The secret project... work in proces

These look like dragonfly wings to me... The two on the left are already bisque fired. The ones on the right will be fired this weekend. I only executed the idea that my secret partner put on paper so I'm not sure if they are meant to be dragonfly wings.
I wish I could show you all the drawings she made - simply amazing!
That's one of the things that I can't do properly: draw. I rather pick up a lump of clay and try to make an idea then to draw it first... but I do also know that sometimes it's easier to draw it first. *puts learn to draw properly on her list*Oh well, inspired by the dragonfly wings, I also made some ordinary wings! LOL
I hope my secret partner approves! :)

To know the idea behind the secret project, go read the first blogpost here or click on the label 'the secret project' to see all the posts about it.
Can't wait to receive your guesses but think about it carefully 'cause you can only guess once! :)
You can send your guess to mitsy@artmind.eu and can not change your guess so think about it carefully...

Flickr Favorites

1. Sand Dune Background, 2. Texture, 3. Rock Wall, 4. Eye of the Seashell

My favorite from last week is a bit gloomy but ooohhh so pretty! Check it out! :)

It's no secret that I'm totally crazy about textures. That's why I'm also totally crazy about nature. So many texures to be found there. One even more amazing then the other.
Sometimes I don't have enough eyes to gather it all...

If you like to play this week, make your mosaic and add a link to your blogpost (NOT your blog please) or Flickr in Mister Linky (click on the button below and fill in your name with the link to your blogpost or Flickr picture).
I'll pop over to have a look at yours. Can't wait to see your creations and find new favorites! :)

Monday Moodboard

1. avatar by EvaQ 2. Purple Felt Scarf/Shawl by Red2White 3. Me and... by Elviradesign 4. Bordeaux and grey Macbook sleeve by Martice

The monday moodboard is a new feature that the European Streetteam started last week.
It wants to show blogreaders which talented artists are part of our team.
So happy to show you these talents today & they also kind of reflect my mood today: it will be a beautiful fall day with birds singing and lots of work to catch up on after a week of painting.

How's your mood today? For more moodboards, please visit Fleur Fatale's blog.

How to make a little booklet?

I have so many bits and bobs of pieces of paper laying around. I just have a hard time throwing away paper & try to recycle as much as I can. I usually cut them on the same size and use them for grocery lists or just to doodle on.
My partner told me a great way to make little booklets from them and of course I wouldn't want to keep this easy and fun tip from you.

Here is what you need: white glue (PVA, bookbinding glue, vinyl glue, wood glue,...), a glue brush, two pieces of cardboard, a pair of clamps, pieces of paper cut on the same size.Take a heavier piece of paper and put the same size cut papers on top of them. I used one of my business cards.

I also put a business card to put on top of the little booklet.

Put the pile of paper on a piece of cardboard.

Put another piece of cardboard on top of it.
The cardboard is just to protect the paper, it can also be wood or thick plastic.

Take a clamp and twist it firmly so that the paper is pressed in between the cardboard.

Take another clamp and do the same.

Then apply some glue on the edge of the paper.

Repeat this process a few times.

When it's dry, take away the cardboard and the booklet.

Here you go: a fun little booklet to carry with you in your handbag,
give away as a freebie or just to hold all those loose laying around pieces of paper.

So there is no reason any more to throw away paper, just recycle it as often as you can 'cause every tree counts!

Dream in progress... part 13

In between all the painting this week, I did manage to crochet the last 7 squares I needed - still have to tuck in the ends but I'm so glad I got something done at all.

Now I can start putting my Babette blanket together. Will lay it out on our new floorboards first. Not sure if I'll share a pic of that yet 'cause that will spoil the surprise I think...
But this gives you an idea already how it will look on our couch! :)
I created a Babette blanket set on Flickr so you can see the progress all together! :)

The secret project... work in progress

I think that I'm obsessed with textures. I'm glad my secret partner is too.
We won't be using all of these textures but certainly a few. I love the donut-shape although it makes me hungry while I work on them! :)
I love them all lined up best. It kind of looks like little feeling-donuts...
I also made some 'donuts' with graduating colors. I posted a tutorial on them here.

To know the idea behind the secret project, go read the first blogpost here or click on the label 'the secret project' to see all the posts about it.
Can't wait to receive your guesses but think about it carefully 'cause you can only guess once! :)
You can send your guess to mitsy@artmind.eu and can not change your guess so think about it carefully...

My creative space

My creative space doesn't look very exciting today. I have been painting our living space for the past two days and will continue to do so today and tommorrow.
Most walls are painted lilly white and two are painted suede brown. Boring perhaps? It will color up when I put my things in there so I didn't really want the walls to scream too much color.
It's soft & calm and hopefully that will reflect my mood and mind once I'm working there! :)
Oh, and I had to put the flash on while taking this picture because it is dark and rainy here today. Oh well, an excellent day to paint! :)

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun! :)

Sidebar links

Since a long time, I have these sidebar links to 'inspiring blogs', 'European Streetteammembers' and 'Kindred souls'. Since I can't keep up with adding links or removing them when neccesary, I'm thinking of removing the sidebars all together.
I find it rather painful too when there are new streetteammembers who can't find a link to their blog on there but they come and go and it's something that I just can't keep track off.
I find myself rarely browsing through those links when I visit other blogs.
How about you? Do you browse the links that other people have on their blogs?

