On Fire For Handmade Featured Artisan: Handmade Creations by Shelly

Each Tuesday the On Fire For Handmade team sponsors a featured artisan. This week is the Etsy shop Handmade Creations by Shelly. Shelly makes hand knit ponchos and accessories. Since I live in Florida, I don't have much use for cold weather items. However we are from NY, and have plenty of family there that would love some of Shelly's beautiful hand knit items. Hop on over to Handmade Creations by Shelly and start your gift giving list now. It will be cold before we know it. Well at least some of you, LOL! Happy shopping. If you want to join the On Fire For Handmade team be sure to look them up on Facebook, or Etsy and you might get to be a featured artisan too.

Hand Painted Blue Garden Bottles

These are beer sized bottles that are blue. After washing, and getting all the glue off they are hand painted with a variety of designs. These two have a flower motif. These are garden or plant watering bottles. I have several of these in my big plants outdoors. They can also be used in small planters. You have to be sure the pot is deep enough, or they won't sit up good. These have been sitting and curing for about two weeks. Now they will be heat set and sealed with a sealer. Then I will list them in my Etsy store. These would make a great affordable gift for the plant lover in your life. Be sure and check back often, I will be adding lots of new painted items in preparation for the Christmas season.  I am currently working on the cutest ornaments, that will be sold in pairs. 

Wire Wrapped Bangle Watch

I am slowly getting all new pieces of crafted jewelry and all the fun items I have been painting, listed to my Etsy store. I have started painting Christmas ornaments and am hoping they will be loved. I am trying to do a pair of each design I choose. So far I have done penguins, sea turtles, a bear and wolf silhouette with the full moon, and a cactus with the sun. They are coming out mighty fine, but are painstaking work and take sometime to complete just one pair of them. You can see the details for the awesome watch below by visiting my Etsy Store.

Ruby Gemstone

Will you just look at this beauty! Would you not love to own such a fine quality stone. I know I would. Ruby is the birthstone for July, and I will featuring ruby items all month. Happy Birthday, to all July babies everywhere.!

Painting a Tin Pail

On Monday, Caitlin and I usually sit down to paint. My husband has a firehouse meeting every Monday, and it is a perfect time to paint. Since the last two weeks have been so crazy with 4H and homeschool evals, I have not had a lot of spare time. Today, was my first attempt at painting on tin. I saw this red tin pail at the Dollar General, and finally bought one. Now it does already have a pattern on it, so it is not smooth. This did make it somewhat difficult to navigate my paint brush. I am still quite happy with the results. Of course the first shot is sunflowers, but I don't use traditional colors when I paint any of my flowers. You can see the results. On the other side is roses, and daisies. Roses are a no no without a smooth surface, ugh they just don't come out well. Daisies I tried a different brush and I just didn't like it. It is acceptable, but not how I will paint daisies again. Still working on vines and stems. Caitlin painted one of her favorite movie characters, Bolt. I am always amazed at her talent. Then I bought a pair of pink flip flops for a buck, and painted my favorite football team's logo on them, the Buffalo Bills. The first one I did was rough, had a better hang of it by the second one. Better yet, I have a new pair of cool shoes. The last paper is just practice flowers and swirlies. I love painting, and I hope to continue to grow and learn.

Upcycling Old Light Bulbs Into Christmas Ornaments

Today I took an old light bulb, that had blown, painted it white and then added the cute snowman face. This will become a Christmas ornament after I add craft wire to hang it with. I really want to do more of these. Unfortunately I don't go through a ton of light bulbs, LOL! What do you think? I am considering listing this one in my Etsy store, it is dated. I have begun to draw now, as well as learning to paint, my counted cross stitch and all my jewelry things. I am busy and loving it!

Braided Love Knot Petite Pinkie or Children's Jewelry

Last night, I got to play around with wire a little bit again. If you have small petite hands, like me, then you know it is extremely difficult to find a pinkie ring that fits, and will not fall off. For years I wore a size 3 child's ring, and that fit but it still fell off quite a bit. I did eventually lose it after many years of wearing it. I have never found one again. So, I made my own pinkie ring. These two rings range from size 3 to 4. I say that because I gave my mandrel away a few years ago, and can't size exactly. However, I know the pinkie on my right hand is a size 3 and this fits just almost perfectly. It is loose enough to be comfortable but not too lose to fall off. The second one, the one with gold wire is probably a 3 1/2. I hope to make more of these, I love them. I am also going to try braided wedding bands, using colored craft wire. I need a mandrel though for that probably. I will be keeping the black one, and the gold one will be listed in my Etsy store, at an awesome price I might add. These would be perfect for a young girl to give to a friend as a friendship ring, or like I said if you have a very petite hand. I have been wearing mine all day and it is extremely comfortable, and because I use craft wire, they are not harsh to wear like some wire pieces.

How Are Synthetic Gems Made?

Now that my 30 day challenge is over, I can now focus on some other things to share with my readers. One thing I find extremely interesting is how they make synthetic gemstones. Synthetic gemstones are made using low quality gemstones of the same species, say emeralds, and a small seed of high quality specimen of the same species of gemstones. They then heat it at really high temps and pressure and the result is a perfect emerald, that will have the same chemical and optical properties of an emerald grown in nature. Synthetics and simulants are not the same. Simulated gemstones are not created using any of the actual real gemstone, but usually glass or plastic or any other variety of substances. I think YAG is my favorite synthetic gemstone out there. I believe it is the same as Fabulite which was very popular in the 70's. It is highly collectible, and if you have any Fabulite it is probably worth a good chunk of money today.