SOFT FOR SPIKES

Ohh baby, am I branching out or what?? Little Miss I-don’t-do-fabric is doing fabric!

I was inspired by a few crafters on Etsy after a friend of mine bombarded me with pincushion links. Now, I’ve never really considered myself in need of a pincushion, but after one too many stab marks on my thigh after popping my working needles into the bean bag, then getting up for a cuppa, then sitting back dow…OUCH! You get the idea.

The major benefit is that they are so versatile! What is a pincushion for one person is an ornament for another, or a sock scenter, or a combination of all 3! I’m still playing with the designs and construction, but what do you think so far?

I’m frightened of felt and fabric. It doesn’t behave the way I expect it to, and to be honest I feel like it has been done to death. What possible new creation could I come up with? Even the owl above is pretty much ripped out of a ‘cut and assemble’ kids workbook. Still, it is something different and there is something reassuring about knowing that if you need to have a pincushion, it is within your capabilities to assemble such a tool

Now I just have to figure out what goes inside the needle sharpeners, and I’m all set!

CUNJEVOI QUESTION

I’ve been crafting without direction. I’ve been merrily stitching away only to find that I’ve made a whole bundle of things I have no idea what to do with. First they were going to be magnets, then part of a necklace, and now I’m just not sure what they’ll be.

Ideas welcome, otherwise they might be doomed to life in the UFO basket, and that is a cruel, cruel fate.

These are my “cunjevoi” cabochons.The cabs are glass blobs from my fishtank and the weaving is a mix of Matsuno, Olaf and Hot Spot seed beads.

These are two on my “MOP drops”. The cabs (and we’ll just call that to save making up something fancy) are the mother of pearl teardrop beads that I bought at the Bead & Gem Show. I’m not 100% happy with these, but then I’m not a fan of cream and white. The beads are Matsuno, Empire (so I think Czech?) and Delica.

I confess,I adore making bits and pieces. It is nice to have something finished and functional too, but these are brill for that almost-instant gratification you sometimes crave.

LITTLE PINK ROO

Yesterday was Craft Day. Once a month I invite my crafty girlfriends over and we sit about nattering and stitching and flicking through various books and magazines looking for inspiration. It is essentially enforced downtime. Even if the world is falling apart and I haven’t so much as looked at a diamonte or a scrap of felt all month, I have at least one day when I can craft away guilt-free.

Which is good, because I’ve been suffering from craft guilt.

The butterflies below are done, but I am SO over green and red that it has taken me forever to get around to completing the matching necklace. I had serious crafter’s guilt, I didn’t want to do *that* project but I also didn’t want to avoid it and so every time I sat down to work on something else, my ideas just dried right up. I was so overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of UFOs surrounding me that my mind turned to bead static. I couldn’t even stretch myself far enough to decide on a design for the matching necklace!

It just so happened that, while I was looking through my un-everyday bead necklace box, I came across a version of the diamond chain necklace that I’d done a long time ago. BINGO! My brain static vanished almost instantly and I found myself beading away. 4 hours and a few cuppas later I am done with mind-numbing festive colours! Hooray!

The problem with releasing your crafter’s guilt is that it tends to stuff your plans for future projects into its little guilty suitcase as it is running out the door. I put down the necklace and was immediately blank.

Thankfully my wonderful Prince Somewhat-Charming reminded me of a gift I’d been making for a friend’s dog, the little Italian greyhound, Rou. I started this project in early August and it has been sitting on the loom ever since. So last night, still on my crafty high, I dragged in my boxes of leather and pulled out my toolkit and finished the collar for little Rou. My fingers are burning from all the saddle stitch and I’ve been severely over-pinked, but it is done I wasn’t sure about it halfway through, but now… now I love it!

It is made with matte pale pink and fuchsia Japanese seed beads, pink kangaroo hide, and dark pink embroidery thread, and is finished on the ends with two D rings. These are a fantastic style of collar for sight hounds as they are wide and gentle to protect the throat and have a mild choker action so they don’t slip straight off the dog’s head. A sight hound’s neck and head circumference are frustratingly similar, so ordinary buckle collars have an annoying habit of slipping off at inconvenient moments!

It is only the prototype, but overall I’m pretty impressed with how it has turned out. There are a few small things I’d change for the next model but I think little Rou will like it anyway.

MADAME BUTTERFLY

I am SO bored with butterflies.

It isn’t that I don’t enjoy making them, they are fun and challenging and great increase/decrease practice, but after 3 and a half of the little devils it becomes a bit mind numbing.

So here is my little butterfly brain-numbed question for you Which would look better against black hair? The green butterfly with the white wings, or the white butterfly with green wings??

See, I don’t really like the white-winged butterfly because it would really only go with the recipient’s school uniform, whereas the green winged butterfly goes with the uniform and possibly other outfits. The problem with it is that dark green and black look very similar and it may have the undesirable appearance of little skeletal spiders perching on the wearer’s pigtails, and I can’t see that being a good look. The white winged creatures, on the other hand, may look somewhat like pieces of copy paper.

So what is the go? White winged or green winged? Opinions please!

After this, no more butterflies for a loooong time.

BABY DID A BAD, BAD THING

Ohhh dear.

“Good morning, welcome to the bead and gem show. One adult? No problem, here’s your ticket and you can check your self-control at the cloakroom over there! Have a great day!”

Great day, but oh deary deary me. Budget? What budget?

I went bead crazy! I spent all day playing with strings of pearls and tiny findings and making a wishlist of artisan glass beads for particularly weak moments in the future.

