Polymer Clay Cat Brooch

As part of my polymer clay making rampage I took a little detour from bead and necklace making and tried my hand at cat face brooches.  I really do love kittens and even though I will probably never own one I can certainly own hypoallergenic pins of them! Take a peek:

Me-ow! I am super happy with how they turned out and liked making the different faces and patterns on the cats.  It also gave me another opportunity to try to master tiny little paint strokes which is super challenging.  I often see crafts and projects people make and wonder how the heck they create things so effortlessly.  Painting tiny details is actually really hard and these pins were far from effortless at my skill level - but practise does seem to me improving my abilities.

I really love the little orange cat the most with his smug expression perfect for the label of a jacket:

and in case you are concerned how you will be attaching said brooch - I glued on a nice sized bar pin with epoxy:

So what do you think? Are you big into brooches? or cats? or both!?!

brooch week! day 7 of 7

Looks like sunday has finally arrived meaning it is the last day of brooch week. I've really enjoyed sharing my creative accessory challenge with all of you and although I feel like these last 7 posts have been a smidge repetitive I have really been treasuring all your thoughts and comments. The final brooch in the collection is yet another illustrated character favourite of mine - sophisticat:


Oh hello there! My mustache cat buttons have been quite the popular seller in my shop and at shows and for a good reason! I mean felines and facial hair? Double win! I really enjoyed making sophiticat brooch and am loving the gold monocle stitching and pointy 3D whiskers:


Of course the wide set eyes and tiny little smile are still up there in my books too. What do you think of him?

And since it is sunday that also means that I successfully completed my brooch a day challenge! Let's look back at how the week of pins has progressed:


What a fun bunch of brooches! Which one was your favourite? Any suggestions for any other brooch designs I should get to work on? Are there any of my illustrations you're just dying to see in felt pin form? I'd love to hear suggestions...that and I really need some new craft projects to do fill that "my hands like to be busy all the time" void...

brooch week! day 6 of 7

Brooch week is rounding down to a close and today's pin is my sister's personal favourite. Check out my bird and birches pin:


That gray/teal felt from steggy has returned in a nice nature inspired piece. I really wanted to make a tea cozy or coffee press cover using this birch design I've been thinking about for a while now but the time crunch for my last craft show was just too much to start playing around with new designs. I really wanted the trees to pop on a dark background and I think the bird adds a nice detail and asymmetry which is lovely. I'm also really enjoying the colour combination. Let's take a closer look:


Have I mentioned how much I'm loving wool felt? Ok, yes, I've said that a few times now but I haven't gushed about how amazing using my new spring loaded super sharp crafting scissors are (pictured up in the corner of the brooch week banner)! What a great investment those were and they are dramatically cutting down on my crafting injuries. They are so nice on my old lady arthritic hands and wrists meaning I can just keep on creating! Woo! Let's check out how that brooch collection is coming along:


Eee! Only one more day to go! How have you been enjoying brooch week? What do you think of them?

brooch week! day 5 of 7

Hooray! Friday of brooch week is finally here meaning that 1) the weekend is just around the corner and 2) it's time to reveal another felt pin creation. Today's brooch is all about the bright seasonal fun of spring with a nice fuchsia flower:


I really liked making this one but boy was it ever hard to photograph! I wanted to keep my brooch week images consistent with that lime green background but the super bright saturated pink was really not ideal with the green. After playing around with my camera settings and photoshop I think I managed to get a few images that turned out alright but I still think this brooch is much more appealing in person. I used a layered petal design for this one and am quite pleased with the result. It has quite a bit of texture and presence without having poly-fill stuffing like the other brooches so far. Take a look at that close up goodness:


Yay! A nice fun bright flower to add to the brooch collection:


What do you think?

brooch week! day 4 of 7

Back to more wide set eye smile cuteness today with another button illustrated inspired design. Take a look at felt brooch acorn:


Hehe! Such a cutie I really love how acorn turned out. He's perfect for anyone who enjoys nature, oak trees, the outdoors, or at least pretends to! Perhaps he is a little larger (and more smiley) than his real life counterpart but he does have some fun cross hatch stitching on his little acorn hat:


Man acorn is darling - and a perfect match to go with the other brooch week friends:


More than half way done the week! Stay tuned for more brooch felt fun tomorrow...

brooch week! day 3 of 7

I think today's felt brooch just might be my favourite so far. I'm loving the geometric shape trend happening in the crafty world these days and it is super fun to combine abstract coloured felt triangles - check it out:


Ooo! I just love those colours (yet again showing that wool felt is awesome)! Once I actually got to executing my triangle brooch design it did prove to be very time consuming - just look at all those little stitches and thread colours:


Whew! I definitely think this brooch will have a higher price tag when I list it in my etsy shop but all that labor deserves recognition! Actually, I'm sure if I worked out how long I spend on any of my crafting projects I'd be making slave wages but I don't think a huge hourly wage is really the point of handmade crafting. I really love being able to sit down and make something with my own two hands - especially if it's something that turns out like this geometric brooch! I may be forced to make another one of these pins for myself once brooch week is over because I really think it would be perfect with so many of my outfits. What do you think of it?

