My last blog

For my last blog I decided I wanted to put some of my beads I have made through out the semester to use. I didn’t want to make new beads because I have a bunch of beads just laying around without any use for them. When deciding on what I wanted to make I wanted to make jewelry or accessories but with materials that I already own. I decided that I wanted to use material that I already own because it relates to the topic we have gone over in class about using materials you already have to make something new, and the purpose of this is to save money and find a new use for something that you do not use anymore. I started looking through my apartment and found hair ties like the ones that I used on my last blog. I cut one of the hair ties and tried to find some beads with holes big enough to string on the hair tie. I found 3 beads that went well together and strung them on the hair tie that had a knot at the end. Then I tied that string of beads onto another hair tie that is not cut. My product was finished but then I decided I wanted it to have more to it. I found an old necklace that worn while watching sporting events and I cut it into 2 equal pieces and tied them on. When it was finished I decided that this product could be two different things, it could either be a keychain or it could be a hair ornament for a little girl. I like that I was able to make something that had multiple purposes because making products that have a multiple purpose save you money. I tried to make other products with the beads I had but the holes were too small to fit on the hair tie, so I decided I would have to go to the store to make my next item.

Having this blog all semester and learning how to work with clay has taught me a lot. I was able to learn how to properly handle clay and how to make multiple different items with the clay, as well as learn from the mistakes I had made. I was also able to learn how great it is to utilize waste products while making a project because it could really save you a lot of money and time. I hope everyone liked the products I have made over the semester!!

Here is the finished product!! Sorry the picture quality is not great

Not your typical Keychain

For this weeks clay project I decided I wanted to make something that was school spirited, since little five is coming up. I wanted to make beads that said IU and other beads that were red and white. I decided that I was not going to use a cane technique that I usually use to make my beads, because it would be too hard to make a cane that said IU. I looked through the book I bought called “Baked Beads and Beyond! Making Magic Oven-Bake Clay” to see if there were any techniques I could use to achieve this design I was thinking of. I saw on page nine a technique that would be very useful for my project. The technique was making “snakes” which are just long thin logs of the clay, and then laying the snake on the bead and making a design with the snake.

The first step for me was to take my red clay and roll the clay into four different beads. After I did that I used my clay extruder and used it to extrude white thin snakes. Then I took the snakes and cut them into pieces so I could make the letters I and U. I used the snakes and made I on one bead and made U on the other bead. After the IU beads were finished I wanted some accent beads to go next to the IU, so I decided to make red and white striped beads. I used the snakes again and just wrapped the white snake around the red bead.  The beads came out great but the striped beads were not perfect but still had that red and white striped look. I decided I wanted to make something with the beads, and thought I would probably not wear IU jewelry and decided the beads would look great as a key chain. I didn’t want to go out and buy materials to make a key chain, and I wanted to be resourceful. I looked around my apartment to see what I could use to make this keychain and found some hair ties that are used to tie your hair back. I took one of them and cut it in half and made a knot at the end. I then string on the beads and tied the string with the beads on to another hair tie. I did not look like a normal keychain but it was good enough for me, since I did not have to spend any money.

Using materials that I already owned relates to some of the topics we have gone over in class such a being resourceful by using materials you already have. Using materials that I already have is important to me because it saves me money, time, and gives me a new use out of something I was not using. For my next project I want to try and take the beads that I have made and make them into something I could use or wear. 

Source: Bergen, L. R. (1995). Baked Beads and Beyond!. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

Snakes made with the extruder

The IU beads

The finished Keychain 

My Shoe Creation!

For this weeks blog post I decided to gear away from my weekly clay project. I wanted to share a different project that I had been working on this semester that relates to our recent class topic of cheap, and previous topics of crafting as a means of saving money. Last Summer I lived in New York City for six weeks. New York is the capital of great shopping with familiar and unique stores all around you. While shopping around in the City I saw a pair of shoes at this little boutique that I loved! They were black high top Chuck Taylor Converse shoes that had studs all over the side of the shoe that faces out. I loved these shoes because I thought they were so unique and trendy, but I looked at the price tag and they were $500! I was amazed to see how expensive these shoes were considering regular converse shoes cost around $45. I thought $500 was crazy for a pair of gym shoes with a bunch of studs on them, and decided that I would be absolutely crazy to buy this pair of shoes at that price and they will most likely go out of style in a year. Usually when I see something I really like and I don’t like it I usually forget about it, but when I walked away and didn’t buy those shoes I could not stop thinking about how much I loved them. I kept thinking about them and a thought came to my mind that I could easily make these shoes.

Over the years I have loved making craft projects and I have always been very good at them and have made some great stuff, and have even used studs like the ones on the shoes. I thought I could buy the plain black Chuck Taylor Converse shoes at a store and do the studding myself.  I had this idea in my head for a while but didn’t have time to get the materials until this Christmas Break. I bought the shoes at a discount shoe for $39.95 and ordered a studding kit online that was about $20. The kit included two tools that you use to punch holes to put the studs in, and it also included three bags of different size studs. I got my stud kit in the mail and started making the shoes. The shoes were not very difficult to make but it was very time consuming and it hurt my fingers, because each hole had to be punched by hand and the prongs on the studs had to be bended back by hand. I also did not have directions on the design of the shoes that I saw over the summer, so I had to try and remember what I saw and use my own creative ability.  This took me about six hours to finish the pair of shoes. The shoes turned out great, but they do not look exactly the same, because the first one I did was not as neat because I was teaching myself how to do this and getting a hang of the whole process.

The whole process of making these shoes relates to many of the concepts that we have been discussing in class, such as creating and making projects in order to save money. In this case my motivation for making these shoes was to save money, and I saved about $440. It would have been a lot easier for me to purchase the shoes at the store that already had the studs on it, but putting my time and effort into making these shoes made me feel a sense of accomplishment and success that I saved all that money and made them myself. I wear the shoes all the time and get so many compliments on them, and people can barley believe me when I tell them I made them myself. Since I have gotten so many compliments on the shoes I would love to try and sell them! Seeing people’s reaction to my shoes and their reaction when I tell them I made them is better than any $500 pair of shoes! For my future blogs I plan on continuing my clay work, and maybe try making projects with the clay that are not beads. 

Here are the studs I used and one of the tools I used to put the studs on the shoes. I finished these shoes about two months ago and have misplaced the other tool. 

The final Product!!