Nutshells and gnomes

Hello dear readers,

Have I gone nuts?
First I learned how to crack open a walnut in two perfect halves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVTG3T_fTz4.

Then I learned how to make little gnomes -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSbZ66cH3Qc



The house is one of my ceramic clay houses.  All the leaves staff are a gift from dear Birgit.

And this is my first nutshell scene.

Making the tiny mushrooms gave me a real headache.

Have a wonderful Sunday and a very creative week ahead with blessings.

Gifts

Hello dear readers,

It has been a while since my last post.  Real life issues had to be taken care of.  I had no time for
creative work but I received a few wonderful gifts for my birthday which was about two weeks ago.

From my dear friend Faby

Thank you, dear Faby, for your thoughtful gifts.  The dried flowers regretfully did not endure the journey and crumbled away. This is what's left of them.

From two close friends who ordered these beautiful china vases and sculpture from abroad especially for me.

My cell phone camera didn't do justice to the beautiful goddess. 

My daughter and son-in-law are back.  I already have some ceramics waiting for the kiln. They'll have to wait however for Nilly's large items to get thoroughly dry, and be fired together.  Nilly gave
me for my birthday some very valuable new craft tools which are hard to find locally. My other daughter Galia, gave me books.

I wish you all a lovely weekend with blessings.

These came out of the kiln

Hello dear readers,

These are from the batch I left for Nilly to fire with her own work in her kiln. 
I made them during my visit to her studio.   Just played with the clay, created
a ball, stuck a short piece of a wooden skewer in its middle and moved the
ball around it to make an opening.  While the pieces were still wet,
I stuck on clay leaves which I market with a needle.  Pinched the opening of
one of the vases and it looks as if its borders are almost being torn out.

The pieces are not glazed or painted. I rather like them the way they are as if
carved out of stone.


They were still wet when I left and therefore not sanded.  My second batch
will look better because I made it at home with no hurry and sanded it after it
was dry.  Since I have no plans to give them away, they'll serve as examples for
my future work with clay.

Nilly and husband are flying to Europe tomorrow and will not be back before mid-June, so
the little houses and other items will have to wait until then.

I wish you all a wonderfully creative week ahead with blessings.

Ceramics

Hello dear readers,
This is my first post for May.  The last part of April was mostly holidays
spent with family and guests. and of course the daily visits
to the nursing home to see my husband.

All the projects I was working on are packed away to make my home clean
and tidy, ready to receive guests.
The projects will stay packed until I finish my experiments with ceramics.
Somewhere on Pinterest, I saw tiny ceramic houses which I loved.
Nilly, my daughter, gave me a large
block of clay and here are some results before glazing and firing.
At this stage, all the items are very fragile, white colored and clay dusty.

Leafy vases

candle holders

fruit and cake stands

The whole lot

A previous lot was left to be fired in Nilly's kiln,  I am waiting excitedly for the results.
Clay shrinks considerable,  everything you see here will be smaller after firing.

There's still a lot of clay left.  I hope my next batch will be better than this but already the
items look nice to me.

Have wonderful creative work with blessings.

A miniature carpet beater tutorial.

Hello and Happy Easter and Passover Holidays to all my dear readers.

This very simple and easy tutorial will be, dear readers and followers, a holidays
gift to you.

An original carpet beater is made from three wicker strips.  A miniature beater
looks better if it's done with two strips. But, if you are able to get
very thin strips you can do it with three, just follow the steps in the photos.

For demonstration only I'll be using two strands of bendable miniature
flower stems.

A.  Bend carefully the center of the length into a round loop.

B.  With the right end of the strips enter the top loop and make another round circle.

C.  Do the same with the left end and make an opposite loop.  Now you
      have three loops with one end coming from under a loop and the second
      from over a loop.

D.   Twist the two ends together leaving an oval opening.  (this is the point to
        bind the ends of wicker with raffia).

E.   Twist until you reach a length of 2.5"  (10cm) and bind again with raffia.)

Materials:

Wicker strips
a strand of raffia
Cutter of scissors

1.  Cut two 30 cm (12") lengths from the wicker twines and
     soak them in hot water for about 15 minutes until they are completely     bendable. It is very important to keep them wet
     and pliable all the time.

2.  Bend the two strips together as seen in the A to E demonstrations.
 
You can see the end results when done with wicker strips.

Happy beating dollies!

Giveaway winner

Hello dear reads

This is a list of participants for my giveaway, in order of comments:

1.  Carmen.  2.  Sheila.  3.  Isabel.  4.  Marian.  5.  Pilar.  6.  De.  7  Blanca.
8.  Megan.  9.  Fabiola.  10.  Susanna.  11.  Alexandra.  12.  Karen.
13.  Rosa Maria.  14.  Ayla.  15.  Paloma.  16.  Birgit.  17.  Teresa.
18.  Eloisa.  19.  Arantxa.

Congratulations De! Please send your address to drorahed@gmail.com.

Happy Easter and Passover to all.  Blessings!

Spring cleaning

Dear readers,

As the weather allows it, people, including myself, are busy giving their home a thorough cleaning, preparing for the holidays. It reminds me that I still keep an almost antique, before vacuum cleaners, cleaning accessory, a carpet beater.  It's quite a pretty wicker thing which at its time caused many quarrels between neighbors. Imagine the wrath of one housewife after laboring hard to finish cleaning her home when the neighbors above beat their rugs and carpets and the dust enters right into her clean apartment.

I was asked to show the ladies at the nursing home how I make a miniature carpet beater. Made
several for their Bingo.

These R/L one and the miniatures are made from wicker. 

For showing how it's done, I'll use thin plastic coated wires.

Happy cleaning and blessings