For any of you who have been through the chemotherapy process you will recognise it when I say that sometimes my brain works so slowly and in such a muddled way that it is like thinking through treacle.  I have to keep things really simple in order to be able to function in a coherent way.  Following a series of instructions, or trying to remember more than one thing at a time seems an impossible thing to achieve now, and it not only has an impact on daily life – following recipes (we have had some very interesting suppers as a result – not!), reading letters and emails that require thoughtful and correctly spelt responses, doing the shopping and coming out with everything on your list.  All these things are proving interesting and sometimes entertaining, but also frustrating.  None more so than in my creative arena.  As the treatment progresses, I find it harder and harder to do anything that is in the least bit complex. consequently I was surprised at the pleasure I found and the relative ease of doing something like Zentangle.  It looks sooooooooo complicated, and I would not have thought to go there if it had not been for my lovely sister in law sending me a book on the subject.  It is called Zentangle Art Therapy by anya Lothrop, and I think I have seen it in the supermarkets with the magazines (can’t seem to find you a link for this, but it is a GMC publication).  Wendy bought it for me because it has a tag line of “Meditative Drawing” and she knows how much I have enjoyed my Mindfulness course.

I have to say it looked a little daunting given my ability to think at the moment, but I gave it a whirl and found that the extremely simple and straight forward instructions with excellent diagrams on how to build a pattern pen stroke by penstroke we really easy to follow.  My very first “Tangle” as they call them is below.  The first pattern in the tangle is the box pattern on the left.  It looks so complicated but was a doddle to build following the picture instructions.

The beauty of Zentangle is that you there is a sort of formula to follow that removes a lot of the decision making process and also the fear of a blank sheet of paper.  You work on small areas at a time and in this form there is no colour so you don’t have to worry about colour choices.  It is just pure pattern in bite size chunks.  You don’t have to have any overall idea of where you are going, just pick a patter and fill a space.  This is absolutely perfect for my level of thinking ability right now, and it is meditative in that you have to concentrate on the pattern without thinking of other things at the same time.

 Zentangle number 2.  Don’t go hunting for the mistakes, there are plenty, but I don’t care. For me it is the process that is healing and helpful, and fun.  I feel like I am doing something creative even if my creative input is limited and I am just following a process.

Getting adventurous now – changing my shape, although I think it needs to be rotated clockwise by 90 degrees to make more sense.

Maybe I had polo mints or doughnuts on the brain when I drew this one, but it seemed the perfect vehicle to attempt a more 3D image.

A simple fish shape lent itself very nicely to experimenting with more Zentangle patterns, and it provided the opportunity to think a bit more about the design itself rather than just randomly adding pattern.

Black and white is all very well, but I can’t stay away from colour for too long so I sploshed a bit of water colour onto some water colour paper and then added my tangles.  I went over them with more water colour to help define the patterns.  You can tell I had a bit more brain power for this one than my first one as I had to think about where to place the colours.

Trying out some more patterns that lend themselves to colour.  Made my mistakes, but it doesn’t matter.  These are all done for my pleasure and sense of achievement, and if it weren’t for the fact that it has been ages since I last blogged and I have nothing other than this to share with you, they would have stayed safely out of public view!

Then I discovered Joanne Fink and her Zenspirations Dangle Designs workbook.  I just love the zany contemporary feel to these doodles, and I felt compelled to give it a go.  Again, it is easy to follow her instructions to build up the patterns and designs, and I coloured mine with some neon roller ball pens.

There is so much scope with these for cards and scrapbooking I think.  I used a little set of Stabilo pens to colour in the shapes.  Choosing a limited palette really helps to get a cohesive look.  These designs are quick.

Getting bolder, and having more fun.

This is not my usual sort of think but I had to give it a go.

