7 Random People Got My Earrings For Free

Shout out Sunday #8 is hereee and Brittani picked the giveaway winners and will be sending 7 pairs of my earrings (5erg.etsy.com ) to 7 random fans of hers(you can read about the giveaway itself in my last post). Click here to check out her new video.

To enter this jewelry giveaway people had to post random comments under her Shout Out Sunday #7 and there were 16,477 comments posted and the video got 139,674 views in one week! :O And I am telling you one day I am going to read all of the comments to see what everyone wrote. I have already noticed some interesting comments haha :D

Jewelry GIVEAWAY! :)

Seven people get a pair of my earrings from my etsy http://5erg.etsy.com :) The jewelry giveaway is on BrittaniLouiseTaylor's channel on youtube.

To enter you have to comment her video saying 7 random things or post a video response. You have a chance to win one of my 7 pairs of earrings on her Shout Out Sunday nr7 :))) Seven seven seven seven... :))

Comment/rate this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnNx42Ih5ig

These are the earrings she will send you. One screencap got lost somehow so I only got pictures of 6 pairs of earrings haha:

Good luck!:)

Needle Felted Wolf Miniature Doll - Tutorial

Wolf doll made out of lamb wool. Now when I think about it.....don't tell the lamb haha! :X

Some of my felt dolls are for sale here: http://5erg.etsy.com

I guess it's not like a real tutorial but you can see from the progress pictures what I did and maybe it's helpful.

So if you started totally from the scratch with the whole needle felting thing,

YOU NEED to buy/find:

♥bunch of lamb wool (I used light gray, black, white and brown and a little yellow for the eyes. About the prices: Marino wool is the finest quality, it's about 100$ a kilo. Merino wool is great for details but if I felted bigger things with it I would go crazy. Wool with thicker fiber is usually around 40$ a kilo. Cheapest I have seen is 25$ a kilo and that is really really cheap.)

♥needle felting needle (I used the 'thick' one. One costs about 3-6$, 2$ is the cheapest I have seen)
♥hairy craft wire (I used about 40 inches = 1 meter. That was about 3$)
♥wire pliers (I use the tiny crafting ones, but you know, every tool that has a "crafting" or "for jewelry" in it is more expensive. A regular pliers will do just fine too.)
♥needle felting mat (I use porolone they use for padding seats. A regular shower sponge will do too, but it costs more and it's too small and it's usually colorful which can be a problem if you want to felt white things )
♥photo of a wolf (google!)

It took me around 11 hours to finish this doll. The thing about needle felting is that it takes time, but I love making things out of wool because you don't have to think it through that much (like for sewing) and you can pretty much make anything - any shape and you can mix colors and make the ornaments yourself and so on.

PROGRESS

Four step summary:
♥build the wire armature
♥needle felt a thin layer around the wire
♥add muscles
♥add details

Building the armature. I cut 3 pieces of wire and bent them separately. 2 for legs and one longer one for tail-spine-skull. I bent back the tips so they wouldn't be sharp.

Put the legs on the tail-spine-skull wire. Just twisted one piece of the wire around another one.

Took the light gray wool and felted it around the wire. Pretty shapelessly. Try to put more wool where the ribs are.

Continue felting wool around legs and the head. Used white wool for one pair of legs. The wool layer is not very thick, it's just the base.

Covered the tail and the right leg gets the thicker layer of gray wool to build the muscle.

It's still white if you look from below.

Cover the inner side with thicker layer of white wool.

Downside of the tail can have a little white in it too. Also the chest area.

Added more white wool and made the nose and the jaw white.

It doesn't have ears yet or any other smaller details. Some people use a thinner felting needle for details, but I don't think you need one. I think attachments made with the thinner needle aren't that strong. But I guess the thinner needle is OK for making smoother surface for little things.


I think it's good to make animal dolls a little asymmetrical, it gives them a pose and gives a little motion to the miniature.

