Plans for 2013...

It's New Year's day tomorrow! AND my birthday :) It's less than 24 hours now until I'm old enough to learn how to drive lol! Even though I'll probably be like 30-something years old by the time I have enough money for driving lessons (sighs).

I've been planning to start selling some of my handmade stuff for a while. I'm currently trying to work it out so I can at least make a profit from it :) My mum and dad think it's just a waste of my time, though. I'm mostly on my own doing this... Not even my friends are really being much help. They just keep telling me that  I should sell things. I suppose there isn't that much they can do anyway at the moment.

So anyway, I'm going to start selling things at some point hopefully in 2013 :)

I hope you all have a happy new year :D I probably won't update for a while after the holiday because I have exams :(

I've managed to put the Blog back in to the right time zone again btw. I was annoyed at the times always being wrong, but didn't realise it was because it was set in an American time zone...

Dragon Fruit cane

I love dragon fruit, or any exotic fruits really :) Unfortunately, I'm the only one in my family who likes them!

(picture found online)

Here's what they look like, in case you haven't seen one before. I know it might sound strange,but a lot of people I know have never even heard of dragon fruit! You eat them in a similar way to how you would eat a kiwi fruit: you basically cut them in half then take out the fruit. They taste quite similar to kiwi fruit, they're a little bland but sweet. The fruit has a soft and slightly slimy texture, but there's also lots of tiny seeds in fruit.
Anyway, I've only seen ones with white fruit before, but you can also get them with purple fruit. I don't know if they taste any different.







Now we've got that out the way, let's start with the tutorial! 

We're going to be needing the following colours: black, translucent, and a bright pink colour mixed with a little white.










Start by rolling out the black. then cut it in to equal size pieces.

What I did with the translucent clay, I rolled it in to a ball then flattened it out. Then I cut it in to quarters. I rolled out one of the pieces and used it for the centre. I put 4 rolls of black clay around it. Then wrap it up.
Keep doing this until you've used up all of translucent clay quarters.

Now we've finished making the fruit :) Now for the flesh. Take your pink clay and roll it out. Wrap it around the clay (or 'pack' the clay) and reduce it in to a cane (start by using your fingers to reduce/squeeze it down and after that you roll it).

Now you cut the ends of carefully with a good blade. Don't just push the blade down or you'll mess up your cane (typical beginner mistake!). Instead, sort of roll the cane with the blade as you push in through gently. 

And, you're done :D When you bake the slices, the white part will go translucent. Sorry, I don't have a picture of a baked slice just yet.

I don't recommend baking the cane unless you know what you're doing. If you want to use it for Decoden or nail art, I think it'll be best if you make as much slices as you think you'll need and bake them as normal.

Just a short update :)

I had a happy Christmas. Did you have a happy Christmas? I'll assume you answered 'yes' and say 'good'. Anyway, it's that awkward time of year now when you have no idea what to do because Christmas is mostly finished and it's the New Year next week (and also my birthday!!!).

So, anyway, you may be happy to know my conjunctivitis decided to leave me alone without even spreading to the other eye like it normally decides to do :) In fact, it didn't even hang around for that long. Only for about two days. I guess not touching it really does help... Also, eating a load of immune system-boosting oranges helps too! (Sorry, teeth.)

Moving on to something slightly more relevant, it's about this time last year that I discovered polymer clay. My mum got my sister a jewellery making kit with polymer clay in it last year. Not very good polymer clay at all - most of it didn't go hard at all after we baked it and it's still pliable now. Anyway, my sister ended up getting all frustrated with it (she was only 8!) and I ended up gaining a jewellery making kit with polymer clay in it. lol. I was already in to jewellery making, but I guess making polymer clay jewellery with my sister was what really got me in to jewellery making. Soon after that, I managed to get my hands on some real polymer clay (well, it was Sculpey III polymer clay, so at least close to real polymer clay) and I started off by making a few charms and earrings. Then my favourite craft shop got Fimo Soft clay in!

My first polymer clay earrings lol :) I cut them in half when I was making them
with scissors because I didn't have a blade or a craft knife lol!

A few tutorials I'm planning on making:

• I'm going to make an updated version of my polymer clay Plumeria Flower tutorial. It's by far the most popular tutorial on this Blog! I think I could make a much better version of it now, though :)
• I'm also going to have a go at making a Plumeria flower cane, but I don't know if I'll make it in to a tutorial or not.
• More ear cuffs!
• I'm planning on making a dragon fruit cane, because I love dragon fruit but there is a severe lack of tutorials for the canes :D
• I'm currently going through an artistic-looking-earrings phase, so I'll be making a few tutorials on that.
• I want to make some 'Kawaii' style charms... I'm not entirely sure what, though.
• NYAN CAT!

