Bits and Pieces

Another photo of stuff in progress. It's a lot of fun to have a box of "parts", in this case clay tiles I've made, and pick and sort through them to assemble things like these brooches and bookmarks.

Both items are a new thing for me. I have a lot of buttons that are too large for bracelets in the way I currently make them, but I still wanted to combine my clay tiles with them for something interesting. The bookmarks are nice little pieces, and I have enough variety in the clay tiles to match the buttons pretty well.

The brooches are also really fun to make. I've got striped tiles that I love to make, and I combine them with the solid texture tiles. They are about 2" (5.08 cm) across. I ordered a bunch of brooch backs, which are on their way from China as I type this. I like to buy "local" as much as I can, but findings like brooch backs all come from China anyway, it seems.

New pieces

I've been working on a bunch of new button-clay bracelets and I'm very pleased with how they turned out. This one is just as red in person as it is in the photo. Bold and sassy!

I think I've solved my smelly button problem. Ha! That makes it sound like a hygiene issue, doesn't it? No, I ordered some buttons and they arrived with this weird small that made them unusable unless I got rid of it. So I first soaked them in dishsoap and water. Then baking soda and water. Then more soap. Finally, I put out a call on my FB page (which you can get to by clicking on the picture of the buttons on the right side of the page) and someone suggested vinegar.

Okey-dokey. I couldn't used them otherwise, so might as well give that a try. And it worked! They don't have a noticeable smell now, so I can use them. That's good because I really like them. The colors on a couple faded, but they all faded the same way, so it won't matter.

In the meantime, I ordered few more lots of buttons in colors I didn't have. Squee!

Have a good rest of the weekend, all!

Contest winner!

Elaine has won this bracelet in my "pick the one you like" contest. A sincere thanks to all who entered. I'll do this again in a few weeks so stop back if you'd like to enter again. Or if you'd like to check out the offerings or my musings. 

I laid out 12 new button-clay bracelets last weekend but haven't had time to glue them. It's kind of a zen thing. I don't like to be rushed when I doing my gluing (funny that way) and being tired and rushed leads to really sloppy work. So I'll probably do it this weekend. They turned out fabulous and I'm looking forward to getting them listed on Etsy.

I received an order of buttons (about $15 worth) and they are so pretty. I've got a problem though. They have a smell to them that is kind of horsey, kind of old and smokey and it has not gone away in the one soak in soapy water I've given them. Too bad because I really like them. But I can't use smelly buttons in my bracelets, now can I? FWIW, they are NOT from the site I got the picture from in my last post. Those didn't smell like anything (just the way I like my buttons, really). I've never had to return anything I bought from Etsy. Hopefully the seller will be easy to work with if I need to return them.

Lookie

Saw these on Pinterest this morning. I love the iridescent effect. The images are copyright protected, so to look at the loveliness, you'll have to click on the link and look at the artist's photo stream. Worth a click, I say!

I will post another button picture, though.

These are darn near perfect for what I'm doing with the bracelets. Most of them are flat, and not too big. the big order I got off of Ebay ended up having a lot of too-large buttons. That's OK, I imagine a use for them will be delivered at some point. I bought a similar lot of green ones and of pink ones, too. 

Kid>>Candy Store>>LindaCO.

!!!CONTEST-CONTEST-CONTEST!!!
Oh, one more thing. The super-wonderful Jaquelineand at Blether gave me an idea for a giveaway that I'm going to post on FB and all my outlets today. It'll end next Wednesday, 9 pm Mountain Time. Here it is:

Go to my Etsy shop, pick out a bracelet you would like to win, copy the URL, and paste it as a comment here on the Physaria Designs blog, or as a comment to the giveaway post on the PD Facebook page. I'll pick a random entry and that person will win that bracelet. Wh0oOp!

Vintage button and clay tile bracelet - yellow khaki neutrals

These are pretty substantial bracelets, but I love the visual interest of them. Lots of subtle changes in color and texture. $16.00 in the Etsy shop. 

Tail end of vacation

My family has been out to visit this week. We've had all sorts of fun, but I haven't crafted much. Here's a set of decorative buttons I made a couple of weeks ago. I love making these fine stripes out of the clay. I never know quite how it's going to turn out, and I like that part of it. 

Pleasing

This isn't entirely a crafty post, but you might be able to empathize here. I have family in town. Yea! My brothers and their families. It's a great thing. They just got in yesterday, and we had some pizza and beer at my little house before driving over to the condo we rented for them. 

I have two nieces. One's 10 and the other is 6. The 10 year old just sat with us while we talked, but the 6 year old was up and down, here and there. I had a flash of an idea, and said, "K, would you like to sort buttons for me?" Her eyes light up, "Yes!" The perfect job for this sweet girl. There is something satisfying with doing a task like this. Once you know what you're doing, there's one right answer, and you can easily see your progress.

I bought this bunch of small buttons off of Ebay and they have sat all mixed up in the bag. I got K a bunch of clean yogurt cups and she's gone to town. She asked once if I I thought one button was more tan than brown, and I said, "Whatever sorting you choose, just stay with that and it will be great." I wanted to make it her project :-) And she went back to her job. This is something she can work on right with us there as we are gabbing (which we do a lot). Yea! Maybe I'll have them mix some clay colors, too...

Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy

On the 1-10 button fanatic scale, I am about a 5.5. I really like using them in mixed media pieces, and am fascinated by the seemingly endless variety of size, color, and the other fun stuff that's done to them to make them pretty. But I won't collect them to have a collection of them; I see them as supplies. 

Do you bid on things on Ebay? I'm pretty particular about what I want from their listings. For buttons, I was looking for larger ones this time around. I bought several hundred little ones (from a clothing factor that closed in the 70's - vintage enough for me) and have recently wanted to goof around with layering buttons for larger pieces. 

The photography for some listings is junk, and I won't bid on something that I can't see every piece of. I'm pretty sure this means I end up bidding on more expensive items, but at least I know what I'm getting and don't have to put half of it in bags hoping I might have a use for it some day. 

I also don't want to wait too long, usually try to bid on things in auctions that are over within24 hours, and I don't like to add my bid when there's already 10 bids on the thing. Hmm, I guess I am pretty specific about what I want from Ebay. Anyway, these came up this morning and they totally fit the bill. There's nothing there for scale (which I also like :-)) but I can tell there's smaller ones in there, so the majority of ones are the size I'm looking for. The other photos showed that about 20% of the lot is to the right of what's in this picture and there's a few interesting ones in there (squee!). 

Some button pictures

I've been fooling around with buttons of late, and here's one process where I took some photos along the way.

I made some blends from blues and greens.

I then cut out two sizes of squares, rearranged the pieces, and ran it through the pasta machine to squish it all together.

I then cut out little rectangles. I'd cut even smaller pieces next time, as these will get flattened more in the final pass through the pasta machine. 

I put pieces on in random order, with tweezers. This took a while, but I like the random, yet orderly effect.

These are pre-baked. 

These are finished. I was still finding the best way to poke holes, and have a better method now. That's good, as the holes on these are a little ragged.