This one is for everyone of you who have sent me lovely messages, cards, gifts, flowers and treats.  Every single little thing makes such a difference to me, and lifts my spirits, helping me through the difficult weeks.  And just to show you that today is not a difficult day as chemo went smoothly, and I have every hope that this cycle will be easier than the last. I am armed and prepared with more medication to combat the side effects.  Here is a picture of me today, on return from the hospital sporting my combo head gear of yoga head band, chemo cap and ultra cheap scarf entwined with a Friendly Plastic necklace I made many moons ago.  Friendly Plastic is something I can’t get back to just yet as I need my head to be a little less stupid, but at least I can use what I have already got in a creative manner.

It might take me another couple of weeks or so to post again, but in the mean time, enjoy every moment you have, do things single mindedly, and concentrate on the positive things in life – there are always positives, even when you find it hard to see them, sometimes you just have to look at things from a different angle.

Generally speaking, having chemotherapy cannot be described as lovely.  In fact at certain times it is distinctly unlovely and very hard to deal with.  However, there are always silver linings, and if it had not been for the breast cancer I would not have discovered just how many wonderful and supportive people there are out there who care about me and others like me who are going through the Cancer Mill. Thank you One And All.

If it had not been for the chemotherapy I would not have discovered Mindfulness and taken the time to go on a course at the Maggies Centre.

If it hadn’t been for the hair loss I would not have discovered the joy of experimenting with funky headgear.

And if it had not been for the support at Jewellery Maker, I would not have met so many lovely people, especially my fellow Guest Designers who have been sending me fantastic, thoughtful, charming and lovely gifts to keep me going.

Below are the beautiful brooches that Frankie Gaywood, a fellow GD made for me. She crocheted them, and sent me the delightful tag card with them.  There is a lovely little crochet butterfly on the card that I will use at some point too, but I love looking at the card, so it won’t be coming off there just yet.

They look fab on one of my hats that Erica Thomson and I made together using some absolutely gorgeous hand dyed silk that Ruth Brown of Stonecreek Silks gave me. Until I took this photo I had not thought of wearing all four of them together, but they do look rather good don’t you think?

From the fantastic stash of scrummy stuff that all the JM Guest Designers gave me I have only just managed to start making things, and below is my first make.  It combines some lovely knitted wire that I think is supposed to go around cabochons to form an instant bezel, but I used it as a base to stitch on some of the lovely yarns and shell beads etc that were in the overflowing bag.As I am sure you know, I have been having fun experimenting with things to put on my head to cover my mangey baldness. I say mangey because, rather weirdly I lost 90% of my hair rather than all of it, and there is still a very sparse little bit hanging on in there, which is in fact growing a tiny bit now.  So my pate is not the shiny ping pong ball of my imagination, but a sphere of widely spaced individual hairs that look a bit like a micro forest after some ecological disaster!

Anyway, I thought the following photos might help others who have no hair for whatever reason, try out some new looks.

This is a hijab bonnet (like a short windsock) with a really bold scarlet and black scarf tied around it.  Accessorising with bold colour helps me commit to the look.  For someone who never previously wore a hat, putting such boldness on my head was a leap of faith. Once I tried it, I found I loved it.  Make up however, is not something I like putting on too often!

It is fun deciding what combination of scarves and hijab bonnets or head bands I will wear that day.  This particular combination is an orange headband with a hijab “sock bonnet” on top with a knitted festival band twisted with a retro orange scarf on top.  The lovely scarf was given to me by my friend Jane Wain, a fellow member of Nolitex, the exhibiting group I belong to. I am missing being a part of what they are doing at the moment as we have an exhibition coming up at Papplewick Pumping Station in Nottinghamshire.  I am normally a very active part of the group and would have a number of pieces on exhibition.  This time there is only the one piece that I have managed to do, plus a contribution to a collaborative piece with Judith Burnett, and my drawings are the basis for the designs for our group piece.  If you want to know more about “Engineered”, just visit our blog or FB page.

Even on less colourful days, rummaging around in my scarf collection yields some fun results.  The white scarf was a freebie with a T shirt I bought last year.  I am also wearing a polymer clay pendant and earring set that I made last year at Polydays. Debbie Bulford was also there making fabulous stuff.

