Year of Craft - the return...

No, dear reader, your eyes do not deceive you. It is I, Kats. And surprisingly, I am not doing this for a bet either. No, I am back to blog about ... stuff. In this case, crafty stuff.

I'm having another year of craft. I've got a few things that I want to try and some others that I want to revisit. I also want to get more jewellery made and sold, which means sorting out shops and websites and other various things.

But for now, I'm keeping this short and sweet and giving advance warning of more regular posting. Hopefully.

There's a new crafting magazine in town...

And it's really rather good.

From the lovely folks at the Crafter..oo forum, the new magazine contains a whole host of crafty goodness. Loads of projects - paper roses, wrapped bangles, felt fortune cookies, dorset buttons, and a huge amount of other interesting features.

I have even written a little something for it too.

So, go on, give it a go. Click on the button below to go straight there!

Button Swap - part the first

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been taking part in a craft swap, the theme of which is buttons. All organised by the lovely and fragrant Kitty Ballistic.

Where craft swaps are concerned, I normally get all fired up, then forget about it and then spend the last few days before deadline fleeing about like a headless chicken. Fortunately, this one was different. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and gave myself a bit of a challenge in adapting a chainmaille weave.

My partner was Vonnie of BlottedCopybook fame, who you may remember organised the first swap I ever took part in, the tea swap. She's received her goodies, so I won't be spoiling the surprise by showing you what I sent.

Firstly, the bits I made - a chainmaille bracelet and necklace.

From ButtonSwapJune11

From ButtonSwapJune11

I've had those 'pin-up' buttons for ages and hadn't the first idea what to do with them. I thought they'd be perfect candidates for incorporating into chainmaille, and, though it took a bit of doing (and about a month's supply of swears), I think they turned out pretty well. The bracelet is a slight variant of Helm Chain and the necklace is a Japanese hexagonal weave, all in anodized aluminium.

And now for the goodies and craft supplies.

Buttons!

From ButtonSwapJune11

From ButtonSwapJune11

From ButtonSwapJune11

Many, many buttons, with a bead or three thrown in for good measure, not to mention featuring the cutest buttons in the world. *squeal*

From ButtonSwapJune11

Ahem, yes. Back to matters in hand. I also included some sugar shapes (which did include buttons) a box of Chocolate Buttons from Hotel Chocolat.

From ButtonSwapJune11

From ButtonSwapJune11

The only thing I couldn't manage to fashion from buttons was the card, but it was near enough, featuring as it did some 'button'flies. *waits for groans from the audience*

From ButtonSwapJune11

So, there you have it, one craft swap successfully completed. Bring on the next one!

From ButtonSwapJune11

From ButtonSwapJune11

I have heard from Vonnie that my parcel has been delayed unavoidably, but I am being very patient, as I know it'll definitely be worth waiting for.

A big thanks to all the crafter..ooers involved and to Kitty for being such a fab organiser. It's been a blast!

Yes, yes, I know...

I've been very very very lax with my blog-updating. Incredibly so, in fact.

But, I am back (though this is just a teeny-tiny post) and will be trying to update things more regularly.

So, what have I been doing? Well, the chainmaille is still going great guns and it's still an absolute obsession. I recently had a problem with my hand and my first thought was not 'Oh no, how will I manage at work?' but a complete panic about not being able to do more chainmaille. I think my priorities are probably about right there!

I've been learning some more weaves, so I've got quite a few under my belt now. I've also signed up to do a craft swap, a button one, organised by the fab Kitty Ballistic. I am really looking forward to cracking on with that, and of course, it does mean a trip to a haberdashery department at some point. *tiny dance of joy*

Anyway, I will stop wittering for the time being and get on and do some creating. And taking some pictures, as they always help!

How did it get to be April already?

I know. I am a rubbish blogger. Here we are, a third of the way through 2010 and not a word. Useless.

So what have I been doing with myself for the past few months? Well, a bit of this, a bit of that and a lot of the other. I have watched some incredibly bad films (as is my wont), made a load of stuff (pictures in a bit) and generally bimbled and bumbled (as is also my wont).

I've also been remortgaging my house, which is not something I would recommend to anyone. It is taking forever and has me often unable to sleep, as I'm really terrified that it's all going to go horribly wrong. But there you go, this is what happens when you have to deal with managing agents (never buy leasehold, kids) who are incompetent and greedy at the same time. Still, as my mother says, this is all character building. Which is good to know, I'm sure you'll agree.

So, pictures. Well, here goes.

