Salt & pepper shakers

Ha! I transformed the feelings into salt & pepper shakers. :)
They have the perfect height & hopefully will make a great addition to any kitchen or table.
I love the glaze that I put on them. It's a crackle glaze and right after they came out of the kiln, I painted black Indian ink on them and rubbed it off afterwards. The ink stayed in all the crackles so it looks like it has been raku-fired. Aren't they fun? :)

My creative space

Oh joy, the opening of the kiln and it all looks supergood... or maybe not?
In case you missed one of the previous posts, I made some more samples to fire so that's why you see so many here.
When I touch and lightly press it, it feels very light and airy and... ouch breakable...
I used two different kind of porcelain clays for this & both apparently need some more investigation. The quest begins & not sure when it will end. The quest will involve lots of reading about all sorts of ingredients & making samples & it might take me months to find the right recipe... But hey, what a challenge ahead of me! I'm looking forward to it actually! :)This was a piece of sponge that I drenched in the porcelain clay & it seems a lot less fragile then the crocheted pieces. I can lightly press on it and it doesn't break so this tells me that I have to experiment a bit more in the solid direction...

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

How to make sidewalk chalk?

You can purchase sidewalk chalk in stores, but that really takes away part of the fun. Making it at home is a great activity to do with your kids.
Children are always anxious to express themselves through their artwork & chalk art on the sidewalk is harmless and just plain fun.
Here is what you need:
Plaster, water, plastic icecream container (great excuse to eat icecream), tempera paint, toilet paper tubes, clay, papertape, scissors, plastic sheet or cardboard
Male sure you cover the table 'cause this can get messy.
Cut a few pieces of paper tape and attacht the toilet paper tubes to the plastic or cardboard.
Take a piece of clay and roll it into a worm.
Then press the clay flat with your fingers.
Put the clay around the toilet paper tubes and press firmly so no plaster can escape.
You can also do this with the tape but then make sure to use a lot of tape.
Make the plaster ready. Add 1 part of water and 3 parts of plaster.
All brands of plaster are different so it could be that you need a bit more plaster. The substance needs to feel & look like yoghurt.
I want to make lime green chalk so I'm going to mix green and yellow paint.

Then mix the paint underneath the plaster with your hand. I should have worn gloves 'cause doing this without gloves makes your hands go all dry.
When all is mixed well, poor the plaster into the paper toilet tubes.
Let the left over chalk dry in the plastic container and throw it away afterward. Do not rinse the container in the kitchen sink as the plaster will clog your drains.
Let it set for a while. It takes about half an hour to set.
Then remove the clay.
And remove the paper.
Peel of the remaining paper and use a wet cloth in case it's difficult. The wet cloth makes it easier.
And now you are ready to play...
I sent my partner off to play! :)

Flickr Favorites

1. DSC04931, 2. Golden and glowing, mysterious , calling, entrancing moon, 3. Lantern Glow, 4. Golden Glow

I have been wanting to use the first picture on the left for ages in a mosaic & I decided to use the search term 'golden glow' to find pictures that would fit among this one. It's a great way to find new work too.

If you like to play this week, make your mosaic and add a link to your blog or Flickr in Mister Linky. I'll pop over to have a look at yours. Can't wait to see your creations and find new favorites! :)
I hope Mister Linky will behave well this week...

More crochet experiments

In 2002/2003 I did a lot of experiments with liquid porcelain clay. I had this project in mind and it needed a certain whiteness & transparancy. When the normal liquid porcelain clay turned out to be too solid & not white enough for my taste so I had to search for the right recipe.
It took me more then half a year & lots of sample making to find the recipe that was just right.
People declared me crazy for being so determined to keep on making samples & wait for firing results. I loved the process of it all, it made me learn a lot about the products I used.