Have you heard of Buffs?  I had no idea about them until my youngest son told me about them. I went in search of them and found some really fabulous faux Buffs on Ali Express and Ebay.  Absolutely perfect for tying a knot in and adding some height to my round head.

Layering up again, but the check band is actually the cut off bottom of a T shirt twisted around twice.

Discovering Buffs (and faux Buffs) led me to making some modified versions with Erica.  This is one of my favourites. I found some great material on the market, and with the help of Erica and her overlocker and yarn supply we made a much longer “sock”. I have layered it up with a lace hijab band.

Now this is my current absolute favourite because I am a sucker for silk.  Ruth Brown’s absolutely-totally-delicious hand dyed silk is simply gorgeous to wear as it is so soft on my head.  She sent me 4 different pieces of silk and I am going to use them all!  Erica had some off-cuts from a T shirt that she had made years and years ago, and there was just enough to make a band.  The colours are wonderful together, and I adore this piece.

My collection of brooches is growing. Not only do I have the lovely crochet roses that Frankie Gaywood made me, but I have been making a foray into needle felting, and the three brooches on the left are the result (along with some weird flowers and a rather cute penguin!). The brooch on the left is simply stitch on some commercial felt.  I was not following any design with these brooches, I just went with what felt (get the joke?) right at the time.  They all have some stitch on them, and may or may not end up with some beads as well.  I have sculpted them with extra needle felted wool tops on the reverse to give them curved shapes.

Needle felting is actually very soothing and something I can do even when I am not feeling up to much.  I won’t begin to attempt it on the worst days of the chemo cycle though, or I would end up with blood over everything due to my inability to concentrate, those felting needles are vicious!

Next chemo (cycle 4) is this week, so wish me luck as I will be on a different drug and the oncologist keeps telling me how awful it can be.  I am not going to believe her just yet, as the chemo nurse said that some people find it easier than the drug cocktail I had before.  Consequently I am gathering all the positive vibes I can, and hoping that the ride will not be too rough.

See you on the other side of the rough stuff.

]]> https://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/channelling-my-inner-african-queen-girl-with-a-pearl-earring/feed/ 15 3136 20150422_110114 (1) rarelizzie 20150422_110314 20150422_110114 (1) Blue-Swag-6 20150226_085418 20150402_121008 20150410_180505 20150413_080802 20150420_172603 20150417_141517 20150422_110232 20150422_110510 https://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/coming-to-terms-with-chemo/ https://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/coming-to-terms-with-chemo/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2015 13:57:16 +0000 https://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/?p=3122 Every cloud has a silver lining, and this is a story of a couple of very silvery linings indeed.

The whole Cancer thing was definitely a complete facer when it came to light back in early winter 2014, and coming to terms with it all is a journey that takes a lot longer than one might think. You just feel as though you have a handle on your emotions, and then wham! a side swipe of full on fear and misery overtakes you.

Some people can turn immediately to their creative hobbies to help them cope, others either don’t have that side to their lives (presumably not you lot because you are reading this!), or the creative drive deserts them completely and seems impossible to catch a hold of.  I am in the latter camp, and it has taken me nearly three months to be able to find a way back into my studio to do anything creative at all.  When I did finally get in here and feel a need to do something, I was still not able to get back to my familiar mediums, so I turned to words and paint.

My stash of materials extends to a good collection of sketch books, but I was still not ready for them. However, an old cruise catalogue that I had (unused of course), held the promise of thick glossy paper and a completely un-intimidating appeal.  It would not matter what I put in here. A slosh of gesso or emulsion and the images of perfect people in expensive clothes looking at sunsets in tropical places disappeared, and what I was left with was some wonderful messy textured pages ready to receive anything that could be thrown at them. No blank page anxiety, it really didn’t matter one iota what went on the pages, just as long as it helped me to get some of the thoughts and feelings that were swirling away inside, out of my head in a very visible way.  Talking helps, but sometimes this is even better.

Working on a few pages at once, I decided to write down my positive thoughts on one page, my negative thoughts on another, and finally my anger and fear on a third. I was not expecting that third page, but it just came along of its own free will!

