Summer!

Hello there and happy summer!

I am sorry for being so infrequent lately, but I have been really really REALLY busy.

The stuff that I promised to post last time is still on hold, but rather replaced with a little summer celebration (most of it coming to the shop later today).

I hope you enjoy it and that you are having a smashing summer!

 Cheeep! Pendant

Summer in the City Pendant

Summer in the City Earrings

 Marine Burdies Earrings (private collection)

Simple Beach Life Earrings

 Ice-Cream Peacock Ring

Ice-Cream Garden Earrings (sold already)

Wishing for summer breezes...

I have been super busy lately and missing the sun (oh, Holland, why art thou Holland!), so I am just squeezing in two little additions to the shop (later this evening). 

Sunshine, happy chirrups and the sound of rustling leaves:

The multiplying flock of burdies

Loads of burdies followed this one. Only a few will make it to the shop later today, since most are already chirruping away, and some I kept for myself. I think summer sun when I look at them. What do you think?

brooch

brooch (available)

brooch

brooch (available)

brooch

ring

pendant (available)

brooch

necklace

Bird obsession and then some

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, I am heavily into making birds in all sorts of media lately. I therefore present you with a huge big one:

Papier mache, and boy did it give me trouble! I never made anything this big in papier mache and my construction was all  wrong because I was too impatient to start, which is why I didn't think it through. But after two days of struggle it came out as I wanted it and I am happy now. The wings were painted by my boyfriend and are not quite done yet, but I wanted to share ;) He made the table there as well and I am completely in love with it. That too still needs a few touch-ups, but I find it great. Not to mention that it was made completely out of found materials (the sides, for example are made from a doll cradle :)) )

Apart from the huge big burdie, I have been totally fascinated by fibre jewelry as of late and am experimenting with it. A few necklaces are done, but I still need to take pictures, and am working on a painting at the same time (in the next pic you can see how I hog the whole living room with my projects galore :)) )

I am rushing to finish it all up, since I am having house guests for the next few days and won't have time for much else but catching up and having craft unrelated fun. 

Be good and see you soon!

Display your love!

Valentine's is not really big where I come from, but love is always a good topic of creation, so here are a few Valentine's specials fresh in my shop:

Love Birdies Magnet

Love Bug Magnet

Love Birdies on the Wire - magnet

Love is in the air - magnet

Love Connection Magnet

All are polymer clay and acrylics, and some wire. Love bug is my personal favourite, even though I am currently heavily into birdies of all shapes and sizes. Will show you soon ;)

Be good and enjoy!

Buuuuuuurdies!

While dealing with the real life, I have neglected to post the burdies! How could I!

All of them are papier mache and painted with acrylics.

Btw., I would like to offer some of them for sale, but I really have no idea how I would pack them for shipment safely enough (I mean, it's paper). Does anyone have an idea?

Who doesn't love technical glitches!

Aaaaaah, I finally have a browser again!

It was completely uncooperative for two days, and now it's operational again! Woohoo!

However, I was unable to post new jewelry in the shoppe, and also unable to download a huge pile of work that's gonna occupy me this week (of course it arrived when my browser was down!).

In the meantime I finished almost all the burdies, but, naturally, the camera is off with my boyfriend (1,2,3....), so what you get is a crappy picture from my phone camera of some of them and I'll provide better pictures when I get hold of the camera.

Now I have to go and deal with the mundane stuff (urgh) and leave you with the burdies who live on sneakers too, don't you know ;)

As promised...

I was thinking of earrings actually, but, yes, I know, I don't really know what I was thinking...

So, I got a hold of the camera and here are some pics of the other stuff i mentioned in the previous blog post (I know, I know, you are mesmerized by those floaties above, but bear with me):

- packaging and my new DIY stamp! It's a crude one, since I was very impatient to make it (as I mostly am when I want to make something), so it's made from materials I had on hand: a stolen eraser (from my boyfriend. He was nice enough not to kill me afterwards), a piece of wood i cut from something, and a squishy, foamy, double-sidedly sticky something in between that I also nicked from my boyfriend's supplies. My way of making it was very simplified, and I didn't have a carving tool small enough for the lettering, but it was very quick, and I actually followed the rules of sorts. But since this explanation of mine makes no sense whatsoever, I give you a very helpful link (you can skip all the rubber supply stuff in the beginning and just nick an eraser) - there you go.

- Next, I made a lot of burdies! And there are more on the way. I am completely hooked. This is just a sneak peak and I'll show you individual photos when I'm all done.

- And here, my pride and joy (indulge me, this is like a mother loving a complete brat of a child). It is nothing special, but if you read my previous post, you'll know why I am so thrilled with it.

Anyhoo, before I go to ponder on half a dozen sewing, gluing, claying and cooking projects (not all together) that I am itching to do, I leave you with the Threadbanger episode that helped me with this. In case you are of the same crocheting intelligence as I am, I'll add my translation to the "idiot language" below.

So, all you have to know is what a chain stitch and single crochet are (btw. single crochet is the US term, the UK term is double crochet, aaaand, my favourite needlework reference book is a Croatian translation and hence has a term niski stapic bez navoja for it; besides why is it called "single" when you do two loops....and so on and so forth - how could I not cry in despair here!). Ok , so now that you know that, you proceed like this:

- make 8 chain stitches

- connect them in a circle

- 1st (numbers are the numbers of rows) - do single crochet in each stitch twice, so you end up with 16 stitches (double) (count them so you would be sure where you are; I found the "tail" trick mentioned in the episode not very precise)

- 2nd - do single crochet in every fourth stitch twice (now you have 20 stitches)

- 3rd - do plain single crochet all the way

- 4th - do single crochet in each stitch twice

- 5th - do single crochet in every fifth stitch twice

- 6th - do plain single crochet all the way

- 7th - do single crochet in every sixth stitch twice

- 8th - do plain single crochet all the way

- 9th - do single crochet in every seventh stitch twice

- 10th - do single crochet in every eighth stitch twice

- 11th - do single crochet in every ninth stitch twice

- 12th - do single crochet in every tenth stitch twice

- 13th - do single crochet in every eleventh stitch twice

- 14th - do single crochet in every twelfth stitch twice

- 15th - do single crochet in every thirteenth stitch twice

- 16th - now, if the size is good you do plain single crochet all the way here, if it's too small (like mine was) because your hook is smaller than in the episode, or yarn thinner - proceed to do single crochet twice in every fourteenth stitch here, every fifteenth in the next row and so on, until you have the desired size

- do as many rows of single crochets all around as needed for the desired depth

- when you reach the desired depth - skip every 4th stitch

- final row - skip 2 stitches every 4th stitch and when you reach the end of the row, you are done (for me, at this point the opening was a little too big, so i proceeded to skip 3 stitches every 4th stitch, and so on until I had it right).

I hope this helps a little, and hopefully no one who CAN actually crochet is reading this and dying a little with every line, but rather laughing their heart out (I mean, come on! Just look at those sperms up there!) :-D

See you soon and be well in the meantime!

Winter's mix'n'match

Hello there! Still busy here and slightly disoriented. Too many things to do, or too big of a to-do list forming in my head. Either way, I have been jumping from one thing to another and employing most of my crafty abilities. Tadah - I present you with some of the results:

1. This is something I am very pleased with. I loved both materials so much, and already had this jacket in my head, so I decided to make it a reversible one. Also, neither of the materials alone would carry off the shape I had in mind, so reversible jacket was the perfect solution. This for me was a triumph of sorts - first of all, I sew by hand, second, I tend to make mistakes in sewing since I am impatient, but this one went smoothly all the way!. All in all, I am very pleased. The brown side is woolen, and the red is the most gorgeous deep red heavy cotton. Yaay, I have a new jacket!

2. J. and I made Christmas cards for friends and family (and are now procrastinating sending them. Note to self - send the darn cards!)

3. I made papier mache birdies for house decoration. I have another one in mind, and it's supposed to be huge.

4. Other than these, I have almost finished a new batch of jewelry that will soon find its way into my shoppe. And having mentioned the shop - DaWanda is having a Christmas discount on the 17th and 18th December (tomorrow and Friday), so feel free to visit my shop and get yourself or a loved one some Christmas goodies ;)

Oh, and I have a new fan page on Facebook. Drop in and have a look!

See you soon!