In 2006 I started the academy of fine arts with the idea of experimenting of drenching crochet & knitwork in liquid porcelain clay. Due to circumstances I didn't finish the year & the idea was left aside. Now I have my own kiln, I'm superhappy to pick up the idea where I left it.
And I found the jar of porcelain clay that I made in 2002 with a little left over so I had to make a few more samples & drench them in there. I'm convinced that the kind of yarn you use to drench is very important. It needs to be a yarn that holds liquid very well. I used cotton, acrylic, wool, hemp. I also crocheted with a large hook & with a small hook to see if that makes difference.I hope to fire the kiln tonight so I don't have to keep you in suspence too long for the results... I'm quite curious myself! :)
I also added a little sponge in there - but I tried that before and the result is awesome!

How to link a tutorial?

I love making tutorials and share ideas. From the many comments and e-mails they get, it seems that you enjoy them too. My tutorials draw a lot of traffic to my blog which I love 'cause it makes me happy when people get inspired by projects or pictures & start getting crafty.
Sometimes, people write me to ask if it's OK if they link my tutorial in their blog. I love that!
However, I don't agree on copy/pasting the full tutorial. The tutorials do take a lot of time and effort to make so I don't want 'em to be copy/pasted just like that. It's OK to put one picture and redirect them to my blog to see the full process. It's fair to give the person behind the tutorial full credit for the work he/she put in there. If you copy/paste a tutorial without asking, I think it's considered theft. Stealing someone else's work is rude and impolite.

So this tutorial will show you how you can properly link to someone elses blog and give credit to the person who made the tutorial. Mind you, this is only for Blogger blogs as that's what I have. I'm sure it's just as easy for other blogs too.

Choose to make a new message for your blog. Give it a title that will draw immediate attention and start writing your message. To add a link to text you wrote, first you have to go to the tutorial that you want to link.Open the blogpost and copy the html by clicking the right mouse button and choose copy.
Now select the text that you want to link and press the link button on the toolbar.
Paste the link to the blogpost in the box and press OK. The text you linked will now show in a different color and will be underlined. That means that people can click on it and it will bring them directly to the full tutorial.You can also add a picture & give it a direct link to the tutorial. First thing you have to do is go to the blog and click with your right mouse button on the picture. Choose the option 'copy picture location'
Then go to your blogpost that you are writing and choose to add a picture to your post.
This window will open and then you post the link to the picture in the box. Do not paste html in here as it won't work, it needs to be the link to the location of the picture. Then press the button to upload the picture to your blog.
It will open another window and say that the picture is uploaded to your blog. Press ready.
Now the picture is visible in your blogpost. You can cut and paste it elsewhere if you like. When you're satisfied about how it looks, press the button 'publish' and your blogpost will be visible for the world.
Here is one of the blogs that I love: Totally Tutorials. It's hosted by Dottyral on Etsy and she collects all sorts of tutorials into one blog. She has a great way of sharing & does it the right way. Dotty has published several of my tutorials and it brings traffic to her and my blog & that's the way it should be.

Dream in progress... part 7

The progress on the Babette blanket is about halfway now. I finished all the four row squares.
It seems like it took me forever but hey, there are 49 of them and it covers a lot of space layed out like this:
And the most boring part is yet to come: sewing in the ends! Yikes! :)
I might need to take a break for a bit as I have run out of some colors of yarn & I tried to get them at our local yarnshop but they only had a few of the colors that I needed. So as soon as I go back to my big supply shop in Holland, I'll be crocheting away some more...
I did try to attach a few squares and I think with some trial and error I'll be able to make it a blanket.
This one I just sewed as I though I had to do it but the seams are supervisible.This one is crocheted together... I would love to crochet it together but again, the seams are very visible.
Pfft! I knew ther must be another way to do this, but which one?
Off to the Flickr group 'Babette Blanket' for some answers as I was sure I was not the only one with this question. Some people used the mattrass stitch. What's that? I'm a complete stitching illiterate so you tube was my saviour. But I could see seams still...The search goes on and I found a blog where the Kathy Merrick tells the secret how she does it.
A step by step tutorial, just what I needed! :)
But OMG, I didn't realise that here would be so much sewing involved, I think I would have thought twice about this... :)