Folksy Friday - Pampering

I have been a slightly bad blogger this week. My time has been very much absorbed with finishing my day job before I go on maternity leave from...TODAY! Woo!  Next week is half term then after that I have a few weeks before the birth to prepare myself, prepare the house and spend a lot of time on the sofa with my feet up watching DVDs and creating things, I can't wait!

Right now I am completely depleted of energy and I can't wait to rest. With this in mind my Folksy Friday this week is dedicated to the art of pampering. Just click on any of the images to be whisked away to the shops featured, happy pampering everyone...









Top row:
Pink Heart Felted Soap from The Rainbow Room
Marshmallow Fluff candle from One Stop Pamper Shop

Middle row:
Apple and Cranberry Candle from The Lime Garden
Sweet Orange Oil Bath Truffle from Beautiful Bubbles

Bottom row:
Natural Chocolate Orange Body Butter from Goodness Me!
Heart shaped Bath Melts from Olive & Rose

Happy Friday everyone!

Why I believe in handmade

I love to make my own handmade things, and I love to buy things handmade by others.  In fact I feel rather strongly about it. 

Why buy a generic gift set from the high street when you could spend less, or the same, and get something totally original whilst supporting small producers?

Halloween Spiders by Diomo Glass on Folksy

I am sure those that read my blogs need no convincing, I am more than likely preaching to the choir.


Hair flowers by Calexendra on Etsy

This is all rather indulgent really, a blog-post equivilent of a cuppa and slice of cake :) 

The spiders are my most recent purchase - for my Halloween decorations - they are simply too cute for words, I am tempted to keep them out all year round.  The flower hair clips are from one of my most favourite Etsy sellers who happens to also be a fellow Kentish girl! I wear one or two of her flowers every day, it makes it look like I have made an actual effort with my appearance rather than just scraping my hair back in a hurry :) 

I have a very talented best friend who is a fiend with beads and a wire cutter.  She made the above necklace for her shop and I nicked it before it could get listed.  I wear many of her items every day and I always get comments.  It's great to say, "This?  Oh, it's handmade...I got it from Folksy..." in reply to the where did you get it question. 

Blue and Pink Rose Clock by Elibee Gifts on Folksy

The creativity that is out there in the UK, lurking on Folksy and Etsy, is amazing.

The Green Collection Button Ring by Maisie Wilson on Folksy

And so many people don't even know about such sites!  Folksy especially seems to be rather unknown.

Key to Your Heart Earrings by Lonely Hearts on Folksy

The whole process of buying directly from sellers on Etsy and Folksy is wonderful.  When your item arrives it is often wrapped so beautifully you feel you are getting a gift sent by a friend.

Sterling Silver Textured Surface necklace by Esme Dodsworth Design on Folksy

And the best part is that you are getting something totally original as something handmade will never be totally uniform, will never look as though it fell off the production line.

Vintage Image Christmas Decorations by Silent Theatre on Folksy

So you can always be safe in the knowledge that you carry a little bit of originality with you wherever you go.  Like the brooch on my shopping bag which gets used every single day...

Flower brooch by June at Noon on Etsy

So with Christmas season starting more or less now (yay!) don't forget to buy handmade - your friends and family will be delighted and you will get a reputation for being a great gift-giver!  You know it makes sense.

I love playing with clay

What I love about clay, aside from messy hands at the end of a lovely afternoon's sculpting, is how simple it is.  You grab a lump of the muddy stuff and an idea and away you go...

Your idea evolves depending on how well the clay is working and by the end of an hour you usually, on a good day anyway, have a creation better than the idea you started with.  Very satisfying!

At the moment I am focusing on Christmas.  Yes I am aware it's only August but I like to get ahead, and with a baby due at the beginning of December time for clay will be very limited indeed!.  

Also, I want to open a Folksy and an Etsy shop.  Yup, after yonks of wanting to have a whirl at selling some of the stuff I make I have finally decided to take the plunge!  I decided to go with clay modelling for my first foray into selling online as clay is so familiar to me, it is something I find endlessly enjoyable and which comes easily to me.  Working with clay is a very natural way for me to take an idea to the point of a finished creation.

The added advantage is that it is very de-stressing!  A piece of clay dries out relatively quickly, and if you are working on a figure you have to finish it before it dries out or it gets very difficult, if not impossible, to add more detail to it.  I can't walk away from the body of a Santa and come back two hours later to add the arms, so I have to find an hour and work through it, focusing the whole time.  This allows little room in my mind to stress about heartburn, money, work or whinging children (and husband!)

Yes it's safe to say I do love playing with clay, mud meddling as I call it :)

Welcome to Mud Meddling

So, here is my first post in my new blog about clay.  I am no stranger to blogging, I write another blog about my sewing and crochet antics (amongst other things) over at Snipsnaphappy's World, feel free to hop on over there and say hello.  But if it's the muddier stuff you are after then stay right here!

I started meddling with clay when I was about ten-years-old.  My mother bought me some Fimo polymer clay to keep me occupied on the long train journey to Scotland to visit my grandparents and I made two little grey elephants.  I am sure I still have them somewhere, when I find them I will definitely post a picture here. 

Over the years I kept on playing around with clay.  I started to make and sell little sculpures of hippies and other characters when I went to college before university.

More recently I have started using air-drying clay more and more, mainly because we had it lying around for kiddy craft projects, but also because it is much easier to just pick up a lump and get going.  With polymer clay there is always a lengthy hand-washing routine to go through first, particularly if working with the lighter colours.

What I love about clay modelling is how little you need to get started - a block of clay, a couple of "poking devices", like a tooth-pick or an old knife, a little water if you're working with air-drying clay, and..well...that's it...

I hope you enjoy your visit to my new blogland home, do come back again to see more of my clay work and join me for more mud meddling!