Little ladies ready to step out

Matrysoshka Pendants 1, originally uploaded by oddgirlout.etsy.com.

Inspired by some of the other clever polymer clay artists on Etsy including J2aney and Polyclarific, I thought I'd take a step away from my customary BIG designs and try my hand at something little and delicate (yep, definitely playing against type there!).

I'm thinking these cute little Matryoshka pendants will make nice necklaces for younger girls. Moz and I were in St Petersburg almost exactly a year ago and went to the market where we bought a beautiful handpainted set of dolls which now adorn our office mantlepiece.

Vintage wallpaper rounds

A group of vintage wallpaper rounds, originally uploaded by oddgirlout.etsy.com.

...part two of my adventures in resin. These are going to become brooches very shortly.

At last count, I have four confirmed markets and two possible ones (and perhaps more) coming up between now and Christmas, so I'm going to need to build up a lot more stock. These are just a start...

Bobby heads out

Introducting the Bobby collection, a new range of neckware available from Odd Girl Out

Commission time

I was lucky enough to be commissioned Sandra to make a necklace and matching earrings for her friend's birthday. Sandra is a former teaching colleague of my mum's (both of them retired at the end of last year) and first saw my jewellery when I visited my parents in Melbourne for Christmas. She purchased an orange butterfly necklace for her son's girlfriend for Christmas and apparently it was a hit - so she called up to request this special present, to be given by her and another friend.

I rushed home from an intensive marketing workshop that I conducted with a new client on Thursday morning (both businesses booming at once!) and spent the next five hours rolling, cutting, stamping, brushing, piercing and baking the individual beads to make up the necklaces. The first image shows some of the finished beads arranged on my table ready for stringing.


Unfortunately, in my dedication to the task at hand I neglected to do something very simple - drink enough water - and ended up feeling very ill by the time the beads were ready to be strung. It can be very hot here in Perth and it's pretty important to do something as basic as keep your fluids up, but I tend to become extremely focussed when I am making jewellery and forget basic things like eating and drinking. Believe me - it's about the only time I do forget to eat!! So, the upshot of all this is on Thursday night I went to bed feeling rather ill, necklace unstrung, and my partner ended up eating leftovers instead of the nice Valentine's meal I was going to cook him. I finished my commission the next day after recovering- and here it is, ready to be gift wrapped and packed off to Melbourne. I hope Sandra's friend likes it!

Feeling blue?

Today was a veritable FRENZY of blue polymer clay making and baking, as I started the countdown to prepare for my first craft fair/designer show in mid-March. Apparently blue is a 'key colour' for the upcoming season, wouldn't you know!

I'm pretty pleased with the pieces I created today, which are quite different from my usual style. I'm going to be asking for some feedback on them and if they get the general thumbs up, I'll be going into superproduction mode to produce them in a few colours. I loaded the bluebird into my etsy shop oddgirlout.etsy.com this evening and will see if it gets many views.

I think my favourite from today is the bow necklace, although I have to do some work on making the design a little sturdier, as the first one I made broke when I tried to buff it. I made this necklace in blue and black, but haven't photographed the blue version yet.

All the kneading, rolling and buffing has plain tuckerd me out, and I'm off to bed soon - as soon as the fireworks stop (must be for Chinese New Year - Gung hei fat choi! Happy to be a rat).

Is this thing on?

Hello world! tap, tap...[is this thing on?] SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK



Ahem, well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - I'd like to warmly welcome you to the opening of my new blog. I'm sorry it's a bit cold and echoey in here at the moment, we're still in the process of fitting it all out, but once we do I promise you it will be really cozy in here. There will be Odd Girl Out jewellery news (or even jewelry for our North American spelling friends), rants about the weather, random postings on the latest dishes I've been cooking - yes, a little something for everyone.



Now, I do hope you'll bear with with me, I haven't worked one of these things before and it will take me a while to figure out the gears, but I'm sure we'll get there soon.



In the meantime, please help yourself to the fairy bread and cordial in the corner, and do check back soon.

xxx

Odd Girl Out