Straffer dan Elza D.

Dit moet zowaar mijn eerste blogbericht in het Nederlands zijn.
Allemaal de schuld van Elza D.
Ze daagde haar bloglezers uit om de truuk met de kers te doen.
En zoals ge weet: een uitdaging ga ik nooit uit de weg.
Ik kreeg geen prijs zonder filmpke.
Madam wil bewijs.
En 't gaat me natuurlijk om de prijs.
Hoe zou ge zelf zijn?
Zoveel lol gehad met het filmpke te maken.
En jullie mogen ook eens lachen, niewaar?
Bovendien: mijn truuk is straffer dan die van Elza D.
Ge ziet het misschien niet, maar ik kan van één steelke, drie steelkes maken én knopen.
Allemaal in 14 luttele seconden.
Nu gij! :)



This must be my first blogpost in Dutch.
Elza D. is to blame for this.
She challenged her blogreaders to do the trick with the cherry.
And you know: I love a good challenge.
I didn't get my prize because I didn't make a movie.
She wanted proof.
And of course, I did it for the prize.
You would do the same, right?
Had lots of fun making the movie.
So I decided you can have a laugh too.
Besides: my trick is even better then Elza D.'s.
Perhaps you don't see it, but I can make from one stem, three stems and all of them knotted.
In 14 seconds.
Now it's your turn.

European Streetteam Challenge entry

Last week I won the European Streetteam challenge & I had to pick a new theme for the week.
It was no surprise that I chose 'babushka's' as a source of inspiration I suppose.
Anyway, while I was sick, I decopatched on the couch as not to feel completely useless. Here is my entry for the challenge:I listed the one above in my shop & will list the other ones later this week!
Go look at all the marvelous entries here! I'll pick a winner tonight! :)

European Streetteam Challenge

What a fun day this is today! I just got word that my singing birds that I made for this weeks challenge won the challenge! Woohoo! Thanks so much for picking them out of all the amazing entries dear Anna! That basicly means that I can be the boss for this weeks challenge and can pick a theme of my choice. I'd love to show you some pics to get inspired... by Babushka's! :)
I suppose the theme is no surprise for you...

The centerpiece of this mosaic is work from Claudia aka MundoGominola.
I have been thinking about her recently. I 'met' her on the European Streetteam
and unfortunately she passed away last December due to a rare heart condition.
Just a little remembrance of this beautiful person... you are missed sweet Claudia!

1. HAND PAINTED - Matryoshkas family, 2. Small babuschka, 3. ohrringe :::bonjour russland, 4. Matryoshka coasters - decorative objects, 5. Matryoshka ornaments, 6. P1010801, 7. Gingerbread House, 8. work in progress, 9. Moleskine's notebook cover: Matryoshkas, 10. fru muri, 11. Frida under water, 12. big russian doll & russian doll lavender scented sachets, 13. Piquete de mamushkas14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

Can't wait to see all the entries! Make it hard on me to choose my favorite! :)
You can work with lots of colors, russian themed, shapes, drawings, bags, jewelry... whatever resembles of a babushka will do!

This picture is another great example of Babushka-inspiration... :)

Black zipper babushka pouch by P8Accessoiries

Recycled inner tube bike babushka by Palepink

Babushka's - handpainted T-shirt by BHBKidstyle

Babushka's on the wall by heritagedecouleurs

Angel babushka from Meltemsem
Wetfelted Babushka dolls by ViltalaKim

Babushka card by Vadjutka

Matroyshska lavender pillow black and white by BlueTerracotta

Girlie Girl Matroyshka OOAK by Sabahnur

Babushka Happy family by Artistudios

Babushka, leather journal or notebook by Kreativlink

Babushka ring by Evihan

Babushka bag/key ring by Gifts and Stars

Confetti babushka felted bag by Ingermaaike

The winner of this challenge are the wetfelted Babushka dolls by Viltalakim. BIG congrats, Kim! :)

Challenge entry

I could not be happier with this weeks challenge theme chosen by DeerLola on the European Streetteam. It's been ages since I participated in the European Streetteam challenges. The challenges usually only last a week and sometimes that is just too short to finalize a ceramic project.
This week's challenge was called 'Ode to Anna' aka AnnaRubyKing or LilaRubyKing.
Read more about it on DeerLola's blog:
I've been admiring Anna's work from the first time I saw it and above that, Anna is just a super lovely person all around so it was such a pleasure to make something inspired by her work.

These birds make me smile and even though that they can't sing, they are still called singing birds because each and every one of them is inspired by the 2D birds of AnnaRubyKing.
And I have also made a few to use in a moss terrarium.And I have another idea in mind with these birds but they need some more fine tuning. I might have a new production line in my ceramic factory here! They are available in my Etsy shop.

Woot woot! Thank you so much everyone who casted their vote on the Etsy voter!
My ceramic set has been chosen by the Etsy community as high-end luxury item for the holidays. It has been published in the Storque, Etsy's handmade blog, today. One click on the picture below will bring you right to it! :) I'm thrilled about this - thanks for so much love! :)

How to color clay?

Sometimes it's fun to work with clay in a different color. Clay however does not come naturally in many different colors so you can color it yourself with pigments or body stains.
For the European Streetteam challenge I wanted to make some bats so I needed black clay & decided to make it myself.
Here is what you need:
Black body stain, a mask, a scale, gloves, white/grey clay, paper

Weigh the amount of clay you want to color.

Put a piece of paper on your scale and weigh the amount of body stain you want to add.
For black I use more then other colors because I want to make sure it's really black and not a greyish black. I used 4 grams to 200 grams.

Put on your gloves and make a little bowl out of your lump of clay.
(my apologies for the bad quality of these pictures)

Put the body stain in the little bowl.

Fold the bowl close and start kneading carefully so that not too much body stain falls out.

When the clay starts getting too dry, add a bit of water and knead well so that the body stain really mixes with the clay.

This is how it looks when it's ready to use.

Clay dries out really fast, so I usually hold it in a plastic bag and I wrap the part that I'm working with in a damp cloth.

I use a mould that I made to make the bats.
Take a little clay and press it into the mould.

Make sure that it's filled up nicely.

Take a piece of moist clay and press it onto the filled mould and 'pull' the bat out.

I think it came out nicely.

Hey look, small and big ones! :)

And here is how they look when they are fired.
Hey, they turned out grey instead of black! :(
I definately need to use more black body stain next time.
Well, that's what experimenting is all about! :)

Do you want to see how the colored glaze came out? Check it out here! :)