Total Art Soul - for artists

I'm delighted to featured this very talented jewelry designer. Huiyi Tan was born in China, was partly educated in the UK, lived some time in the US but is now in Cornwall, UK working on her collections.

Huiyi is an GIA Accredited Jewelry Professional. She was first trained to be an interior designer at college in China, and gained her MA in jewelry design at the School of Jewelry, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design in the UK. After graduation, she lived in America for about 4 years and traveled to the U.K. from time to time. Since June 2010, she has been active in the artisan market as an independent jewelry designer and maker.

Some of the work Huiyi does is research work. She says:

" Because of the open visible space, I chose the ring as my practice and research object. There are three relationships that make these pieces attractive: the relationship between the hand and the form; between the hand and the fluidity; and between the form and the fluidity. They support one another."

You can find more of Huiyi's work here

Welcome to the world of Bonnie Bruno.

She borrows her inspiration from the colors and textures found in nature. Her abstracts begin with an original nature photo which she digitally manipulates, adds texture, and paints with a Wacom Intuos pen tablet. She uses a professional lab for printing on high-quality archival papers.

Bonnie has been prolific in uploading her beautiful photography here on TAS. I always look forward to seeing her work and she surprises me with her creativity and her perspective. Please take a look at her profile here because I know you'll find it a joy.

Bonnie is also a writer of children's books and greeting cards.

Bonnie says: "One of the realities of a writer’s life is that our books don’t last forever. It has been said that the average shelf life of a book is around two years, so it’s every writer’s challenge to keep coming up with new ideas and to not waste time lamenting past projects that are no longer in print. I’ve written devotionals for families; teacher’s object talk books; a family guide to computing back in the early days of the Internet; a Bible study guide that was a finalist for the Gold Medallion Book Award; and a series of historical fiction for middlers. Each has been unique and special, and a joy to write."

You can get more information about Bonnie here

Salt dough is such a versatile medium to work with.  It is really inexpensive and can be made at home and frankly, your creations will only be limited by your imagination. 

Our member TaraDesigns gives you not only the recipe but also shows you how to make a simple star magnet.  You can obviously choose your own designs and let your imagination run wild.

Salt Dough Recipe:

1. 2 cups flour (plain)
2. 1 cup table salt
3. 1 cup water

Optional ingredients: about a tablespoon of oil (vegetable) and you can also use a tablespoon  of lemon juice. The oil makes the kneading a little easier and the lemon juice creates a harder dough in the end.

Tools/Utensils you will need:

1. cookie cutters
2. rolling pin
3. baking sheet/pan
4. wax paper
5. craft paints and paintbrushes
6. something to hold the paint
7. craft glue
8. magnets

You can use just about anything you want to decorate these: glitter is pretty and even swatches of fabric (like a patchwork effect) Go crazy!

Put the flour and salt in a bowl along with any of the optional ingredients and gradually start adding water.  The mixture should not be sticky or too dry. You have to use a little bit of judgement on whether to add more flour (if it’s too sticky) or add more water (if it’s too crumbly and dry).

I like to let the mixture sit for about 20 – 30 minutes in a container before using. You can also make this mixture in advance and leave it in the frig for up to a week and then use.

Get your wax paper out and cut a sheet large enough for you to roll out your dough. Now your going to use your rolling pin and roll out the dough until it is the thickness you need to make a good sized magnet. Half an inch is too thick so go less than that maybe a quarter.

Once you have the thickness you need, get your cookie cutters or whatever you are using and start cutting your shapes.

Leave your pieces on the wax paper and glide the wax paper onto the cookie sheet. This way you don’t have to move all the pieces individually. Now you have two choices: the oven or air dry your pieces. I prefer the oven because it is much faster. Air drying can take up to 24 hours and the pieces do not “plump” or rise when you air dry them. If you want them fairly flat then air dry is best.

The oven can be set from Warm to 200°F. (100°C) It all depends on the size of your pieces. For mine I set it at 200°F and watched it  for about 20 minutes. That’s pretty fast and you have to keep your eye on it so you don’t burn them. Warm to 100°F (40°C) is probably the optimum for the average size (2″ x 2″) for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Test the pieces using a pin or toothpick to make sure they are not soft in the middle. You have to test them because sometimes the edges can get brown and you think they are done and the middle is still soft. Once they are done let them cool for about an hour.

Once the pieces are fully hardened, you are ready to paint. A little note here: you can sand these once they are dry. You can use  sandpaper or even an emery board to get rid of the rough edges. These things get hard as rock once they are fully dried so it is strong enough to handle the sanding.

Get creative and use different techniques of painting on these. This is the best part – you can do whatever you want!

Once your masterpiece painting is dry you can glue your magnet parts to the back.  And voila! You have a Salt Dough Magnet Creation!

 For tutorials on how to market yourself online, please go here: