Progress

Working with what seems to be the speed of a turtle... still I won't complain because I'm at least doing something after all this time :-) The fronts and backs of clay heart tiles in progress, I still need to varnish them before they are done.
Watched "winter's bone" last night, liked it a lot, especially the music.
Oh and don't forget you can see more creative people right here!
Aleka

Love doves

I wanted to make more birds from clay, so doves was an easy pick. But when it came time to paint them I came to a stop, I didn't want to use the color blocking method I've used in my other birds. Instead I wanted them to have text and in particular the part in "Pride & prejudice" where Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth.
A lot of testing was done, I figured out how to do it and now I have two doves ready, each a bit different from the other but exactly how I imagined them to be. I photographed the first one, sorry for the dark images, it's been clouds and rain for two days in a row.

Wishing you a great day,
Aleka
ps. You can see more creative spaces right here!

The parrots

After creating the swallow birds I had the idea of making parrot shaped ones. I really liked the result until I put in the wire so I can hang them. The dark orange ones stand straight like I wanted them to but the one with the spread wing does the same too. I was hoping it would stand in a slightly "curved" way and now I'm stuck thinking where the wire should be placed to achieve that.
I'm considering pulling the wire out and making new holes in a couple of different places to see what works or the easier option of making a new one and testing it before the clay is dry. And of course the more I look at the second photo the more I think it's OK and I probably shouldn't bother with any changes.
What annoys me the most was that I was hoping to finish these until the weekend and now I'm stuck and I hate second guessing myself. It's a good thing I've also made some other little cuties and they are just fine so I'm going to finish those and think a bit more about these damn birds.
Cheers,
Aleka
ps. You can see more creative spaces right here.

In the shops

Some of the new stuff listed in the shops, the African inspired earrings I was working on are now in our jewelry shop while the skeleton clay keys in our home decor shop.
And I'm working on a couple of new designs with clay, experimenting so I don't really know if thing will be good enough to be listed but you never know :-)
Have a great weekend
Aleka

The birds

A bit of an ominous title there but it couldn't be helped, the clay birds I made are coming together finally. It took me a while to decide how I wanted to paint them, had a few ideas in my mind and this is the one I liked the most. They still need a bit of paint then varnish to be finished but I'm pleased with the result :-)
Have a great weekend
Aleka
ps. you can see more creative spaces right here!

Before and after

The before and after of my little clay houses, painted and varnished now I have to photograph each one. And taking the photos is not the part I hate the most, it's editing those photos afterwards. These last couple of days I've spent so much time editing photos on the computer that my eyes are getting so very tired.
And even though I'm the type of person that makes never-ending lists and likes to cross things off them as soon as possible I think I'll take it a bit slow now :-)
Have a great day,
Aleka
ps See lots more creative spaces here!

Sanding clay

One of my least favorite things to do is sanding clay pieces. The dust seems to stick on to everything and no matter how many times I wash my hand they feel dusty. Still it's a necessary step to make these birds look better and they do now :-)
Unfortunately I have more sanding to do for another design, I do hope it goes well because they are a bit more intricate pieces and to top that I made them a bit thinner than what I usually do, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they don't snap in two!
Have a great day,
Aleka
ps. you can see many more creative people and their spaces right here!

Busy bees

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It's been silent her on the blog but we've been busy these last weeks and the reason is that we opened a new Etsy shop: FishesMakeWishesHome. We decided to move all our home decorations there, so far we got little clay houses, Halloween decor, felt hearts and clay tiles but we'll be adding more things soon! It's been exciting but also a bit of a whirlwind, how we'll manage three shops without going nuts now that will be a challenge :-)
Hope you have a great week,
Aleka

Some more clay

I opened another pack of white clay, I've been wanting to make some abacus necklaces but this time they won't be one of a kind, I will repeat the color combinations. I'm thinking of making a couple of pairs and also duplicating the two I have already listed in the shop. I'm beginning to think a bit more like a shop owner, right?
I thought about making houses with the leftovers but it would only be enough for one so instead I made some bugs to add to the ones I already have. Now I have to wait a couple of days for everything to dry before the painting starts which is my favorite part!
It's been a creative day for me and you can see more creative people right here :-)
Have a great day,
Aleka

Terracotta wall plaques

From the terracotta clay pack that I opened in addition to the clay houses I made some small round wall plaques. It took me a while to figure out how to paint them, everything I did either covered the design I made on the front or didn't show off the terracotta underneath. After a couple of failed attempts I came up with this painting scheme, I quite like it. It's colorful but you can still see the lovely color of the clay.
They are still not finished I want to thread them so I can hang them and see how they look, I'm a bit worried as they are quite small and maybe the cord will not fit well visually. Trail and error with these ones I guess but it's fine I like trying to figure things out :-)
You can see more creative spaces right here!
Have a wonderful weekend, we'll be having lots and lots of heat (again)
xoxo
Aleka

ps. I stumbled upon this I wish you were here project sending a postcard to Marianne from all over the world, a wonderful idea from a daughter to her mother.

Working with clay

 
It's been a looong time since I last worked with earth clay, having no kiln to bake things is the reason why I've been reluctant to start creating again. But I decided to make the clay heart tiles again and at the same time look around to see if there's somebody in my area with a kiln willing to fire them up.
It's so much fun working with actual clay, I love it's earthy smell and the how easily it can be manipulated. So far ten clay tiles are drying but I'm hoping to make a few other things as well.
So wish me luck in finding a kiln and finishing them off :-)
Have a great weekend,
Aleka
ps. See more creative spaces right here!

Experimenting

I got a package of terracotta air drying clay, I usually prefer the white one but there wasn't any last time at the store so I went for this one. I made a few of my clay houses, but in order to get these ones to be so brightly colored I would have to paint them white first and then color them. I still wanted to keep the terracotta color (it's growing on me), so I decided to paint them white and at the same time remove some paint, then paint them another color and remove some paint again.
I wanted there to be layers of paint and  the original color showing up too, I like the result so far. I also used some sand paper to remove a bit more of the paint. I plan to varnish them soon, I'm pretty sure the terracotta will turn a deep red-brown color as it's supposed to be. Oh and excuse my colored hands, it was a pretty messy experiment :-)
I'm going to be away for a few days, a small trip to the country side but I leave you with a wonderful read and giveaway from the interview series: you can win an amazing print from Daniel Moreira!
wishing you a great weekend
xoxo
Aleka

p.s See more creative spaces right here!

Painted mushrooms

Well they are almost done as you can see, the mushrooms from my previous creative space. I decided to paint half in greens and browns and the other half in the brightest color combinations (thanks everyone for your suggestions!). They still need a few coats of gloss so that the colors pop even more and I also wanted to take more close up photos but these couple of days have been so busy. When I was doing the bright colored ones I was originally going to draw patters, like spots and lines but I ended up not liking how they looked. The surface of the mushroom has these lines and cracks and with the patterns it just looked too messy, so I decided to paint them one color just like I did with the natural ones and I like it that way better. I'm planning on making some more so there will be more experimenting :-)

There is also a great giveaway going on on the Etsy Greek Street Team blog, you can win a black leather clutch, it's the cutest one ever so don't miss your chance to enter, it's open to international entries as well!
Have a great weekend
Aleka

Mushrooms

Recently I saw Gnomeo & Juliet, yes I know it's a kids movie but I saw it with my 5 year old nephew and I  actually liked it. I had the idea of making clay mushrooms in the back of my mind for a while but after watching the movie I decided to just go for it. I made about a dozen but since they are not painted yet photographing them was a bit tricky, white on white is impossible to capture. So I got a couple of photos of me holding them, you can see they are pretty small and also how the clay has cracked on some places. That's the cool thing about clay, these cracked parts become so pretty when painted.
Now I'm a bit stuck with the next step do I paint them with natural colors or do I go for a more colorful version? Decisions decisions...
wishing you a great day, today is a rainy day for us just like the weathermen have promised :-)
See more creative spaces here!
Aleka

Clay works

I started working with clay taking classes in my community center two years ago. I loved working with natural clay, loved its earthy smell and how easy it was to manipulate. Unfortunately those classes are now over due to many reasons, financial cut backs being one of them. So I decided to try commercial clay, the air drying one. At first I hated it, I found it was too difficult to blend and manipulate but I finally figured how to use it. I started making miniature houses and then simple beads for necklaces, I began to like the fact that I can control the whole process from making the bead to painting it. And I do love painting them so much, I guess that shows!
This cube necklace is one of three that I made, I love how colorful it is and that each bead is unique, no two are alike. It's listed in the shop along with other clay necklaces, the fish and disc beads designs. Now I have started working on one more new design, I'll show you how that turns out!
xoxo
Alex

A house

Finally listing something new for the shop! The first thing I learned in my clay workshop was how to make decorative tiles, an easy task which teaches you the basics of working with clay. I made a couple for my home, they are decorating my living room wall. Then I made a few for the shop, the colorful hearts, the house and the tree which will be listed shortly. I'm hoping to expand the home decor section of our shop, not just with wall art but hopefully other cute things to decorate your home!
I'm pretty happy with the photos I took, although I faced the same problem I've had for a while: photographing shining things. There is a glare, a shining that I just can't avoid I can only try to minimize. Since a lot of my stuff is coated with an acrylic varnish, they inevitable are very shiny so I need to figure out a solution to this.
Have a great day :-)

Lists and fishes

I've been neglecting the blog but I have a good reason for that. At the beginning of June, the first weekend actually, we'll be taking part in a bazaar. It will take place in the center of Athens, in a cafe/bar at a very popular location. So it's been a super busy time, I've been making lists of things to make, things to take with me, things I need for the set up of our table. Endless lists where I cross one thing out and then remember to add a couple more!
Still I've been updating our flickr page with some of our new stuff, just a little sample of what we've been working on. The photos above are necklaces from air drying clay, five fish necklaces I finished yesterday, each one different from the other! These two are the orange and purple fish, there are also a blue, turquoise and green fish necklace!
See more creative spaces right here!

Spring things

Some new things in the shop: a cold clay necklace in pink, yellow and turquoise and new bright colors for my felt heart brooch. I'm currently loving yellow, pink and orange it must be a spring thing! Also finally the weather is warming up and I'll be able to work in the studio again, I've really missed that. A very sunny day today and I have a few things in my to do list.
Have a great day!

Houses

The little clay houses are done, painted and varnished now they just wait. Still I'm working on many things, I'll post some more tomorrow, maybe some felt stuff.
I've been listening to a lot of music while working so I think this find is very appropriate, I started from Johnny Cash but be sure to check the entire set of musicians there's some amazing stuff there!

Meh

Yesterday at my clay class our teacher brought some white clay to work with. I had never worked with white clay before but I thought it would be just like regular clay. So wrong! I don't know if it was this particular batch of clay that was of poor quality but really it was just impossible to sculpt it. It was so granulated that making the facial features was almost impossible, it took me literally more than half an hour to make the eyebrows and nose. Although I was not happy with how they looked working on them more was just not happening. I hate the hair, the arms are positioned wrong and really I almost had a nervous breakdown making the thing. Next time I'm sticking to my old fashioned red clay!