Workshops don't always go to plan. Sometimes, things go wrong and you end up with a less than successful result. It's always a disappointment for the student but I'm equally disappointed when someone doesn't have success. I had one of those workshops last week. We were making Friendly Plastic Pens. Here's some of the pens which turned out really well. But here are some pen barrels which turned out less than perfect. So what do you do when things don't turn out as planned? Well, I gave it some thought and came up with a Plan B. I decided refoiling the Friendly Plastic would give us a better result. But alas, Plan B was a big failure - the foil wouldn't stick to the tacky adhesive we'd applied to the Friendly Plastic no matter how much we burnished it. So it was on to Plan C - applying an iridescent finish to mask all the previous layers. And the result is spectacular - the ugly duckling has turned into a beautiful swan! Now I have a new technique to play ......

I am a cover girl..... How exciting is that!   The newest magazine from Scott Publications in the "Just" series, Just Jewelry (Vol 1), is full of beautiful jewellery projects featuring some really on-trend materials including metal, leather and Friendly Plastic. You'll find both regular jewellery and Wearable Art jewellery in this issue and that's where my project fits in. On the front cover is my Friendly Plastic Twist Bead Necklace - a simple technique that will have you making your own designer art beads with just a few simple tools. It's available now at the newsstand and at craft stores across the US. Or if you're an international like me, you can order directly from Scott Publications . 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...

Inspiration for today's blog post has come from Linda Peterson over at the Friendly Plastic blog . Linda has compiled a wonderful and varied group of Friendly Plastic projects with the heart as the central theme: mixed media, jewellery, and card making all get a look in. Some are tutorials and some are just wonderful eye candy - I hope you'll check them all out. Linda's post got me looking through my own archives and I was surprised at how many heart-themed Friendly Plastic pieces of jewellery have appeared on my blog over the years. Take a look at some of the pieces I found. You can find links to all the eye candy below: Rainbow Hearts bracelet A Change of Heart Egyptian Lily Heart of Mine Dramatic Heart Aqua Hearts and Queen of Hearts 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...

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...........

Today I learned that not all creativity ends up being in the form of artwork or in a piece of jewellery. Sometimes creativity comes in the form of solutions. Take last night. I had mixed a batch of resin but had some left over and as I hate wasting anything I decided to use the last of my resin by painting it onto some Friendly Plastic beads I had sitting around. Resin is great for protecting the foil of Friendly Plastic and it also makes the beads much more durable for use in jewellery. I usually make my Friendly Plastic beads on bamboo skewers so it makes sense to thread them back on to a skewer whilst coating them with resin. The skewers can be pushed into a block of foam to keep them upright whilst they cure. All was going well, but when I checked on them this morning, I discovered the resin had run down the skewers and the beads were stuck hard! Now, it's not for lack of experience that I know this will happen if I don't pay attention to them until the resin gets to gel st......

It's still showery here in South East Queensland and the rain is set to continue all week. Not good news for working with polyurethane resin so casting will have to wait for a while longer yet. But the good news is that epoxy is not quite as moisture sensitive as polyurethane. So I've turned my attention back to the Friendly Plastic cuff I made on the weekend. Here's the before shot of the bangle, ready for a coat of EnviroTex Lite resin to make it more durable and to protect the lovely metallic colours. Wow! What a difference the resin makes! The Friendly Plastic has now taken on a life of its own: the oranges glow, the reds are brighter and the whole bangle is an explosion of colour. And the high gloss, wet look? Well, I think the plastic is now more reminiscent of glass - dichroic glass even! I'll be back later in the week with a little peek at something I've been working on for a while. Don't want to give too much away just yet because it's still a way......

I can't work out whether I'm working or playing today. You see, I'm doing something that I love to do - playing with Friendly Plastic! And even though I'm working on a commission for a customer, it's hard to call it work when you love working with a medium so much..... it's much more like play! So, let's take a look at the project...... ....... a Fracture and Fusion cuff bracelet à la Jana Ewy. Jana is truly the queen of this technique! Check out her Just Bananas gallery for lots of fantastic and inspiring eye candy featuring this technique. I started by pre-scoring my strips of Friendly Plastic using a Stanley Knife and a metal edged ruler with a grid on it. The grid makes it easy to cut the strips accurately. It also has a guard so that your fingers won't get cut if the knife slips - a very important point when you're cutting something as slick and slippery as Friendly Plastic. Once the pieces are scored, if you haven't cut all the way through......

The countdown to Sydney Papercrafts Festival is well continuing with just two days to go and I am so excited to be going. I'll be doing daily Friendly Plastic demos at both the Stamp Antics stand as well as on the Live Stage. If you haven't seen Friendly Plastic before then why not stop by the stand to see what all the fuss is about. You'll be amazed at the wonderful things you can do with Friendly Plastic, plus you can pick up some great tips and ideas. I'll have lots of eye candy for you feast your eyes on at the Live Stage. But if you'd really like to get hands on, then why not join me in one of my afternoon classes. There are still some spaces left in the Christmas Card classes so if you'd like to get a start on your Christmas cards then this just might be the thing for you. Each of the three classes I'm teaching is different. On Friday it's "Christmas, Kutalicious Style ". You'll make a card where the embellishments on the card front a......

Today I'm sending out a big wave to the lovely group of artists from Bribie Island Community Arts Centre who joined me on the weekend to learn the basics of working with Friendly Plastic. They are a very diverse group of artists ranging from those whose surface of choice is paper right through to those who prefer canvas. So this was a real step away from the surfaces and mediums they are accustomed to using. After a short introduction and demonstration of the Fracture and Fusion technique, the ladies were keen to get started and everyone got the hang of cutting and fusing very quickly. There were some really unique ideas amongst the group about what they would do (just as you would expect with artists) and I wish I had taken photos of all the finished pieces but this is the only photo I managed to snap. Some of the colour combinations they came up with were really unexpected like Indian Red/Pearl Mint/Burnt Orange - a beautiful autumn combination which looked fabulous in a gold be......

You might have noticed in my sidebar that in November I will be demoing at the Papercrafts Festival in Sydney for Stamp Antics. Well, now I have an update to that: last week I got word that I will also be teaching classes so since then I've been busily working away on the class samples. These are all quick, 1 hour classes so if you're coming to the show for just the 1 day then you won't miss too much time from the show floor if you do a class. On the other hand, if you're coming for the 3 days of the show you might like to do all three of my classes as each one is different. And with Christmas not too far away, these classes will give you a head start on your Christmas card making. Class 1 is creating with Kutalicious mirrored Christmas shapes. You'll make a card and gift in one! The decorations on the front of the card are actually earrings so you'll also learn some basic jewellery making techniques. In Class 2 you'll get to play with Friendly Plastic. Don......

Last weekend, I got to spend a whole day at the Bead and Gem Show in Brisbane and I can't tell you how much of a treat it was. I love talking to people who share my passion for beads, findings and stringing materials. It was such a pleasant way to spend my day off. But of course, I didn't go to the show just to chat to people.... I was on a shopping mission! I found a whole range of great tools for my jewellery studio - tools which I didn't even know that I needed until I saw them! But as they say, you can never have too many tools and I promise that I will play and experiment with them. No doubt they will add another dimension to my work. Amongst the wonderful array of beads and findings on display, I was hoping to find some glass pearls and crystal dangles to suit one of my marbled Friendly Plastic cutouts but I left it behind in my studio - not very helpful! It's really hard to "remember" exactly how a colour looks and our minds play funny tr......