Scary Tree - MMC Part 7

I want several trees in my miniature scene but I wanted one really especially scary tree. I had visions of the mean tree from the Wizard of Oz that threw his apples at Dorothy. My mom took that idea and ran with it. In one afternoon she made this tree and his brother, the happy tree, for her fairy garden.

She used a wire mesh armature, covered it in clay and started sculpting. Once she had it looking amazingly like bark, she painted it many many times to pick up all the details.

I had also mentioned that I wanted to be able to light it from the inside so she left a hole in back for that purpose!

After attempting to make a few trees of my own (pictures coming soon) I am SO glad she took this one on herself!

More Recycled Denim

This is another purse I made from all those old jeans. It is much larger than the handbag and I did the whole thing in patchwork. The pocket is from the front of a pair and so it is very deep and I went a bit crazy with the beaded trim. Gathering some black lace into a circle is an easy way to make a flouncy flower.

I used a length of denim for the strap and connected it to the purse with the button from the waistband.

Black ultrasuede wrapped around both sides with some polka dot ribbon was the finishing touch.

Recycled Denim

I have a stack of old jeans that don't fit anymore or have too many holes to wear out in public. I decided to play around with some of them and made a few purses. This one is a hand bag with plenty of room for everything.  I used a leg of the jeans for the body of the bag with the hem at the top. I used the hem off the other leg for the handle.

 I positioned a back pocket and a coin pocket onto the front and trimmed them in rick-rack. Then I used the waist band with the tag and belt loops attached around the top. I finished that off with some frayed black ribbon and purple beads.

Mushroom Beach Glass Mosaic

I hung out with my mom one weekend and we decided to do some mosaics. We went and bought the cheapest concrete blocks they sell at Home Depot, along with tile adhesive and grout. She used broken ceramic tiles on hers (which I will post pictures of later) but I wanted to use beach glass on mine. I love the way it came out and it looks fabulous in my garden!

Livingroom Redo - Pillows

I decided to redecorate my livingroom and after getting the go ahead from the man of the house to add some color, I was all over it! I got out my fabric stash and started with pillows. I have a very eclectic bohemian style so my idea is no two the same and nothing should ever match! :)

 Chinese satin brocade floral print with purple satin on the back

Celtic knot outlined in gold thread

This is much darker purple than it looks here

Cream and blue silk

Soft fuzzy brown fabric with wide satin ribbon

Another Little Collage

This is another little collage I did because I have all these clay faces that I made a long time ago and wanted to use them on something. 

I started off with red tissue paper that I crumpled up and then flattened back out. I glued it down on to a piece of poster board and started painting it.

 I was in the mood to play with my beads so I choose a few small ones and played around until I came up with something I thought would work around the head. The face was plain white when I made it so more painting! Nothing too detailed, just some color!

I had to play around with the hair for awhile to get it just right. I used long pieces of wool and just wrapped and twirled it around until it looked interesting.  Once I had the hair right I used more beads to secure it and decided to glitterfy the makeup.

 I used fusible fibers, an old jewelry finding and a few more beads to finish it off. Then I attached the whole thing to a piece of foam core and glued heavy gold braid around the outside as a hanger.

Polymer Clay Tiles

I wanted to experiment with making tiles from clay. I didn't really have any idea what I would use them for, but I knew I'd come up with something. Once I saw how they turned out I decided they would look nice as a picture frame!

I started by rolling out sheets of clay and applying different textures and images to it. Then I used different sized cutters to get consistent pieces.

Once the clay was cured I coated them all in black paint, making sure to get it into every crevice.

Then I went back over each tile with metallic paint, touching only the raised areas.

O My Goth

 This is my latest collage and it is one of the rare times I didn't have any kind of plan when I started it. All I knew was that I would like to use up some stuff that I had already. I played around making clay faces one day and this was one of many. Months later I pulled them out, chose this one and started painting it up. It reminded me of the lead singer of Marilyn Manson so I decided to go that way with it!

I knew I wanted it flat on a background so... I am almost embarrassed to admit this... I glued the face onto a popsicle stick (seriously!) then I added a little padding on top and started using scraps of fabric to dress her. I used pipe cleaners wrapped around the popsicle stick for her arms and made the hands from clay.

Her outfit was completely pieced together from scraps of a purple satin nighty and an old Rocky Horror Picture Show costume. I trimmed the collar and sleeves with strands of mini pearls.I agonized over what kind of hairdo to give her and in the end I decided to keep it simple so that I could give her an elaborate hat instead.

Being flat made it very hard to get a good photo of her hat. I cut a piece of cardboard to the right shape and covered it in the same fabric as the dress.

Half way through this project I decided I really didn't like the background I was working with. The crackle finish is cool but I wanted something more subtle with a little bit of color.

And now for my absolute favorite part, the embellishment! I have quite a few little sample bead scraps that I practice new stitches with and this one worked so well with the colors of her dress I had to find a way to use it.

This is a close up of her embellished hat. It is a lot of feathers, an old jewelry finding, some beads and craft wire.

Demons - MMC Part 6

So, speaking of monsters (from the last post) here are a few creepy dudes that mom made for my aquarium scene.

Polymer Clay Critter

I have been thinking about making aliens / monsters and recently I bought a new PC game called Spore. It's a lot of fun if you like that sort of thing! The basic idea is to build a new species from the most basic stage of life all the way through to advanced space travel. I spend more time making creatures than actually playing with them. This is my first attempt at bringing some of those Spore creatures to life!

Fu Man Chu Man