General Store and Prototype rings of Fail

Today, I created an XBox ring.

A little backstory, here. Bloom (my partner) is an avid gamer and at the moment is obsessed with Gears of War. She and her brother, together against the Horde... Ah, fun times. Anyway, here I am- in the middle of May- wondering what to get her for a super-belated Christmas pressie. And the thought hits.

Super, one-of-a-kind customised Gamer Gear!

I made the ring twice. The first time, after 3 hours wrestling with the white clay (stupid bits of fluff and dirt!) because the XBox controller shape is a bitch to sculpt, my hyperactive oven burnt it.

Along with 3 other prototype pieces and 5 custom orders. I nearly gave up. T________T

But I decided to make the ring again! This time, there were no bits of dirt... But the oven again burnt the ring. Not that it should have, mind you. I had it at the same temperature you use to melt chocolate... It's a problem with either the clay or the oven. :/

But anyway, the ring wasn't that burnt, and I'm going to paint the burnt (white) bits with acrylic tomorrow. But for the moment.. Here's the ring!

And the website's nearly finished, too. But don't tell Bloom, 'cus she hasn't seen the ring yet and it's on the site.

Shhh! ^_^

From,

Berry xoxo

Slightly less old (but still outdated) polymer clay goodiesingsome

Just thought I'd show some more signs of life by uploading some of the (more) recent photos of my crafty exploits. These are a couple of months old, unfortunately, but I'm still quite proud of them all- even if they're a bit further down on my learning curve!

First off, we have my foray into dollshouse-made accessories - teacup charms. I've actually now got a selection of these made into rings, with different kinds of teacups and 'picnic blanket' fabrics.
I'm still making loads of these two favourites- people just love inedible treats! Though I like to think my craftmanship has improved, the basic design is the same. The burgers come with teensy ketchup bottles, too!

This was a one-off piece I originally made for a contest and.. Just to see if I could do it. I spent an afternoon demonstrating for my cousins, and they seemed to like watching the clay turning into yummy sushi! I'm not too happy with this looking back on it, but I'm glad I attempted it- I've learnt a lot about canes and boxes.

One of my other favourites is the apple charm. I always enjoy making this as each apple looks different, just like the real thing! I generally like sculpting fruit charms (my specialities being pear and strawberries), which I think is because of their simplicity and beautiful colours.

That's it for now, folks! I'll try to keep you posted :)

A New Year, etcetera...

Hello again. It's been a while, right? Over six months.

*twiddles thumbs sheepishly*

I haven't forgone crafting- oh, no. I've been doing lots of it. But I'm a bit lazy, and my 'best' recent creations which I could have used in my portfolio/showcase, I sold without taking pictures of them. Silly me! In fact, I haven't taking pictures of anything I've made recently.

But fear not!

This blog is now going to document the rise (or not) of my crafty business, Bloom and Berry, which I have started with my best friend. We're both art students- she specialises mostly in Textile Art, and I'm just an odd duck- and we thought that turning our hobbies into a business would be a great motivator. Hopefully, the 'business' side of things will indeed get our respective competitive and creative juices flowing, so you can look forward to pictures and crafts of better calibre than below.. I like to think we've improved a tiny bit, too!

Christmas Craft Overload.

Welcome to License to Craft!

I love craft blogs, and all the holiday crafty activities I've been getting up to (plus, my returning to polymer clay sculpting) has inspired me to start a crafty blog.

Watch out for random crafts, rants, and occasionally some polymer clay tutorials, if you're lucky :)

Now, prepare for the crafty overload!

I made this lovely sugarcube igloo with my younger brother, as a Christmas Eve craft. It took a piece of cardboard, some royal icing and a packet of sugarcubes. In fact, we also used a small roll of the card to support the walls, and built the chimney over it, so you can't see it (it's inside).

This is a few hours later, hence the holes in the igloo. You can't see it, but the royal icing/mortar has been dribbled all over it to look like melting snow, and the crushed sugarcubes to look like powdery snow. It's a lovely effect!

These charms were made with polymer clay. I have made a Nikon D80 camera, a cooked breakfast, and a slice of AVEN cake on a cellphone charm. The camera, mug and plate were made as gifts for our family crackers, which we fill ourselves. To give you an idea of size, the grey plate the breakfast is on is around the size of a 2p coin, and a bit smaller than a washer.

Although the camera (real) I used to take this photo doesn't capture the details well enough, I have glazed the lens and tea in the mug to give them a shiny, liquid/glass effect, and used the side of my cutting tool to give the Nikon the textured rubber strip on the lens holder.

Here's the reference picture. I may have used a bit of artistic license, but you cane see where my camera matches up. The textured strip is there, and you can see how I created the lens layers.