Cold Porcelain Antique Roses

Cold porcelain roses

I recently came to know about "cold porcelain" with which many crafters make beautiful accessories  and dolls.  Is is air-dry clay made mainly from cornstarch and while glue.

I searched for homemade cold porcelain recipes online, and combined the recipes so I could try with what I had in our house.  The process required cooking in a pan on stove, so I bought an used pan and a wooden spoon from a second-hand store just for this purpose. 

I also made molds using buttons and the mold-making techniques I leaned for special effect make-up.  You can also use molds for cake decorating, etc.

It took about three days for the clay to dry. I then painted with acrylic paint and finished with Mod Podge.




Cold porcelain roses



 

 

 

Cold porcelain roses



Cold porcelain roses

 

Plastic Canvas Purse

I was flipping through my mother's old Japanese craft books from 1960's.

Plastic canvas craft was new and popular then----and the designs were beautiful and complicated.

 

 Those books inspired me to try plastic canvas craft.

 

 

 

I decided to make a purse:

 

 

 

 

details...

 

 

 

 The design of the bag is inspired from Ralph Lauren's Native American Collection bags.

 

 

 

 

I drew guidelines for pattern with a permanent marker---as you can see, completely eyeballing it.

 

Then, I started filling the space with simple satin stitches using wool yarn.

 

 

I didn't want to use long strands of yarn when I stitched, so I had to tie the next strand a lot, consequently the back came out a bit messy...

 

 So I fabric-glued fleece on the back side before constructing the bag.

 

I also put in metal openings and D-rings on the side for the shoulder strap while the piece was still flat.

 

 

Finally, I whip-stitched the canvas form into the purse shape stitching through the edges of fleece lining.

 

 

(Plastic canvas form and wool yarns from local Joaan)