My first "accidental" gemstone piece

That day I went downtown with my friend who was shopping for mandarin ducks and gemstones. Needles to say, few beautiful little stones caught my eye and I've returned home with two pieces of citrine and a piece of jasper. I left them by my computer intending to add them later in my beloved gemstone jar on my desk.

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I was reading some blogs, looking what's new on Facebook, posting a text on jasper for my friend Ana who owns a jasper doughnut but didn't know which stone that was, then I was looking on my ongoing beading project in front of the monitor, than started to look at one of the citrines I bought.
It was so nice and cute an little, and it sure tickled my imagination... and I remembered a piece of copper wire I had somewhere within my compartment boxes AND a piece of brown leather that I never knew with what to use (I'm not so keen on brown colour lately). And so I started to work with a little crystal and the copper wire. Oh, I just love the colour of the copper (despite the fact that some people would call it brown).

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The outcome is this lovely pendant on a leather string. I simply love it!
The only thing I'm worried about is weather this way of wrapping a gemstone in a wire would affect somehow its energies and make it "feel" trapped... But I don't know much about these things, and I'm looking only at the visual result.
I surely hope that someone who will wear it in the future, whoever that might be, will look at it and love it as much as I do.

Summer decoupage

Decoupage is one of my favourite crafts, but somehow it seems that I'm doing everything else more than decoupage. The thing is, I prefer not to work with paints and glues and lacquers inside when I can't keep the room well aired because of the cold weather. Moreover, since I don't have a designated working space, a room just for this, I have to think what kind of air am I going to inhale while sleeping or doing other things.
Anyway, when the finer weather came, I got reminded of my dear decoupage by a full rack of supplies in a supermarket in Ljubljana (Slovenia) where I was on business at the time. I bought quite an amount of supplies: beautiful tissues, an unfamiliar but (as it turned out) very good brand of glue/varnish, many cool wooden items to work on. This caused an instant swarm of ideas how to use all these great things, so I got my equipment out in the garden and let myself enjoy the work and its latter rewards!

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The first thing I worked on was this cool wooden vase. I was in a very good and positive mood at the time, and working outside, I decided to go with flowery designs to celebrate the beauty of nature and the summertime. The size of the vase was just perfect and has made the work fast and easy.

The second project was a very small wooden box that I loved very much for its size and shape. I decided to decorate not only the outside of the box but also its inside, influenced by the works of my aunt Marina who creates the most amazing decoupaged cardboard boxes under her brand name Mashtaria (see her works on Facebook HERE). Working on this little box was a little bit more difficult because it required more concentration and preciseness. Again, lovely flowers and vibrant colours!

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I cannot even start to explain how happy I was with both the outcomes. I am really just a novice in decoupage, but the great thing with this craft is that one does not have to be a pro to make beautiful pieces. Mistakes are allowed and even welcomed, and can lead one in unexpected directions when trying to come up with creative ways to fix a "problem" (again, a wise thing my aunt Marina told me some time ago).
I kept them both for a while, waiting for right occasions and right persons to give them to: the box was a gift for my dear friend Dina who returned back home from a long, long journey and who I've missed very much. The vase is still with me, but soon to be given to someone whose work and positivity I admire very much. I enjoy crafting, but I enjoy giving and bringing smiles to dear faces even more!

Fourth polymer clay workshop

After quite a while, we have organized the fourth polymer clay workshop. All the girls were very excited, but in the end, only three of us attended. It was somewhat disappointing turnout, but the workshop was great in the end anyway!
Ana was our lovely hostess and our tutor too (all in one!). We did blending and created some cute canes.
We also tried my new extruder for the first time. If there wasn't for Ana's husband to lend his hand, the extruder tryout would have been a big disappointment - it was simply too difficult for us girls to press the clay out of it!
In the end we finished with, not many, but some very nice and colorful items that will make great jewelry.

And to make things even better, Ana prepared for us incredibly delicious chocolate cupcakes with banana flavoured topping. Perfect ending of the evening!