Christmas gifts

For my mother I made this necklace with gold, copper and mother of pearl:































For my best friend's mother I made this sparkly blue necklace:
















And this humongous ring is for a lady living in our neighbourhood:




I hope everyone with a piece of jewellery from my hand is happy with it, and I would like to thank you all for allowing me to make all these nice things for you.

Merry Christmas & a very happy, sparkly and colourful 2012!


Willy

Colour your world!

Het zwarte is ongelakt

Dear blog reader,

Met bijpassende broche

Light up your life and make colourful things! Here is my donation to a prettier world.

Het koord is netjes weggewerkt in een
tunneltje tussen de plakjes klei

Breng kleur aan in je leven!

Results

Dear blog reader,


Here is the necklace I learned to make at Eveline's workshop. There was a lot of mixing involved to get the colours like this.

And this is the result of pressing around 5 different colours of clay through a clay pistol with square shaped nozzle. How cool is this?!!

The black and white necklaces I made are the following:

                                     

       
                                       

Workshop

Afgelopen zaterdag heb ik weer een workshop gevolgd bij Eveline Klootwijk-Barten in haar 'kneedkeet'. Altijd goed verzorgd en gezellig. Ze heeft net weer een boek gepubliceerd vol prachtige kettingen met beschrijving hoe de kralen te maken. Het heet "Versier jezelf: kralen en sieraden van polymeerklei". Prachtig! Een aanrader als Sinterklaas- of Kerstkado. Zie hier de link naar haar website: http://www.crealine.nl/

Ik heb voor het eerst een kleipistool gebruikt en zal binnenkort het resultaat laten zien.


In de tussentijd heb ik ook weer een opdracht binnen. Een lange ketting met grijs/zwart/wit/, met ring.


*****************************************
Last Saturday I visited Eveline again for a full day's workshop making beads out of polymer clay. As always it was a well-organised day and we also had fun.
She just published another book with pictures and descriptions on how to make beads and necklaces, which makes a great Christmas gift. Please see the link above for pictures.


For the first time I used a clay pistol, and will soon show you the results.


In the meantime I received another order: a long necklace with white/grey/black and a matching ring.

And the winners are...

Dear blog reader,
I returned from the congress in Leipzig 1.5 weeks ago, and the Silent Auction raised a considerable sum of money for the training of young people in the meetings industry. My tulip necklace raised Euro 15 and went home with a lady from Jakarta. The purple necklace with earrings raised Euro 40 and travelled to Düsseldorf. Another lady, from Copenhagen, was so sad she had not won the purple set, that I promised to make her a similar set if she donated the amount she had in mind for the same good cause. She agreed. So I would say it was a success!

Last Thursday I visited KreaDoe, the big annual trade show in Utrecht for creative people, and stocked up for more jewellery-making. The cold and dark days are coming, a perfect season for indoor hobbies like mine. Plus next Saturday I will attend another workshop, so I hope to be able to show you new creations soon.

Silent Auction

Dear blog reader,


I just put 2 necklaces up for auction, for the Silent Auction taking place during the ICCA Congress in Leipzig in a month's time, to be exact. Let's hope they will sell, it is all for a good cause (please see http://auction.iccaworld.com/)!

Time flies

Dear blog reader,


It has been an incredibly long time since my last message. Spring was coming, and now it is the end of Summer already! I took a break from my beloved hobby, with the intention to start afresh in the Autumn. There was one request, though, and with great pleasure I made two necklaces for a very nice lady, the mother of 2 friends of mine. Her birthday was coming up, and she wanted a necklace to go with a new blouse, so I had specific colour requests. No one was sure about the length, so I made two different ones. 

Not only in length, but also in the pattern of the beads. One with a floral pattern, the other more marble-like. This way there was choice.
The small black beads are also made by hand, and I added small glass beads in between.

I sent them by post, and in the meantime went on holiday.


At the end of my holiday I received an email with the message that mother liked both necklaces very much and her sons had given her both for her birthday. They matched the blouse, that I had not seen prior, very well. That was lucky! The response was so enthousiastic and thankful, it made me blush and I felt privileged and proud at the 'job' well done.


This gives me courage to pick up where I left off, and hopefully keep improving along the way. Thank you, dear friends, for giving me this opportunity! 

Spring is in the air

Temperatures went up a little in the past few days, birds are chirping and daffodils and crocuses are out. Time to go outdoors, prepare the plants on the balcony for Summer to come!

This gave me the push to fulfill my promise to one of my neighbours who asked me to make a small flower in black, ivory, glitter silver and white. So now there is a big and a small version around. But as you can tell by the patterns in the petals, no two can ever be the same.

In 1,5 week's time the clock will move 1 hour forward to Summer time. Let's hope that it will mean more good weather and more flowers. They are bound to inspire me!

Travelling treasures

Dear friend,

My clay babies are flying out and finding new homes all over the world. Two tulips landed in Finland, and this flower and earrings below ended up in Johannesburg, South Africa! It was great to be back there, by the way, to meet up with friends and enjoy the glorious sunshine...


With an orange ensemble in Belgium, and two necklaces in Germany, I am definitely taking this hobby to a global level. Who knows whatever will be next!

Super Sunday!

What an honour that I was given the oportunity to show my jewellery to my neighbours in our cafe, next to Cora's magnificent paintings last Sunday. I took great care in the presentation, bought a velvet black piece of cloth and several busts. I created bumps under the cloth so that the necklaces were more visible. There even was a mirror on the wall, there were gift bags, business cards and proper receipts. And honestly, I had not realised that I had made so many items. 
I was very nervous, but my lovely neighbours reacted enthousiastically,  and I had a super afternoon.

And if they need a present for someone or want a necklace to match a new outfit, they now know where to find me!

What will the neighbours say?

This coming Sunday is 'Sieraden-Zondag', the day I display my hand-made necklaces in the cafe of the building I live in. I am busy preparing, and feel very excited about this!


In the meantime, I have finally finished the necklace for my colleague Tadeja. It is all gold that glitters.

And I had a purple craze. Hopefully my neighbours are partial to this particular colour...

Tulips from Amsterdam

Dear blog reader,
Flowers have a hold on me at the moment! Inspired by the heart-warming colours red, orange and yellow I created a field of tulips. Three of them are brooches, the rest are pendants. My aim is to find out if tourists would be interested in them. Project!

Flower Power

Dear blog reader,
Today is officially the most depressing day of the year (it was on the news even): the Christmas and New Year festivities are behind us, and ahead lie many a dark and cold day still until Spring. No wonder then that the flower is the best selling item of this moment!

They are cheerful to look at, eye catching, and they do not need any water.

So here is a bit of Spring on your computer screen. Have a great week!

Men's wear

Dear blog reader,
not so long ago someone asked Johan if I also made jewellery for men. I do indeed! Johan wears some of my necklaces regularly (that is how this all began really, that is how other people saw my work and became interested), and this is one of them:

The pendant is 4 cm in diameter, and 1 cm thick, so nice and chunky.


Furthermore, I once made a bracelet upon a male friend's request: on one side the beads are black, and on the other they are black with a twist of silver and some dark purple. Quite suitable for someone who wears a lot of black.


So fellas, just let me know what you are looking for, and I will see if I can create it for you!

Playing shop

Last Tuesday I played shop at the office. Main reason: a colleague of mine was looking for presents for 2 of her friends, necklaces, and asked me if I could make something. As you know, Between Christmas and New Years I made lots, and decided to bring everything with me.
So not to bother anyone, I displayed it all in a small meeting room in the window sill, with the Arena at the background.

And luckily she found what she was looking for!