And That's a Wrap!

Wire Wrapping Course - April 23, 2017

Dragntalz Art by Ruthie & Doug Shewan

Parksville & District Rock & Gem Club

This was our first (of hopefully many) class 

taken on wire wrapping cabochons. 

Not too bad if I say so myself.

Thank you Ruthie & Doug for a fun day.

Dragntalz Art - https://www.facebook.com/DragntalzArt

Parksville & District Rock and Gem Club - https://www.facebook.com/ParksvilleRockandGem

Ewwwwww?

So okay, I have been awfully quiet these past few days, okay fine, the past couple of weeks?

Ooooopppps...off topic...did you see that insane graphic quote I posted today? Not only was the topic quite gross...but the colour of the background...was that not the LOUDEST colour scheme you have EVER seen!!

For those of you that do follow our Facebook page and for those of you that don't (sure would be nice if you dropped on by...was that a please...perhaps it was), I had noted that hubby and I did an impromptu holiday for about a week.

Oh course, this leaving all of a sudden sure does put a monkey wrench into trying to keep my wee company on the 'map of the internet'.

As soon as I got home (okay, yes, that was a definitely exaggeration of my timeline...but I'm a faerie...so all aspects of time (to you anyways) is certainly not on my schedule) I hurriedly tried to get posted on here, Facebook /// Facebook pages (yes, that was a plural for pages...), Pinterest and Flickr (man, that sure is spreading the 'word'....did you get that one? I really meant 'quote', maybe a 'graphic').

As noted in many posts, I do not add any 'Thought of the Day' messages over the weekend...this allowed me time to unpack all of the new goodies for the nursery (and, ummmm, as normal...there are still plenty of bags still on the worktable calling to me...as I write this blog posting...shush now....all of you!!).

So, I am once again starting to feel under the gun here on trying to get myself ready...yes, it is the time of craft fairs, getting ready for the gift giving season, the time of 'the rush'. As with EVERY year, you promise yourself that THIS will be the year that you are ready!!

Here are a few of the things to do...a few of the reasons why these 'said' things have not been done...

Jewellery....I had over the summer purchased a few (okay, does about a hundred still classify as a few??) of those floating memory lockets. I have now filled them all with the shiny wee faceted gemstones and they are now in their pretty white/sheer organza bags (these ones have pretty silvery butterflies on them...nice!!). I am now waiting impatiently for the fuzzy black felted display cases that have all of those wee square compartments for the speciality charms that you can put into the lockets. Next, I still need to make another one of those flowered display chalkboards that will list the prices.

Faerie Dolls....yes, these are not my Faeries that I make but ones that I had purchased really early on in the year. They have pretty coloured blue, purple, green and yellow hair along with matching wings. They all have wee dresses on them as well...they really are quite adorable. I have attached one of the faerie necklaces that I had made, oh probably for the Trade Show that was in April. They too have been placed into pretty organza bags...these ones are almost a shade of sea green...please do not ask me what this colour really looks like...I just know that it is pretty. These also need a flowered display chalkboard price sign made up.

Faeries...yes, these are the ones that I make....I have enough the Northern Line ready to go....now here is the hiccup...the New Line (if you remembered, the wire was just a bit toooooo off on the size that I required (insert here...I really wished that they would regulate an actual sizing chart) to make them. My goal is still to have at least 5 of each ready to go. That entails layering all of the flower petals, making the heads (with hair), having the wee stands numbered and painted (remember, the nursery uses only environmentally safe products) and there are probably tons of things that I need to do in the hopes that the replacement wire gets here in time.

Now, here is the problem....I have to go out of town again this weekend onto late next week....and you ask what is the problem with that....well....the biggest of our two craft fairs happens on Saturday, November 22! Yes, sure...I can get all of this done prior to leaving! Sure I can...yuppers!!

The Clay Potters....arghhhhhh

Okay, after what is this now....4 prototypes, I still can't just get the look I want for the faerie boys!

My biggest problem seems to be the body part itself. I have tried large beads (you know the ones that used to be used for macramé), seed pods that hubby dearest drilled arm and legs wholes for, smaller beads arghhhhhhh.

For their arms and legs I have tried moss covered wire, paper wrapped wire, just plain old think wire and finally I used yarn to wrap them with....now I have incredible hulks lol. So.....that at least was an easy fix...I am just using yarn like floss and I can say that I love the way it looks...plus this will allow me to actually have boys that are of different colours.

Belts? Should they have belts? I have awesome natural dyed hemp cording that looks awesome but when I tie it around their waists...well it doesn't look so good as it does in my head! Insert another arghhhhhh here :)

Hair? How impossible could this type of decision be?? I have lots of different styles of acorn caps or even using the plastic parts from all of the flowers (but mind you....can't figure out what to use to cover up the hole at the top...still working on this). I have tried yarn, floss, the inside plastic stuff from the flowers (you know...its what makes flowers look bulky...usually clear with lots of little tentacle like things coming from the centre), to even using natural moss. How could boy heads be this hard (ahhh just answered my own question there...sorry...oops to any men reading this blog...lol)? On some of the bodies that I have made, no hair looks awesome...so I think the whole head dilemma will have to wait till the body is finalized.

