I’ve been choosen to go on a desert Island!
Well, not me but my crochet!
Shaz, on her blog thesockgarden which has fantastic photography of her witty creations in situ, (I mean, whats not to love!)
does interviews with fellow craftspeople and this week spoke to amyorangejuice. I really enjoy reading how other people got started doing what they love and where their inspiration comes from.
One of the questions was:
If you were stuck on a desert island and were allowed to take one new crafting project with you based on something you admire in another shop, what would it be?
Amyorangejuice replied that she would love to master crochet and would like to take something from my shop as inspiration! Talk about chuffed! So thank you Shaz and amyorangejuice, you’ve made my day!
Presents!
Not for me mind!
Do you know, I love being a mum, It really is the best feeling in the world - to say it is all encompassing doesn’t seem to be enough. Nothing at all can beat the feelings of pride, joy and love, nothing. But with every ying there has to be a yang, and boy, has this been a week of yangs!
However, I’ve deleted this post several times now and will not inflict on you my rantings, musings and then platitudes that we all fall back on, what I will do is show you a picture of a few little pressies I’ve made the lovely women folk in my life. Its a rubbish photo, I’m showing it more as a reminder for me, but Aunty Irene, Aunty Marg, Nan and Mum - love you lots!
Must stop experimenting…
I didn’t realise how much of a short attention span I must have, there’s me, complaining about my boys and their severely short attention spans and it turns out they must take after me. This keeping a blog thing has made me realise that I’m great at getting ideas, often turning them into reality (either by mistake or design) but what I am incapable of doing is following them through with further progression - its always onto the next idea.
So no more! I have ‘experimented’ with my last new idea, I am only going to explore ideas I have already set in motion, like this one I started yesterday…
Its made from scraps of Amy Butler fabric I’ve had for a while, a bit of an old dress, an old shirt and a favourite but broken necklace, and of course a bit of crochet, a double shell trim that I extended to fit the flap.
I boxed the corners and lined it with interlining to give it some stiffness so it retains its shape. I’m now envisaging a whole range of them, all the same shape but with different fabrics and crochet bits SO I’M NOT GOING TO LOOK IN OR WRITE IN MY IDEAS BOOK. I’m going to work on this for a while, and my curtain ring jewellery, I think that can go a lot further too.
So it is written down I am only going to work on those two ideas, although its half term next week so If I manage to do anything it will be a miracle!
On a last note, the latest issue of that fab magazine Beads and Beyond has a tutorial for my Miyuki earrings. Those flowers are what I made that evening necklace and my beautiful green bracelet from as well - ooh - another idea I need to pursue…
A cushion fit for a pin
I do think its nice to have nice objects around you, they inspire you, make you smile, remind you of those special moments. I have too many of these objects, I’m a complete hoarder of shells, stones, photos, bits of glass, old cotton reels,prints and of course various crocheted objects! Fortunately for me my boys appear to have inherited this too, much to my husbands annoyance - so not only do we have my special bits, all right, everywhere, so to do we have their equally special objects (though theirs do seam to feature lots of elastic bands…)
I have a range of beautiful crochet hooks, threads and scissors, but looking at my pincushion I realised that it is functional, definately not beautiful.
The perfect excuse to make a new one, though I got a bit carried away with ideas
So these will be going into my folksy shop!
Vintage Lace
No ramblings today, I’m busy making jewellery - new ideas - will post more when I have something to show!
So a nice piccie
Crocheted flowers waiting to go onto hairslides
and a bit of shameless promotion
I’ve put my Vintage Lace bracelet that I made for February’s issue of Beads and Beyond in my folksy shop - its a good Valentines day present!
My stunning new necklace!
You know when the planets aline, the sun is shining, the boys actually listen (okay, scrap that last bit) but when everything works out exactly as you imagined it but better…
Okay, so no one has a green neck but it was the best thing I could display it on, and It doesn’t work so well on the clear vase.
I crocheted 8 flowers in wire, using 2 beads for each stitch on the petals and used the tail ends to stitch them together. It is so light and soft and molds to your neck shape perfectly. I love it - can you tell!
Playing with rings
So I’ve been writing my latest tutorial for Beads and Beyond and basically Its how to cover curtain rings and what you can do with them. I did this a while ago and have had a few bits of jewellery in my folksy shop and some buttons in Claires Buttons in Cardiff.
I’d forgotton how versatile this technique is, and I’ve been using different things to cover like bracelets.
My first experiments:
What do you think?
Still tinkering…and crocheting!
What do you think so far then? I have to say I’m mega impressed with my ability, it did take lots of staring at the screen, copious amounts of shouting at it, a wide range of colourful language and a little bit of wine and some pointers from spoiltcatover on crafteroo - but I think its getting there. I want to try and get a slide show on the right hand side linked to my Folksy shop flashing up images of what I do, otherwise at the minute it just looks like you’ve stumbled upon some random crochet rantings!
I hope to get that sorted at the weekend, absolutely EVERYTHING crossed and every possible good vibe you could send this way will be desperately needed!
In between dipping my toes into code, I have been doing some crochet. I have a craft fair at Brackla in Bridgend next weekend so need to build up my stock.
I’ve been playing with the flower design for the scarflettes and I really like the ruffly aspect to them
And found a nice way to use up some old buttons too.
Well, thats all for now folks, if I don’t delete everything this weekend I’ll see you next week with some new Ideas I’ve been working on with the curtain rings.
Time for a spring clean
17th January 2010
Well, obviously not my house - I can think of a million better things to do with my time - for my website. I’ve had it about 7 months now, a great guy called Dave set it up for me how I wanted, but its time for a change.
So much has happened this last year, I set up a business, opened a shop on Folksy which has actually started selling stuff, I set up this site with a shop and a blog and I’m now writing every month for the magazine Beads and Beyond - who’d a thought it!
So, change. I have to say I do like change, and its time to change this. A bit. I want to keep things simple so I’ve decided I’m only going to sell through my folksy shop and my misi shop, (which I had completely forgotten about), and concentrate on promoting them. So this is basically just going to be a blog with some info down the side (hopefully!). I’ve definitely caught the blogging bug and it has helped me work - writing down ideas and thoughts in one place as opposed to various scraps of paper does help me clear my head and spur others ideas on. Plus I’m thinking about maybe doing some tutorials.
Anyhow I’m going to have a go and if it all dissapears hopefully Dave will find it all again. Cross your fingers I’m going in…
Romantic Bracelet
14th January 2010
Ta-daa!
My latest tutorial - Vintage Lace, a bracelet worked in wire with freshwater pearls, and on the front cover too! (If you squint!) I love this bracelet, it looks complicated but like all good things, is actually quite simple.
So if you fancy a go get the latest Beads and Beyond Magazine, and if you do, let me know, i’d love to see how you get on!
