One of my goals the last year or two was to be a little more mad scientist in my crafting. Since I’ve sold my crafts for as long as I’ve made them, it’s a tough thing to make time for the trial and error that goes with learning new techniques when you have lines that sell well! The flip side, of course, is that if you don’t change it up you will eventually be uninteresting to the buying public and common and uninteresting to the craft community.

I’ve been experimenting with surface decoration techniques because I’d like to try incorporating more texture into my work. Buttons are nice, flat spots to try this on. This was a faux ceramic tutorial – alcohol inks mixed with tls. I like them better now, with a gloss coat… they look a lot like some of the ceramic buttons with glazes that I have in my button jar. They’re going to get a few runs through the wash to see how well the shiny stands up. I know the clay stands up just fine, with sensible treatment… the shiny is my concern!

Bunches more flower beads. The bright yellow green are Premo’s relatively new wasabi colour which I quite like. Odd, considering it is a retina burning acid green. Makes adorable flowers.