Firstly, a couple of felty items. Created for a swap that went slightly awry (they were missing in action for some time, but arrived safe and sound in the end), meet Princess Buttercup and the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride.







And now for some sparkly things and chainmaille goodness. I am still obsessed with the chainmaille and I don't think that's ever going to stop now.


That's the Full Persian weave there. Yes, I know it sounds like a style of intimate waxing and it makes me laugh now every time I say it, but it is a thing of beauty, if I do say so myself.




Two sets of mobius knot earrings - the hot pink ones are enamelled copper and the purple ones are aluminium.


Banded agate earrings, showing my woeful wire wrapping skills. Admittedly this was a first attempt, but I'd managed to use up around 10 headpins and a month's supply of swears. I suspect it's something I'm going to really have to practise.


Ahh, byzantine weave, how I love thee. This was made with teenytiny enamelled copper rings and I adored making it. I ended up having to make another straight away, as I showed it off to my mother and her first words were 'Where's mine, then?'


Saving my favourite till last here. I decided, on a whim, to buy a Swarovski Cosmic Ring, because, well, a) it is very sparkly, b) I love the name and c) it was there, calling to me. So, once I had it in my hot little hand, what to do with it? Aha, I thought, I'll make a chain. How difficult can it be? Given that this is a fairly simple 2 in 2 weave, I thought it would be a doddle. It kind of was, but I'd forgotten that tiny tiny rings mean tiny tiny links and that then means it takes ages to get a decent length of chain (especially seeing as this is for me, and I like long-ish chains). I love the finished result though, which is handy really. I am considering making some other chains, but I might wait a while first.

So there you are, some of what I've been up to for the past few months. There are more pictures to come, once I get myself even slightly organised, so hopefully I'll be bothering you with more stuff soon.

I won!

Yes, that's right. Your eyes do not deceive you. I have won something. Not the Euromillions, but something JUST as good. I'll get to just what it is in a moment, but first, here's how.

I became The Crafty Ninja's 100th fan on facebook and was awarded a free commission as a result. As I had my mama's birthday coming up, I asked if she could make me a card featuring painting-y type stuff, as mam does watercolour painting and is currently doing a course at the local college. Note the vagueness of my request. And now marvel at the result, which is brilliant. (Any deficiencies on the quality of the pictures are down to me and my rubbish cameraphone, as I was trying to get the card into the post quickly!)





And a close up of the easel...


Fantastic, isn't it?! Just the job.

I'd just like to say a great big thank you to the Crafty Ninja (and what a great name, by the way!) for a really wonderful card.

Craft swaps ahoy!

Yes, I've been doing the craft swap thing again. This time on a subject close to my heart - B-movies. This was organised by the lovely Apryl of Meridian Ariel fame, who also has great love for these often overlooked bits of celluloid joy.

I was partnered with Lindsey from ethel and edna and thinking that I had plenty of time to sort things out, I left it for a couple of days, whilst I planned what to make. Of course, you know what's coming next... emergency jewellery making for my mum's wedding (which was announced, organised and then took place within the space of around two months), commissions for other stuff (another blog post there) and all kinds of nonsense at work.

I found myself completely swamped, but fortunately, fate was smiling on me in her own bizarre and quirky way, as Lindsey was also having similar problems.

Anyway, I eventually got everything done and sent out. In addition to the photos I'm going to share in a second, I also included some utterly gorgeous fabric, ribbons, buttons and lace, all of which I found on Dawanda. And then there were lollipops and Revels for the munchables part.
So here's what I made.



A witch themed bookmark and phone charm and a bangle with a bat charm. The bookmark and phone charm are both done with chainmaille.

And so, what did I get... well, I do feel incredibly spoiled in return, I got SO much. I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos, as I took them on my phone. Anyway, here goes:

Fantastic handmade doll


Amazing crochet amigurumi Godzilla head


Beautiful crochet flower brooch


A fantastic tea bag holder, which also contained a handmade felty tea bag!


What you can't see there, is the little packet of buttons, in all shades of green.

I also got some craft supplies, sparkly wool, a crochet hook and some lovely rainbowy felt.




As you can see from that last picture, there was also chocolate and gummy dinosaurs. And a box of tea as well. Lawks!



We may have been the last to get our parcels sent off, but in my case at least (and I hope Lindsey feels similarly!), it was definitely worth the wait. Thank you Lindsey for all my fantastic goodies, and thank you to Apryl for organising this one. And the next one I've signed up for (which I promise to send on time!