What emerged over a number of days I am sharing with you. Not because this in any sense has artistic merit, but just because it might help someone else take a similar approach and get those rotten mixed up, fearful feelings out.  Each time you do this, it removes a bit more from inside and makes things easier to deal with.

Underneath all the many layers of paint is a page full of positive thoughts and wishes in thick black permanent pen scribbled all over. Washes of paint followed with absolutely no real thought of any image, just trying to use colours that reflected the words.  The result was a sunset, not because I think this is in any way the end of things, because it isn’t. I just find sunsets something  lovely to look at (the real thing, not this one!), and gives me good thoughts about the next day.

Negative thoughts and worries were scribbled here, but they were quickly joined by discoveries of positive things too, in fact, this turned out to be my silver linings page.  The colours again came from the feelings, and the flowers just emerged from the darkness.The page that surprised me most was the fear and anger page.  It started out just as fear, but I found myself using angry words too.  Not anger at the injustice of having cancer (other people have so much more to deal with than me), but anger at the effects on my cosy comfortable life and how this has messed up all my plans and my expectations – anger at being so frustrated by the fatigue and the inability to plan for things and do what I enjoy doing. The fear of the side effects and the hair loss, and the fear of what my friends and family have to cope with because I know they love me and are concerned for me.

I won’t be sharing much more of this stuff with you I expect, as it is really just about helping myself, but on this occasion, I am hoping it might help someone else to find a way of constructively expressing their feelings about whatever they are going through.  The journey is personal, and the images are not art, they are therapy.

Hair loss on the other hand is a very public affair.  Mine started just over a week ago with large tufts coming out leaving me with really thin patches which looked very odd.  It then began to come out all over my head, thinning it down to such an extent that it was tricky to make what was left look half way decent.  As I knew this was going to happen, it was not alarming, just odd.  My appearance is important to me but it is not beginning and the end of my day.

Over the next few days the tenderness and discomfort grew until I became desperate to not have hair!  The hairy detritus left on my pillow and around the house was a pain, so I asked my husband to chop it off.  We had the choice of his beard trimmers, a pair of small sharp scissors or the dog grooming shears! I opted for the scissors.  Not the neatest of jobs, but it did mean that the hair that came out was much shorter and clogs up the vacuum cleaner much less.  Anyway, he was in a rush to get to work, and I quite liked the ping pong ball with mange look
A day later and even more had had come out.

Now the silver lining began to take shape. I dug out all my enormous stash of scarves and began some creative tying.  Having bought some cotton chemo caps and hijab bonnets to wear close to my head, I had a plethora of colour choices, but not much scarf tying experience. Hey ho, I am always up for learning a new skill. And even better, I got to use more than one scarf at a time! Then, joy of joys, my lovely hairdresser Claire Parr of Steeles Hairdressing came all the way to my house to shave off the offending mange. Immediately the tenderness disappeared and the look immediately became a lot less scruffy.  She also trimmed and styled my wig for me so when I need to look in the mirror and see myself, or want to be seen just as me by other people and not a cancer patient, then I can.As Claire was sorting out my bonce, my very good friend Erica Thomson came over with her overlocker, loads of fabric and yarn and an urge to play!  We spent the afternoon designing and making funky head gear.  Below is our first attempt using three different fabrics and lots of yarn in the overlocker.  It took us 4 hours to work out the design and construction of the hat having got inspiration from something I had seen on Etsy.  We ran with the idea and took it our own way, making it up as we went along.   I love, love, love the colours.

A quick change of fabric and a few more cups of tea and we were on to the next one. This took us less than half the time, and I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the results.  I wore it last night to a posh dinner.  I was not sure I would feel up to going after having chemo in the afternoon, but I was ok, and it was fun to really put on some colour and stand out in a sea of black dresses and suits.  A vibrant turquoise scarf slung back to front over my shoulders made it all look very stylish.  If I was going to stand out from the crowd, then it needed to be done in style!These hats are a massive silver lining for me.  If it had not been for the whole hair loss thing, then I would never have dreamed of wearing anything like this.  Hats are not usually my thing at all, I find it really hard to find anything that suits my round head; they tend to wear me rather than the other way around.  And you all know I love colour, so this is just the very best opportunity to put that colour on my head and feel fantastic about it.