Flickr Favorites

1. Bishops Stortford, 2. Honey Lemon Tea, 3. Kleenex, 4. Watching paint (buckets) dry 6, 20030717

This mosaic is showing what I'm doing these days. I'm having a headcold and I'm drinking lots of hot lemon with honey. I also seem to be Kleenex' biggest sponsor. But we planned to do a little reorganising of our living space this week. I didn't want to postpone because of this headcold 'cause I'm too excited. Our living room and dining room were hardly used rooms because we spent lots of time in the kitchen, outside or in our workspaces.
The plan to make the living room into a workspace and the dining area into a little lounge room has been on our list for a long time. I can't wait for the major work to be done so that I can start decorating my new workspace. But for the next days, I'll be painting & putting down floorboards...

I decided to chose a favorite mosaic every week.
Please take some time to visit my favorite from last week! :)

If you like to play this week, make your mosaic and add a link to your blogpost (NOT your blog please) or Flickr in Mister Linky (click on the button below and fill in your name with the link to your blogpost or Flickr picture).
I'll pop over to have a look at yours. Can't wait to see your creations and find new favorites! :)

New in my shop...

... in case you are more one of my blog visitors then one of my shop visitors...
I listed these last week and they make me happy because they add a touch of color to my shop. :)

How to color clay gradually?

When working with clay, it's nice to bring some color into it. Since I especially love objects that are unglazed, I sometimes color clay to get some gradations into it.
It's very easy to do this but while I was doing it, I mad a few snapshots to show you the process.

Here is what you need:
Clingfoil, mask, gloves, pigment, paper, (porcelain) clay and a scaleFirst weigh a certain amount of pigment to mix underneath the clay.
I advise you to write it down somewhere so in case you don't have enough,
you can still make the same mixture.

Then add the pigment to the clay.

Mix it underneath it and when it gets too dry, add a bit of water.

I made a little schedule to mix the clay so I wouldn't make any mistakes.
The end weight for all colors is 70 grams so you just add more or less colored clay to white clay.
I made 280 grams of colored clay and then weighed all the mixed colored parts and put them in clingfoil.

Then weigh 60g of white clay.

Mix both parts really well by kneading it.

And now you can start your gradation project!

When I was done mixing it looked like the darkest color wasn't really black
so I mixed another tone with lots of block pigment.
(oops forgot to write down how much I added)And this is the result when fired.

You can do this with polymer clay too of course only then you don't need to add pigment but you can start mixing right away!
It's fun to get some gradations of color in your work! :)

Dream in progress... part 12

I took all the squares that needed to be sewn in to the fair last sunday in case I could do some work while people were looking around.
I also took a second needle in case my friend felt like helping me! Haha, and she did! We did get quite a lot done in between and it certainly was more fun to sew together then do the boring task by myself.I'm quite happy to be able to show you all the finished sewn in squares. Now I'll finish the last round of squares I need to crochet and then I can start putting my Babette blanket together. How exciting! :)
I created a Babette blanket set on Flickr so you can see the progress all together! :)

The secret project... work in progress

I went into our garden and looked for leaves...
... 'cause I wanted to mould them because of their texture.After the mould dried, I pressed little bits of porcelain clay into the textures.
Will definately make more moulds with more leave textures - I love these!I cheekily pressed a sea urchin I got from Star of the East into the plaster too.
Too bad that it doesn't come out so I'll have to find another way to mould urchins...I also collected some random stones...
... and pressed them in some plaster too.I love the irregular structure.
And here is the result when it's fired: rough and rugged! wow!And shells and corals have lovely structures too...I don't dare to mould these the regular way because I don't want to ruin them so I use an alternative way with plasticine.

Anyone knows what this derives from? I think I picked it up on a beach in Queensland, Australia once but I'm not sure.And here is a the collection of porcelain bits that I pressed onto the shells and sea creatures.
I will need to go to an exotic beach to find more amazing stuff! I love these!

To know the idea behind the secret project, go read the first blogpost here or click on the label 'the secret project' to see all the posts about it.
Can't wait to receive your guesses but think about it carefully 'cause you can only guess once! :)

My creative space

I can't escape the sanding of my mini art feelings any longer. These came out of the kiln last saturday and before I put them away, I sand them. It's certainly a job that I drag and postpone whenever I can. But they feel so nice and soft when they are sanded.
It's windy outside and quite chilly too - perhaps I should postpone it one day longer...

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun! :)

Not happy...

... with the mini art feeling 'happy'.
Since creating it, I always had this feeling it was not right somehow. Perhaps because I made a 'happy' before and I liked that one much better?
So, when the feeling happy expired on Etsy, I decided to make a new one which would make me much happier... The stamp of the little flower just did not scream happy to me.
I replaced it to another one which has a more visible texture.
I think I need to see 'happy' more clearly and this certainly does make me happy! :)
Now I wonder how you feel about happy...