If you've ever managed to catch me demoing at the craft shows in Brisbane or Sydney you are sure to have seen me work with Friendly Plastic. One of the most popular things I demo is the Twist Bead. It always draws a big crowd and lots of Ah-ha 's as onlookers see the wonderful spirals appear around the bead. But if you haven't seen a twist bead made before then check out the video below to see just how clever it is. This one is for all my fellow Friendly Plastic addicts :) 'Til next time...........

I got to spend this past weekend in in our nation's capital, and for the first time in a long time, I was travelling for pleasure rather than for work. I've always liked Canberra - there is a lot to see and do, and mostly it's free. You've gotta love that! We crammed in a visit to the Mint, Parliament House and also the War Memorial. But today's post is inspired by the Mint. It was fascinating to learn about the process of making coins and it inspired me to dig out my collection of old 1c and 2c coins to turn into jewellery........ specifically, resin jewellery. OK, let's stop there! It turns out that 1c and 2c coins are still legal tender in Australia. Who knew! They've been out of circulation since 1994 and it would be next to impossible to get anyone to accept them as payment but, by law, you can still use them! In my research, I discovered this page on the Royal Australian Mint's website which explains in quite clear terms that it is il......

I stopped by the AMACO booth at CHA and had a chance to watch Michelle Zimmerman in action with Cloud Clay - the wonderful air dry, light as a feather (or is that light as a cloud) clay that is non toxic, non greasy and has a pleasant smell. Michelle is well known for the wonderful, whimsical creatures she creates and she invited me to have some fun with this creature and tell her what I wanted him to look like. She already had him underway when I joined her so we had a good base to start with. As you can see, he started out looking like a snail. Michelle and I were throwing around some ideas about his features and between us we decided he should have purple eyes. No, actually, we decided on just one eye - he should be monocular. And so we named him "One Eyed Pete". Oh, we were having such fun with this imaginary creature! We thought he still needed a little something and we settled on a single purple horn, like a unicorn. And as quick as a flash, Michelle had modelled his ......

It's Saturday and the first day of CHA. It's always so exciting to walk through the doors not knowing what you're going to find on the show floor. My first stop for the day was at Viva Decor's booth where Michael Strong had designed a very pretty and softly coloured valentine's card using Paper Soft Color . Whilst this is not a new product, it is the first opportunity I've had to use it and I was really impressed by how easily it blended on the paper. The colour is very soft just as its name implies. To add some elegant pearls to the flourishes we used a Pearl Pen which was also a dream to use. The stamped images are from Michael's own stamp line, Strong Stamps. Beautiful card, isn't it Sorry about the poor photography - there is very limited lighting in the hotel room so I won't mention where this photo was taken, although the towel background might give you some idea! Viva Decor has a theme for their booth this year: A White Wedding and this card ......

Can anyone guess what metal this is? Is it: A - Brass B - Copper C - Bronze? The answer is at the bottom of the post. But I hope you'll read on to learn the story behind this cameo. I found this beautiful piece whilst digging around in my studio this afternoon. Only, when I found it, it didn't look anything like this. You see, it started out life looking much more like resin.... clear resin which I'd marbled with red pigment. It was actually quite hideous. I'd already attempted to alter it's appearance once before by coating it with black alcohol ink and Krylon Gold Leafing Pen. It was a huge improvement but something had reactivated the alcohol ink and it was bleeding everywhere. So I gave it a good clean up with methylated spirits to return it to it's original colour. With a clean slate I started again. This time I brushed on a coat of antiquing solution to give it a bit of definition. And then, out came the Rub 'n Buff. Firstly Amethyst, followed by Patin......

At about this time last year I was feverishly creating entries for the Annual AMACO Friendly Plastic Challenge. One of the categories was to create a butterfly from Friendly Plastic which would be displayed in the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Tx as part of a permanent installation. They are looking for 1.5 million handmade butterflies, one to represent each of the children who perished in the Holocaust. When I posted off my entries last year, I had no idea that my butterfly would win the category! And so I want to encourage you to enter this year's challenge too! You never know, your butterfly might be judged the winning entry. Entries close soon but it's not too late to enter. Entries must be postmarked by 18th November 2009 to be elligible so if you're in Australia or New Zealand it doesn't matter that it might take a week to get to AMACO, as long as it's postmarked no later than 18th November. For some inspiration why not visit the The Art of Friendly Plastic b......