There is another bonus as well – whenever I get the frequent Tropical Moments (made worse by the chemo annoyingly), I just have to quickly lift the hat off and the bare bonce cools down really fast.  They are soft inside and so easy to wear.  They are a talking point and they help me to show a positive face instead of the more depressing chemo cap that does nothing for my spherical head.

A HUGE thank you to Erica for helping me do this. I would not have done it without you as my creative ability is sadly impaired at the moment as we have already discussed.  But now I have two fabulous hats that no one else in the world has, one of which has a lovely pattern of hippopotamuses (hippopatami?) running just below the brim.  Both have a fancy overlocked pattern on the top and both feel totally fantastic to wear.  But you can tell that by my face I expect.

For those of you who have already booked and paid for Plastic Fantastic 2015 the Anglo Danish course, I have returned your cheques to you, or refunded via Pay Pal.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you who have sent me their thoughts and prayers in messages and comments on the blog, by email, text and Facebook.  Your good wishes and positive energy has done a lot to carry me through these last two weeks since diagnosis. You have brought smiles to my face when I needed it most.

One of the things I think about when I feel a bit low is to consider just how many of you have been through this, and much worse, so I count my blessings, and I am focussing on getting to the other side of the treatment.

You will probably know that I will not be doing any Jewellery Maker shows until the summer, but I have plenty to keep me occupied, and that includes a couple of projects I would love to tell you about but can’t just yet. However, I hope it won’t be too long before I can share these exciting things with you.

In the mean time, I wish you all a fabulous Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

Without further ado, here are the images of the pieces I made for the JM show on 17th November starting with my wrestles with Memory Wire.  This stuff has a mind of its own, and you need to be forceful to bend it to your will.  However it does make great shapes when you do.  this necklace was made from one continuous piece of Memory wire curled into loops which got filled with Friendly Plastic.

Memory wire comes as coils in a Slinky-like affair in three sizes – one for rings, one for bracelets and one for necklaces.  The pendant below was made using the bracelet size coil pulled out and kinked into submission and then curled in on itself to form a flower shape vaguely reminiscent of a Charles Renee Mackintosh rose. It is essential to loop the ends of the wire and hook them into place to stabilise the design, it is in tension and will spring apart if you don’t do this.  I chose to fill in only some of the shapes with Friendly Plastic – roll it into a bead and squish it out to fill in the space, trying to make it grip the wire evenly so that equal amounts of Friendly Plastic are above it and below it.

I almost forgot to say that I coloured the memory wire with Alcohol inks, and the smaller circles you can see are made from the ring sized memory wire cut into, effectively split rings.

There was an awful lot of lace panels in the kits that were sent to me, and my eyes nearly popped out when I saw the colours – vivid, scorching, almost neon pink along with some very full on gold in one kit, and then slightly more subdued and manageable silver and navy blue in the second kit.  After putting on my sunglasses and taking a paracetamol I tackled the pink lace first: all I can say is thank goodness for Alcohol Inks!

First thing to do was to cut up some of the lace into more manageable pieces, smaller bits of neon pink were not quite so hard on the eyes. Next I put the little flowers onto a piece of aluminium foil and dropped some alcohol inks onto them.  A quick squirt of Blending Solution and then they were wrapped tightly in the foil and finger pressed together.  I let mine dry in the foil, but it does not really matter, just as long as they are totally dry before you do anything else to them.

Small circles of soft Friendly Plastic were forced through the centre of the flowers using my Oooze technique, and I used a little teaspoon measuring spoon to help shape them into little cups.  Each one is attached to the wire coils using another piece of soft Friendly Plastic from behind.  A soldering iron or the little “flame thrower” of a barbecue lighter work well for heating just the bits that need to be joined.These earrings were made in a similar way except I did not shape them in the measuring spoon, but stitched two back to back around a bead.

Here 3 of the cup shaped Ooozed flowers were mounted on some textured Friendly Plastic. I used a bit of glue and some Gilding Flake to add a touch of gold to the flowers.

Having tackled and prevailed with the small bits of neon pink, I felt brave enough to try something bigger. Donning my very darkest pair of sunglasses and with a gin and tonic close by (for medicinal purposes only of course!), I doused one of the larger collar pieces of lace in Alcohol inks just as before.  If you want to be a bit more precise, then don’t use the blending solution, and just place the inks exactly where you want them and they will bleed gently into each other.

Anyone who has tried my Oooze technique will know that Ooozing over a large area is tricky.  I chose to Oooze in sections. This meant that I could place colour where I wanted it to be – Orange Copper Friendly Plastic behind the some of the flower shapes, and Stripe in other places.  The trick is to use the lace as a template and scratch shape into the surface of the Friendly Plastic, cut it out and then Oooze just the right shape to fit into the space. Good strong aluminium foil is necessary for this technique, wimpy cheapo stuff will not cut the mustard and your fingers will forever be going through it.

Phew! The sunglasses came off and I tackled the Gold Lace motifs.  The colour was still just a bit too brassy for me, so Alcohol Inks came to the rescue again for the demi cuff bracelet below.  A kebab stick is really handy to help you press the lace into the warm Friendly Plastic from above before pushing from below to force as much Friendly Plastic through the holes in the lace as possible.  The cabochon was added by surrounding it with Friendly Plastic and then deploying my soldering iron to spot weld the cabochon to the cuff.

This was the mask that I demonstrated in outline how to make live on air.  It involves a little bit of Ooozing and a little bit of my Lacework technique.  It is pretty quick to make, and took me only about 1 hour from start to finish, but it might take you a moment or two longer if you are not used to working with Friendly Plastic. But it is simple to do, so if you want to see how, then check out the video for the 17th November 2015 on the right hand side.

After all that lace, I did a quick demonstration of how to make the bag below using my Lacework technique and some chiffon organza. The handles are twists of Friendly Plastic.

Back to the lace again, and this mask is a little more complex. It was made from the second kit of the day and I did not use any Alcohol Inks on the lace, but I did stiffen it with Paverpol.  You can see where I used the technique described earlier of Ooozing selected colours through parts of the lace panels to give distinct areas of colour.  This is not a mask for first timers, but you could simplify it if you want to have a go.

This is a detail of the right hand side of the mask and yo can see a small stone set as a cabochon within Friendly Plastic, and also you can very clearly see where the Stormy Blue Friendly Plastic has Ooozed through the holes in the lace.  This adds structure to the lace and will hold a mask shape very well.  You can check out the video to see how I shape the mask around a polystyrene head to create the right shape.  The video shows how to begin and how to mark out the eyes etc, so it should help you get going on your own masks.

The pearls and stones have been stitched on and I added a few dangly bits on the right hand side to add interest.

I hope you like the masks and the lace, and even if you didn’t manage to get any of the lace from JM, you will find a lot of motifs and panels out there on the web and in the shops.  Just remember that if you want something with plenty of colour, go for a lace that is much brighter than you actually want, and tone it down with inks, paints or dyes.  You will end up with something more vibrant and interesting that way, and no one else will have lace the same colour as you.

Next show is 3rd December on JM 1 – 5pm – No idea what I will be doing yet, but see you there!

On Saturday 15th November we will explore my Lacework technique, and my serendipitous Oooze! technique, along with Fusing, Foiling and Forming Friendly Plastic, twisting and shaping it to form fabulous adornments for you and your Christmas tree.  It will be up to you to choose whether to make tree decorations or jewellery or a mixture of both, but I will guide you all the way.

Here are some examples of the sort of thing you will be making:

Lacework

Friendly Plastic Lacework for cardmaking

Friendly Plastic Lacework for Christmas Decoration

Friendly Plastic Lacework as little frosty Starflake earrings

Oooze!

