Pens and pendants

Well, it's not all been fun and games with needles this past week. I have managed some actual crafting! You know you can't put a crafty girl down for long and I think the exercise is good for my arm. I've had this phoenix stamp for absolutely ages, always intending to make a soldered pendant from it, so that's what I did last weekend. probably not the easiest thing to do with a dodgy arm, but then again, I've never been one to take the easy way out! I think the soldering left a little bit to be desired, it's not as neat as I'd have liked, but it's not too bad. I love this picture of Fawkes.

I've also been doing a lot with Fimo this week too. I suppose I considered all that rolling and softening of the clay to be like physio for my arm. This pen was easy because it's mostly made from a cane that I already had made up, so it was easy just to cover it.

Then I was on a roll, I've just been given my partner for the latest HP swap, so I thought I'd make a wand pen. I loved how this turned out!

The handle detail was perfect and I liked the woody grain effect that I got by blending two slightly different shades of brown together.

I also made a book plate which will go onto the front of a blank journal/school book. I love the steampunk look here. This is just a thin layer of polymer clay stamped into with some of those little alphabet stamps. I laid a thin sausage of clay all round the edge and crimped it with a dental tool, and then I used the inside of a biro (the plastic ink tube) to stamp those little rings round the edge. I think they look a little bit like rivets. Then I dusted over it with metallic powder. I  like the way it looks almost like worn leather.

I also made this dragon medallion which is probably also for the front of the school book. I made it using a dragon mould which I took from a clay pendant I had. I also dusted this with metallic powder.  

And then on a whim, I made this Rememberall from a giant marble. I'm not too sure about this yet. I need to go back to the book and check the description again, I was probably heavily influenced by the Tardis here! I think I had Dr Who on in the background when I was making it *lol*

But disaster happened in the oven. The pens curled and split. I'm sure that I had read somewhere that the yellow ones were the best to use (better than the Bic Cristal), but reading up again, people seem to be recommending the Bic Stic which I can't get over here, so I'm going to try splitting up the baking time and baking them in short bursts. Hopefully that'll stop the pens melting and curling! I'm really sad to see the wand pen ruined, but hopefully I can sort the problem out!

I've just got the results for today's blood tests and my INR level (the length of time it takes for your blood to clot) is now a little bit too high, so I have a complicated pattern of doses to take for the next few days and hopefully it'll go down a little.