Experiment

Remember a while back I did a poll to hear if you would prefer glazed or unglazed pieces for jewellerey? It's hard to form an opinion solely based on a picture and opinions were divided into two as half of you preferred glazed jewellery and half of you would choose unglazed jewellery.
The pictures showed back then were with small samples that our screenprinter sent us and it didn't really represent any of what was to come.

As you know we chose to work with unglazed material but the other day I got curious about how it would look on glazed ware so I made a sample.The above brooche back is the unglazed one and the one below is glazed.
It is quite different isn't it?

Work in progress

You know how much I love cookie cutters right? I told you before it's my weak spot but strange enough they hardly ever end up in the kitchen.
Besides, using cookie cutters gives you less cookie, right? Huh? That's no good!
So I made some reversed cookie molds so that it leaves you with more cookie. :)

Here's the proof:

cookies cut out with cookie molds...

and cookies, 'cut' out with reversed cookie cutters.

I made the prototypes ages ago but never did anything with 'em until I found 'em in my drawer last week. I've been frantically working to getting some done but as time is ticking along, the quantity will be limited.
If you are interested, rush yourself to my stand at Stiel & Stijl to get yourself some. :)
It makes a great gift for people who love to make & bake.

Here's how I make reversed cookies....
The cookie molds look a bit like paper making molds or old butter molds.

I press the cookie stamp in the rolled out dough.

Then it looks embossed.
With a round cookie cutter, I cut out the flower cookie.
I take away the remaining dough and I put the cookies in the the oven.

I'm not a food blogger so I didn't do any fancy pics of these - and I must admit, I didn't even try.

I'll leave that up to the pro's...

Flickr Favorites

1. homemade pop tarts, 2. 115/365 oh my! orange! (explored),
3. llet amb galetes, 4. messy shrimps with fresh herbs and feta

It's the first Tuesday of the month so we play by theme if you like. And the theme is 'food'.

I love food. No wait, I LOVE food!
Not only to eat it of course but it's so pretty in many aspects. I drool when I see all the lovely foodblogs like Smitten Kitchen, sweet Paul or Canelle & Vanille. I love to browse markets, watch cooking shows on tv and try out a few recipes myself once in a while.
But lately, it's my partner who is cooking up most of our meals as I'm a bit too busy to be in the kitchen much. I miss it though and I look forward to some quality time at the end of November when things will be a bit less hectic in my studio.
The above images are things that I love: milk and biscuits, our cat waiting patiently to when her foodbowl is filled and 2 recipes I'm dying to try out soon.

Workshop spooky fingerpuppets

This afternoon, I'll be showing how to make these spooky fingerpuppets in Standaard Boekhandel in Hasselt (Belgium). Woohooo!
And if you want, you can make one for yourself too of course.

This sweet lady will be there too and she'll be showing how to make stamps. You can also stamp your heart out if you like and make your own giftlabel or postcard.

We'll be there from 14pm till 17pm.
If you don't have any plans for today it would be lovely to see you there! :)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Work in progress

I think everyone should own a 'Think aloud cloud' - brooch. To make a statement or just because they are cute as hell. There are only 5 in the last picture but there is a number six too. First one who can guess which word is stamped on the sixth cloud will be send a cloud of his/her choice.
Don't forget to leave your e-mailaddress please. Thank you.

They will make their first appearance at Stiel & Stijl.

**** the missing brooch was not guessed but I randomly picked winner to send a cloud brooch to! Congrats, Saskia! Congrats ****

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.It's that time of the month again and this month's question is 'Do you do fairs/shows? If so, share some hints and your experience. If not - why not.'

Yes, I do fairs but not on a frequent basis though. When I first started out with fairs, I really loved it and couldn't get enough of it but after a few, I kind of changed my mind. It takes quite a lot of preparation and the clearing away afterwards is just dreadful. Just wrapping up all my feelings takes a long time, let alone unwrapping and clearing 'em away which usually takes longer. So I'm very picky on the fairs that I do and sometimes I even visit a fair beforehand to get a general impression and see if it would attract the right audience for my work.
It's a great promotional tool though and the best part about fairs is meeting people from my creative community. Be it customers, blogreaders or other makers/artists, I just love to interact with them. And it's also a great opportunity to get feedback on your work.

I did prepare quite well for my first fair and made a little 'how to' for those interested.

I have a fair in 2 weeks time and my studio is a big mess right now. Besides that, I'm working a lot too & it's not good for my stress levels. Obviously I have not been preparing enough during summer which results in frantically running around like a headless chicken right now.
The kiln will be doing overtime & that also means that I'll be doing overtime. I plan to make up for that afterwards though. :)

Want to know if the other Merriers have tips for you on fairs/craft shows? 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 :)

Laura at Blue Terracotta
Monika at Red2White
Ruth at Birdland Creations
Kim at Vilt a la Kim
Sara at Crafts of Texture
Samantha at Vintage is for lovers
Mariana at Florcita
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Jen at Painted Fish Studio
Bethany at Dirksen Dabbles

Handmade Europe

There are a few pics of my studio on the Handmade Europe blog if you like to take a peek...