Evolution of a design

If you are a rainbow loom crafter, I'm sure you came across loads of Youtube tutorials to make little animals in rubber bands. After training with those, I decided to make my own kawai critter. On the right you can see the final cutie bear. Change the ears and you get a rabbit or whatever. I have to say the quality of the elastic bands play a big role on the final look.

I'm planning on writting a tutorial, when I'm sure of the design. Below you can see the different attempts.

-------------------------------------------

Si vous utilisez un rainbow loom, je suis sure que vous avez utilisé les différents tutos sur Youtube. Après avoir fait mon apprentissage, j'ai décidé de faire mon propre bonhomme super kawai. Mon préféré est cet ours blanc. En dessous vous pouvez voir les différentes variations. Notez que la qualité des élastiques est importante pour le rendu final. Je compte écrire un tuto prochainement.

Spiderman, rubber Spiderman...

One of the first rubber characters I made with my rainbow loom is Spiderman for my man. This is why it has a keyring thingy already ! And you can make your own with the tutorial here.

------------------------------------------

Un des premiers bonshommes faits avec mon rainbow loom est Spiderman pour mon homme, c'est pourquoi il a déjà un porte clef dessus ! Tutorial ici.

Own design rubber mouse and bear

You know the drill.

phase 1 : Learn the technique. And if you get cute little characters in the process,it's even better.

phase 2 : Create your own. Of course, it's the fun part, but also you can't stop wondering if others haven't come up with the same thing just five minutes before you. It's the joy and problem of the internet :great access to loads of ideas, but it feels everything has been done already.

Anyway, I decided not to let it ruin my fun, especially when I make little creatures I will have to be a heart of stone not to let my grandma adopt some of them.

If you follow my blog since some time, you might have noticed I love little cute things. So of course my animals are minimalistic. There are also technical constraints : I would need loads of white rubber and other neutral colours, when in shops you mostly get rainbow neon colours. As one animal requires more than 50 rubber bands...you can do the math yourself.

Also, these are destined to be keyrings or charms. And you don't want anything too bulky for that. Small is better. So here I present to you.... Mini mouse and mini bear (looks a bit like an ewok too)

Voici 2 de mes petits animaux que je viens de créer avec des élastiques et un rainbow loom, une souris et un ours, qui demandent plus de 50 élastiques ! mais ils sont tout petits....

A tree of rainbow loom critters

Once again, I left this blog silent for a long while. Can't be crafty and showy all the time. Unless you've been living into the wild for over a year, I'm sure you are aware of the rainbow loom phenomenon. Personally, I first saw them at the supermarket in May or June, and I have to admit I was tempted, very tempted. I love to try new crafts. But then it seemed to be making rubber bracelets,and so I thought it was a bit expensive just for that.

But then mid July I got a loom half price. It's the summer holidays, I wanted something new to do, etc....

Phase 1 :Interrogation.

 How does it work ? Note that in France you mostly get the cheap versions of the loom, and the instructions were written so tiny in foreign language that I had to go to the web directly.

Phase 2 : Disappointement.

Instructions are all YouTube videos. I love diagrams and written instructions. Videos take too much time, pausing and waiting for video lags.... And the bracelets I made, when I managed something that doesn't unravel on its own, were a bit disappointing. Too large or dodgy. I like the inverted fishtai design, but that's about it.

Phase 3 : Go beyond the bracelets.

This is where my good old friend Pinterest got handy. I wanted to see what could be done with rubber bands and loom. And I discovered the cute critters. It was hard to master, I spent a lot of time following YouTube instructions, but here they are !  I have to make some more, and try and design my own, like the pink rabbit.

Hours of concentration and fun coming my way !

------------------------------------------

He oui, moi aussi je me suis mise au rainbow loom, après avoir résisté vaillamment 2 mois. Au début ce fut difficile, avec les instructions en microscopique et langues bizarres, mais les videos de youtube aident bien. Je ne suis pas fan des bracelets, du coup j'ai du vite chercher ce qui se faisait d'autre grâce à Pinterest. Et me voilà avec mes petits personnages, qui rappellent les amigurumis !

Hospital for Father's day

No, my dad is fine... But I made him a special polymer clay gift for Father's day.... He collects doctors, being a doctor himself. And for his birthday in April, I made the little Fimo doctor key ring. So this time, I made a mini hospital in polymer clay on a jar. It's similar to the house I made before, but with a lid. So I filled the jar with the homemade oatmeal cookies my dad likes.

---------------------------

Non, mon papa va bien, mais je lui ai fait un mini hôpital pour sa collection de docteurs en fimo sur pot en verre. Et j'ai rempli avec mes biscuits à l'avoine.

more fimo stuff

This month I created quite a few little things in polymer clay.

Here is woodpick holder for Christmas

And I made charms, even a dust plug cat for phones !

DBF playing guitar in clay

DBF is back full speed on his guitar playing, singing.... so I made a mini-him in polymer clay. May I add that the guitar is a nightmare to make? The picture is big, but it's real size is 3cm tall.

Listen to his music on YouTube.

-----------------------

DBF est de retour avec sa guitare, le chant, etc.... Du coup j'ai fait un mini-lui en fimo. Je dois dire que la guitare est hyper dure à faire..... Surtout que le tout fait 3cm de haut.

Ecoutez ses oeuvres sur YouTube et si vous êtes du côté de Tournai (Belgique) et Peck, venez à la Ducasse de Pentecôte d'Herinnes à la maison de Léaucourt le 9 juin. La scène ouverte est de 12h à 14h.

Three little snowmen....

Snowmen are some of my favourites for Christmas. We rarely have snow in december (or ever !) here, so I have to make them in polymer clay ! And they last longer....

These are tiny, about 2cm tall....

---------------------------

J'adore les bonshommes de neige, et comme on n'a jamais de neige par ici, ou rarement, il faut bien que je les fasse en Fimo ! En plus ils restent plus longtemps....

Ils sont très petits, à peine 2cm de hauteur....

Little house photophore

I used Pinterest a lot lately. It's great to collect ideas, and keep them organised. That's how I found this little jar house. And I had to make one for myself, it will be lovely as Christmas decoration ! Because I will put a candle in, I added tiny holes here and there....

Don't hesitate to visit my Pinterest here.

--------------------------------

J'utilise pas mal Pinterest. C'est super pour découvrir plein d'idées, et les garder bien rangées. C'est comme ça que j'ai trouvé ce photophore maison. Et il a fallu bien sûr que je m'en fasse un absolument, cela sera du meilleur effet à Noel....

Venez me voir sur Pinterest ici.

fimo doctor

Hum, looks like I'm not cooking as much as I used to.... Mostly because cooking, and especially baking, means eating high cal food. And we are too fat already. But I still make one chocolate pie a week for DBF, on Fridays. And over Easter holidays I made one pie a day, because we had so many visits.

Now, the latest craft is.... polymer clay. Two years ago, I made a few little things. And I wanted to make little characters for the next Christmas fairs. I think I could make satisfying cute critters in little time. If you think an amigurumi is taking me about 2 hours minimum....

Also, I already have the Fimo. And I have to say it's a high quality product. Think about it : I bought the clay more than 5 years ago, and it's still as good as new. Some need a bit of conditionning, but they are still usable.

I have been thinking about making stuff out of Fimo for some time, but what started it was my dad's birthday. He collects doctors figurines, so I made one for him. And I turned it into a key ring, so he can carry it around everywhere. More soon....

---------------------------

Il semblerait que ma phase cuisine ait été de courte durée. Principalement parce que si on fait de la cuisine, et surtout des pâtisseries, il faut ensuite les manger, et on est déjà trop gros. mais je continue à faire une tarte au chocolat chaque vendredi pour DBF, et pendant les vacances de pâques il a fallu faire quasiment une tarte par jour pour les visites, etc....

Le craft du moment est.... Fimo. J'en avais fait un peu il y a deux ans, mais rien depuis. On peut dire que c'est un produit de qualité, vu que j'ai acheté les pâtes il y a plus de 5 ans, et elles sont comme neuve. Parfois un peu dure et friables, mais c'est pas grave, on les récupère bien.

Je pensais faire quelques petits bonshommes pour les futurs marchés de Noel. Quand on voit qu'un amigurumi en laine me prend plus de deux heures à faire, en comparaison, je devrais aller plus vite.

Je pense donc à la chose depuis un certain temps, mais je n'ai vraiment commencé que pour l'anniversaire de mon papa. Il collectionne les figurines de docteurs, et donc je lui en ai fait un en porte clef.

Plus bientôt....