Mushroom mouse

Starting a new project. I have seen so many beautiful mushrooms in the internet which were made out of polymer clay or something similar. I was curious if I, too, am able to make one. But only a mushroom is a bit boring. It should be decoration as well as needfull surrounding.


My heart and soul in polymer clay were my mice. So my mushroom had to be strong enough to hold one.



I cut some wire fence and formed it the way I wanted it to be. I covered the ground with all sorts of clay that was lying around and I couldn't use in another way. It was getting really colourful. But I intended to paint it with acrylic paint so that was no problem. My mushroom is made out of Puppenfimo (c) and the capillary out of normal Fimo (c).



The mouse was the easier part. This little chap was in an adventerous mood and climbed onto the mushroom but then he got scared of his own courage and wanted to climb down again. Still looking a bit naked though.



I coloured the mushroom with pastel chalk. Putting chalk on it with a brush and then fixing it. And then chalk again... until it had about the right colour. Adding a bit more decoration... violá: finished mushroom!

My little chap got some black fur. I used some powder that was thought for window colour and clued it simply onto his body. His eyes have some gloss finish and he is ready to see the world!

[sales promotion] This chap is for sale!
You can visit him here: Dawanda
He is ready for the German market, but I will ship him anywhere, so please contact me if interested! [/sales promotion]

Thank you for reading!

The NationalNovelWritingMonth

The NaNoWriMo starts on November 1.
In this month all over the world you might meet people hastily scribbling down notes or working until late at night on the computer. Writing. Writing all month. Because there is a goal. If you manage to write 50.000 words until November 30., you get a reward.

Well, it is a very idialistic competition. A good chance for people who always say: "One day I will write a novel." This is the posibility to push yourself forward and to really sit down and write. Of course you can cheat, of course nobody controls what rubbish you may write down. But winning like that wouldn't be winning for yourself.

I am taking part because I haven't written much over the last few months. I want to get back to my old condition. So I am taking my chance and start writing a novel in November which has been in the back of my head for quite a while now.
I don't necessarily want to reach the goal of 50.000 words, but no matter how far I come it will be a good start! I am optimistic!

More mice!

More mice made out of Fimo settled down in my home. They became more detailed and it was fun placing them in their surroundings. Here I used a wooden tunnel for real rodents from a pet store.

8 white albino mice settled down in this playground for budgies. They were burned in the oven with the whole wooden thing. It was a delicious smell!

Enjoy it!

Dampfnudeln!

One of my favorite dishes!

It is an original southern German dish with its origin in Palatinate. It can be either served sweet with vanilla sauce or hearty with potatoe soup. I love the hearty version! My mum always managed to make a nice crispy salt bottom.

One day I was eager to make them on my own as I don't always have my mum at hand. But she helped me with the recipe.

*****

You need:

500g Mehl/flour

1/2 Würfel Hefe oder 1 Packung Trockenhefe / 1/2 fresh yeast or 1 package of dry yeast

1/4 l Milch/milk

bisschen Zucker für die Hefe/a little bit sugar for the yeast

1 Ei/egg

Salz/salt

50g Butter/butter

Damit eine Hefeteig ansetzen. Make a yeast dough with this.

Den Teig in kleine Kugeln formen, wieder gehen lassen.

Form the dough in small balls, let them rest again.

Öl in Pfanne erhitzen/Heat oil in a pan.

Boden mit Salz bedecken/Cover the bottom with salt.

Kugeln darauf setzen/Put the balls onto this.

3/16 l Wasser/water

Dann Deckel drauf und zulassen!/Then cover the pan and leave it shut!

Jetzt kommt der komplizierte Teil. Du musst den Moment abpassen, wann das Wasser verdampft ist. Sonst werden sie unten schwarz. Als Richtwert braucht es 15-20 Minuten.

This is the tricky part. You must listen closly and catch the point, when the water is gone. Otherwise they turn black on the bottom. It needs about 15-20 minutes.

*****

The bad thing is, I never managed to make smaller amounts. So I always get 8 Dampfnudels. :D But thats not bad, they are really yummy. I even eat them without anything else at all. And even cold on the next day they are good. Next time I will try to fry the left-overs in a pan, my mum said that is yummy too.

New Zealand to drink

Of course I also managed to get hold of my dear New Zealand on some cups. The one above is the first cup I painted and I only had four colors: blue, brown, green and black. I think I got hold of the Cathedral Cove quite good! ;)

This cup is a little bit of everything. I'm fond of my whale's tale and happy that the kiwi looks nice. I added yellow to my colors.

A little hatched kiwi. Nothing more to say. :)

Davidoff (Davy)

January 2008 Davidoff entered my life. He lost his wife out of age and was sitting alone. So I thought I will take him and give him a nice end of his life. His previous owner thought he might be 10-13 years old! A real grandpa! But you can see his age, he does look a bit scruffier than the other two.

But the vet assured me that he is healthy and he just showes signs of age. I had him in the old bird cage and he was very curious. When I let him to the others he was so happy to be able to get close to them! Tommy and Snoopy were not so happy in the beginning. But it has settled down. Sometimes he just watches the others (seems to me to have a satisfied smile) and sometimes he babbles either with Tommy or with Snoopy.

The good thing is: He loves cucumbers! It was a joy for me to watch a budgie creedily eating it! And after a few weeks I also watched Tommy and Snoopy eating it! Good boy Davy!

Tommy and Snoopy

Snoopy (left) and Tommy (right) are a male standard blue and a female purple opalin budgerigar. They live with me since 2002 and are now 6 years old. In the beginning it looked like having two male budgies, that is why Tommy still has her male name.


I did a lot of mistakes in the beginning. After having had a budgie as a kid I thought I knew enough about these birds. Two years ago I started to learn a lot about the appropriate keeping of budgies. I think it is my fault that Tommy can't fly any more and I feel very guilty for that. I try to do everything right now. I started with buying a large cage (it is still a bit too small, but its better for Tommy because she sometimes has troubles climbing long distances), feeding them a good food and giving Snoopy the possibility of flying in the living room every day. He doesn't use it, I think he is too scared... But I know he can still fly, sometimes it just happens... :-)

Tassenmalerei

My cups are dated longer back. I think I got these two gorgeous big ones for my birthday 3 years ago. I used a porcellaine paint that was in a bottle so I could paint with tiny brushes. The final cup is burned in the oven.


I bought an oven thermometer as I started burning more polymere clay things. There I discovered that my oven doesnt reach the temperature he is trying to tell me. I stopped painting cups because I wasnt satisfied with the permanency. I should try again these days with my new knowledge about the oven!

Meine Tassenmalerei liegt schon länger zurück. Diese tollen großen Tassen bekam ich vor 3 Jahren zum Geburtstag. Ich habe Porzellanfarbe benutzt im Töpfchen, sodass ich die Farben mit feinen Pinseln auftragen konnte. Danach werden sie im Ofen gebrannt.

Als ich mit Fimo anfing, hab ich mir endlich ein Ofenthermometer gekauft. So fand ich heraus, dass mein Ofen längst nicht so heiß wurde, wie er mir weißmachen wollte! Ich hab mit den Tassen aufgehört, weil ich mit der Haltbarkeit der Farben nicht zufrieden war. Vielleicht sollte ich die Tage wieder anfangen, jetzt mit dem neuen Wissen über meinen Ofen!

Birth of the mouse

One year ago, this mouse was born. I played around with the German polymer clay called Fimo and found it much nicer to work such little things than with the earth clay I knew until then.

It was great fun! Mouse after mouse was formed and they really spread out!

***

Vor einem Jahr wurde diese Maus geboren. Ich spielte mit Fimo herum und fand, dass es viel angenehmer zu arbeiten war als der normale Ton, besonders für solch kleine Figuren.

Es machte viel Spaß! Die Mäuse haben sich schnell vermehrt!