Mini Stamps

A little tip for those who need a multiple amount of small flowers or leafs on their clay journal or other artwork! I looked at Etsy stamps in metal for £9 each... Then I looked at my clay and my hands and said: "Let's do it!". Took me 25 minutes to make and bake.. But then I was stamping away with a speed of lightning and I saved some money! 

You can make flowers, leaves and all sorts of other mini impressions with these. 

The picture shows the nature picnic scene and I needed a lot of leafy bushes and trees. So it worked very well. YOU can make some smaller and bigger ones to add the variety and more dimension. 

I glued my stamps with super glue to an old pen bottom part, but if you like you can use sticky glue dots to attach and detach multiple stamps onto one pen. 

Anyways, this adds possibilities and new looks to my artworks and I couldn't just skip this without sharing.

Stay tuned to see the progress of this journal as well :) It's going to be a bunny family picnic :)

Thanks for reading, 

"Forbidden Lands" Cuff Bracelet by Mandarin Duck

"Forbidden Lands Bracelet" is one of my latest pieces  and it was inspired by deep jungle in India, where there are hidden ancient ruins and massive ancient trees grow over them, tightly holding on with their roots and grow through the ancient buildings.

Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

It took me 3 months to make it. It's not that easy to stay in forbidden lands, so I had to make 3 small journeys.

Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

Came back with my wrists hurting from painstaking texture applications and had to recover between every journey :)

Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

That's why it took me so long to make it. But I hope what I brought from my imaginary Forbidden Lands will find reflection in your hearts. This bracelet is truly a treasure I discovered in my heart.

Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

This is a very special piece and it is AVAILABLE HERE. 

Thank you so much for reading. Let me know what you think in comments bellow. 

Journal: White Shepherd Dog A5

Hello everyone! 

I've been quite busy working on custom orders and other projects and I said I will be away from social media and internet for a while, but it seems like this is not happening. I am here, writing this post :) 

I would like to show you some work in progress of my German Shepherd Dog Journal in A5 size. It is still not finished, but I managed to finish the front cover, so can show it off. Sorry for iPhone quality pictures. As I said, professional ones will come sometime later. 

So I begun with tracing the outline of the dog's head onto white clay. I used creaseproof paper as I didn't have a proper tracing paper. I figured this way it will be tidier than trying to draw, cut, smudge imperfections on white clay. You know how tricky it is!

Next I added up some volume to a flat piece and used rubber shapers and ball tools to even and smudge it all out. It was hard working with white clay that was put onto black clay surface!!! Such a dirty job! I was washing my hands but still clay got mucky! I wasn't too sad about it as I knew I will be painting over it!

For the fur I had chosen to use the Dots & Scratches tool, but it seems like it didn't work well on my white clay. It usually does work really well, but not on this chalky white clay. Did you know I really don't like white clay! :)

So after creating all this unnecessary crumbly clay fur, I thought I need to fix it, perhaps smudge and smooth some little hairs into longer and larger strands or hair. I used the tool you see in this picture and it was a great find. I never knew how to use this tool really and only used a needle tool on the other side of it. So it was a great discovery!

I also struggled with the background design. Sometimes I go into the artwork unprepared and make mistakes. Like this time, I didn't do the background properly first as I didn't know how it will look. I thought it will unravel  itself in the process. So first I tried to stamp some textures in the black areas but it didn't look right. I smoothed it all back in and decided to use these clay strands to make swirls. It worked, and so I continued and decorated the bottom of the composition with green leaves to make an appearance of some sort of place, space and perspective. 

The idea of this journal was quite unique. My customer wanted to have a magical white shepherd dog with some magical features. We found this picture online which inspired us both and we agreed to work from it. Unfortunately there was no author of this picture mentioned anywhere so I can't say who is an original painter of this artwork. 

Then came the happy times of Mica Painting! I love working with Mica powders and they create such a change. Couple of my latest artworks are a complete nightmare to me, as they don't look right until almost the very end. This is because they require paint job of mica painting, so you won't be able to see the final result until the very end. But in the very end, after all the tones and shades, colours and shimmers were applied, the dog finally turned out magical, with a smart look in his eyes. I don't like praising myself and for some reason I always see flaws in my work, but I am very pleased on how the look on the dog's face ended up being so realistic. I love his face, I love the avatar-like surroundings and all the magic atmosphere that there is around.

I guess this is it. I will post up some good quality pictures later on next month when I am finished, when photos are taken and I have a chance to edit them to a quality standard I always provide.

Thanks a lot for reading, 

Have a wonderful day, 

Giraffes for sale!

Hello everyone! :)

Unfortunately this journal didn't reach the sale price and the action didn't succeed, but the good news is that this journal is now available for sale!

YOU CAN BUY IT HERE!

 

 

"The Garuda Necklace"

Hello my sweet honey bunnies and all the other followers!

I am very thrilled to finally show my latest necklace - "The Garuda Necklace".

In the past year I got very interested in ancient Vedas and I learnt quite a lot about the mythical creatures from there.

As it is stated in the ancient Vedas, Lord Krishna's private transport is a large bird-a-like mythical creature named Garuda. This is one of the most important creatures in the universe and he looks like half man and half bird. In my version I didn't wanted a human being's body parts to be involved so I ended up making a very royal looking, highly decorated bird and named him Garuda.

He is the source of inspiration and attraction for all the birds and he gives them the powers to fly. He is the one who makes the gravity non existant for the birds. He is the one who serves Lord Krishna and carries him around everywhere and can travel through the universe in split seconds. This is how powerful he is.

But enough talking and telling stories. You might not be even interested in those. Although you will surely appreciate the effort, the precision and the uniqueness of this piece.

Enjoy!

Dragon Journal Tutorial ( Part 2)

CLICK HERE FOR THE TUTORIAL!! 
Enjoy and comment! Okay?

This tutorial Part 2 is all about textures, decorations and finishing touches! 

Dragon Journal Tutorial from Polymer Clay (Part 1)

Hello everyone!

I am so glad to announce that the 1st part of the Dragon Journal video is finally out and I am in the middle of editing the second part of it. It's a long video and quite a time consuming.

Unfortunately, as this project was a custom order, I rushed to send it to the client and ended up forgetting to take professional pictures of it. So now it's gone forever,  but at least we will have a video of how it was made and I hope you guys will be able to learn something from it. 

So here it is! 

CLICK ON THIS PICTURE TO WATCH!

Click on this picture to watch the video now.

Here are some work in progress pictures I had made with my phone.

 Stay tuned to for the 2nd part of this video closer to Friday!

Thanks for reading! 

Have fun, 

Wait for me by the Lighthouse ( end of the story)

Some of you may remember that I had a pair of journals made with a female and male bunny about a year ago. Here is the picture to refresh your memory :) 

The main story of these journals was that both male and female were separated when they were very young lovers and they only managed to find each in another 10 years. So my journals are showing that particular moment of their date by the lighthouse. They both became much older, but they still recognise each other and she is holding a bag in her hand that looks like a lock, the lock from her heart. And he still has a key to this heart lock, meaning that he still loves him. And of course she does as well, especially because for 10 years she had someone that would everyday remind her about him while they were apart... their child. READ FULL STORY.

So the idea of this pair of journals was that they would be sold together and I proposed this idea in my Etsy shop. But one day the female journal was purchased by a guy from England and he refused to buy the second one. This made my heart hurt, but of course from the business side of view I made a sale and I was happy. And so the year passed and the journal wouldn't sell. I brought it with me to

Malta Synergy conference and many of you had seen it in person and who ever had a chance to speak to me heart the story of this and the second journal. In the end of conference I gave away all of my journals and only left one of them with me, the other bunny journal. 

Yesterday I sold a journal with a beetle and this made me very happy, but something felt weird. I recognised the name of my customer and it had a little green star next to it meaning that this is a return customer. I checked and it was the same guy who purchased my female bunny journal. 

You can imagine how happy I was that he came back! The fact that he came back meant two things for me. First, his wife had finished the first journal and second, she needs another one. And why would she want to have a beetle journal if there is a second part of the bunny story for her. So I wrote a message to the guy and offered him bunny journal half price just so that his wife can have them both and keep them together. Also, because he came back for another journal, I knew they don't waste them, they fill them in and then keep them. Otherwise why would he come back to me? Not for the paper quality, right? :)

And so to make the story short, he decided to buy the beetle journal and the bunny journal together and he was very happy to have a discount. He is not a very talkative man and after a massive story I wrote to him he only replied in one line. But this one like made me completely happy and now I am feeling content and I know that the wondering of two loving souls is now officially over. The bunny family is safe and sound. 

As you can see polymer clay means much more than just sculpting to me. I am a story teller and I am very very grateful to God that this unfinished story is now found it's happy ending. I can now silently say:

"All so all three of them lived happily ever after...here in England, Gloucestershire!"

Seduction Journal

This journal is a custom order for my return customer. The main idea was to create a bible ( holly book) like journal that would represent the spirituality of it's owner and also be a constant reminder that good and bad always mixes together and in this life we can't only choose the good path without stepping up sometimes and making mistakes as the dark side always seduces us. This can also remind of Yin Yang symbol where good and bad, dark and bright, darkness and light lives in constant harmony. The actual journal was already full of stories, records and memories and it was my first time when I had to work with the journal that belongs to someone. I was trusted to read some of the stories ( or even the whole book if I like), and the owner just wanted me to feel better who he really is. As I can't really tell you what was in there, I will just talk about the journal cover and colour scheme.

The journal itself has a brown leather spine and two sides of it are made from red wood. The pages  are painted gold. This is why we decided to do the journal in reds, golds and whites and as we were working on two dragons and Ying Yang kind of theme I suggested to create an effect of cinnabar.

All together it ended up looking like this and I would really like to hear what you think of it.

Visit my Flickr page to see all 9 photos I have of this journal. 

Thanks a lot for reading, 

Please comment :)

Meet Snowie (Ready!)

As I promised straight after showing my work in progress I am writing this. I don't think that any text is necessary here. Let the pictures speak for themselves.  I enjoyed my self portrait photoshoot and I am sure Snowie was happy to finally appear on Facebook and Blogger pages after so much anticipation.

And of course some more pictures of Snowie on it's own.

And of course the bunny bum xoxox

I truly hope you enjoyed the final pictures and I am sure we will see and hear from Snowie and his friend Beannie very soon as they settle down in my room.

Thank you so much for all of your support,

Please let me know what if you like Snowie (in comments below).

Have a lovely day,

Glass Eyes

Here are some glass hand painted eyes I made during couple of months. I was making more today and more complicated ones so decided to take a pic for you guys ^^

You can make eyes like this too! Here is the free Youtube tutorial I made quite a while ago:

  My most complicated eye is the closest large green dragon eye where I used 3 different colours + black. I am slowly learning how to paint gradients, make more organic and natural looks. And because it is so much cheaper than buying ready eyes from Ebay or Etsy, this also makes me very happy. Besides, this option forces me to challenge myself every time I do it.

Thanks a lot for reading and I hope some of new people in my community will find this blog post useful.

Black Lotus Box

Couple of months ago I was contacted by a lovely italian customer requesting a very unusual custom order. He wanted me to create a special box that would relate to an old but still very popular card game "Magic: The Gathering". He is an owner of one of the rarest cards "Black Lotus" and it apparently is very unique and expensive and so he required a very special box to go with it so that he can keep the card inside. 

The idea we came up with was quite unique and challenging as it required some knowledge and some rules and a lot of things was supposed to be going on on top of this box without looking funny or too much over the roof. 

First I came up with the sketch which was approved by the client. Click on it to zoom in (picture on the left).

I was quite excited to work on this project as it was quite challenging, especially the lava part but I will get to it later.

So the whole idea of the game is that there is 5 different types of Magic Mana. White, Blue, Black, Red and Green. Each of these magic mamas have their own creatures, weapons, qualities, symbols e.c.t

I won't go to deep into it as you can find out more in Google about this game if you wish. But.. as the result of my exploration and my customer's dedicated guidance we came up with this box in the end.

As this box will protect the "Black Lotus" card it was decided to put the black lotus in the middle of the composition. Some of my friends said that this bow is like a journey of Frodo from Lord of the Rings, where it all starts in shire, then they get to elves, then they cross the big river and go to deadly marshes and boggy places and end up in Mordor. I guess in all magic games, stories and movies all sorts of similar magical powers and elements do have place to exist. 

The most challenging elements was  fire and Lava and water with a waterfall. These are things that are very hard to show as lava is supposed to burn and glow, steam and pour.. and so it was hard to understand the physics of it and I had to research on volcano eruption pictures finally succeed.

 Same was with water where I had to create a flow and a feel of liquid and transparent from something hard and solid.

You can see about 20 other pictures of this box here in my Flickr Gallery (Boxes).