Writer's block

The idea of making a few different cubes with drenched paper tissues seemed fun. While I was working on them, it seemed like a 'writer's block'. I cut out the paper tissue on the size I wanted and drenched them in the liquid china clay, I let it dry and fired it in the oven. Then I put all the thin leaves of paper on top of each other until it formed a cube. I glued the little balls of paper together after they had been fired. The cube which has been sewed together has double layers of paper because it needed to be more solid.
This work is very fragile, I like it because of that.
You can see more photo's on my Flickr pages.

You pick...

... two, three, four or five!

Since many people do buy their greeting cards in sets, I decided to offer them in my shop in sets. It's hard to decide what cards fit together or for what occasion, so people can choose themselves.
You choose any card you want and write your choice in the message for seller when you check out. The colors on this photo are just so colorful and fun. This item made the frontpage of Etsy and got nearly 800 views from it - thanks minimini-friend Heli! :)

Etsy on Martha Stewart

OK, I admit, I don't know about the Martha Stewart-show.
I'm a bit weird probably because I barely know what a teevee looks like, just to show I hardly ever watch it. I never thought I was missing out but apparently, Etsy was on the Martha Stewart show, and Martha is one famous lady in the States. Since it doesn't get broadcasted in Belgium I thought I was never be able to see it.
Luckily mothtoflame posted this video on her blog for those who are curious to see what is is all about. Congrats to Etsy, Rob and all featured sellers for this free publicity for Etsy.com! Well done! :)

Spring blossom felted scarf

A while back I handdyed some merinowool in olive. I wanted to make a spring scarf. I haven't had any enery to do something with it, but last night I just needed to get some stress out of my body and started to felt. It took me a while to make the rosebuds but I love the result, especially when they are not felted thoroughly. I love the fact that both sides of the scarf has flowers. It sure looks like spring: soft and fresh! Another one that I wanted to keep to myself actually, but I'm not greedy so I did put it up for sale on Etsy.

Teal is so fickle

Reading a title to a treasury and not quite understand it, forced me to contact RunAliceRun so she could give me an explanation. This is what she answered me about the word 'FICKLE':
My dictionary says:
1. likely to change, especially due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable: (fickle weather)
2. not constant or loyal in affections: (a fickle lover)
So, for my treasury, #2 would be how I intended to use it.Teal can't make up it's mind. Teal first likes red, then likes orange, or maybe black would be better. :-)
Thank you, Alice, I think I'm fickle too sometimes... especially when it comes down to buying shoes! :)

Swimmy

A few weeks ago there was this story in the Storque about Etsy's first five years and it's future direction. Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy, read this children's book by Leo Lionni about Swimmy.
It's a great way to demonstrate the vision of Etsy. Rob said:"So our vision is to be the eye — to be a kind of organizing principle. We do not want Etsy itself to be a big tuna fish. Those tuna are the big companies that all us small businesses are teaming up against."
If Etsy is the eye, all of the surrounding fish must be the artists/sellers.

An Etsy artist, thebirdsandbees, sent Rob a little black Swimmy fish that she created after reading the article. This inspired many Etsy artists to create their version of the surrounding orange fish in their medium of choice to create a larger art piece at the Etsy Labs.
Probably I'm the last one posting a swimmy for the Etsy Swimmy-project. Let's just say he took a long time to dry! ;) He is made of superlight clay, painted orange and I added a glitter varnish on him. He doesn't have the measurements which were posted in the Storque since he's kind of stubborn and wanted to be round and glamorous. He loves glitters. He'll be swimming his way to Etsy headquarters tommorrow...
Oh, looks like our cat is not impressed by Swimmy at all!

Self-portrait

This is a work I made for my final grade in academy of fine arts. It took me a year and a half to finish it. At first, I made a study of the form, started to cut the moulds from cardboard in different sizes, building the dolls by hand, mould the 'tummy's', scoop out the 'tummy's', cut the form, finish the inside of the doll, cut the glass (someone from the glass course helped me with this), fired the glass in the shape of the tummy, made glaze samples, fired the glaze samples,... the whole process was repeated nine times.
The essence of this work had to do with the tummy-feeling and how they all fit into one whole 'person'. In my daily being, emotions and feelings play an important role. They define my personality and my state of mind. They are the mirrors of the soul. In the tummy of the Baboeschka's, there's this little feeling - it consists of a little something which I found that represents those feelings. It is then covered with glass so you can actually see it. The glaze is one I made myself trying out different recipes. It's off-white and has small crackles which I love. It took me ages to get the right recipe for this work.
There are four basic feelings:
Fear - spider
Happiness - sun
Anger - needles
Sadness - tears (made form transparant polymer clay)
These basic feelings accompany a lot of emotions.
Beside those four basic feelings, I chose five emotions that are important for me and in my life.
Love - heart
Admiration/amazement - mirror
Luck - chinese goodluck-dolls
Freedom - cherubwings
Vulnerability - eggshells
You can find more photo's in Flickr.
My other ceramic work was inspired by this one.
I love Baboeschka's - can you tell? :)