Flower box

I used to package my flower magnets in little sachets. This involves a lot of work and really all the packaging is a bit of a waste too. Besides that, selling 'em seperately has the advantage the people can choose the color of their choice on fairs. The downpart is, that they look happiest all together in their rainbowcolors so you might be tempted to buy 'em all. :)

I decided to go to the second hand shop and buy a tin box for 0,25 euro (0,35$). I sanded it. Then I put a few coats of white acrylic paint. After all was dry, I applied a transparant glaze. The magnets contrast really well with the white background.
And of course, all the magnets go in the tin. Such little effort! Don't you love recycling?

Flickr Favorites

1. You drive me crazy, 2. I love tiny things, 3. Tiny, 4. Love for tiny things

It's the first Tuesday of the month so we play by theme if you like.
This week I thought it would be fun to do a tiny, little, small, teeny mosaic. Actually, I found it really hard to make a mosaic in this theme and it kind of took me forever. But I found so much pretty pictures on my search and that's what this Flickr Favorites is all about really.
Everytime I browse through Flickr I get inspired by all the images, colors, angles, textures,... and even though I'm often very occupied with life & work, preparing for the Flickr mosaic Tuesday forces me to take some time to enjoy all the beauty.

Etsy Open

From September 7th till October 1st, Etsy Open will be a fact. In co-operation with 'Open | makers aan de markt' in Leiden, the Netherlands, Etsy will have a pop-up shop there.
They'll fill the space with lots of handmade goodies and besides that, perhaps you can also participate in a small workshop and discuss entrepreneurship over a cup of tea.
Here, you can see pictures of the space in progress.
The official opening is on September 9th with a little party.
It's a great opportunity to meet & greet with the Etsy community in real life so don't miss it if you're in the area.

Hoera Hip Handwerk

A week from now, I'll be at the Fashion museum in Hasselt Belgium. During Open Monument day, the museum has free entrance and gives a little platform to about 20 makers who can show off their work in the entrance space.
I still have lots to do before I can pitch my stall there & I'm frantically working my ass off. At the moment, I'm trying to make a display for the porcelain rings - not sure what the end result will look like but if it looks any good, I'll show you later! :)
Come say 'hello' if you're in the neighborhood: Gasthuisstraat 11 in Hasselt, Belgium.
It's open from 10 AM till 6 PM.

Merry go round

Every last friday of the month, I jump on the 'Merry go round'. What is the Merry go round exactly? Each month, a group of craftswomen from around the world join together and give their reponses to the same question/challenge. Since I forgot to post last Friday, I post the first Friday of this month! :)

This month's topic is "Since you started blogging, has your style/content/feeling about blogging changed?"

I started blogging on september 25th 2007, nearly a month after I set up my etsy shop. It seemed a natural thing to do somehow as I wanted to use my blog to connect with the community that I was part of. I didn't know much about blogging and had cold feet to start off with and didn't know really what to write about. I also wonderded what would actually interest people to come and read my blog and what I would do if no one would ever visit my blog...

Being an active member of a team on etsy certainly helped me to overwin my fear and there was always a teammember who cared to drop by and be nice to me. Soon, I started to become a bit more confident about blogging but really, the blogcontent I wrote back then was much different then now.
Whenever one of my items would hit the frontpage of Etsy, I would blog about it with a screenshot and many yay's but after a while I thought 'who cares if my item is on the frontpage of Etsy really?'
It was then that I felt I needed to change my blog to a place where people would want to come to see work in progress and it meant heaps to me to get feedback on them.
I learned that a blog is a very valuable tool to share work and processes. It made me grow as a maker and a person.