Oh and while we're at it, let's look at the progress so far:


Four more brooches to go! How have you been enjoying the pins so far? Any favourites?

brooch week! day 2 of 7

Hooray! Tuesday has arrived meaning it is time for my second installment to brooch week! Today's brooch is taken from one of my button illustrations and boy is he ever a cutie. Take a look at steggy the felt brooch stegosaurus:


Ah! So cute! And since no one was actually around during the times of the dinosaurs I feel the gray/teal felt colour could totally be an accurate representation of the stegosaurus right? Ok - so I'm stretching a bit, but I do love that teal wool felt! I totally want to buy some more of those felt squares online too. Even though they are like 300% more expensive than the acrylic felt you can get at craft and fabric stores it is totally worth it. It is magnificent to work with and I am completely in love with the wonderful colours it's available in. Let's take a closer look at steggy brooch:


Hehe! When I showed leslie this pin she told me he was suited for a child more than an adult and that she would only wear it if she was teaching elementary school or feeling particularly whimsical. I'm not sure about you, but I would totally wear this pin with almost any outfit and even if it is a little silly (and adorable if you haven't noticed) that's all part of that fun of accessorizing! What do you think?

Let's look back at the brooch progress so far:


Okay so there is a lot of blank space in that image but we've still got 5 more days and 5 more pins to go! See you tomorrow!

brooch week! day 1 of 7

Welcome to brooch week here on the blog! Although I've been saying this for a while now, brooches are long overdue for a fashion comeback and since I absolutely adore craft projects that:

1) let me use felt (I do love me some felt)
2) are small scale (quick and satisfying)
and
3) allow me to stretch my creative muscles (they're a little sore)

I'm so happy to take the week to celebrate a fantastic felt brooch a day! Hooray! So let's get started with the first brooch:


Since pretty much all the items I sell in my etsy shop are wide set eye smiled anthropomorphic cuteness it is nice to make something that takes a step away from that once in a while. I thought I'd do the heart/wood-grain embroidery for this piece before I realized that I didn't exactly have the right brown felt for the project so I went with gray. I also thought I'd do the stitching in dark brown but somewhere along the way my brain decided dark gray embroidery cotton was better. In fact, I actually didn't even notice that I was stitching in gray until I was about half way finished and then I wasn't prepared to start the brooch over again. Do you ever have those "my brain disconnects from my spinal cord" moments? Maybe that's just me. I am really pleased with how it turned out and even though jim told me he thought it was jupiter with a heart on it, I do really like the pattern in gray. After all, it is a nice neutral colour palette to wonderfully accessorize with any outfit! Take a close up look:


Yay! I think my stitching skills are really improving since I started selling crafts back in 2008 and I am really enjoying embroidery! What do you think of brooch 1 of 7?

common law bliss and next week teaser

Last week I came home from work to find a wee wrapped present waiting for me:


Excited as ever I opened the little pink bow to find a tiny crochet square with gorgeous geometric cube gold earrings:


Although that last shot doesn't do them justice - let me assure you they are perfect. Simple, classic, and shiny the studs will certainly make it into my daily wardrobe and although leslie tells me gold if awful, I think they are wonderful (oh and gold goes awesomely with my red head/fair complexion):


When I asked wonderful doting fraser what the occasion was for such a nice surprise he told me it was my "common law present." Yup, looks like time has flown living together and we are officially (or at least legally) common law. How nice.

In other news I've got big plans for the blog (and my etsy shop) this upcoming week - ready for it? Behold!


Starting tomorrow I will interrupt your regular scientific culture blog scheduling to bring you 7 days for 7 fantastic felt accessories! Finally all my pent up creativity will explode as I challenge myself to make a brooch a day for the entire week. I'll be posting the brooches on the blog for your viewing (and hopefully commenting) pleasure each morning and then I'll list them in my etsy shop at some point during the day! I'm excited! How about you?