Lichen, moss, and making things

I am still as obsessed as ever with all things botanical.  I took the most truncated vacation ever, and, as it was me on vacation, spent a significant portion hunting for lichen to use in future terraria.
I have also had this long-term plan/goal, to make lighting around my terraria, and I’ve been playing around with a bunch of different concepts.  I’ve built some pieces, created elements, but haven’t quite created anything I feel represents what I see in my head.
BUT I had a thought while I was on vacation, and when I returned, started working on it.  I just completed it, after a bunch of experimenting.  Lots of cutting glass, applying chemicals, applying more chemicals, changing techniques, and I quite like what I’ve made now.  Here it is! My phone is pretty abysmal and ancient, so photos are not great, but I’m pleased with how the lantern came out.  It’s a bit hard to see the reflective nature of the floral pattern on the glass in the photos, I’ll take others somewhere down the line.  I’m looking forward to playing with the techniques more to create more pieces.  Yay for being in a creative period!

Etsy Gift Cards are Here!

Bienvenue, folks!

If you have a wonderful group of friends with diverse and quirky tastes like I do, you’ve probably been there.  A birthday rolls around, an engagement party, a baby shower.  You know that busting out the Target gift card or the generic bath-salt/foot scrub set as a gift for this particular friend just won’t cut it.  You want to give them something super-cool and unique but, alas, the risk is purchasing something that will result in an awkward, blank stare or expression of horror.  A gift that they awkwardly push aside and you inherently know they just don’t like.  Unique gifts can also mean you just plain get it wrong, and end up with something that originated in the best of intentions, but landed in future-re-gift territory.  But now, Etsy has a solution!

Introducing, Etsy Gift Cards!  Now, you can purchase a site-wide gift card on Etsy, that can be used in many of Etsy’s shops (all shops that feature Direct Check-out, which Hieropice does!).  Now, you don’t have to know EXACTLY what that quirky/custom/unique/one-of-a-kind gift your bff wants is ahead of time, you can let them choose for themselves!  And, your sister can get a custom-made nursery-sign for her baby-on-the-way without giving away its gender before it’s born.  It’s all kinds of neat.

I have a good friend who was recently engaged and is definitely an off-beat bride, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, think of what to get her to celebrate her engagement.  She had pinned all kinds of Etsy items to her Pinterest wedding board, but I didn’t know if she actually WANTED that bright purple flower/feather fascinator for her wedding, or just thought the concept was cool.  Now, you can avoid the dilemma I had, and get your independent-thinking friend an Etsy gift card, and let her deck her whole bridal-party out in purple fascinators if she wants to!  I am so excited about the gift cards, and pretty much all of my family-members can expect one in their Xmas stockings this year!  You can read more about the details here, and purchase the gift cards at etsy.com/giftcards.

 

Happy shopping!

Dara