I call them Patterned Pendants because they remember me of the patterned paper, which you use for scrapbooking. But this was just my first source of inspiration, you may see my passion for retro designs and patchwork too. Please have a look on my flickr gallery – there you can see all the pendants and earrings in a better view and what I did since my last blog article. I still love to create these pendants (and taught a class already) and I made matching bangles (taught a class too ) as well. The next thing will be brooches in this simple and funny style.

In February, as I found my love for the Patterned Pendants, I made a necklace in the same style. It was my contribution for the Perles & Co Design Contest „Visions of the Future“  and now I won the first prize in the amateur category.

It was the second time I participated in a contest and the second time I made a first place. I’m so happy and a little proud of me. I’ll keep claying.

Four days, six great workshops, georgous teachers and last but not least all the wonderful girls I met -  and I forgot  to take pictures. I was to busy with talking, claying, eating, shopping, cleaning my place and so on. But for a little while actually I had nothing to do and I managed it to take a picture of my table. Best regards to Mila and Christopher, who sat next to me. In the foreground you can see my messy box with my tools.

I learned so much in the workshops and I got so much ideas, I’ll need some weeks to make them real. And I became a fan of Leslie Blackford’s work. I’ll wear the little skull thing almost every day, I promise. The days passed away all too fast, after a last look from the window of my room in the hostel (have one too in the picture), it was time to check out, the last workshop, a last gorgous lunch, the last workshop (with Donna), many good-byes  and the trip home.

Thank you so much, Natalia and Dani, Eva, Christine, Donna, Judy, Leslie, Olga, Noelia, Mila, Christopher and all the other girls (and Alex) . I will treasure your inchie. Now I’m glad to be at home with all the tools I need (my case was not large enough for all) and my clay.

Last Weekend I tought a class for the first time – I tought calyx pendants. We were six ladies, that was fine to begin with. Nobody was stressed and we had much fun. At the end we needed more time as calculated – as we’re done it was already dark outside, so I was not able to take a good picture of the finished pendants. But it was the first time – it mustn’t go all correct.

Das ist unser Tisch. Auch wenn es hier nicht so aussieht, wir waren sehr fleissig.

This is our table. Although it didn’t seems so here – we were very hard-working.

Ich hab ja schon erwähnt, das wir viel Spass hatten, hier kann man es sehen. Und Vera trägt meine Kette.

I mentionad wie had much fun but here you can also see it. And Vera wears my necklace.

Das sind meine Anhänger.

These are my pendants.

Maybe you saw my beetle brooches on my flickr-gallery. Maybe on www.craftgossip.com, there was a nice feature (many thanks!). Unfortunately I didn’t write an article until today, because I wanted to take pictures in the garden, but the weather was bad. On sunny days, I had so many things to do and I forgot to take pictures. Today some bugs found a new owner.  Anyway, I didn’t want to let they unmentioned here. You can recognize, there is a similarity between the beetle brooches and the calyxes ( actually I planned to make calyx pendants with a flat side). Now I plan to make more beetles and then I’ll finally take pictures in the garden.

The spring isn’t in sight yet but in my plant already hang a few curious flowers. I think  they’re doing well there.

Schon im letzten November, als die ersten Calyx Anhänger entstanden sind, wusste ich, dass ich an diesem Design noch viel Freude haben werde. Diesmal habe ich mich vor allem auf die Blütenblätter konzentriert, nachdem die mit Farbverlauf ganz gut geworden sind, habe ich mich an Pünktchen, Streifen und Texturen gewagt. Das Ergebnis könnt ihr hier sehen. Diese Anhänger werden ganz sicher nicht die letzten sein, ich habe schon ein paar neue Ideen und ich denke, auch als Ohrringe würden sie sich gut machen.

As early as last November, as the first calyx pendants were made, I knew I would have much fun with that design. This time I was primarily focused on the petals, after the skinner-blend ones had suceeded, I tried polka dots, stripes and textrures. Here you can see the result. These pendants won’t be the last for sure, I have some new ideas and ear pendants would be fine as well.

…I’m prepared.  After the ‘Caribbean Summer’ (I told about) I created two new necklaces, named ‘African Summer’ and ‘Swiss Summer’. The summer vacation isn’t planned yet, maybe Switzerland this year. Africa is too hot and the Caribbean to expensive for me -  it’s a pitty.  But I can wear both everywhere.

Die längeren Teile sind aus weissem Fimo und ich habe sie mit den Clearsnap Chalks bestempelt. Da man diese Stempelfarbe durch Hitze fixieren kann, kann man damit auch sehr gut andere Materialien als nur Papier bestempeln. Mit dem richtigen Finish kann man schönen Schmuck  auf diese Art herstellen.

The longer parts are from white polymer clay and I stamped on it with Clearsnap chalks. You can fix the colors by heat, so you can stamp also on other materials than only paper. With a good finishing, you can create beautiful jewelry in this way.

Diese Kette habe ich so deutlich und mit allen Details vor meinen inneren Auge gesehen, dass ich sie eigentlich nur noch entstehen lassen musste. Vielleicht habe ich zuviel „Heidi“ geschaut, wer weiss?

I had this necklace so clear and with all details in my mind, I only had to let become it real. Maybe I watched to much ‘Heidi’, who knows?

I’m  distractet from the restyling of my blog very easy, because I prefer little boxes out of paper. Since the last week I finally own a scor-pal – a useful thing. Thanks to diverse tutorials on www.scor-pal.com, I’m ready to gift-wrap my jewellery (and other stuff) in little boxes. I already practiced a litte.

Danach noch schön verzieren und schon hat man eine Verpackung, die sich sehen lassen kann. Sieht ein bisschen weihnachtlich aus, oder? Meine kleine Tochter hat es allerdings nicht gestört, einen Moment war ich unaufmerksam und schon ist die (zum Glück leere) Schachtel  in ihren Händen gelandet. Was ein einjähriges Kleinkind damit anstellt, kann man sich ja vorstellen. Also werd ich gleich ein paar neue machen.

After that a few embellishments and now you’ve got a nice gift. It looks a litte festive, right? My little dauhgter wasn’t impressed, I was inobservant just one moment and the little (fortunally empty) box falled in her hands. You can imagine what a one-year-old do with it. So I’ll make new ones.