Glad tidings! Our tree is up, my parents arrive from Canada in a couple of weeks and we are on the wind-down to some serious breathing space as a family. Life is well hectic, isn’t it? This week has been particularly tough – a combo of playing catch up with work since being in Rio and the curve ball of transitioning Levi from his cot into a single bed. He’s up a lot in the night. A lot. It’s taking me back to those early days of night feeds except now he can shout at us by name (YOU COME SIT IN THIS CHAIR BESIDE MY BED MUMMY. NOW! – Levi, at 2am every night this week). We go to bed with ‘the fear’.
I’m a bit weary, bleary eyed and barren of social skills so when I carefully ninja my way out of Levi’s room (being VERY sure he is asleep) I’ve been taking to the craft room and making stuff to relax.
Here’s my latest obsession.
When I blogged about making the clay ornaments a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had a go at making some beads with the same recipe. Here’s my first go:
I also bought some quick-dry moulding clay from Amazon but the colour and the texture from the homemade stuff is far superior (brighter white and more smooth), so I made another batch of it last week and tried out some different shaped beads. You can find the basic recipe for the clay here.
I’ve been painting them with a mixture of acrylic and watercolour paints (which might be disastrous in the rainy Northern Irish climate) so I will probably need to give them a protective coat of something or other. It’s been fun to experiment with colours, designs and patterns. I’ve ordered some necklace wire and clasps to make each bead into a necklace for friends for Christmas (spoiler alert) – I’ve loved thinking about each person as I paint the beads for them (are they more mustard or mint? aztec or spotty? will they ACTUALLY wear this or just pity-wear it when they know they’ll be seeing me?).
What do you think? Would you wear it? Are you making any homemade gifts this year?
Mel Wiggins 
Loved it!!! I think I will try the recipe soon 😀
Yes! Finally something about international property for sale.
I just found your blog (final
Sorry, Pinterest browser messes up a lot before completing my comment…anyway, I found your blog (finally & thankfully) just the other day, after having failed with a creative attempt on TWO Other recipes I have found on line (no need to say who LOL)– Anyway, I had to read more of your space here. Funny, that I mentioned our major ice storm here and find out reading THIS, that you probably already know about it, having your parents in soon. Send you big thanks for the recipe and fantastic job with your continued use of the recipe creating this jewelry. Thank you for sharing what you’ve done with these accessories, they look fantastic! I look forward to getting better at manipulating and working with this material. I have enjoyed working with this so much! Thank You!
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