Do you add to landfill with your rubbish?

Do you add to the landfill with your rubbish? Yes, I was guilty. Every time I put a toilet roll or coke bottle into the recycle bin I felt there had to be a better way. Let's start with toilet rolls. I do markets to sell my jewelry made of recycled materials such as cutlery, Tyvek and eggshells. With very little effort toilets rolls make really cute gift boxes just the right size for a pendant. Open them up, add some paint and cut to shape and you have a flower on a stem. Take your flat rolls, cut into strips and make small rolls just like quilling, glue to polystyrene ball and you have flowers that never need to be watered. See you are conserving water as well. My favorite use of toilet rolls to create wall art. People never know what they are made of. Are they metal? My best seller by far are my painted ladies. Coke bottles end up everywhere. Very much approve of the cashback scheme now operating here in Canberra. Again for me, they become flowers to wear. Cut off the bottoms, add paint and heat and some beads or glitter for brooch or shawl pin. The lids transform into hats. If you are feeling adventurous they can also become the most stunning vases.

Do you look back over passed blogs you have written and wonder who was that person. We all make progess, day by day without noticeing the transition. Mostly we get better,or at least think we do. It is now 2014, I still love paper but now have become more enviromentally friendy not by design but just trying new technques. For my paper beads and othe paper jewelry I am now making my own paper. To make handmade paper you recycle old paper, tear it up, add water, and blend to to soup. Pour over a mesh on a frame,then squeeze all the water out again and vola you have new paper. Easy but a bit time consuming, but very rewarding. For my pendants and rings I was decoupaging wooden tiles Japanese paper and inserting into a silver tray. Instead of paper why not use egg shells. You get this lovely mini-mosaic effect, looks like stone. Paint and varnish and there we have another use for egg shells. Actually cannot think of many. One day when surffing the net for jewelry ideas, I came accross someone who had cut up coke bottles and made flowers. What a great idea. If you look at the bottom of a bottle you can almost see a flower there. We go thru a lottle of coke bottles in our house, not by me, but they do provide me with cheap materials. After much experimentation I only use the bottoms, which I paint with special a metallic paint, then cut and shape and apply heat. This is just the best bit. The plastic moves, and waves, and shrinks. It is like watching time lapse photograpy. Each one is different, the paint bubbles and leaves an amazing texture. Then add some bead, stamens and a brooch pin. The first time I sold these at a craft market I sold out. Could have sold twice as many. I wonder what I will be doing in 2015.

My journey from decoupage to paper beads.

How things have changed. My journey from Decoupage to paper beads.

In a previous blog I wrote about my obsession with decoupage. Decoupage is an ancient art form where you glue pictures to wooden household items and varnish them.
When I started I did the usual things, boxes, coasters, chairs, place mats etc. Well if it was wood and did not move I papered it. My dear husband however drew the line when we recently purchased a wooden toilet seat.

Wanting a change of scale I started decoupaging jewelry, papering small wooden tiles and lavishing them with varnish. Pendants and earrings is where I perfected the art. Now my pendants have grown into large feature necklaces.


While I really like the decoupage necklaces I wanted to create something a little more upmarket and found these wonder full silver trays.


Decoupaging the small wooden tiles are a bit tedious but I find the varnish process quite therapeutic and just love the actual making of the jewelry. So why use the tiles at all. Enter paper beads.

In theory you take some colored paper, cut into strips, roll and varnish. A lot of people cut up magazines. Yes you get an attractive bead look, but I guess I am a bit of a perfectionist and want more.

When it comes to paper I only use high quality paper: Japanese, Indian, good quality wrapping paper and scrapbook paper. Stardream paper makes excellent plain beads to use as accents.

Take an A4 (30cmx30cm also works well) sheet of paper and cut stripes across the sheet, about 2cm-3cm wide. Depending on how fat you want your bead, cut width wise for skinny beads and length wise for fat beads. I would normally measure and draw lines first then cut with scissors. It is important that the paper is cut nice and even if you want nice beads.

Rectangle stripes gives you plain rolled beads. Triangles you give a more shaped bead. A triangle with a centre point gives you a more rounded bead. A right angle triangle gives you a bell shaped beads. if you feel adventurous try a u-shape and you get an hour glass shaped bead.

Now take you stripe dip one end in water so its damp. (I do not recommend put it on your mouth, not sure what is in some of the dyes)take a tooth pick and roll the paper on the stick in a nice even manner. When you get to the end add a small amount of PVA glue. Now you have done one keep going until you run out of paper or think you have enough beads. for smaller beads of 1cm I use a quilling tool.

The next stage is to varnish. I know some people use nail varnish and I am sure it works well but as with all my decoupage I use water-based estapol. If you can use it on furniture I am sure it will protect my work as well.

