These are the charms I made for the Asian-themed swap. The requirements were that I had to use paper as the primary material/medium, and that they measured less than 1.5 inches long.
The fan is folded black cardstock, sealed with acrylic spray sealer so it would be water-resistant, and sprayed with gold spray webbing. The webbing made really cool squiggles on the paper but you can only see the edges of it in this photo. I used a Krylon gold-leafing pen on the base and top edge, then added a tiny dangle of vintage red beads and gold seed beads.
The next two charms are made of paperclay tinted with acrylic paint mixed right into the clay and edged with leafing pen. I was going for a Faux Raku look, but I don't think I succeeded. I haven't used paperclay much; I'm accustomed to working with polymer clay and it behaves very differently. Good learning experience, though. That's what I say when an experiment doesn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.
I made about thirty fans (my sweetie-pie husband did all the folding for me!) for the swap and another 5 or so just for samples. Then I made about 15 of the faux raku charms to fill in for some extras. In exchange I got some of the most incredible charms I've ever seen: origami animals and stars, a miniature pop-up book, a locket, rolled beads made from washi paper, and a tiny treasure box that looked like a book but opened up to a secret compartment. There were so many more (a total of 30 or so) that I can't begin to name or describe them all. Every single one, without exception, was extraordinary.
A special thanks to all the ArtCharmers who participated in this swap. These are treasures, every one of them. And so are the friendships I've made in this lovely group!
OK, I'll admit I'm no computer whiz. My geekness centers more around botany and making jewelry. But I spent the better part of today getting a blog post put together and it's only half-bad *smirk* if I do say so myself. You'd have to know me to realize what a big deal it is to me when I can post not only lots of photos but a bunch of hyperlinks, class descriptions and artists' names.