Added ears. I felted a little gray triangle and added a little black on the tip of it. Then I folded it into and ear and attached to the head. Also added black wool in it's mouth and tip of his nose.



Black base of the nose is connected to the black part of the mouth.

Added black and brown wool to the sides and to the tail. I left some wool partly unfelted to make it look more hairy and fluffy. Especially under the neck and on the cheeks.



Added black base for eyes.

Added yellow eyes and then a little black pupil. Made the eyes thinner so it would look angry.



Added black toes under the paws. If you are looking at the wolf photo time to time you can find new details to add and you don't have to wait until the end to add them. Sometimes just look at your doll and the picture and see what would make your doll have more character or make it look like a wolf.


This is it:)
If you happen to use this tutorial it would be awesome if you showed me your miniature doll and I could add your picture to this post:)

Help Me On Socialvibe:) !

This is how it goes, you join and do activities (answer daily question, play a game etc etc) and this way you collect points. And later the sponsor company donates in real life for the cause you support. It doesn't cost you anything, but real people get real help out of the points you earn! My current cause supports people who suffered from the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Without logging in or joining you can still help me and do these activities on my profile: http://www.socialvibe.com/5erg and come back later, because they add more activities time to time!:)))

If you would like to also join the site, then click here:

Silja invites you to SocialVibe.com

Have a nice day!:)))

Featured Etsyan: Gilliauna

Here is the interview with jewelry artists from http://gilliauna.etsy.com!:) I found their answers really REALLY interesting, I think you will too!:) Here it goes:

Etsy shop: http://gilliauna.etsy.com
Website - http://www.bitsandbeads.com
Twitter - http://twitter.com/gilliauna
Blog - http://gilliauna.blogspot.com

Who are you and what do you do? For how long time?
Bits n' Beads by Gilliauna consists of two crafting friends (and a third that does our math for us!) The answers to the questions are written by Zoie with occasional input from Leal.

Zoie - I'm a 35 year old woman who grew up in Washington state and moved to BC, Canada to live with my husband a few years ago. When I was younger I mentored for pagan parenting but the last few years I've become a social shut-in. I enjoy music, beading, the occasional movie and doing a variety of different crafts.

Leal - Leal is a 21 year old college student in Washington state. Unlike Zoie (who is all over the board when it comes to crafting), he focuses solely on the jewelry-making crafts and techniques. Leal has a twin, and I first met them both when I was contacted to mentor for their family about 12 years ago. Leals sister along with her girlfriend, Heidi, do the mathematics and financial tracking for our shop since neither Leal or I are good with numbers.

What did you do 10 years ago on this day?
Ten years ago I was homeless and living out of my car (and occasionally on Leal's parent's couch).

What do you like?
Chocolate! I like to keep things simple in life. I think it makes my life richer that I am able to do the things I love (like my craft, learning new things, reading and writing, etc) and have found ways to "outsource" the things I don't enjoy.

What don't you like?
Close minded stubborn people. Rudeness.

Where do babies come from?

Well you see, there's this little troll that lives under the couch......

If you could hold one charity event, for what would it be?
Food for the homeless.

Pants or a skirt?
Pants (that goes for both Zoie and Leal)

Tell us about your creative process. Where do you find your ideas and inspiration?
I am drawn to and love color. I enjoy toying with different shades and color combinations. I find a lot of my ideas and inspirations come from that as well as nature and the weather.

After working with Leal for a number of years making jewelry, I know that he too is drawn to nature and color but he often leans towards more earthy tones than I do.

Dogs or cats?
Either.

What is what you haven't done yet but would like to do?
I would love to learn glass sandblasting

How do you gain courage when something needs to be dealt with?
I take a deep breath, shut down my emotions and do what needs to be done.

What is your advice to a seller, shop keeper or blogger?
Selling online takes a lot of work. You have to be willing to put in the time.

That, and... make sure you're using good photographs. If you don't like your pics? No one else will either. So take an honest look at your pictures and if they need to be redone... DO IT.

For bloggers? Add Pictures to your posts. It helps break up the blocks of text so that reading doesn't seem so daunting and the appearance doesn't come off so severe.

Quote to live by?
Zoie's: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience. ~ Teilhard de Chardin 1881 - 1955

Leal's: Never underestimate the power of denial. - American Beauty

Your idol(s)?
I can't think of any.

What would you never do?
I will never eat caviar.

What is "in" at the moment?
Trueblood and Twilight, apparently.

If you were to start a trend what would it be?
Honesty and the art of Being Genuine

Would you like to add something?
I have no idea. I'll just copy my shop info here and you can use it or omit? *Smile*

Bits 'n Beads is an online store ran by Gilliauna that specializes in uniquely beaded and gemstone jewelry and accessories from necklaces and chokers to earrings and bracelets, charms, lanyards, eyeglass chains and more.

Each piece offered on the site is a unique, hand-crafted piece of art lovingly created by Gilliauna to be enjoyed for both its beauty and functionality.

-- Custom orders and lengths are Available --

If you see something you like but the size needs a bit of adjusting, I welcome requests and I'm happy to work with you.

If you would like to order multiples of an item or want different colors of something you see, please convo me. Discounts can be made on multiples.

New items are added daily so please check back often!--

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual." -Arthur Koestler

We Had a Funny Little Guest

I am showing Estonia to our little world traveling doll-meerkat guest. You can read all about the touring meerkat here. The project was started by and the meerkats (there are 2) knitted by Heather Leavers from Niftyknits.etsy.com. Check out her shop, she can knit anything!:)



Comment and rate if you can! :) Thanks!:)

P.s. the thing about the rainbow, I heard it for the first time in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTAtDRGmFs

P.P.s. Thank you, Sandie, for posting my video on Etteam's blog!:)

Random Snow Fun

Walked around for 3 hours and took some pictures. There is a lot of snow this year! Wow, I don't know if I have ever seen January being this snowy. If you look at the first picture you can see how deep the snow is at some places. It's -10C so it's not super cold but I guess it could be warmer haha. It's nice to have proper winter for few weeks :)

Funny Mermaid Doll

Made a new chubby mermaid art doll few days back:))) It is needle felted from lamb wool. I will put it on my etsy shop in a week or so http://5erg.etsy.com.

(if you click on it you get to my DeviantArt gallery)

She has red hair and it's not in spikes and has new type of earrings. I have been planning on making more of these in different looks. I have another one that is currently in my shop:

I'm out of wool currently so I need to find time to go shopping for supplies. Oh I wish they had wool for sale in our town! I think I need to check that too. It's -23C currently so I don't feel like going on random walks and I got my first 2 chemistry exams on Thursday and Friday so I guess I just need to forget about crafts this week.

Are you busy this first week of 2010 or do you have time to enjoy winter (if that is even possible haha)?

Planning on Featuring More Etsy Sellers Soon

I have some features scheduled but I need to check them twice before I can upload, but I will upload them all! :) You can still submit your shop for a feature, see the orange circle on my blog's sidebar for more info:)

Also I want to go out and take some pics but the temperature is too low, my camera's battery can't take it. It's very snowy, for example a friend http://twitter.com/littlefoxphotos showed me a pic of her car yesterday haha :

Also whats new is that I have listed new 2$ earrings, here are some of my favorites. You can click on the pictures to get to the etsy listing:

Talk to you later! :)
-5erg-

Awesome and Shitty of 2009

In January 1st 2009 I had a really good feeling about this year! I felt like it is going to be AWESOME. But it was hard to keep that attitude up and actually it was the total of 45 days in 2009 that were awesome, a bunch of SHITTY days and a lot of time that went by as the GRAY DAYS trying to make even for the 45 awesome days and figure out ways to get money, get healthy or stay in school.

In January I started buying this little monthly crossword puzzle zine and taping a coupon on this form, it's for entering a drawing at the end of the year. It's just something that I did every month and now I can think back at what happened when I look at it, I needed something stable haha. It's a bit ridiculous, I know:P


SO. IN GENERAL:
2009 spring was shitty all the way. Even though my bday wasn't that bad and 2 times more people showed up than I expected/invited, I was really sick and staggered around and I don't even remember most of it.
I almost dropped out of the University because of 0.4 points. I kind of did drop out for a week, but I guess it worked out.
A most awesome person died. I was afraid to tell anyone because it was hard for me, but I didn't have to worry about that because noone who had to know called me for a month.

The first half of summer 2009 was AWESOME, at least the month of June. Hitch hiking around Europe, trying new awesome things like bungee jumping and being on the road outside Estonia and seeing almost all of my personal A list bands performing live.

The second half of the summer 2009 was not great. I was sick for 7 weeks I think, I was hoping I would get better by my own because it was SUMMER, but I didn't. All that time I was trying really hard to make even for the hitch hiking trips. You might think it's cheap even when you camp out on the street and eat a couple of corn bars a day and get free rides, but it's still over my budget lol. In August I got an exciting news though, a local gallery had a free slot for my art show in Sept so I got busy collecting all my paintings back from all over Estonia - I had no time to make new ones with just a month.

September 2009 was AWESOME!!! :))) The thrill of my new exhibition and kind of a random fan painting that was meant for sitting in my drawer for eternity got the right people's attention and it's been some time and it's still out there and people sometimes come to me with their positive thoughts. Also, the open reception to my art show went so much better than I expected! I expected it to be awesome anyways, so I was so surprised it went even better. I got to show off what I have been doing and I think I was actually able to surprise people who already knew me and random people told me they were happy for me:))) And I think some people were proud of me and that's the greatest compliment anyone can give you:))

Autumn 2009 not good. One good person died of cancer and one got really sick. I fricking hate school. I found a subject that I liked though - microbiology lab work. Absolutely no money. Some open doors though and all in all things start to fall in place.

BUT ALL IN ALL:
WITH FEW EXCEPTIONAL MONTHS, 2009 IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE YEARS, BECAUSE A LOT OF GREAT THINGS HAPPENED:) Can't wait to see what 2010 brings us!:) Have a nice New Years Eve tomorrow!:)

Merry Christmas, Dear Blog Reader!:)

Drew a Random Follower and She Drew Me Back!:))

I drew Inamusement

And few hours later she replied me with a drawing of me! HOW COOL :D



If you click on the pictures you get to the dailybooth images.

Featured Artisan: Mrd74

Meet Mike and Dianne Doyle from Mrd74 and see their skull jewelry!:)

Etsy: www.mrd74.etsy.com

Who are you and what do you do? Mike Doyle full time artisan
What did you do 10 years ago on this day? Can't remember that far back wish I could
What do you think about global whining? No to much
What do you like? Self made people
What don't you like? Global whiners
Where do babies come from? My children
If you could hold one charity event, for what would it be? Kids for Cancer
Tell us about your creative process. Happens mostly at night when I should be sleeping
Where do you find your ideas and inspiration? Nature
Dogs or cats? Both
What is what you haven't done yet but would like to do? Teach my grandson my skills
How do you gain courage when something needs to be dealt with? Suck it up an do it
What is your advice to a seller, shop keeper or blogger? Always do you very best and never ever let anyone tell you that you can't do it
Quote to live by? Be nice or leave
Your idol(s)? My son
What would you never do? Lie to my wife
What is "in" at the moment? To me, animal skull jewelry
If you were to start a trend what would it be? Not to carry a cell phone
Would you like to add something? Be nice to others cause karma is a bitch - what goes around comes around I do believe in that
Thank you so much
Mike and Dianne Doyle
Thank you!:)

(Click on the images to get to the listings.)