Favorites

Thought I'd post some of my favorite (crafty) things of the moment:

1. Epoxy clay. I only bought a tiny tube of this, being inspired by this book:


Weirdly, I swear I got that book from my library and now it's gone. Not like checked out. TOTALLY GONE. Ah well. The book is full of amazing things you can do with epoxy clay. It's like epoxy glue, but it's clay. That means while it has plus sides (major strength, sandable/paintable, does not need a kiln or over, cures underwater if you want it to), it also has downsides like fumes and, in my case, a 5 minute working time. I need to get some that is actually meant for sculpting with, like this:



At any rate, it's fantastic. After years of making crap outta polymer clay, it's amazing to sculpt something and, after it's cured, actually be able to put pressure on it without fear of it snapping.
I'm wondering if I could make gauged earrings out of it (I hate that phrase, BTW. "Gauges." ALL EARRINGS HAVE A GAUGE. But it's easier/faster to write "gauged earrings" than "earrings for my stretched ear holes"). Presumably they would need to be coated with something body-safe, and I'm not sure what that'd be.

2. Leather. I'm not a vegan. I don't plan on becoming one, so don't shout at me. I haven't ever really worked with leather, just because I had no reason to, but recently I've been doing Ren Faire outfits and using quite a bit of the stuff. It's amazing to me to cut a material that doesn't fray, doesn't roll up, takes paint, can handle grommets without lining... Yum. I really adore used (cut up old jackets) leather right now.

3. Glitter, and glitter adhesive. Since it's spring, all the craft stores are putting out packs of fairy poop. So of course I had to buy a bunch of it. Some of it was neon colors! Oh, goodness me. I go through phases with glitter, and right now I want to attach it to any- and everything. I also picked up some fancy glitter adhesive I can't remember the name of right now, and the first thing I did was to glitter-fy my librarian shoes with them. They still look like librarian shoes, but they're glittery now. Ah well. Photos later... It's pretty awesome stuff. Paint it on, sprinkle with glitter, let dry, and it's ON there.

4. Paper made from elephant dung. No, I'm not kidding. No, it's not gross. A good friend of mine gave me a journal made from the stuff, and it's rad. Linkie: