A Review of September 2009

I have enjoyed playing around and experimenting with the Friendly Plastic this month. It really is quite addictive, if a little uncontrollable for my liking. Sometimes it is difficult to know when to stop – or you realise you should have stopped when it is too late.

I am really excited about my idea for Art-Brooches, as I think this is something different and hopefully unique. I have searched on Google and have not come across anyone else with a similar idea. So many people seem to sell jewellery at craft fairs, I have never considered it before as I like to be different, but on looking round very few seem to have brooches. This may be because brooches are considered a bit ‘old-fashioned’ but I hope my ideas for presentation will make the brooches quite contemporary. Also, the Art-Brooch concept is a good transition for me from ‘art’ to ‘jewellery’.

Working at such a small scale, creating the brooches, is something I am not used to. However, it should be much better for my neck (years of bad posture, leaning over large pieces of art/craftwork, have given me permanent neck discomfort) and I am currently seeing a chiropractor to try and help with the neck problem. Other advantages of working small scale are that it does not take so long to complete a finished piece (which is good as I am currently working full-time) and, when I come to pack up all my sales items for my first craft fair, everything should fit in one, light box. The latter is fantastic – no more lugging back-breaking boxes in and out of cars, etc.

Joined the Friendly Plastic Yahoo Group

I have joined the Friendly Plastic Yahoo Group and also discovered the Friendly Plastic Blog, http://friendlyplastic.blogspot.com. Through this I received notification of the 'Marbling Magic Design Challenge' – a competition to design up to five pendants from Friendly Plastic, using marbling techniques.

As I want to try marbling, I thought this would be a good thing to enter, as it would give me something to make from my practice pieces, even though I have never ventured into jewellery before. Also, the prize is a stash of Friendly Plastic, which would be good to win, as I need to build up a stock. I will need to order some more supplies first.