Thursday 27 August 2009

Our Creative Space...


This week a peek in the urchin factory :) Some people might think that we just find the urchins and then glue them on a ring. The real fact is that the preparations are alot of work, dirty work.
Finding the urchins takes hours, often they still have spines although they are not so strongly attached anymore after they die (of natural reasons, we find them on the beach). Cleaning the spines is often painful and messy as the spines litteraly fly everywhere. Then we fill them with foam, a very dirty difficult job (this is the stage you see them in the pictures). The foam needs to be cut off once dried and then they have to be cleaned thoroughly with all kind of brushes and needles. And finally the epoxy, again a dirty messy job, which takes hours. So it takes alot of work and time till the urchins are actually useable for the things we make with them. Making the jewelry is the fun part :)


You can see more workspaces at Kootoyoo's blog!

31 comments:

  1. What an interestingly beautiful picture. I love the clean look!

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  2. I'm so impressed--I was wondering what they were filled with--this makes them wonderfully stable!

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  3. thank you for sharing that. i was always wondering about how you do it.

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  4. Star, thank you for sharing. I always wondering where you got alla of things. I thought you got them form Izmir. We should go to Bozcaada to get them. They are many many things. I hate when they are black outside:)))

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  5. Star, thank you for sharing. I always wondering where you got alla of things. I thought you got them form Izmir. We should go to Bozcaada to get them. They are many many things. I hate when they are black outside:)))

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  6. Really interesting process!
    Difficulty is part of handmade creations' process, and what give satisfaction! ;D

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  7. Pretty amazing stuff...thanks for sharing some of your process.

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  8. i never doubted for a moment that your sea urchins are time consuming and now i see i was right! the preparation work is often the longest part .. cute photo of them all lined up :)

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  9. ooooh, thanks for this post Estella, it was very interesting! I guess I belonged to the naive part of the world who thinks that urchins lay on the beach ready to make :-)

    Tell me moooreee!!!! :-)

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  10. Oh my...that is a LOT of work!!!

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  11. This looks interesting and fun too :)
    And a lot of work ! Cool pictures!

    Nicole

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  12. Well all i acn say is i admire your hard work! and the end results are so very worth it all x

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  13. Looks not so easy to get ready urchin beads and pendants! Thank you for sharing!

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  14. Wow, thanks for sharing. That's amazing.

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  15. Oh, the urchins look like little mushrooms...

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  16. ooh, so funny to see the foam filled urchins! I do believe it's a lot of work, and you do a great jow, because they look perfect after all the drty work is done!!!

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  17. The pictures look very surreal, Estella !

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  18. Wow! I did not know all the processes involved to get the sea urchins ready for your lovely rings. By the way, I am the very happy owner of one! :)

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  19. Thank you for sharing! This post is really interesting!

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  20. Oh, very interesting! Thanks for sharing this :)

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  21. The picture in itself is a work of art..
    Yes many people little realise how much work goes into creating these handmade beauties ..

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  22. of course it's a lot of work :) only searching for sea urchins takes pretty long, right?
    But all that work is so worth it!!

    Hugs!

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  23. that is a lot of work; but the result is amazing!

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  24. Wow! Very interesting to see the process!And amazings results!

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  25. ...looks really weird but somehow these pictures gave me strong urge to create something! Really inspiring pictures and you ladies make really much work to achieve all this beauty...

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  26. They look soooo cool with the foam!

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  27. OMG, what an excellent creative space!!!! I love to see the urchins all lined up! Thanks heaps for lettin gus hav a peak in your work process! Super! :)

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  28. gorgeous, i love this little urchinfactory!!!

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  29. yeah i've always wondered how you do it, cos urchins are SO dainty! i found a few myself-i love their lacy shells- but they almost never make it back home in one piece.

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