Category: Nature

Galathite (milk stone)

unikatissima Galathite Milk Stone Button

Links of entry

Once I heard that you can make your own plastic – I’ve been interested immediately ;-))
Further research showed the word ‘Galathite’ and a website with wonderful galathite jewelry.
Needless to say that I wanted to know how to make this myself and I found several tutorials (see links below).
The bottom line is to extract the casein from low fat(!), warm milk by dint of vinegar, to shape it and then let dry.
On the photo you see a button (my first try). I wouldn’t use it, because it can break a little too easily. If I had made it thicker, I think that it could be used.
I sanded and polished it which was very easy. It has a beautiful soft shine (which I couldn’t show unfortunately on the photo).
I didn’t really care about quantities while trying it but even so I’m satisfied with the result. It was also very fast: after about 15 Min. the button moulding blank was ready and could begin to dry.
Best to try it yourself ;-)


Links:
Galalithe: a French tutorial, that I show here, because I like the photos of the work steps best

At instructables:
Homemade Plastic
Make plastic out of milk

Jewelry from galathite

Polymer Clay Faux Ivory

Polymer Clay Faux Ivory

Links of entry

One of the beautiful applications of polymer clay is the imitation of precious materials. Therefore I loved the tutorial on how to make faux ivory.
On the photo you see a pendant with faux ivory I made quite a time ago and I still like the combination of this matte shining black and the pale ivory.


Links:
Polymer Clay Faux Ivory

Nature Paper

Nature Paper

Once I found a tutorial on how to make paper from vegetables, but I don’t find back the tutorial (it was at ARD-Buffet, but it seems to be too long ago).
On the photo you see a card made with cucumber paper for a friend for the end of fast.

How to make cucumber paper:

  1. Cut the cucumber in slices of about 0,5 cm / 0,2 inches.
  2. Put the slices between two layers of tissue paper.
    They must overlap to form a sheet of paper!
  3. Put everything into the microwave and put several plates as weight onto your paper-to-be.
  4. Heat at a high temperature for about 1 minute.
    (Note: Please be careful when using the microwave!)
  5. After 1 minute the tissue paper is wet, you have to change it. Also air the cucumber paper a little bit.

Repeat steps 2 – 5 until the tissue paper stays nearly dry.
Lay between new sheets of tissue paper and between several layers of old newspapers and put some weight on it.
About once a day you must replace the moist tissue paper and newspapers by dry ones.
After 2 – 3 days your cucumber paper is ready for use.

Cucumber seems to be one of the easiest vegetables to be used for paper. You can also use other vegetables, but I haven’t tried them and can’t say, how thick the slices must be and how long it takes.
The paper is real paper: You can write on it, you can cut it and so forth.

Faux Polymer Clay Agate

Faux Polymer Clay Agate

Links of entry

The tutorial on how to make a faux fossilized agatized coral tutorial on how to make a faux fossilized agatized coral was one of the reasons I began to work with polymer clay – and it became one of the first polymer clay canes I ever made.
As seen on the 2nd photo I decorated a jar with this cane which holds a lot of my often needed tools ;-))

Faux Polymer Clay Agate
Links:
Faux Fossilized Agatized Coral from polymer clay
Tutorial moved to: Faux Fossilized Agatized Coral from polymer clay

Polymer ClayCyclopedia: Polymer clay canes description

 

Wrap a Rock

Wrap a Rock

Links of entry

Embellishing rocks seems to be quite popular. Some people paint them, some people embroider them, some people felt them, some people wrap them in lace, some people wrap them in polymer clay, some people crochet them and some people bead them.
And if you want them to be fragrant, check back the previous mentioned Fragrant Rocks.
I never did anything with rocks, because I’m living on sandy ground ;-)
But all those rocks rock ;-)


Links:
Painted rocks (via CraftZine)
Embroidered rocks
Felted rocks
Lace wrapped rocks (via CraftZine)
Polymer clay covered rocks
Crocheted rocks
Beaded rocks

At unikatissima’s:
Fragrant Rocks

Flower Pounding

Flower Pounding

Links of entry

One day I found a tutorial on flower pounding. It sounded strange to me and I was really surprised what people do to innocent flowers ;-) (we have already seen that people stitch flowers).
Anyhow, the results are stunning!
As you can see on the photo, mine aren’t: I pounded on tissue paper in place of fabric and did something wrong. But this experience showed me that I’m not the woman to wallop little flowers ;-))


Links:
Flower Pounding
Inspiration: Google image results for ‘Flower Pounding’

Here at unikatissima:
Stitched Flowers

Stitched Flowers

Stitched Flowers

Links of entry

While I was browsing through the projects of STITCH I found Precious Petals. They ‘glue’ the flowers on fabric and then embellish with decorative stitching.
A stunning idea which is still on my to-so list.



Links:
STITCH project: wonderful projects around stitching (how surprising ;-))