This weekend I'm conducting the first of my Friendly Plastic Pen classes at Stamp Antics. If you've been following my blog you'll have seen a number of these pens gracing my posts over recent weeks. This particular one is called Royal Orchid and is a gift for my dear friend who celebrated her birthday yesterday. I packaged it up in a neat little presentation box and it looked like a million dollars - a really practical, yet arty-crafty, gift for a very dear friend. She was absolutely delighted to receive something made just for her, and I loved making it for her as much as she loved receiving it. If you're interested in learning how to make your own (start making them now for Christmas!) then check out my website for class details. Bookings can be made direct with Stamp Antics but be quick because the morning class is already full and there are only a couple of places left in the afternoon class. But if this weekend doesn't suit, there is another class scheduled i......

Have you ever had beads that left you unsure as to what colour metal you should use for your findings? Ever wondered how different a piece of jewellery might look if you chose gold instead of silver? Well I have. Some beads look just as good in one colour as they do in another. Take the following for example. After making up my ugly duckling beads into a necklace (see yesterday's post ) I still had a few beads left over so I decided to make the beads up into a necklace using gold findings and here's how it looks........... Quite lovely - the gold warms up the beads rather nicely! But then I had some doubt..... would it look better made up in silver? So I pulled it apart and replaced the gold findings with silver....... Not bad either - lovely and cool looking - silver really brings out the red in the beads. And for comparison, here's yesterday's necklace in copper. These beads were a little more copper than the second batch so they worked quite well with copper findings......

I have a new AMACO clay bead roller and I've been dying to try it out for weeks...... with Friendly Plastic of course! Actually, I have two new rollers but this is the only one I've tried out yet. It also makes a modified hexagon and I'm looking forward to making beads with that shape too but so far I've only worked with the oval. It must be this time of the year but I keep looking at these beads and thinking "Easter Eggs" and that they'd look right at home in an Easter basket! And what a lovely Easter gift they would make for a fellow jewellery maker - a bunch of Friendly Plastic "eggs" (pre-drilled of course) wrapped up in cellophane and tied with a pretty bow - and not a calorie in sight! But I digress. Over the Easter weekend I've had time to put together some of those beads into a necklace. These particular beads began with the Jana Ewy's Fracture and Fusion technique - well, only the Fracture part because I really didn't like t......

I've been playing around with Jana Ewy's fracture and fusion technique over the last couple of weeks and have produced some lovely multi-coloured strips of Friendly Plastic. Her technique is featured in the Winter 2009 issue of Belle Armoire and she produces the most amazing bangles and jewellery pieces with it - you really should check it out. So, armed with all these lovely coloured strips I decided it was time to create something with them. And it suddenly occurred to me how beautiful this technique would be on a pen. And that's how I used it. Not too bad for a first attempt! Of course, I'm only showing you the best side..... it is a prototype after all. But the experiment worked and that was the important thing here. And now my head is spinning with more ideas and I'm going to claim every pen I can lay my hands on to try some other things out. I can see some wonderful possibilities with Friendly Plastic and pens. This one will need a coating of resin to make it......

In my last post I mentioned that I've been preparing a project sheet for AMACO on how to roll beads from Friendly Plastic Designer Sticks using AMACO's bead rollers. And I'm pleased to announce that the project sheet has now been uploaded to their website. You might wonder how on earth you can turn these pretty metallic sticks into unique, one of a kind beads. It would seem rather impossible, but you know, it really can be done and the project sheet shows you the method I use to heat and roll the plastic to produce some really individual beads. So, pop on over to AMACO to check out the project sheet , grab some Friendly Plastic, a bead roller and have fun making your own beads. And once you've got the hang of the basics, why not try adding some extra colours and create your own original, one of a kind beads....