Colour

I have been enjoying colour in different forms over the last few days.  Above can be seen some coloured quartz beads which I couldn't resist sorting.  (I'm the same with coloured pencils - I have a tin of Caran D'Ache watercolour pencils which my Dad bought me many years ago and I have to sort them periodically!  Oh, and there's embroidery thread which has to be wrapped round a plastic card and then colour sorted too).

 The garden is starting to show its early summer colour with pastel lilacs and purples.  Clematis Crystal Fountain above has fully opened...

...and Clematis Arabella is just starting to flower.

This is the very exciting news - well, it is exciting if you are like me.  You may remember me saying I had bought two patio peonies and they are now just about to flower!  Above is 'Madrid', which initially looked as though it was going to have a pink flower and that bothered me a bit as I thought it wasn't the right variety, but was tricking me, because I can see the white petals peeping through in the bud.

 Here is peony 'Athens' which is tantalisingly close to opening fully.  I go out to look at it every morning, and each time it is a tiny bit further on, but still not quite there.

Look, you can almost see the golden centre.  Another day or two and it should be open.  It is a good lesson in being patient.

Polymer Clay Days

I have been enjoying working with polymer clay and introducing more friends to this versatile medium.  Below is Angie's first attempt at pendants and earrings using just black and white clay.  She made spiral canes, flower canes, extruded canes and then did the Sutton Slice (on the teardrop shapes)  I think she may be hooked now!

 My friend Rachael has discovered what she described as 'her thing' - Kawaii creatures - which means 'cute' in Japanese, I think!  She started off making a dragon (and made me one too) and then made a gingerbread man and reindeer.  They are indeed very cute!

The dragon...

 ...the gingerbread man...

...and the (rather nose-heavy) reindeer, who needed a bit of support to stay upright!

She was delighted with these little creations and then tried out a new mould which I had just got the previous day.

 I think it worked beautifully!
So, what have I been making?  Well, I absolutely love using the silk screen kit and have made two pieces into pendants with tassels.

 I call this the 'Frankenstein' pendant because the pattern reminds me of lightning and electricity and I chose gemstones which had the same shine and colours including snowflake obsidian, shell, pearls and quartz.

The other one I made has a range of blue gemstones including pearls, sodalite, blue quartz and labradorite.  I love the blue colour on the labradorite which is at the bottom of the tassel (the correct term is labradorescence!)  Chris suggested using cord to hang them on and I agree, as the plaited beading thread just didn't look quite right.  I wore the blue one at work on Friday and got several compliments, which was really nice.