Why would I buy egg yellow glass drops, I hear you ask? Well because they match my egg yellow and cornflower blue fish… Totally sane purchase. And all the flat beads? Well they are to cab The er, the hot pink bead and the bag of gold coloured daisy spacers are a bit iffy, but everything else is totally necessary. Yup. Necessary.

And want to know the best bit? I got a wee bit published! My section of the beaded link was photographed for this issue of Creative Beading! It isn’t a magazine I normally buy (kudos to Aussie mags and all, but it just does nothing for me) so when I went to buy the raffle tickets and someone pointed it out, I rushed right over to the stand to get me a copy. It is a small deal in the scheme of things I suppose, seeing as a lot of people get tutorials and pieces published all the time, but I’m one super-chuffed little bunny

To be honest though, the best bit was coming away inspired. I have a whole bundle of new toys and a whole bunch more people to talk beads with. There are ideas and projects bouncing aroud in my head, a million and one designs and constructions, and I’m just dying to get moving with them before the humdrum rhythm of everyday life takes over and saps my creativity once again.

So enough with this blogging, show me the beads!

*totters off to make something snazzy*

BEAD & GEM SHOW!

I’m off to the the beadies, the beadies from all over Oz!

I am SO EXCITED! the 2007 Sydney Bead & Gem Show is on again, and I can’t wait!

 

I have my baggie of half finished “I just need a…” projects and very long shopping list, complete with blank lines so that I can write in any extra purchases after the fact. It is a rather long list, but I doubt I’ll be able to find everything that I’m after anyway, and there is no harm in just writing things down, right?

This show is a bit special to me as there is a collaborative work up for auction with my name on it. About a year ago, Metamorphi from the beading forum came up with an idea for a piece of wearable art jewellery that would travel around the country and be added to as it went. I was beader #3 and even at such an early stage it was obvious it was going to be a lovely piece. Part of the way through the process, the travelling began to take its toll and the piece was then shipped back to the co-ordinators for some much-needed maintenance. Contributions were then made separately and posted through to be joined to the main piece.

 

See the little tube looking thing on the right? That is my piddly contribution to the whole effort, somewhat paled in the presence of such gorgeous organic freeform work, but hey, I’m just chuffed to have been involved! The piece is being raffled off to raise funds for breast cancer research, and the other prizes are fantastic too! Check it out here at The Beaded Link website. I have my eye on some beads by Anne, they are just gorgeous! It was a fantastic experience, and I really hope whoever ends up with the piece treasures it always.

So tomorrow I’m off to see the finished piece in the wild, and do a teeeny tiny spot of shopping….

WHAT’S ON THE GO – THE BEADING LIST

Well, here it comes. The dreaded list of UFOs. It will take its rightful place in the sidebar shortly, but I thought it deserved a post of it’s very own.

• herringbone fringed garden bracelet – started over 2 years ago, and periodically worked on until my brain succumbed to fringing boredom. To make it even more painful, it is all cheap silver lined beads, and I really hate silver lined beads.
• cabbed mirror necklace – started about 12 months ago, and intended to be a thick choker with little morror ‘barnacles’, but then I decided I didn’t like the morrors, or the idea, and I’m now left with a bunch of cabbed mirrors.
• beaded bead pendant – I love this bead, and therein lies the problem. I’m too nervous to make anything with it in case it becomes less spectacular.
• draught horse browband – it would take to long to explain what is wrong here, so the plan is to just take it apart and redo it.
• trippy amulet bag – It started off as zig zags, and then I tried to add some celtic knotwork, but settled on diamonds instead. Yet another long running project with no clear direction, at least it has a back and front now I suppose.
• celtic knotwork bag – see above. This one doesn’t necessarily have to be a bag, but it is very floppy bead fabrick so I’m not quite sure what else it might become.
• roo collar – this one is hush hush, but a lot of fun! It is still on my loom and awaiting some nice buckles.
• celtic snails loomwork – still on my loom and considering becoming a collar for the upcoming Bead & Gem show in Sydney. Then again, it might become a bracelet, who knows?

HELLO CRAFTY WORLD!

So here it is.

This place has been a long time coming.

For the last six months or so, I’ve been talking about getting a craft site. I wanted something snazzy, something full of pictures and tag clouds and that welcomed people in with wide open arms. The problem with thinking big, however, is that nothing ever gets done about it. The whole concept becomes so overwhelming that is is all too easy to put it off completely. If you can’t do it right, why do it at all?

And that, dear friends, is how I’ve ended up with a cookie-cutter blog.
It isn’t big and snazzy, is about as welcoming as a buttered Salada, and will probably argue with me at every turn, BUT it is done. I can now rabbit on about my various UFOs and WIPs and the ins and outs of being a creative soul with a serious instant gratification kink and an overwhelming urge to possess all things small and shiny.

So why a blog?

Well, about 3 months ago I had a lightbulb moment while wandering around an art and craft shop hunting for marbling inks. I’d just been to a craft department shop and bought 4 rubber stamps, and I had no idea why. I mean, I do rubber stamp, but I definitely don’t do it enough to warrant buying 4 more. I have an astounding array of craft tools and materials that I hardly ever use! What good is it to have so much stuff if you don’t use it?

So I decided then and there that I would start a website.

This website is going to be my kick in the pants to get creative.

Stick around, this is going to get interesting. You have a chance to be vicariously crafty and, if I’m a slacker, score some of my stash before it takes over the house. As always, there will be a catch, but never fear for it’ll be a suitably crafty one.

So hi, hello, and welcome to yet another crafty blog.