Tokyo Blues necklace

Finally got my glue and findings out to finish this little number.

What I folded last Christmas

 Last Christmas I finally decided that this was the year I was going to implement an idea I had had for a few years.  A year or two previously I had tried it in another cubicle but I was sitting with bah humbugs. This particular year I was with more amenable people.  This was the year of the origami decorations:

Magazine Christmas Trees

I went for coffee one day and when I came back two more had sprang up!

Honestly, of all the things I did this was the most infectious.

Five pointed star - but first you need to fold yourself a regular pentagon.

This is not strictly origami, possibly more kirigami. 3D Snowflake.

Further origami Christmas ornaments: A simple ornament, via the origami resource center.

(oh yeah - we won some very tasty "fruit juice" which was appreciated in the last scrum of the year)

Birthday girl

Remember back in January I did a little origami?  Well, I thought it was time one of my pieces was a little less headless and homeless and put together this little greeting card.  The hair was stamped with a little home carved stamp and the details added in freehand with a pigment drawing pen.  By now this little girl should be with a 9 year old Birthday Girl, after giving her the vouchers tucked away behind her.  Happy Birthday L!

Birthday Brooches & Keepers

A few presents for a recent birthday. First a brooch made with some lovely Aizome Chiyogami Washi*

Something to keep the above in and along with the recipients collection of brooches, a brooch keeper.

It is a variation on this brooch keeper from Buttontree Lane (or it could always be used as an extra large needle case!).

*
Aizome - Indigo dye
Chiyogami - "Chiyo" thousand generation, "gami" paper
Washi - "Wa" Japanese, "shi" paper

Xīnnián Kuàilè

Before I forget:

 This little rabbit has got a magnet instead of a brooch back so that it will be adorning my fridge, rather than my lapel.

A little get together

A little more origami jewellery has been made but this time I wasn't solo. G & X were my willing victims pupils and came along last week and created their own origami brooches (left & right above, the ones in the centre were my sample pieces).

Origami Jewellery

I should have been making curtains but instead decided to investigate one of my Christmas presents more thoroughly. Origami Jewellery by Ayako Brodek.Most of this has been completed whilst chilling out at the end of the day in front of the TV.  I started with this brooch:

I then decided to go from something relatively easy rated piece to something more difficult, this pine cone bead necklace:

This proved to be more repetitive than difficult. This balloon bead necklace proved to be more fiddly:

Finally, this brooch was quicker to make, though required a little bit more judgement:

I had most of the supplies in my large stash of stuff, but found a supplier of lovely washi paper in the UK at Roze flowers. The book mentioned using a one part epoxy resin glue, after some researching on the internet I found one brand to use is E6000 glue. This also appears to be the jewellery makers glue of choice so got this and the bead caps for the balloon necklace on Ebay, but found that the seller had their own online store at madcowbeads.com.

p.s. the glue is kinda smelly and is probably not a good idea to be used round kiddiwinks