My local Cancer Research charity shop is a wonderful source of broken jewellery and bits and bobs that I recycle into more jewellery and other things, frequently combining them with Friendly Plastic.  They are very good about saving me all the bits that might ordinarily go in the bin, so in return for their time and effort, I have made a piece of work using some of those bits, and I called it Metamorphosis.  The idea is to give it to the shop so they can either sell it, or raffle it to raise money for Cancer Research.

You can see from this photo that there is a lot of odd and broken bits of jewellery – pieces with rhinestones missing, single earings, charms etc.  I have added my own recycled items in the form of small pebbles, ribbon, lacquered metal motifs from some Indian fabric, and also some little balls made from Elizabeth Shaw’s chocolate wrappers (the chocolates went on the Christmas tree).

The brown beads in this image are some pretty revolting fused plastic beads, the sort that have no holes in them, they are just fused to the string.  A little bit of Metal Gilding Flake adds some contrast, and Gleams Gilding Wax harmonise the colours.  I mounted the canvas onto another canvas which I covered using some ancient peacock blue rayon that had belonged to my husband’s grandmother back in the day.

The only new thing in the piece was some ribbon.  The base for the work is a canvas painted with texture paint and various glazes including a good rub of Gleams and Rub n Buff in different colours.  It was fun to do, and a great way of using up all sorts of odd bits that would otherwise have gone into the bin.  When I took it down to the shop the staff were delighted with it, I hope it will raise a little bit of money for their funds.

What do you do to creatively recycle things?

In my last post I showed you the Pandora Style beads in the making, below are the results of our developing skills at making the beads with Friendly Plastic.

As you can see from Linda’s efforts above and my efforts below, it took a while to perfect the shape.

We steadily got better, but the earliest attempts were decidedly wonky.

Many of the beads were made using very small offcut sized pieces, the one on the right has embossing powders on it.

This bead I made using some scraps that I foiled (using heat transfer foils) in two colours, and the foils broke up as the bead was created.

Peel Offs and Rub Ons make great decoration.  The glossy coating was created with Envirotex Lite, into which we dipped the beads (you could see them on the drying wires in the last post).  It does require a bit of attention to keep wiping the bases of the beads to remove any drips, but the finish was worth it.

Linda added some Peel Off to the turquoise bead in the front.  The silver coloured ends to the beads will soon be available on the website, I have not had time to update it recently with some new things for you.  Fingers crossed it will just be a matter of days before I do.

Paperclips and kinky wire are the hanging devices of choice here, the beads have been dipped in Envirotex Lite, but I will be up for a bit yet, wiping their bottoms as the drips run down.

Mariah was not feeling her usual self, so we decided that a bit of retail therapy was in order.  Most sane people would choose almost any other shop than the one that Linda and Mariah chose – Primark.  They are addicts.  They will very soon be able to map the entire country by the location of Primark stores!  I thought shopping with  my sister was a gruelling experience (she loves TK Max), but wandering around Primark takes the biscuit.  I am not a good shopper, I make a better porter of shopping bags whilst everyone else does the shopping, but the expedition was not in vane, pyjamas, t shirts and plenty more made their way into the basket, and everyone was happy.

I took them on a short tour of Nottingham city  centre and we found ourselves outside Accessorize and Hotel Chocolat.  A quick whizz into the former proved disappointing, but a longer linger and tasting session in the latter put smiles back on their faces and chocolate in their bags.  Happy campers all we came home to a playful dog and an evening of more Friendly Plastic in the studio.

However I am feeling very virtuous because my studio is now fairly tidy; at least I can walk around without falling over stuff, I can even see the occasional empty flat surface – something that has not been visible for the last 12 months.  All this was made possible because my very good friend Erica Thomson came and spent a day with me clearing and tidying.  I tease Erica because she is one of those rare people who love tidying up other people’s spaces.  I loathe doing my own, let alone any one elses, in fact, I actively prefer other people to have messy spaces because it not only makes me feel better about my usual chaos, but it is much more interesting to poke around in when there is loads of stuff about.  Anyway, she motivated me to carry on as I have a very good reason for wanting some space to work in.  I need space not only for me, but for my best American buddy to come and play along with her daughter.  So…… drum roll…… Linda and Mariah Peterson are coming to stay tomorrow, and I can’t wait, I am really excited.  Linda is the lady behind the Art of Friendly Plastic Blog, and the Face of Friendly Plastic in America.  She also works with polymer clay, metal and mixed media.

Linda has been in London doing the step by step photography for her new book in her series “Mixed Media Inspirations“, and she is finding the time to see a few people, including lucky me.  Last time Linda came over we did not have enough time to really get in to playing, so on this occasion we have a bit more time and hopefully we will bounce ideas off each other, have some fun, and no doubt Mariah will have loads of ideas too.  It is amazing the things you can come up with when there is more than one head on the case.

So watch this space.

Do you fancy a bit of messing about with Friendly Plastic on February 11th?  I only ask because you can have a play about with FP in  my company at Coles Sewing Centre (formerly Husqvarna Studio) in Nottingham.  We will be making a Little Book of Secrets using a nifty folding technique and some fun Friendly Plastic ideas.  The little books make great gifts, are also very handy to record and store your FP experiments that you want to keep a record of, or you can fill it with witty quotes to cheer you up on a bleak winters day.  If you like the idea, then please book the class through Coles

I am not running many classes this spring as I need some time to work on my own things as I have a Nolitex Exhibition coming up this August and the deadline is April. I will tell you a bit more about this in the coming months, but it is exciting as we are taking our textiles and mixed media into the garden for two weeks.  Easton Walled Gardens near Grantham to be precise.

Anyway, here are a couple more photos of the Little Book of Secrets to whet your appetite.

The cover of my little book has been stamped and pieced and scribbled on and painted and generally had fun with.

The inside of the Little Book Of Secrets can contain whatever you want it to.  There are built-in pockets for little notes, photos etc.  I often use this sort of thing to display some of my FP samples.  Much nicer than shoving them in a drawer.

Rare Bird Web Site

Before I tell you about what I have been up to I need to let you know that we are currently experiencing some problems with the server of the hosting company for our Rare Bird website, so please do not panic if you cannot  see the site, it is just a technical issue that we are trying to resolve as quickly as possible.  Sadly it also involves receiving emails to the enquireis@rarebird.ltd. email address.  We can send but not receive at the moment.  So if you are trying to contact us about an order or a query please be patient, we cannot currently even see the orders that are arriving. If it is really urgent try this email: rarelizzie@hotmail.co.uk.  I do apologise for the inconvenience, but my technical expert (AKA my husband) is on the case right now. (Update, the web site seems to be back on line, but the email is still an issue, and the hosting company are on the case)

Fine Lines

Back in the autumn we had a joiner doing some work for us, and I noticed how beautifully fine the curls of wood were that he was planing away.  After much discussion and experimentation with an old plane (for some weird reason he would not let me use his beautiful, finely tuned and very expensive precision piece of engineering, I can’t think why!), I managed to cut myself a pot full of curls of Friendly Plastic.  The maximum width of each piece was about 1.5mm (approx 1/16 inch).  I won’t say this was a breeze to do as it involved a bench vise and much tinkering with the old plane.

My next challenge was to see what I could do with these fine curls.  Every time I heated them with a heatgun they uncurled rather erratically.  I took to trying the griddle and as long as I made my arrangement directly on to a protective sheet on the hot griddle, the plastic stuck in place.  So with some experimenting I came up with loose loopy circles which I dragged into the middle to become flowers.

The flowers can be manipulated into 3D shapes  which was quite fun.  You do have to watch out that you don’t have any free floating loops of individual strands of FP because these will quickly soften with heat and distort.  However for non jewellery purposes, it could be a fun technique for you to try.

Friendly Plastic is very bendy, and with a bit of work I  managed to bend some of the curls straight again.  This made it possible to create the finest linear patchwork that I have managed to date.  As you can see from the 5p piece, the stripes are narrow, narrower even than the thickness of the Friendly Plastic.  The fineness of the stripe really appealed.  For those who are not familiar with a 5p piece it is 17mm across, or 11/16″

I applied transfer foils to the back and edges before I transformed my flat strip patchwork into a curly wiggle using hot water.  So for the ultra neatniks amongst you, go find yourself a plane and get curling.

Forgot to say Happy New Year!

The sun shone on us all on Wednesday when we gathered to say our farewells to Sarah at St Leonard’s church in Newark.  There were so many people who came from all over the country, and their very presence brought some comfort to David, Tom and Fran, knowing how well-loved and respected Sarah was.

I was honoured to be asked to prepare and read Sarah’s eulogy, and with close collaboration with David, Fran and Tom, we came up with some words that I hope reflected Sarah’s mark on the world.  If you want to read it, then please follow this link:

Sarah’s Eulogy

Sarah’s Wild Women Book

This picture of Sarah  with her then newly published book “Silk” epitomises her enthusiasm for sharing her wealth of knowledge with the world.

We are all so much richer for knowing her.

I have some really tragic news,  my very dear friend Sarah Lawrence who many of you will know,  had a heart attack on Friday night and desperately sadly did not survive.  She had been enjoying a family night in Nottingham and was having a lovely evening with her husband David, their son Tom and daughter Fran.  Her untimely death cut short a life that was so full of creativity, love, energy and enthusiasm, it is so hard to contemplate that she is no longer here.

 Sarah was a very good friend to me and many others, and her inspiration, energy, knowledge and innovations touched the lives of so very many people, she will be sadly missed by even those who did not know her personally.  Sarah packed so much into her life, she was a driving force creatively, she was the lynch pin of her family, caring for David when he was not well, looking after their two children (now grown), and caring for “The Grannies”.  She always put other people before herself, she cared deeply for her friends, and despite a very busy schedule she always managed to find time to chat.  You may only know of her through her very successful business Craftynotions, as a textile artist and felt maker, or her TV appearances, but she was a very special person and her creativity touched many lives here in the UK and all around the world.

 I can’t believe she is gone, we have done so much together, and planned so much more.

David has posted on Sarah’s blog so please visit and leave a comment, he is touched by your words.

Yours in sorrow

I am planning on creating a piece of artwork using gloves for the next Nolitex Exhibition at Easton Walled Gardens near Grantham next year.  The ideas are buzzing, but sadly I do not have enough gloves to make it happen.  So this is where you might be able to help me.  I can give a good creative home to any old gloves that you may have lying around, whatever they are like.  Mens, women’s children’s gloves.  Singletons, holey ones, mittens, gardening gloves, sporting gloves, knitted gloves, fancy gloves, tatty gloves, just any gloves at all.

 I need around 100 gloves

Currently I have about 5!

Every person who sends me gloves will receive lots of brownie points

A glowing feeling inside,

And a little creative gift from me.

So if you have access to any lost property boxes, find any gloves whilst walking the dog, or simply dig some out of your own family stash of odd gloves (yes, we all have them), I would be more than delighted to relieve you of the burden of caring for them.

So please get searching and bundle those goves up ready to send to me.

 If you would just drop me an email and I will give you the address to send the gloves to.  Make sure you include in the parcel your own name and address or I won’t be able to send you the promised little gift in return.

(No it won’t be a baby or anything cute, I was struggling to find an appropriate grin picture to put in here, and this was the best I could do!)

I have been on holiday, and that is why orders did not get posted out for 2 weeks, so my apologies to anyone who was waiting.  I did put notices on the website, but I forgot to change the phone message.  Anyway, the holiday was fabulous, very relaxing and totally, incredibly and utterly indulgent.  We were floating around the Caribbean on a deluxe cruise ship.  We have never been to that part of the world before, and neither have we cruised.  Although it was glorious, I am not sure it is the sort of holiday we prefer – I honestly do not know what to do with a butler, and as for all that champagne and cocktails and five course suppers, it was such a struggle to enjoy it all, I am sure you pity me having to endure all that fabulousness!

Back to the real world.

Firstly I wanted to let you know that I will not be running any Friendly Plastic classes this spring season as I need a bit of a break to regroup.  However, the on line tutorial plan is still in place and I will be working on these instead.  As soon as I have news for you of either tutorials or classes I will post it and let you all know.

Next thing I want to say is that I will be putting some new stuff on the website over the next week or so, so please keep an eye out, there are some great new jewellery findings and I will be launching some packs of half sticks of FP for those who want a range of colours but do not want whole sticks.

Finally I want to show you some work by some of my Rare Bird customers who have only recently started using Friendly Plastic.

This lovely card has been made by Hanne Ingerslev from Denmark, who also made the clever mobile phone carrying case below.

I think that looks great, congratulations Hanne on a very good job.

This wonderful selection of jewellery was made by Lone Holm, also from Denmark.  It must be the influence of the talented Barbara Lees (Owl video on You Tube) who has been busily teaching and generally spreading the word about Friendly Plastic in Denmark, that is the reason why there are quite so many FP savvy Danes out there.

I know there are many more talented people out there, and some of you have sent me photos to put on the blog.  If that is you, and you have not yet seen your work here, then please shout and resend the photos.  I have had an email glitch and lost about 4 months worth of emails.  I do apologise, and I have not been ignoring you on purpose, but I have hunted high and low on my computer, checked out back ups etc and still not found the missing items.

This is Leigh looking very pleased to have mastered one of the bead techniques, she mastered them all, but I only got this one photo of her.

Jean is busy modifying her Tubead in hot water

Maxine is foiling the ends of her Tubead.

Because it has been more than five minutes since the class, I can’t remember whose is whose, so please forgive me.  Everyone tackled all the beads, and because we crammed loads of techniques into the day, everyone finished with an assortment of beads, but a head full of knowledge and fingers full of skill

Ladder yarn makes an interesting texture in the cylinder bead, whilst metal gilding flake transforms Friendly Plastic into something else entirely.

Paper Style beads, a decorated round bead and a small red oval bead made using the bead roller.

Two 3D Oooze beads and a variety of cylinder beads decorated with Peel Offs, Rub Ons, Metal Flake and ladder yarn.

Scrunched FP Pellet beads with foiled edges also make an appearance here.

Maxine (I think!) made this trio of beads, and if you are wondering about the bicone bead on the left,  she made it using a bead roller.

close up on some lovely Tubeads beads with RubOn decal motifs.

Kim made a stunningly good Pandora style bead and a beautifully decorated round bead which has narrow strips of transfer foil wound around it.

Kim created this lovely puddle cabachon of Friendly plastic Pellets coloured with Mica Powders and Transfer Foils.  All it needs is to be set off with a lovely backing, or some wrapped wire and this large (if I remember rightly at least 45mm diameter) and fabulous focal bead will be perfect.

Another of Kim’s creations (fingers crossed I have the right person!).  Pieced Friendly Plastic with RubOn Decals inserted into a bezel.  MagicGlos is what you can see providing the domed glossy finish, in fact she used two layers with micro beads in between.

We had a great time, well at least I did!

One of the questions I get asked the most is how to finish the back of jewellery neatly.  I often use Transfer Foils and Mica Powders for this purpose, but sometimes they are not enough.  I want a proper setting for my work which will frame, enhance and add weight to the piece.  Now I have just the thing, in fact, quite a few things that are just the ticket – here are just a few of the new frames, mounts and settings.

You don’t have to use them for Friendly Plastic alone, what about Polymer Clay, paper and ephemera.  They come as singles or in packs of 5, prices  starting at 85p

Are you an Oooze Addict like me?  If so, then you will love these Metal Oooze Motifs which make it incredibly easy to make  unusual and professional jewellery in a just a few minutes.  Heat your Friendly Plastic on aluminium foil with a heat gun, then push the Metal Oooze Motif into the hot plastic.  Push up from underneath to force the FP through all the holes.  Cool  then do one of two things – colour the back with Mica Powders or Foil, or make another piece and put them back to back.

These are just some of the designs that I have quickly played with, but you could do so much more.  Why stick to using the sticks of FP, try using your recycled bits of FP, oooze them, and then brush on Mica Powders.  What about using your Friendly Plastic Pellets for Ooozing, colour before or afterwards.  Prices start at 75p and they are available individually or as packs of 5.   I have not even had time to make them up into anything, and I can’t wait to try out some of the new bezels as well – hearts, ovals etc.

Got to go, got to play!

Filed under: Focal Beads, friendly Plastic, jewellery, products - new, Rare Bird Tagged: cameos, frames, jewellery blanks, jewellery findings, metal motifs, mounts, oooze ]]> http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/new-stuff-2/feed/ 4 rarelizzie untitled-12 untitled-15 untitled-13 untitled-10 untitled-7 IMG_2569 img_2581 img_2583 img_2575 img_2582 img_2584 http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/beads-and-jewellery-classes/ http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/beads-and-jewellery-classes/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:56:44 +0000 rarelizzie http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/?p=1938 ]]> The last classes that I will be doing until December, and the last fewellery and beading classes of the year are next week 6th and 7th October, so if you want to make some fabulous jewellery in time for the festive season either for gifts or just for yourself, then go on over to the Coles Sewing Centre (formerly The Husqvarna Studio Nottingham) and book your place.

The two days run as stand alone classes, but they also go very well together and make a great two day break from the normal patterns of life.  Indulge yourself in a distraction-free session of creativity and fun.

6th October 

Boundless Beads

7th October

Just Jewellery

Loads of techniques for making jewellery with Friendly Plastic, how to attach findings without glue, making your own closures etc.  How to deal with the backs of pendants, using transfer foils and more, much more!  Can be taken with the previous day or on its own.

Adrienne, Neet and I stayed in The Victoria House B&B, just a stones throw from the castle walls.  It was quite the loveliest B&B I have stayed in, and Jan who owns it was a delight.  The room was fabulous, everything was clean, tidy and thoughtful, the bed comfortable, the bath had air jets and the breakfast was delicious.  If you ever go to Caernarfon, go and stay at the Victoria house, however when we do the class again next year you will have to be very quick to book a place as Adrienne and I are already booked in!

We were so privileged to be working in a tower in the castle which is a World Heritage site.  Inspiration was all around us – the structure of the castle, the textures in the stone work, the views and vistas, the crumbling windows and bosses.  However as it was raining on Saturday morning we decided to postpone our investigation of the castle itself until Sunday morning which worked out very well as it was a clear blue sky day.  Saturday was Elizabeth’s birthday, and she had brought Cake, so had Adrienne, and we all enjoyed helping her eat it!

Although we were a mixed bunch of abilities and experience, everyone got stuck in trying out all the things I demonstrated.  We looked at the usual culprits of Oooze and Lacework, but also laminating, 3D Oooze, knitted Lacework, colouring, Friendly Plastic Pellets and loads more.  Because there was so much to cover and everyone was enjoying experimenting we decided to loosen up on the idea of doing individual projects on Sunday and continue with new techniques.  This was just as well because Sunday afternoon was disrupted by high drama!  A man had fallen and broken his leg whilst walking around the ramparts.  Castle staff were unable to get him down via the narrow spiral stairs, nor could they winch him down on a rope, so they had to call in the RAF rescue helicopter.

The first we knew of it was an incredibly loud whooh, whooh noise just about the room we were in, it was impossible to teach whilst the noise was going on, so we all went outside to find out what was happening.  Hovering right above our tower was the bright yellow helicopter, from which someone was being lowered on a steel hawser.

A short while later, the poor chaps wife was being hauled up into the helicopter, and then we saw the guy with his broken leg being hoisted aloft.  All the time the wind was whisking the clouds along and the downdraft of the rotor blades was phenomenal.  It appeared the whole town was out watching the drama when we looked down into the streets below.

I do hope that everything ended up well for the poor man, and I think his wife was very brave being hoisted up like that, I would have opted for ground transportation!

Isn’t Prince William a pilot for the RAF Rescue service? Perhaps it was him at the helm, but whoever it was, he held the helicopter really still despite the strong winds.

Drama over, we went back to Friendly Plastic, a little windswept and with bits of stone and stuff in our hair (the downdraft blew everything about).  We coloured Pellets, used moulds, and generally tried out more ideas before finally doing a show and tell at the end of the day.  Here are just a few of the things people had fun creating.

Wanda’s moulded faces had the slightly blurry look of the weathered bosses on the walls.

Kay used Oooze to great effect when she cut out holes in metal mesh – red balls were tremendous.

Madeline wanted to make a vessel by laminating lacework to fabric.  Before this three-sided vessel can be finished off, Madeline intends to stitch into it before assembling it.

Adrienne created these lovely textural pieces because she was inspired by the stones in the steps in the tower.

Denise wanted her pieces as mounted samples for her shop Craft Arena.

Angela wanted an organic feel to her pieces, reminiscent of greenery growing over man made structures.

Neet looked at the shapes of the windows for inspiration.

Adrienne and I were surprised and delighted by two beautiful bouquets of flowers that the group had bought for us, it was a real treat and a total delight, so thank you one and all.

All in all a wonderful weekend.  Thank you to everyone including partners and random visitors to the castle for helping me with all my stuff.  I thoroughly enjoyed being with you all and hope to see you again soon.

Filed under: Caernarfon, classes, friendly Plastic, Just Stuff, Other Peoples work, Teaching and Talks Tagged: Caernarfon castle, classes, drama, helicopter, mixed media, RAF rescue, workshops ]]> http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/drama-at-the-castle/feed/ 9 rarelizzie OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA IMG_2372 IMG_2377 Wanda Kay madeline1 IMG_2393 Denise angela Neet IMG_2405