Silver Creek Leather at CHA

Somehow I managed to finish everything on my work table and get it all packed in time to leave for CHA on Friday morning. It's a strange thing: Friday was yesterday...... and yet I am now in LA and some 18 hours after leaving Brisbane, it is once again Friday...... and about the same time as it was when I left Brisbane. Ah, the wonders of crossing the international date line! If you're lucky enough to be attending CHA (and I know there are a few of you out there), pop by the Silver Creek Leather booth (#1325) on the first day of the show (Sunday) from 1pm - 4pm whilst I'm demoing with the fabulous Real Leather Jewelry components and Sof-Suede Lace. You'll see how easy it is to weave a simple but elegant lattice bracelet even if you don't have any jewellery making skills.You've got to love a project like that! And I have it on good authority that there is a bracelet kit to be given away, so do stop by for a look and discover this very clever and unique ran...

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Happy Australia Day!

I'm so excited! It's Australia Day and I'm actually IN Australia to celebrate it! At this time of January I'm usually already in the US for Winter CHA but this year it starts just a little later and I'm still home in Brisbane. So what could be a more Aussie way to celebrate Australia Day than with a barbie, a pavlova, some lamingtons and of course, some good friends. Yep, that's the menu at our place today. And we'll wash it all down with some Aussie wine and cold beer. I still have bags to pack and work to complete in the studio but that can wait just a little bit longer.... I'm off to celebrate our national day! Have a wonderful day Australia! 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs ...

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Not All Shrink Plastic is the Same

I am so impressed with the results I got using the printable shrink plastic for my tags that I wanted to show you how much better it is than regular pre-sanded shrink plastic. You can see quite clearly the difference in printed quality. The top one is the one I printed last year on pre-sanded shrink plastic and the bottom one is the Grafix Inkjet Shrink Plastic. But let's take a closer look. Even though the pre-sanded shrink plastic can be run through an inkjet printer (and it did the job quite adequately!) but the ink bleeds if it gets any moisture on it and it has a definite blurriness about it. Now let's look at the Grafix shrink plastic. You can see how crisp and clear the printing is. It looks so much better than the pre-sanded shrink plastic. So the difference in quality of the printing is quite obvious but let's take a look on the back of the two samples to see what other differences there are. See how the type is reversed? You print on the rev...

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More About Inkjet Shrink Plastic

At 2.30am this morning as I was attaching the last of my shrink plastic charms I discovered a couple of the tags didn't have holes: one was only partially punched and the other missed getting punched altogether! Oh, dear, I desperately need to get to bed but not before I solve this problem. Given that I had already wasted 2 sheets of this film from my pack of 6 sheets, there was none left to print off more so I really needed to use those last two tags. There was only one thing for it: drill the holes and hope that the plastic didn't shatter. I decided to start on the one with the partial hole hoping that it would be less likely to crack. And to my relief, my little battery operated drill easily and cleanly drilled a 1mm hole without any damage to the tag at all. Next I lined up the hole-less tag and drilled straight through that one as well. Success! So all is not lost if you forget to punch the holes before you shrink, or even if you decide afterwards t...

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Ever Get that Shrinking Feeling?

It's back to the production line again today to finish off the last and most important item of my giveaways: my contact details! I ordered some clear Grafix Inkjet Shrink Plastic from Over the Rainbow to use as tags on my jewellery giveaways because it's strong and durable. Plus, it looks like a little charm dangling from the chain so it does double duty as being both practical and aesthetically pleasing. The beauty of this product is that you can run it through your inkjet printer and there is NO sanding is required! So let's take a look at the process. According to the package instructions, it will shrink to between half and one third its original size and suggests that you make your items 50% bigger than the finished size.  Armed with this information, I used a size 12 font to create my label and then printed it onto plain paper so that I could measure it against my template. It was exactly 50% bigger so I went ahead and printed it onto the shrink film. (More on...

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Sketching your Designs - A Lesson from Matisse

I had the loveliest of outings on the weekend: a trip to GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane to see the Matisse: Drawing Life exhibition. It was quite insightful wandering through the rooms of the gallery studying his sketches: the thought and inspiration that went into each piece. There are very few finished art works in this exhibition but that's what it's all about: the preliminary sketches. It is a great lesson to learn: even great artists don't just commit paint straight onto a canvas. And it is evident by the 300 odd sketches in the exhibition that Matisse sketched several preliminary drawings prior to putting anything on canvas. There is a great quote above one of the works which says:   "For this Enlévement d'Europe, which is perhaps my best canvas and in any case the one I care for most, I made more than three thousand sketches, yes, three thousand..." So what does this mean for the rest of us who enjoy creating in our chosen medium...

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A Mini Resin Exhibition at GoMA

I was so excited when I walked into GoMA yesterday and this is what I spotted: a wall of resin platters by a little Aussie design company that you might have heard of: Dinosaur Designs. It was an absolute privilege to see these extraordinary pieces up close and personal. Well I'm not sure if you'd call them platters because they stand well over a metre high. See that guy on the far right of the picture? He gives you a better idea of just how big these platters are. Here's a couple of closer shots. This one is my favourite because it reminds me of a resin pendant I made a couple of years back . But it's not until you flip the pendant over that you see the similarities: the colours; the blending, and the swirl effect. It's striking, isn't it? And yet, the two pieces are coloured using entirely different techniques: the colour in the platter is embedded in the resin whereas the colour in the pendant is a surface application. Still both results a...

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Bead Shopping with a friend.... it can be dangerous on your wallet

I had the great delight of corrupting one of my paper crafting friends yesterday..... I took her bead shopping! And what better introduction can you have than to go wholesale shopping in a bead showroom? You should have seen her face when we walked into the room. To say she was completely overwhelmed would be an understatement but it didn't take long for the " I don't know where to start " expression to fade from her face and you could see the excitement begin to grow as she realised how much fun this was going to be.  It wasn't long before she was adding a strand of this and a strand of that to her basket...... she says I was a terrible influence on her!! That may well be true. But she was a way worse influence on me......... I spent double my allocated budget for this event!! It was more than 2 hours before we emerged from this beady wonderland, and we had a ball. After all, what girl doesn't like a good shop? 'Til next time..... ...

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Great Balls of Wire!

My jewellery giveaways are progressing nicely since yesterday's post. But after assembling the beaded chain, I decided it needed a bit more razzle dazzle and I had just the thing in mind - coiled wire beads. These Great Balls of Wire are made using the Coiling Gizmo .  I've had this neat little gadget for quite some time but I hadn't used it before so this was the perfect opportunity. To make your own balls of wire, you first need to create a coil following the instructions that come with the Coiling Gizmo. I've used the thinner mandrel and 28 gauge non tarnish silver wire for bright, shiny beads. It took about 3 metres (10 feet) of wire to make a coil the full length of the mandrel. From that I coiled about 7 beads. Once you've made the coil, cut the anchor wire and slide the coil off the mandrel. Unwind the first couple of coils and wrap the wire around a headpin. Continue wrapping the coil around the headpin stretching it as you go. Conti...

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