Friendly Plastic Ooozed through Angelina fibres to make a pendant, or an adornment for your tree

Foiling, Twisting and Forming

Friendly Plastic foiled and twisted to form earrings, make them bigger and they will be tree decorations

Friendly Plastic fused, twisted and textured to make a lovely Christmas tree decoration

Friendly Plastic foiled and formed to make contemporary earrings. The shapes could be made larger to make Christmas Tree decorations

I am not restricting it to that, and I have other projects up my sleeve, but I want to see how you get on with this little lot before I introduce you to more ideas.

This class is suitable for beginners and improvers alike, and you will need to contact JM direct to book

This leafy lariat style necklace was made for my last Jewellery Maker TV show on the 1st October (see link at right) when I was given two lovely kits to work with.

Friendly Plastic and Fusible Film leafy Lariat

I used heart shaped cutters to make the leaves, and the Fusible Film  made it easier to shape the warmed pieces without deforming them, making it a very useful thing to try when you are beginning to play with free  forming Friendly Plastic.

The earrings below are ovals of Friendly Plastic lined with Fusible Film, and curled round a Friller Tool or you can use any vaguely cone shaped tool.  Each earring is made up of two curled ovals, and they are fused together using the flame from a hand held gas lighter for barbecues.  I was introduced to this tool by Barbara Lees and Karen Schmidt in Denmark, and it is extremely handy for rapidly “spot welding” two pieces of Friendly Plastic together.

Wind resistant hand held gas lighter for barbecues

Ovals of Friendly Plastic laminated with Fusible Film and curled.

Another take on using Fusible Film with Friendly Plastic is this very contemporary pendant made with ripples of Fusible Film backed Friendly Plastic embedded into a single piece of plastic (also backed with film).  The bail is a tubular bead made using my Tubead kit.

The second kit included Laser Mesh and some very scrumptious coloured quartz and loads of nuggets as well.  After doing a conventional Ooooze with the Laser Mesh using a large oval cutter, I made each half of the pendant more substantial by sandwiching a layer of scrap Friendly Plastic between the front and the back, and then foiling the edges to conceal it and finish off each shape.  The little dimples in the Ooozed Friendly Plastic were achieved by pressing in the tip of a kebab stick.  It is reminiscent of an octopus’s tentacles in texture.

Scrummy coloured quartz wired into a circle, the centre of which was filled with a ball of Friendly Plastic.  Really simple to do, but very effective and makes a lovely little pendant.

You can tell I really liked this quartz!  Here are some funky little earrings that could hardly be simpler.  Two triangles of Friendly Plastic that have their edges foiled sandwich a the twisted wire that connects the three beads.

To my delight I was given something different to work with this time – some Tim Holtz metal frames.  These were easy to patinate using Swellegant metal paint and patina, but there are other alternatives out there, and it is not an essential thing to do, you can just apply Gleams if you don’t want the hassle of paint etc.

I gently curved the frame using some round nosed pliers to make it a more suitable shape for a wrist.  The centre of the frame is filled with layered Friendly Plastic which was gently Ooozed into the space in the frame.  It had to be glued in place when cold, and I covered the back with some more Friendly Plastic.  I used Hypo Cement for this, but Glass Metal and More would work really well too.

This pendant was very straightforward as well.  The centre piece is two bits of Friendly Plastic with their joining edges finished with Transfer Foil.  I heated it on the griddle (or you can use the Melting Pot or Efcolor stove) until it was soft, then swirled the colours together across the join, heating again on the griddle until the swirls lie flat again.  If you do this on aluminium foil it makes it easy to Oooze the piece into the centre of the frame.  Friendly Plastic forms the beads on the end of the dangly bits and fills the holes on the sides of the frame.

The gemstones in this kit were so beguiling that I had to use as many as I could.  The colours made me think of India and I wanted to fuse this thought with a stunning braid style narrow “scarf” / lariat that Lady Mary was wearing in the first episode of the new series of Downton Abbey.  Sari Silk seemed like the way to go, and it meant that I had an excuse to get out my sewing machine and do some free machining all over my silk.  hand sewing the gemstones on took a while as they have to go on both sides.  I love the result and I think it is very wearable.

Cabochons featured again this month, and I had two agate cabs, both were lovely shapes and colours but neither had much pattern in them so I decided to add a fancy bezel to one, and something more akin to a girdle to the other!  The girdle below is made up of four tiny triangles of Friendly Plastic that have been edged with transfer foils. These were heated in hot water and wrapped around the cabochon.  The back plate was added after the front had been completed.  It only needed a very simple beading wire multi strand necklace to set it off.

Twisting two colours of Friendly Plastic together gives a wonderful effect, and the resulting rope was easy to position around the cabochon.  You just need to remember to slightly press in the edges to make sure the cabochon is caught in the bezel.  The back is a little wiggle of Friendly Plastic that curls across the reverse of the cabochon, connecting to the twisted frame and thus holding the gemstone securely in place.  I also made two twisted rope beads from Friendly Plastic to compliment the bezel.

The next JM show is not until the 17th November which seems ages away, but I had planned carefully so that I could go away on holiday and then still have time when I returned to prepare for the show.  However, our holiday has had to be cancelled because my lovely husband broke his arm rather comprehensively by getting the wheel of his bike stuck in the new tram tracks on his way to work.  He is not fit to fly, and we are both very fed up that we will now have to wait a whole year to reschedule this particular holiday.  Rotten luck, but it does mean that I might just have a bit of time to do some other creative work, and actually write a post that does not involve my JM shows!

Dates

15th November –   Festive Friendly Plastic workshop for beginners and improvers at Jewellery Maker, Redditch.  Jewellery and /or Christmas decorations – contact JM direct.

17th November – my next JM show

22nd November –   2 demos at Ideal Home at Christmas show – Earls Court.

30th & 31st May 2015 –   Anglo Danish Friendly Plastic weekend at Rufford Craft Centre, Nottinghamshire – contact me if you are interested and as soon as the details are finalised, I will send you more information.

The kits I have been given to work with are rather scrummy.  One involves Fusuble Film and Friendly Plastic (plus other things too), and below is a quick snapshot of some of the elements on the lariat I have made.  It is very easy to make, easy to wear and I hope you will enjoy the demo and perhaps have a go at making your own interpretation of the idea.

Friendly Plastic Lariat project for Jewellery Maker TV

The second kit has lots of lovely things in it, and I began working on it straight after seeing the first episode of the new Downton Abbey.  Lady Mary was wearing some beautiful jewellery, and one of her evening pieces inspired my Indian take on her very elegant beaded narrow braid type lariat. It does not contain any Friendly Plastic, but I had such pleasure getting back to my sewing machine and playing with free machining on Sari Silk ribbons.

Do keep me company tomorrow when I will show you how to make a twisted rope bezel for cabochons out of Friendly Plastic, as well as lots of other things.  If you miss it you will be able to catch it on Youtube later on that day, and I will try and get a good link to embed it into the side bar of this blog.

The next show is not until November 17th, so it gives you plenty of time to try out some of the ideas I will show you!   The reason for the long gap is that we were supposed to be going on holiday to Australia to see my sister who has lived out there for 30 years or so, but my husband has just broken his arm and elbow joint rather badly and flying is out of the question, as is being anywhere where we do not have access to the good old NHS should any of his pins and screws come loose.  Nottingham’s new tram tracks and the chicane of road works are to blame for the accident, and he is not alone in coming a cropper in exactly the same spot.  Ah well, at least his helmet protected his head, and I have most of him at home with me (except the bits that were left on the tram tracks of course!).

There are still some places available on the Festive Friendly Plastic class on the 15th November at Jewellery Maker, we will be looking at Lacework amongst other techniques and you can make jewellery or Christmas decorations with the techniques.

If you plan on going to the Ideal Homes at Christmas at Earls Court on the 22nd November, come to the demonstration theatre where I will have two demos, late morning and early afternoon, all about Friendly Plastic jewellery and Christmas decorations too (perfect if you can’t make the class at JM).