Thing-a-day.com

Well, I did it. I made a thing a day for 29 days. I decided to sign off from TAD2 with another shrinky-dink-magnifying necklace. The charm says “create beauty,” and has a bird carrying an olive branch. I included the bird because I had been thinking about “cultural diplomacy” today. I heard the term being used to describe what the New York Philharmonic’s performance in North Korea was all about. I like the idea of vastly different communities coming together around cultural activities (i.e. art) in a way that fosters constructive conversations - who wouldn’t. These conversations may ultimately lead to peaceful solutions to foreign policy problems. The whole world could use some of that these days.

However my necklace came from a place much more personal than cultural diplomacy. My husband tells me that one of the reasons he loves me is that I “make our life beautiful.” He is not talking about my habit of spending evenings in stained pjs, with my hair piled on top of my head, while I eat Chinese food out of the container. He is talking about how I like to fill the room with sunshine, how I point out details in the world that he may not have noticed, how I make pretty jewelry and stationary, and how I love to throw theme parties. He is talking about my approach to life in general, and it is a most lovely compliment.

I love beautiful things. I like to create them. I like to share them. I like to keep them. I must continue to make them without TAD, because beautiful objects inspire me and making things energizes me.

For future musings and creations by yours truly (I have a handful I did not even get to tackle during TAD), check out my new blog Lady Lulu’s Braindump Hut and Craftarium. Although I will not be posting a thing a day, I do intend to keep up the good work. So set up an RSS feed and keep tabs on me.

-Lu

Oh my goodness, I love being in Miami. I made another hair clip in my hotel room this evening. I used part of Bryan Brutherford’s eames a day image.

Thanks B.B. I think this will look way cuter as a pendant on a slightly tough chain. I will take that project on in March.

It is at this point that I must thank my most splendiforous, genorsity-havingest, mother for a wonderful time in Miami, for photographing my hair clips and for lending me her super-sweet underwater Minox underwater digital camera so I could take self-portraits of myself in the pool. I got in touch with my inner-mermaid. Here is one; let us call it Bubbles.

Ok, to make up for missing day 21:

I got the shrinky dink to work. These are around half an inch tall.
OH projector, foot eating monster, OH projector, unplugged toaster.

Also, octopi, for the hangin. About an inch long.

I made my husband a keychain. He’s into music.

Until now, his keys were on a piece of string. (The wooden key ring in my post from yesterday was actually mine, though made by him years ago.) This was my first time using shrinky-dinks. When I was a teacher, I always wanted to do this with my students, but never got to. It was fun! I guess my students missed out! 

This evening I completed three pieces of shrinky dink jewelry. Although I did some work at the Church of Craft meeting, I found it a bit too dark to work with tiny jump rings, so I finished up at home. The nice thing about the Church of Craft meeting was that I was being social while doing something I love to do. Many of my interests can be pursued in the quiet and solitude of my own home, but that does not mean that I necessarily want to be holed up with jump rings, shrink plastic, a glue gun, and cupcakes. Okay, I always want to be holed up with cupcakes. Since I got pregnant and then had my daughter (so for a year and a half), I have felt slightly brain dead and a bit like a bore. Thing-A-Day has been P.T. for my hobbled brain and made me feel like I could contribute to society in a social manner once again. Woohoo!

Anyways, below are photos of my TADs for today. The first one is a name plate for my super-rad friend Katherine aka Free Radical, a member of the Secretaries of Hate. Surprise Free Radical! I also made myself an initial ring and a Transformer keyring for my husband.

What can I say, I love working with shrink plastic. Today I took another trip to Toho Shoji to buy more jewelry supplies. I am working on 4 pieces. As of right now, I have printed out the shrink plastic.   I am going to cut out my shapes and add ink tonight.  Hopefully  I will have something finished to show you when I return from my crafting adventure. Tomorrow evening I am joining my friend at a meeting of the Church of Craft. Hopefully I will get some work done there. In the meantime, here is my shrink-plastic printout.

i never used to think about clouds so much until i moved to seattle…

anyway, i made the shrinky dink using these directions.

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So the shrinky dinks are my new muse - how odd. I made my owl necklace this evening. I have never made anything like this - and I came up with the project on my own. Out of the ether and into my brain. It’s been a long time since I was awake enough to come up with a project idea AND figure out how to execute it AND follow through. This month I have done it a bunch of times. Crazy cakes. Thanks Thing-A-Day!

I have been wanting an owl necklace for awhile, but I could not find the right one. So I made one. The owl is a shrinky dink I made, and I hung it behind a magnifying glass pendant. I also decided to create a double chain. I have a bit of tweaking to do to the chain - I think I need to adjust the length. I can’t wait to wear it!

This morning I made my second trip in two days to what I will fondly refer to as “bead alley” from now on. Located on Sixth Avenue, between 35th and 39th streets, there are about a gazillion jewelry supply and trimmings stores. Until I decided to embark on my shrinky dink projects, I peered through the stores’ windows from my seat on the  bus or in the cab. I found fashion district’s stores to be intimidating and overwhelming.  I deemed them suitable only for the professional fashion designer or exceptionally gifted artisan.  And that, my fellow bloggers, was a silly notion. I went into two stores, Toho Shoji and NY Beads. Inspiration struck!

The store clerks were friendly and helpful. And I got all sorts of odds and ends I needed, others I “needed,” and stuff I never knew I needed.

Following my excursion, I was able to finish up the personalized shrinky dink bracelet for my friend. As per my usual anti-flash M.O., the picture is too dark, but you get the gist.

I hope my friend digs it. I think it may have turned out a bit too big for her. But if it has I can always adjust it by removing one of the ladies.

I am going to stick with shrinky dinks for my next project. While at Toho Shoji, I stumbled across a magnifying glass pendant. I am going to make a double pendant necklace, the second being a shrinky dink with a picture of an owl, that sits behind the magnifying glass. I have been looking for just the right owl necklace. So I figured I could try making my own. Hopefully I will be able to share it with you tomorrow.

Have a good night!

Today I did a billion things, but most importantly, I finished the silhouette notecards for my daughter’s thank you notes! I printed them with a gocco. I think they came out quite smashing. The blue is very brilliant in the real world (I took this photo in the dark).

I also started my next project - a personalized shrinky dink bracelet for a dear friend.

My theme for this week is childhood. Shrinky Dinks were very popular when I was a tot, although I never really got into them because you didn’t draw your own pictures and I did not have much use for the little plastic figures. But I have seen the light. I was inspired by a project in Super Crafty. This book taught me how to make my own shrinky dink beads, but instead of using their images, I decided to use my own.

I have a friend who makes me and my family the coolest knit jewelry, toys, bibs, and dishcloths. (check out her stuff at reine.etsy.com). So I wanted to make her something.

She loves typography so I made shrinky dink “beads” with beautiful lettering. I printed out the images onto shrink plastic (the images came from Fancy Alphabets, then I colored in the pictures with colored pencils and cut 2 inch circles. I punched the holes and then baked! I then coated the front with clear nailpolish to preserve the color. Here are the “beads” as they lay out drying:

I hope to assemble the bracelet tomorrow.