SHOULD I...?

I have found a lovely little broken ceramic plate on the sidewalk of a small street while going to work... The glazing is amazing and it reminds me of the Aegean Sea, as seen in little bays of smaller islands...

I could fix the little plate and mask the broken spot...

Or... I could break it into small pieces I can use for jewelry... Mmm... I think I already know what I'm going to do ;)

- Symi, Greece, June 2012 -

NEW EXPERIMENTS!

I'm making my first experiments with cold clay (air-dry clay) ever! I've been used to working with polymer clay for many years now, and learning to work with cold clay is like learning a completely different medium! The texture is completely different, and so is the way to work with it. It's all so new and exciting!

I've started experimenting with different cold glazes, and I may well mix my own ones! Here is an amazing shade of "Mediterranean Blue" (the photo doesn't do any justice to the real beauty of the color)...

WOODEN TREASURES

I LOVE wood... the look, the feel, the touch, the smell, the textures... and its warm colors! I love working with wood, painting it for one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art, or incorporating it in mixed-media pieces. It marries beautifully with copper, polymer clay, fabric and many other materials. I have found these lovely new wooden treasures which I'm going to work with very soon! They are so lovely and I'm very excited about the endless possibilities they offer!

The buttons are beautifully distressed and have an aged look...

... and these little wooden domed cabochons are so lovely!

I already had larger wooden cabs, which are perfect by themselves for painted rings.

OCEAN SHARDS

I have found a wonderful votive/candle holder at a local thrift store. It features a glass mosaic in amazing shades of sky blue, turquoise, Caribbean blue and Calypso blue... and Aegean blue, of course :) One edge is broken, so I got it for a "symbolic" price... and I'm going to use the glass pieces for my mosaic project which I have had in my mind to try for a long looong time. Of course, I'd love to apply the mosaic technique to jewelry... which makes the task a real challenge, given the small surface I'm going to work on!

I think this coming autumn/winter season is going to be a time of experimentation for me! Besides mosaic (and I want to try polymer clay mosaic too: I can make my own tesserae!), I'd love to try some easy enamelling techniques, new projects with paints, wood and copper, and maybe even some felting!

Which new creative techniques are you going to experiment with this coming autumn and winter? :)