I also went as far as picking out material that I could use as a wee little shirt and cropped pants....but but but...their legs were soooo spindly looking that I gave up that idea as well. Perhaps with the new wire wrapping technique, I should revisit this idea.

 
I don't think that I have allowed myself or my work table get this frustrated and messy in a long time!!

So here I sit with little boys all around me and not one that I could say...that's it...that's the type I want to use. Insert another arghhhhhh here :)

Back to the drawing board...AGAIN!

Carol & Donnetta's Faerie Seed Pod Babies

Last weekend the nursery was visited by Carol and Donnetta. They were served warmed apple juice spiced with cinnamon sticks, given fuzzy slippers to wear and fresh chocolate chip cookies.

Their original intent, I do believe, was to just come on by and see the nursery. But thankfully they stayed for more :)

Here are the little seed pod babies they made.....

Carol was busy making her faeries for her girlfriends Mollie, Valerie, Dianne, Carol and Andrea. She made one for herself too :)

This little cutie was made by Donnetta (mind you she did help Carol out her batch...and might I add, she sure got the wire wrapping down pat!!)

Thank you ladies for dropping by, I had a wonderful visit with you both.

Jewelled Wings

With more on the way....the nursery is now surrounded by sparkly, jewelled delicate butterfly wings. My only wish is that they were real but these will do. As I mentioned previously, I want to have the feel of the Teacup Nurseries to be whimsical and very exaggerated. So your teacup will have the tiniest of a wee little faerie house and it will be surrounded by trees and flowers and bugs and mushrooms and butterflies and....well the list can just go on and on and on....and on as far as my imagination can take it actually.

So here they are.....90 of the prettiest little butterflies that are no bigger than an inch.....

Flower Petal Faeries

Well there are many components to this project!

Firstly, the wire. As this is a speciality cloth wrapped wire I must say I have had a lot of difficulty in finding what I want. The wire that I was able to get is of the correct gauge but I wished that I could have found it in other colours.

Perler Beads, not as easy to come by as one would think. These are used underneath the bottom layer of petals to make them balloon out. 

Feathers....I thought that some of the Faeries should have real feathered wings not sure how they will work but I look forward to experimenting with them.

I recruited my Mom and my husband to spend an hour or two taking apart flower heads. Thank you sooooo much :) Now, I should have all of the flower petals that I will ever need to complete a whole bouquet of Flower Petal Faeries.

As well, I purchased more of the wooden boxes that I need to hold all of the Faeries precious goodies. These need to be stained to match the doors.

Wired

So thinking future wise....and seeing some awesome work done with beads and wire, I seen these and just couldn't resist. A big thank you goes out to chayatech-beads (ebay) for all of their wonderful help :)

Who knew that beading wire could come in such beautiful colours!

I LOVE PARCELS!!

And I think they love me too!!

Lots of goodies came in the mail today.

Where to start and how not to miss anything.

Okay, I spoke before of the scrapbooking paper that I had ordered from mch1069 (ebay)....well that second package arrived today. Each package contains 50 sheets, so that now gives me 200 sheets of 12"x12" paper.

Next.....the new sample of felt for the bags. These came from a company in the states called Felt-o-rama. Again, this felt is environmentally friendly as it is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. As I was hoping that this sample would be more of what I was looking for, it isn't quite. It is thicker and more sturdy than the previous sample but I think I will try for one more sample.
This same company has a few choices and of course huge price jumps for better quality felt. I am going to order the wool blend felt and see if it has the quality I am after. Okay....after reading their website, the wool blend felt is actually made in Canada. Guess I have more research to do for if I can shop locally I will.

The next package contains items geared towards the Petal Faeries project. I ordered the these from missdaisey2005 (ebay). I wasn't sure the thickness of the paper wrapped wire and I think that these will be too thick for the Faeries but I am sure I will find a use for them :)  The other item in the package was the curly hair for the Faeries. They are going to be soooo cute.

I also received 3 more Pez Disney Fairie dispensers from annlong (ebay). These ones came on a cardboard backing and they sit on a blue coloured flower as they are imported from Europe. As she only had 3, these will go to the kids :)

The final package I received was a care package from my Mom :)  There is never anything better than a package mailed from home.  She has been busy shopping away for me and I am so happy with all that she was able to find.

Most of the goodies are for the Petal Faeries; pipe cleaners (plain and sparkly) and silk flower petals. She also mailed me some pearl beads for the Sugarplum Faerie pendant. We are hoping that they are the right size for the heads :)