Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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These photos show my table at Anime North in May 2017. They had a Crafters Corner section where you could sign up for a table and sell your hand-made crafts.

For Anime North, I tried a few new ideas. In these photos (and below), you can see my Panda buttons — pins with Panda faces made from... buttons! I also decorated wooden boxes with Kabuki faces and jewelry bits.

I like to combine Steampunk metals, bright crystals, and odd bits. I rarely make things exactly the same way twice. But some of my binary, or typewriter key earrings are identical.

I bead in Mississauga (just west of Toronto) in my copious spare time. ;)

So far, I've only shown/sold my beading at: Anime North in May 2017, FanExpo in September 2015, Detcon1 in July 2014, SFContario 4 in November 2013, Steam on Queen in June 2013, and SFContario 3 in November 2012. All events except Detcon1 were in Toronto. Detcon 1 was in Detroit.

Below is a small gallery of some of the items that I've made.

Panda Buttons/Rings/Charms:

I've been collecting buttons at a furious rate. Too furious. So, now what to do with them?

My first idea was to turn the shiny white ones into pandas. Here are some early efforts before I applied the gloss varnish. My panda-drawing skills needed some more work... but the idea was to make them into pins by getting pin backs or into rings by getting some ring blanks, or into charms by attaching them to a bezel. I was off to Michael's again!

Kabuki Boxes:

I started with some nice wooden boxes of different sizes and shapes that I bought at thrift stores. I cleaned and/or painted them before I embellished them. I glued the Kabuki faces and the broken jewelry and single earrings to them.

Here are the finished boxes:

Some recent creations:

I like making new pieces by pulling apart jewelry I find in thrift stores and re-combining them with new or old chains, pendants, drops, etc.

Earring Wires:

I've replaced all my "silver" wires with raw surgical steel, which is hypo-allergenic.

Any of the "goldtone," "brass," or "copper" wires are base metals, and are not allergy-free.

Hell's Bells! The winter equinox is almost here...:

And nothing says Festivus like jingle bells! And skulls! And evil eyes!

Here are earrings that can also ring in the new year!

I found some black and white bells that look kinda classy. Plus they go well with the cute penguins. (Fear the Penguin!)

You can also use them to frighten bears on Mt. Fuji! True story!

Horror Jewelry:

More coloured stone skulls...

On the left are earrings made from two red skulls with red drops from a broken rosary. I made these and gave them to a poet friend.

I have an affinity for "horror" jewelry (as well as science-fiction, fantasy, and steampunk jewelry). I like the horror element in the design to sneak up on you. And I like it to look classy. But not too classy. :)

You'll find skulls, skeletons, and spiders combined with a bit of colour in beads and crystals. The skeleton is actually pretty long, so there's no additional bead on it.

The octopus could go in all the genre categories. It's a versatile cephalopod.

Fantasy Jewelry:

Here be dragons and dragonflies, mermaids, butterflies, bees, owls and other birds.

This is a big catch-all for subjects that aren't science fiction and yet aren't quite steampunk either.

I especially like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. And he's two sided, so you can have him facing in two different directions.

Steampunk Jewelry:

I love metal beads and findings! But they don't love everyone. Many people are allergic to the amalgam of metals that go into ear wires. I now have a supply of raw surgical steel wires, but they look kind of odd with earrings that aren't silver-coloured. So, for the copper, brass, and other non-silver-metal earrings, I'll still be using matching wires that are not hypo-allergenic.

Steampunk jewelry is really cool to make. I love finding metal junk at thrift stores that can be turned into jewelry. Combining metals with crystals evokes The Time Machine to me. A Victorian look to science and technology. See my green binary earrings below.

Science Fiction Jewelry:

Some robots, flying saucers, rockets, planets, etc.

Adult-Sized Rainbow Loom Bracelets:

I've been trying out the Rainbow Loom and making bracelets. I bought two looms so I could join them together and make adult-sized bracelets.

What I like about the Rainbow Loom is that guys will wear these bracelets. I made one with black elastic, some skulls, and gold beads. I sold it at SFContario 4 before I thought to take a picture of it. Below is a more recent skull bracelet. The bands that look white in these pictures are actually glow-in-the-dark.

These bracelets are closed with jump rings rather than plastic "C" clips. I think there's less likelihood of them coming apart this way.

You can email Carolyn Clink at: carolyn@sfwriter.com.

Check out Carolyn's embryonic web site at sfpoet.com.

More Good Reading

More about Carolyn Clink

Carolyn's Afterword to Tesseracts 6

My Very Occasional Newsletter