applies, ALL profits from my stores go to the work of SIM and for March and April it’s been Camp La Joya in Peru.

Here’s the pincushions:

Category: Art, Etsy, Polyclarific, Sewing, Wahmania /

50th Sale on Etsy

April 6, 2008 / Molly / One comment

I’m quite excited to say that today I had my 50th official sale on Etsy. I have actually sold more that this on there as I’ve done a couple of custom jobs but this is the number that shows up on my shop sidebar now:

I have a record somewhere on my computer which tells me all my sales up to around the end of last year (which needs updating!) but I don’t know how many sales I’ve had overall including all the places I’ve sold from.

The exciting thing is that I’ve had another four sales in the last three days which brings my Camp La Joya total to $138 so far. This will allow three kids in Peru to go along to the campsite when the camps are going again. I hope to send a lot more along than three so if you are looking to buy something, perhaps for Mother’s Day then you might find something in one of my stores. The links are in the sidebar.

Category: Etsy, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, Wahmania /

Reshooting

April 4, 2008 / Molly / One comment

One thing that I’ve been meaning to do in my online shops is reshoot a heap of photos. When I first started to list things online I thought the pics were passable. I used to take them in the midday bright sunlight which gave them a stark white background. Since then I’ve learnt a lot. I tend to use filtered light nowadays and one of these days I’m going to make myself a light box!

Here’s an example of a before and after shot:

Before

After

And another example.

Before

After

And finally:

Before

After

As you can probably tell, its the aqua blue that I have most trouble with. Its very hard to take a photo of it without it coming out fluorescent. There is obviously lots of room for improvement in these photos too but that may come when I get a proper camera or a light box!

You can see all these improvements in my Etsy store now!

Category: Etsy, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, Wahmania /

Camp La Joya Again

April 2, 2008 / Molly / 4 comments

During the month of March, all my sales went towards the work of SIM in Peru at Camp La Joya. I have decided to continue this into April. So, as I’ve said before, perhaps you need a gift (MOTHER’S DAY IS COMING UP) or would like something custom made. Feel free to have a look in my online stores and see if something catches your eye.

I thought I would give you a bit more information about the campsite. Camp La Joya is a ministry dedicated to evangelism, discipleship and leadership training.

Scholarships to send poor children to camp.

One week of camp costs $40. Project number PE89270 earmarked Camp Scholarships.

Counselor Training

To put a counselor through one of the CCI courses costs USD $60. The majority of the counselors are from very poor homes and have little or no income. In order to continue with these courses and training we need your support. Project number PE89270 Earmarked Counselor Training

Here’s the links to my stores:

Polyclarific at Etsy
Polyclarific at Wahmania

Category: All Sorts of Things, Etsy, Polyclarific, Polymer Clay, SIM, Wahmania /

Rose Beads

March 31, 2008 / Molly / 3 comments

For a while now I have been wanting to try to create beads using a millefiori technique where a realistic rose or flower is created in a cane. These are my first efforts at doing this. I have worked out that I need to be better with my skinner blending to get a better effect and possibly not reduce the cane so much but overall I’m a happy considering its my first go. Its quite a long process from blocks of clay to polished beads.

Here’s the finished canes. The one on the left is the first attempt, second attempt is on the right:

Here are some beads I’ve made using the red rose cane. These are hanging in my drying rack after being dipped in polish. I’ll be baking these and repeating the polish dip process tonight: