I got things!

I've done a couple of little swaps lately, and got me some groovy things. The first of the swaps was with Marie of Deviant Candy. I made her a Black Widow pendant:



And she made me a zombie bat pendant, yay:



The next swap, which I got in the post just today, was with Kyra of TheKraftyKreep. I sent her a bat dangle:



And got an awesome TV pendant from her:



Another thing I got today was a Brown Owl Lavender Sachet from the lovely Mel of Inkmeup:



It smells gorgeous, and I got free prints too!



The owl is for my Mum (it's her birthday today), but I think I might have to buy my own Inky sachet. The Smelly Cat ones are particularly cute:

Much cuteness

Today has been a day of squee, bringing with it much cuteness. This came in the form of:

Bunny Blobs by Cute Designs:



A Bat Brooch called Bertie from KoolKookyKreatures:



And an Emo Tweet from feltmeupdesigns:



These little guys (and Pinky Bunny) are all living in my studio:



Way too cute by far!

My handmade year

Normal, organised people would post such a post on the 31st of December, or indeed on the 1st of January. However, having never been normal, or indeed organised, I am posting this on the 13th. 13 is my lucky number however, so there is method in my madness!

Last year's resolution was to buy something handmade at least once a month. Lack of money has meant that hasn't been possible every month, but I've still bought some fabulous things this year.

The first of those fabulous things was this gorgeous print by the ridiculously talented Deb of Champignons:



It came with some lovely free prints:



Two of which now reside on my ever-changing staircase wall of art.



Also in January, I bought this cute little print from Quite Contrary,



and, in February, I was able to afford to buy this gorgeous print from Linda Boucher:



The three prints hang in my bedroom, creating a little red shoe-themed triptych:



Take a look at this post for more about those :)

In March, I bought my Mum an adorable owl from Kool Kooky Kreatures for Mothers' Day.

June and July were somewhat batty, bringing with them as they did a Batcat ACEO from the truly fabulous Blacklilypie (I would buy her whole shop if I could afford it!):



It came with a gorgeous free postcard and stickers, yay!



Batcat now lives on the shelves in my studio.



Plus, a very cute apple cinnamon scented bat sachet from batgirl93.etsy.com,



A postcard (plus one free!) from She's Batty (check out her card designs!):



And lots of Halloween supplies:



I'd won a gift card for Aquariann's Artfire shop (another one whose whole inventory I'd buy if I could), so in August I felt the need to get me a little Tree Fairy print:



In November, I spotted that Claire Payne was having a little sale, so I snapped up a skully brooch for a bargainous price. I couldn't resist a cat brooch either, and, when the sticker-adorned package came, there was a free monster brooch too!



Also in November, I took advantage of a BOGOF offer in the lovely Illusio's Etsy shop. Not only did I buy one ACEO and get one free, I got two free, plus a postcard. Hurrah!



Those now live on the wall of art too.



So, with 2009 over, it's time to start concentrating on my resolutions for 2010. I need to generally look after myself better really - eat better, get out more and so on. Also to be more creative - I've really neglected my crafts lately (two pendants in three months is not good enough!) - and try to make something every day. So I've started the year with good intentions, but whether or not those are followed up remains to be seen ...

Happy Autumn!

It's officially autumn now (the TNBC calendar says "Autumn Equinox" so it must be so), and I can therefore stop feeling a bit premature for talking about Halloween :) So, with only five and a half weeks, or 38 days, to go until the big day, I've been adding lots more spooky goodies to the Etsy shop.

After buying some wonderful Halloween-themed supplies, I created a little collection of beaded dangles:

The little bells I bought were used in creating these three pieces:





My favourite is this one, because the large orange bead looks like a big chunk of candy :)



I'd also bought some glow-in-the-dark beads, both round and bat-shaped, which went into the making of these:





Pop into the Halloween section of my shop for all of the above and more!

I've also been working on a commission for four silver pieces:



You can't tell from this picture, but the bat on the bottom right is huge! 16 inches wide in fact, double the size of my usual bats. Was awkward but fun to make :)

Halloween in July part 2 - a beaded skull

Production of the Halloween range has begun, and one of the first pieces I've created is this beaded skull:



This piece is the result of a series of sketches, in which I was working out how to make the skull look right. In my designs, I often draw something out as a line drawing first to see whether it would work in wire, as the construction of my wire pieces is basically made up of a series of curved lines. I always drew skulls face-on, and, as a line drawing, that always made them look too monkey-like.





However, while watching Buffy (series 7, which has a hand walking up a skull in the title sequence),



I hit on the (now obvious-sounding) idea that the skull did not have to be symmetrical face-on image, but could be a side-on image instead.





Thus, this design was born - a simple line drawing in copper wire, adorned with glass beads. Click the image below to go to the listing:

Burtonesque

Dear reader, it may not come as a huge surprise to you that I love Tim Burton. The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice and others of his are among my favourite films, and a book called Burton on Burton has been one of the most interesting things I have read. My paintings have often been called Burtonesque, even though, in all but the piece below, there hasn't been a direct influence. It must just have filtered through from my subconscious ;)



So I'm very excited about Burton's re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland, to be released next year. Alice has long been one of my favourite stories, and I love seeing various artists' interpretations of scenes and themes from the book. I can't wait to see what he's done with it. With a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas and Alan Rickman, it surely can't fail to be awesome.

In celebration of this, an Etsy friend of mine, the fabulous jewellery-maker Gugaw, is having a merry unbirthday giveaway! You can win anything from her shop - just comment about your favourite piece on her blog.

New things and featurings

After months of a kind of creative block, the past few weeks has seen me creating in wire again. Suncatchers featuring some of my favourite themes - hearts, skulls, the rainbow, stars and bats - have been popping up all over the shop.

















In addition to this, I have also had my work featured in two places - the 'Gift of Art' Gift Guide campaign on Etsy's front page, in which they've used my 'Turquoise Star' piece:



And also on ACEO Showcase, the new blog from the creator of Cuteable, who has featured my 'Midnight Moon' ACEO: