Julia's craft projects

Creating jewelry, making mosaics or up-cycling clothes is a cool outlet from the everyday routine. I’ve always loved to craft: as a child I made many of my clothes and created lots of handmade presents.  

As a practical person I create mainly functional pieces

• Need a new plant? I glue mosaics to a flower pot for decoration
• Bought a new outfit? I assemble a new jewelry set to accessorize
• Have a boring t-shirt? I crochet a pretty trim as embellishment
• A Holiday is coming? I make a fairy garden to make it more festive

My Inspiration

Inspiration can be anything that “speaks to me”. A cool jacket with interesting fabric or a new building with geometrical lines and shiny windows. My clean and colorful designs are drawn from those.

The exception are my fairy gardens where emotions dictate the outcome: I go back to my childhood and recreate a piece of my grandmother’s garden or the spirit of the Holiday.

Behind the Scenes

For Jewelry and Up-cycling I usually have a pretty good outline of colors and material but it is fluid until I sit down to create.

Fairy Gardens just create themselves piece by piece.

But Mosaics are tougher. Once the glue dries there is not much one can change. So having a pretty good idea is not enough. I need to pull out paper and colored pencil, and sketch different versions before each project.  My design is often guided by what I have available as substrate (material to be glued) and no... breaking a plate from the cabinet to add variety is not a good solution -- although it has happened before.

Mosaics

To this day, most my Mosaic projects are trial and error. Sometimes it can be discouraging as things seldom go as planned: colors don't match or pieces slips off and get glued in the wrong places.

Sometimes the most planned and thought out pieces become, well...blah. And the ones that systematically go "off script" become favorites. Got to love the creative process! And live with the result.

Jewelry

My jewelry making consists of constructing existing bits of chains, pendants and knickknacks collected at shopping sprees and garage sales. I usually think about the design for a few days then assemble them in less than an hour. Easy-peasy!

Fairy Gardens

I love  Fairy Gardens and it is a great family project with the kids. We usually start together and when they get bored I don't wait for the next time. I keep going and finish them by myself. When I look at them, they take me back to worry-free childhood. So cool!

Up-Cycle

I recently started up-cycling boring t-shirts with crochet trims. I attach them to the bottom, front and neckline  for embellishment and personal touch. It is done while waiting in between my kids' activities. 
 

My Model: Izabelle

Anything looks good on Izabelle. So it was was a logical choice to ask her to model.  And she happily agreed...an achievement to get that from a teenager!

My Helpers: Dorian and Attila, the Cat

Dorian is always eager to help. Attila, the cat is also around to check out what is going on. But they both get bored quickly and become passive observers.