Polymer clay beads experiments - 71 of 366 creative days

"Experimenting" is one of everyones favorite activities. ANd by experiment, I mean doing random beads and mix polymer clay for the fun of it.

One of my favorite polymer clay beads experiments.

I only stopped at one, but maybe I will do more in the future.

Hand made texture plates - 70 of 366 creative days

    Doodling is in fashion these days, but is not something new, everyone does it when they are bored and nothing else to do, or helps even focusing on a conversation.
    I was never a person who is scribbling on a side of the paper, but, I like the idea of having my own unique texture plates and seems like polymer clay and wax were the easiest to work with.
    Just use a needle or a toothpick or a round ball pin and let your imagination drive your hand.
I posted the few steps here for hand made texture stamps and few more pictures

Polymer clay texture plate hand made

   There are many other way, like using natural materials, like rocks, plants, wood, etc and imprint in the polymer clay in an organised randomness.

Hand made cookie cutters - 69 of 366 creative days

A good way to recycle aluminium cans is to make cookie cutters. They are very easy to bent (but be careful, very easy to break), can be made any shape and they cut very well.
I was obsessed with the image of a cat on a roof under the moonlight, mainly because of my childhood cartoons, but because I found their curves so soft and soothing.
See here a bit more details about recycled can into cookie cutter.

Be careful they are really sharp.

Healthy recipe chicken schnitzel - 68 of 366 creative days

   I love schnitzels, my mom used to make us since we were kids and she was quite good at it. She would make very big ones, almost one breast each. She would always make just with egg and flower, so they were never crunchy In time I found also smaller, almost bite size, not hard, as moist as the big thick ones. Also with crunchy crust.
   I was always bad with frying, I either under-cook or overcook, but...being away from someone who can cook these for me and not being part of the country dishes...I needed to learn to adjust.
So, with a bit of practice and of course experimenting, I got to make my own healthy muesli crust chicken schnitzel.

    And don't get fooled by the picture, they are god damn moist and crunchy and tasty and so good...

Home made cheap photo booth - 67 of 366 creative days

I needed a Photo booth several years ago and I found it a bit too expensive at that time, since I had no job. But I looked around the house and found enough mats to make one myself.

Not as professional as the ones for 300 or more but considering that costed it value in bulbs and tape, I guess it was perfect.

See here the steps for making a home made photo booth for jewelry.

Polymer clay color mix chart pink, purple and earthy - 66 of 366 creative days

  I always liked earthy colors and when I see gorgeous combinations used by artists my heart just melts.

  So I said I should try some mixes, just for the fun of experimenting and also to try combining them.

  Since I keep buying whatever brands I can get my hands on, I tried to mix them. Surprisingly, it went well, much much better than expected.

For the formulas used try Premo accents Sculpey Fimo metallic pearl mix chart.

I used later the pink and purple for flowers. Earthy haven't used it yet and realized how much fun I missed when I took the pictures. This is definitely going on the to do list!

Asian stir fry low carbs - 65 of 366 creative days

  I love Asian food! Yes, I'm one of those billion people. And in my town is a very good place that cooks amazing, Thai - Chinese style. I keep on buying regularly but I tried to reproduce it at home and since I'm not an fan on digging in the internet (too many big corporate sites with just random recipes), I started to try to make it myself, but in a more healthier version
  So these are my "recipes" for asian style stir fry, low or no carbs, can be also vegetarian, and can help you with a healthy dish when you don't have too many ingredients in the fridge and you need to cook in less than 20-30 minutes (including cleaning and cutting the ingredients)

  Use your imagination, minimum cutting skills, and stir constantly at highest temperature.
  Can be used any meat: beef, chicken, tuna, fish - haven't tried with lamb - finely sliced, so even if you have a small amount, will look like is a lot.
  Can be used almost any vegetable, usually base is onions, carrots, mushroom, pepper. I never tried with potatoes and zucchini seems to be a failure.
  Also the secret is not to overcook, the crunchier, the better!

Sculpey grey polymer clay color mix - 64 of 366 creative days

I found a mix that I would like to keep as reference. I have some extra Super Sculpey Firm polymer clay I bought from a guy who does effects in movies and also big sculptures for Club decorating. So I decided to do some experiments with acrylic paint.

Here can be seen more details about the amounts of polymer clay and acrylic paint color mix.

I liked the shade of colors, slightly earthy, i'm thinking to try these colors on some Hundertwasser inspired designs to see how it goes, I love this artist.

Fake jade beads and pendants - 63 of 366 creative days

   I wanted to test some polymer color mix found somewhere, was around 2007 and I don't really remember where i found it. Lucky, I write down the color mixes so I might be able to reproduce later. 

   I really love jade, reminds me of my childhood, when my mother got two jade lions from China, when jade was hard to get, and I always admired their transparency and color. Plus, I really love green, specially that earthy one.

   So this is my attempt of fake jade polymer clay pendants, maya sort of style, and some jade beads, in more details also with mix colors.

   This is the unbaked polymer clay, so jade transparency is not yet visible.

Maya polymer clay jade pendants

Found the baked beads, but somehow, I lost the pendant, I will try to search some more.

Lahmacun recipe - 62 of 366 creative days

   I went several year ago, 7 to be more precise, in Turkey. It was a very interesting trip and I enjoyed it a lot. The view was nice, the food was amazing, a lot of museums and places to visit, cheap shopping, only downside was that everyone was trying to rob you and cheat you in every way possible, but...no country is perfect.

   And there, at a small neighborhood diner, I had the best lahmacun(lahmaju in Armenian) I ever eat, after 7 years, is still best. 

  The dough and pitta was made in house, in a wooden oven (last year I found out that it was actually Armenian pitta, oval shaped, slight fluffy when I found it in a bakery shop).

  In turkey you have chili flakes on every table, so you can top the steamy lahmacun, fold it in half and have amazing bites.

Then put down the fire with ayran (a sour, light, watery yogurt with salt).

 Been there for 2 week, eat that every day for breakfast! I wish I was able to take a full luggage.

Lahmajun recipe

 Now I try lahmacun recipes to match that taste. Getting closer and closer.

Refurbished old jewelry - 61 of 366 creative days

   I bought an ebony wood necklace from the charity shops around town, also a bracelet, I liked the big focal beads.
   I cut, I added some beads, ribbon various colors, over complicated a bit, as usual with attaching the small beads, but in the end, I got a brand new necklaces.
   The ebony necklace that looks normal and a bit more unusual square pendant necklace.

   Refurbish jewelry never seems more tempting.

Refurbished necklace from a bracelet

I gifted to my friends and I really hope they enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making them.

Crochet jewellry begining - 60 of 366 creative days

   The one that started all. In 2011, when I visited my family and friends, I did this pair of crochet earrings for a friend and the crochet bracelet for  a little girl.
   My friend enjoyed the earrings and she was so positive about all this creative process and what I can do that she insisted and insisted I should continue crafting, not only here and there.
   This pair of earrings made me feel so positive that I decided to start this blog so I can feel more willing to craft more.

Crochet silk earrings

   Today, after 5 years, I reached again my low point, slightly depressed, cannot find joy in anything I do, I feel tired and demotivated all the time.
   So,"read the signs!" I say. Seems like somehow, history is repeating, someone asked me if I can do consistent crafting so I can start selling, and same time, I found these pictures with these earring and reminded myself how it all started.
   I will put myself to work and get back to my happy creative me!