Wedding's getting real

1950 Patan wedding, originally uploaded by dlisbona.

My wedding is approaching in huge steps now. It's only 2 weeks left now and it is getting real! Yey. I am very excited.
1. The dress is ready and waiting in the wardrobe
2. The shoes are bought
3. The cake with blue roses decoration is ordered
4. And the dinner place is booked
Of course there is something like 100 other details that are already arranged and probably 50 more still to lock down. But we are almost there and I honestly can't wait.
I promise there will be photos after the event but please forgive me if I am not very active here at the moment.

Polymer Clay Inspirations

Today, I would like to show you my polymer clay inspirations. There are great many gifted artists out there and below you can see only a small selection of work presented on flickr.

I hope they will inspire you as much as they inspire me to keep working and honing my skills.

1. Pastel Cat Sculpture, 2. Bangle, 3. ...Singing silk..., 4. Tropical flowers, 5. Ikat Necklace., 6. Cosmic Blossoms B-Side, 7. Black & White Ikat Shield - Aug 2009, 8. Polymer Clay Seabreeze Bracelet, 9. 'Gem (in hot pink)', 10. Filigree Bracelet bangles in many colors, 11. Robin Egg Beach Balls, 12. Green Retro Earrings, 13. Spaceballs, 14. Atardecer en el mar / Sunset on the Sea, 15. Blue Spiral, 16. Magic mushrooms, 17. Polymer Clay Star Flower Pendants, 18. Polymer Clay Necklace, 19. crumpled brooch, 20. Colgantes transferencia, 21. Leaf necklace, 22. Black Polymer Clay Heart with Pink Flowers, 23. Namtar , 24. ACEO Deep Forest polymer clay 1, 25. PS145c

Walkathon 2010

Did you hear about Walkathons? The first one took place in 1953 (sic!) in Puerto Rico and the idea is really a very simple one. You register as a participant, show up on the date and go for a lovely walk along the predetermined route. And the sponsor (in my case Ecco shoes company) gives money to a charity of your choice for every kilometer that you walked. It is a very nice and healthy way to spend a Sunday with your family or friends and you get to do something good for those less fortunate.

I walked today in the Aarhus Ecco Walkathon 2010 and did 10,5km (the route was only 10km long but we got lost a little bit along the way). We started by warming up in Tivoli Friheden (fun town).

The route was well chosen and took us through gardens, meadows, parks and the forest on the seaside. Many people took this occasion to spend some healthy time with their kids and the sponsor made sure to make it especially fun for the youngest. They could get small booklets and collect check points with funny cartoon characters on them.

The following Walkathons will take place in Aalborg (21.08), Odense (04.09), Kolding (16.10) and Copenhagen (29.08) and Hamburg (19.09) and Warsaw (11.09)

Thoughts on Creativity

Last week my friends, knowing how much I enjoy Ted Talks, pointed me in the direction of this clip. Ken Robinson, an expert on cultural education, talks about how schools kill creativity in children. I think he is making a lot of sense in that in many countries (especially European ones) we educate people to be academics. Primary schools prepare us for high schools and these in turn prepare us for universities. There is very little to no, practical skills taught.

But what I think is the best part of the talk, is when Sir Ken says that to be creative, you have to be ready to make mistakes. You have to be ready to be wrong. And isn't it your experience that at school, you were laughed at whenever you made a mistake? That when writing a paper, you stuck to the safe ground, because if you tried to use your imagination (or even longer words), the effort didn't matter and you got penalized for spelling mistakes? How terrible is it that in our culture "artist" is not a real job?

Rainy Sunday...

It's been really rainy today and the lights had to be on from 1pm because there is almost no sunlight outside. The only thing I want to do on a day like this is to roll under the covers with a good book or a movie. I feel gloom.

But today I really did my very best to stay upbeat.

- I cleaned parts of the house (Mr. P cleaned other parts)

- I did my danish homework (and discovered that my Microsoft Works experiences a fatal error every time I try to paste anything to it)

- I watched some tutorials online

- I shared my newest fimo ring with you (see picture or flickr)

- I even made strawberry-banana milkshake

And I still only want to crawl in a dark hole and forget the world. But instead I will go and sort out the chaos that is my craft studio.

The conclusion, I guess, is that either there were more sunny days when I was a kid or rain simply was another element of our games and we didn't even notice. Whaddaya think?

Polymer Clay Starter Kit

Working with polymer clay does not require tools but they are very useful if you are looking to create smaller, precise pieces - especially jewelery. There are literally hundreds of tools for polymer clay craft out there. And if you are anything like me, there is a part of you that loves tools. I guess it's the same part of me that is in fact a boy and always played with guns and climbed highest trees in the neighborhood. Oh well.

Most of the tools are not very expensive but it is a good idea to limit yourself to a starter kit before you are sure that polymer clay is what you enjoy.

At first it might be a bit confusing to choose the necessary tools (at least it was for me) so I compiled a list for the beginners out there. Here are the tools that turned out to be most useful for me:

1. Pasta Machine

As weird as it may seem, pasta machine is the most useful tool you can get. It serves to warm up and soften the clay, create uniform sheets of clay (of different thickness), blend colors, and many other purposes. A good place to buy pasta machine is on ebay. You should not invest in any high-end pasta machine because you should never use this machine for food preparation. The cheapest one will do just fine.

2. Cutting and Sculpting Tools

To create detailed ornaments, you will need to use cutting tools. I mostly use these 5 tools.

1) and 4) Sculpting tool and doll making needle. Useful for connecting pieces of clay together, moving and fixing small pieces of clay onto the project, sculpting little holes, etc.

2) and 3) Modelling knives. Can be used for moving and fixing elements onto the project. They are also good for cutting shapes and small elements.

5) Slicing blade. It is used for cutting slices of canes and blocks of clay. It is also flexible so that it allows you to create different shapes.

3. Acrylic Roller

Another essential tool is an acrylic roller. You will use it to flatten your pieces, roll in cane slices and many more. Before I got my acrylic roller I was using a small wine bottle. But the problem with a glass bottle is that the clay can stick to it and your projects can get ruined.

4. Cookie Cutters

Ok, so they are not absolutely necessary but still very fun to have. You can of course shape your pieces by using knives and blades, but cookie cutters are handy and will make your job easier.

5. Examination Gloves

And last but not least, examination gloves. They will help to protect your skin and keep colors of clay separate and clean. Thanks to the gloves you will also be able to keep the surfaces of your clay projects clean of fingerprints. Just make sure that you buy a tight fit for your hands.

Rhubarb!

I love seasonal fruits and veges. There is truly nothing more enjoyable on Saturday morning than a visit to farmers' market. I love browsing around the stalls, smelling fresh, earthy smells of roots and herbs, and picking up what's in season.


May is the season for asparagus and rhubarb. And boy, do I love rhubarb! So many good things you can make with these sweet and sour sticks.
Yesterday night, I turned the fresh batch of rhubarb into this delicious rhubarb sour cream cake. It is a very easy to follow recipe, but the outcome is orgasmic. The cake gets better on the second day, if kept in the fridge. And I strongly recommend you serve the cake with whipped cream, vanilla ice-cream, or sour cream and vanilla sugar. Mhhmmmm...