What I do is put each bead on a toothpick, like a handle. Take a sheet of polystyrene. I always save the smaller pieces of polystyrene sheets from packaging. Holding the bead by its handle apply a coat of varnish and push stick into styrene. This way they stand up nicely to dry. You may want to apply a second coat depending on the paper.

Now take you beads and create that love necklace, earrings, what ever.

If you would any help please feel free to contact me.
If you would like to see some of my creation please visit my web sire www.erykasplace.com

decoupage not just an obsession.

My name is Eryka and my studio is based here in Canberra. Australia

My obsession is decoupage, which is the creation of an image or abstract using paper, or leaves or fabric. When you apply enough varnish the background and paper edges seems to disappear and you achieve this glass like finish.

Wikipedia says “Decoupage (or decoupage) is the art of decorating an object by gluing colored paper cutouts onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and so on. Commonly cutouts from magazines or from purpose-manufactured papers cover an object like a small box or an item of furniture. Each layer is sealed with varnishes (often multiple coats) until the "stuck on" appearance disappears and the result looks like painting or inlay work. The traditional technique used 30-40 layers of varnish, which were then sanded to a polished finish. This was known in 18th century England as The Art of Japanning after its presumed origins.”

I have always admired the decoupage artists. However working full time and bringing up two children and a dog I never felt I had the time to indulge. I now regret that decision. All those years I could have been creating. Yes decoupage is a time consuming passion, but after the initial fun of creating a picture, the layering of the varnish only takes minutes, as you need to leave time between each layer for the varnish to dry. A minimum of three hours but 24 –48 hours is also fine. Then there is the sanding-I think that is what really put me off. I actually rather enjoy this process, this is how you get that smooth surface and it is quite therapeutic, and good exercise. Finally you polish your creation. I am still experimenting but currently use a high quality diamond finish car polish.

The technique is actually very simple. Getting it right takes practice. The saving grace is that if you are not happy with something you just sand it back and start again. I am horrified at articles I have read that say you use a bit of glue and a couple of coats of varnish and call it decoupage.

Admittedly you can create something rather nice but it is not decoupage.

Okay lets get started. You need a picture or nice paper, glue and something to decoupage. Start with something simple. Fist cut out your shapes and rearrange to manner you find pleasing. This is the difficult bit and takes some time, be patience, and experiment with adding different colors.

You then need to seal your pictures and for this I use “Liquetex” gloss medium and varnish. If you are a novice, you can get away with just using this for the entire project. There are other brands around but I only ever use this one.

When they are dry you glue the pictures to your project. Start from one end and gently lay your paper down smoothing as you go. I just use my fingers they are washable. Try to remove as many air bubbles as possible by massaging with some sealer. Leave to dry and then come back and remove those pesky air bubbles that popped up over night. Stick a pin in them, for bigger ones a small cut with a scalpel or craft knife. Massage with sealer so the sealer gets under the paper. This step is important. Then you paint on a couple of layers of sealer, leaving time to dry between coats.

Now you paint on your layer of varnish. I use Estapol water based varnish. There are others on the market but I find this one has less bubbles. A tip here is pouring a small amount of varnish into a resealable jar is a really good idea.. If you use it straight from the tin it goes off and thickens. You want the consistency of poring cream. You lay the varnish on not really paint it. Hold the brush flat and draw across your project. Try to avoid brush marks but do not get too obsessive. How much is enough. After about 10-15 coats, all of a sudden the paper edges disappear and the image underneath is not lots of pieces of paper but one beautiful picture. This is the magic of decoupage.

Then you sand back with very fine sand paper, wet and dry sand paper, I sometimes use a an emery board that is used for acrylic nails. The idea is to remove all the shine and give a surface that feels smooth to the touch. They varnish. Not happy well let the varnish dry and do it again, it takes several attempts. Then varnish and only lightly sand. It is at this stage I usually open a new tin of varnish to get that really perfect topcoat

At this stage I polish with car polish and leave it to be admired. This is the technique I use. It depends on the finish you want. You can sand back and polish with car polish or one of the many polishing systems around. Sorry but this is where you will need to do the research and experimentation. Check out what the other decoupage artists do. Nerreda Sherridan is a great inspiration.

I use this technique to create earrings and pendants using Japanese papers for the fabulous colors and patterns, which are almost, like fabric.. I also use Indian paper for their textures. Currently I am experimenting with making my own handmade paper to use on my jewelry. The results are tremendously textured and very unique.

The problem with having an obsession is what to do with your creations. So I have opened an on line store. Not everyone has an obsession with the creative process they just enjoy beautiful things.

So please visit my store where I show case and sell my creations.

Eryka’s Place at http://erykasplace.com/

If I have inspired you please feel free to contact me. My contact details are on my web site.