In fall of 2008, I started my '99 feelings'-project and for about 3 months, I made a feeling each day and posted it in my blog & on Flickr. I don't really know what happened but people started to come back every day to see what feeling I had made and that kept me going. It was the power & feedback of you who helped me finish this project. I don't think I would have managed it without any interaction. As a maker, you are often 'alone' and knowing that there were so many people who cared,  it really moved me. What an incredible community I am part off!
At the end of the project, I posted this little video and I still love it to pieces...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My blog became a second 'home' where I met up with creative souls worldwide. So many awesome people out there! I posted tutorials and little tips & tricks & I'm so glad they are enjoyed so much. If they make you want to run to the craftshop and get crafty, I've reached my goal. I think that creativity can't be stimulated enough & if a little push is all you need, I'm happy!

There was a time that I was very organised, had my daily posts scheduled and an actual plan on what to post when. Without realising, that put a lot of pressure on me and when I took a blog break last year due to my mom's illness, it hit me that there was more then just blogging.
It took me a lot of courage to come back after that break and somehow I still haven't found my blogging mojo back. I try though and I actually start enjoying it more now that I don't put the pressure of daily posts on me anymore. I don't want to be repetitive and to be honest, I haven't done much new things lately (except for the collaboration work) and it kind of feels like I'm repeating the things I do all the time. And you have all seen that, right? I feel like I just bore you with yet another picture of sanding work, glueing magnets, making singing birds,...  So, I try to avoid to post about what I make daily but will show you the 'special' things I make. And hopefully soon, I'll have some more time to make tutorials again. It's been a while & I know you enjoy those...
The most important thing to remember is that this blog wouldn't be here without you so thank you for all the support and being part of my community. 

Want to know what the other Merriers had to say about this topic? Hop over to their blogs. Please bear in mind that the members will be posting at different times of the day, depending on which world time-zone they are in :)
Samantha at Vintage is for lovers - http://www.vintageisforlovers.com/
Jen at Painted Fish Studio - http://paintedfishstudio.com/
Bethany at Dirksen Dabbles - http://www.dirksendabbles.com/
Laura at Blue Terracotta -  http://blueterracotta.com/
Monika at Red2White - http://red2white.wordpress.com/
Mitsy at ArtMind - http://artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com
Kim at Vilt a la Kim - http://viltalakim.com/blog/
Sara at Crafts of Texture - http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Mariana at Florcita - http://florcita.eu/wordpress/
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent - http://lebarduvent.blogspot.com
Ruth at Birdland Creations - http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com

Launch North Story

At last it's launch day!
Over the next few days, we'll be adding new designs to our shops. We'll be listing different items in our shops so you can check to see what's available in Anna's shop and in my shop.

Forest bear - sage

Capillary ring

A leaf and a seedling

Sage sweetpea

These are some of the designs we have available over the next few days. There are pendants coming too in a later phase so you still have something to look forward too.
We're excited and happy to finally be able to share what we've been working on the past months and hope you'll enjoy!

North Story - the process

Do you find it hard to imagine what work has gone into a finished product sometimes?
I do, especially if it concerns a technique I don't know anything about.

That's why I want to show you the process of how the brooches of the North Story are made.

It's a lengthy process that involves lots of sanding, 3 different firings and much patience along the way. But believe me, the result is all worth it...

Press a piece of clay into a mould.

Smooth out the back.

Lift it out of the mould gently.

Smooth the edges with a bit of water.

Let it dry in between plaster plaques.

After they are dry, sand the roughness away and fire it a first time bisque temperature.

After firing, sand again and do a porcelain firing.
And sand again after the porcelain firing.
Jip, that's 3 times sanding...

Meanwhile cut out the screenprinted images.

Put the decal in warm water.

Apply it to the porcelain by gently tearing away the paper underneath the screenprinted image.
Decals are normally used on glazed ware.
We're using unglazed material and this is trickier as the decal is more likely to let loose on unglazed ware.

Rub over it with a clay rib to get the airholes and water out.

Gently rub it with a clean cloth and then fire it at decal temperatures.

I apologize for the gloominess of the pictures - I blame it on the weather conditions! :)

And for the final products, keep an eye on our shops (LilaRubyKing & ArtMind), we'll be listing our new line later this week... :)