(Btw, I know this is no longer a 'short' update!)

It's Christmas!

I'm so happy that the world didn't end yesterday. lol. Actually, it did kind of end for me because I got conjunctivitis! I HATE conjunctivitis. I would rather have a bad migraine or a cold. I've only had it two or three times before, fortunately it doesn't seem to get worse each time you have it. But it doesn't get better, either! So I'll be trapped at home for the next few days. It's so annoying and no matter how much I try to stop it, it always finds a way to transfer to my other eye. The good thing about it is it never seems to last very long, just  three or four days :) I can remember only having it for one weekend before (that was before I got glasses to help it transfer to my other eye though).

Anyway, rant over, as mentioned in the title, it's Christmas!!! And exactly a week after that, It's New Year's day AND my birthday! I'm going to be 17! I really can't believe it :) I feel so old! I'm going to be old enough to drive :D Oh yeah, and you did just read that right, my birthday is on the first of January.

So, anyway, I'll be making some special posts because I have the time now :) I feel like doing something to the layout of my blog, too. It needs something!

How to make eye pins

for beading, it's best to use head pins, because they have flat head (but you can get them with different shaped heads). For polymer clay charms, you can use either head pins or eye pins. It's probably best to use head pins on charms that are flat at the bottom, and I find it's best to make the eye at the top after you've baked it. 

To make the eye pin, or make an eye in the head pins, it's very simple. You need round nose pliers to do this, and if you're making your own eye pins, you need wire (preferably quite firm/hard wire) and wire cutters. 

You just basically take the wire and form a loop in the top of it. You can make lots at once, or make them as you need them. I usually make them when I need them, but you can do whatever suits you. 

If, like me, you think this style is way too boring, you can try my style of eye pin! :D

Sorry the quality is so bad, but you basically need to make your normal eye pin, then bend the wire back on itself to make another loop. After this, you make one more between the first two. This one is like the 'eye' where you will put through your jump ring or whatever else you want to put in. The wire should go away from the 'eye' after this. You can cut the end off after this, but make sure you leave a good amount of room on the eye pin so it has enough room to go through the clay charm or whatever else you want to use it for.

Tips on making eye pins stay in polymer clay!

You won't have this problem if you are using head pins, but you can't always use head pins. Some times, you can only really use eye pins. The only real problem is, they tend to fall out. Usually what I do, is I pull the eye pins out after I've baked the clay and put glue on the pin. But there's a better way :)

If you make the pin an L-shape before you put it inside, it shouldn't fall out.

After you've put it in, squeeze the charm around it so it stays in. This is quite a common trick to use, but it is very useful to know :)

polymer clay Christmas Cake

The cake originally said 'Merry Xmas' on it, but now all you can see is the 'merry' part. lol.

Ok, tomorrow I'll be showing you how to make my very weird looking eye pins. :) I've not seen them like that before, so I'm hoping I've come up with an ooak idea lol! The only problem is, I've been having a few issues with my computer (again). Maybe my computer will behave tomorrow!

Polymer clay Biscuit style Christmas tree decorations

Bad quality ftw! (that stands for 'for the win' btw)

Yay! I'm getting more excited about Christmas everyday :D It's not like last year, I spent the whole time super depressed. Anyway, I had the random idea to make these :) I have no idea whether they've already been done or not. But I made them anyway because I felt like I was making ooak tree decorations.

Anyway... It's the 12/12/12 and NOTHING exciting happened. That's right. Just another day. Ugh :( I was expecting at least something to happen! It's kind of depressing to think about, though. To be honest, I wish something did happen. (Now I'm hoping someone will turn around and say "Oh, but something did happen...")

Christmas Lollipop jewellery :)

It's that time of the year now where everywhere you go is all Christmas-y and it takes about five hours to go shopping because there's so much people!

I know it's been done like a million times, but I decided to make some polymer clay lollipops :D

They're in Christmas colours :) Red, green, gold and translucent clay. I'm going to wear them on Christmas Eve, lol!

I haven't got round to making anything else yet, I've been a good girl and done lots of revising :)

I've decided to change the layout of the Blog, too :) I'm in a Christmas mood haha XD