making little charms & playing with air dry clay!!

Hello!!! I'm starting to plan for the first OOAK Patreon secret shop drop, at long last!! I'm hoping to make it happen at the end of July, if everything goes smoothly :D

✿ CUTIE LITTLE CHARMS ✿

I think the main star of the update is gonna be zipper pouches, both granny square and just regular fabric ones, but I've been wanting to make little charms for the pouches so I was fiddling with beads all day yesterday. It made me realize how shaky my hands are TT I was REAL frustrated when making the charm with the star on it, but when it came to the making the flower-y one, the process started to iron itself out. A little, at least!! (I'm also hyperaware of just how bad my nails look in that one photo please do not perceive them, thank you)

Inspired by Paloma, I got a bunch of cute beads off of Aliexpress >:) But I forgot to get more storage for them, so I'm planning to head to Michael's this afternoon to pick up one more bead box, and also get some bigger seed beads~ I ordered a very pretty set of 3mm ones off Aliexpress without realizing that the ones I already had (and like) are 4mm. I also need gold jump rings!!

✧ PLAYING WITH AIR DRY CLAY ✧

I've also been playing around with air-dry clay -- I was thinking of making little earrings with it, or potentially cute little keychain charms?? And little trinket trays!! I saw this video from Pearfleur the other day, and I always LOOOVE their ASMR clay-making videos, and this one was no exception. And it finally made the concept of slab building properly click in my head! So I made a tiny little trinket tray, let it dry out so I could sand it down, and then primed it with gesso. I'm planning on painting it tomorrow and sealing it with some resin.

When I was making the tiny trinket tray, I also cut out some simple shapes to paint on and use as charms (for either keychains or earrings), but I fear I'll need to make them a little thinner. :( The jump rings I have simply did not fit around the charms. They're 3 popsicle sticks thick (cause I'm using popsicle sticks to keep my rolling pin flat and even lol), which is the same thickness as the tray, but I may need to go down to two popsicle sticks for earring stuff.

I've also decided to try my hand at UV resin again -- I've got a proper filtration mask, and gloves and everything, so I'm properly protected!! I've tried polyurethane and glossy acrylic sealants, but the shine, clarity, and sturdiness that resin offers is so hard to find a substitute for :/ it just looks so good!!! but when I coated the tiny charms, I saw that there was a faint yellow sheen to it, which I think comes from glazing the uncoated clay. So I know now that I'll need to prime any clay stuff with gesso before I get to painting and glazing.

I've also realized that the La Doll clay I used for this tray and charms isn't...ideal?? For what I want to do?? It feels just a bit too plastic-y -- I made another tray using Das Modeling Clay, and it felt so much more like the clay that I get to use at the pottery studio (and seemed more similar to the clay that Pearfleur was using), so I'll definitely use Das moving forward.

✿ SKETCHBOOKING AND KEEB INSPIRATION ✿

I got some good sketchbook time the other day -- I've got a video coming up with Kina and Tam where I'm going to be drawing some OOTD's, so I'm practicing by drawing some of my own outfits as well as really really cute ones I see on Tik Tok. I like screenshotting them off Tik Tok, cause the people are usually in motion, so it helps me get a slightly more ~alive~ reference pose, as opposed to static pictures off Pinterest.

And I got another set of keycaps :3 I had good reason for this buy tho -- I want my keycaps to have a similar feel, as far as the whimsicality and hand-made charm goes, so I'm using it as an artistic jumping off point. It gives me an idea of what keys I may want to put illos on, what keys to offer alternatives of, as well as thinking about colors...I love how colorful this set is, but I do wish the colors were a little bit punchier. I got this set off Aliexpress, because despite my desperate searching, I cannot find the original artist for it. :( If any of y'all know, please please tell me!

✿ ✧ ✿ ✧ ✿

I mentioned this in my keycaps announcement video, but my creative energy has been so scattered lately, so having such focus is very exciting!! And a bit overwhelming!! But I'm trying to take it day by day, one little bite at a time, and make sure that I'm feeding myself and sleeping lots in the meantime. When I get like this, it's so easy for all my care tasks to fly out the window so I'm trying very hard to NOT do that this go around lol.

Talk to you soooooooon xxx