I like bad films and I cannot lie...

And this one is a corker. Komodo vs Cobra.

From the very start, it was clear how it was going to go, given the look of the really dreadful CGI. I mean, it's on a par with Shark In Venice, so I think you get the picture. Oh, and there goes another hapless victim, eaten whole by a gigantic Komodo Dragon. (I'm not entirely sure of the need for capitalisation there, but what the hell, it's the size of a house!)

Oh, it's already eaten one scientist and a platoon of the most shoddy special forces soldiers I've ever seen.

And the giant cobra has been snacking on another scientist and a camera man.

I would explain the plot, but I don't think there's that much of one. It started off, as these things often do, with scientists on a deserted island trying to develop genetically engineered plants to cure world hunger. A laudable aim, as I'm sure you'll agree. And after their initial success, in stroll the military and order them to use their research for more 'lethal' purposes. I'm not entirely sure about why the military is involved, but there you go. I would suggest that thinking too hard about the plot is probably not the best course of action.

I don't think I'll manage to last until the end of this one. Perhaps I'll come back to it another day. Or in another life.

Candle-tastic

I have to confess, I meant to blog this some time ago, but I got sidetracked with ... stuff. As one does. So, anyway...yes...candles.

I decided that, as this year is the year of trying all kinds of crafts (and revisiting some that have fallen by the wayside), that I'd try my hand at candle making. And with the tea swap to inspire me, off I went.

I tried out a couple of kits from House of Crafts, which included all the relevant materials and fairly comprehensive instructions.

And yes, I was sad enough to take photographs of wax melting. Action shots, I'll have you know.




Extreme close up there, with fantastic melty action. Ahem, yes, I'll calm down now.

So, once it had all melted, it was time to get pouring. Please note that I had learned from my previous experience with the lipbalms and had used my pyrex jug as the double boiler (well, it turned out as more of a bain marie, but we'll gloss over that for the time being) which made it so much easier to fill the moulds.

I wanted to put some coffee beans into a couple of the candles, so first tried just putting them in the bottom of one of the moulds and filling it up. Not the best idea in the world, as they all floated straight to the top.




Very arty, I'm sure, but I didn't want them to end up on the bottom of the candle. Oh well.

So, I decided that for the second attempt, I'd do things slightly differently and layer the coffee beans with the wax, so at least some of them would be suspended in the middle of the candle. And through the gift of time lapse photography (or just hanging around for a bit), this is how it worked out.






The last bit looks a bit messy, I know, but fortunately, it's on the bottom of the candle, so not visible unless you really want to look.

In addition to the special coffee candles, I made a few other 'normal' candles and this is how they all turned out.


Close up of the two coffee candles.




So there you have it. Candles, in one afternoon. Not bad for a first attempt, really. The only thing I would say is, keep a spare pan just for wax melting/double boiling. It's worth it, if only to stop you ruining all your decent pans.

What was that I was saying about mojo?

Hmm, famous last words.

Mind you, it's been quite busy recently, but in a good way. One weekend entirely spent out having fun (which is really the best way to spend a weekend) and lots of stuff going on at work.

I did spend this last weekend (including the bank holiday) making things, but due to annoying computer troubles at home, it was impossible to get any pictures uploaded. Still, never mind. I'll blog instead about my other current obsession: tea.

Yes, that's right, tea. Tea of all nations, in fact. I'll pretty much give anything a go (with the exception of Lapsang Souchong, which I tried once and instantly disliked).

This is the current collection of tea:



The second lot was purchased during a five day trip to Holland and Belgium. From that little lot, I've only tried the Maple Honeybush (brown box, middle front) and the Rooibos Orange Lemon Lime. Both of which are lovely.

Going back to the first group, the tiny tins at the front are part of a taster set from Leaf. It's a great way to try what they have on offer. And included in there was the best camomile infusion I've ever had. Camomile's a bit of an acquired taste and can be extremely hit and miss, but I'd recommend it to anyone to at least give it a go.

Same with Rooibos really. I will admit that the first time I tried Rooibos, I really didn't like it. In fact, I described it as the foul strainings from the devil's jockstrap. I can now admit that I was wrong. I may well have brewed it for too long, or it may just have been a bad batch. Now, however, I really do enjoy it. It's light and refreshing, with a slight woody tang (I know that sounds a bit odd - and possibly quite pretentious - but it's the only way I can describe it!) Anyway, it's well worth a go.

Finally, I'll just mention another fantastic tea webshop: Teapigs. They've got some cracking blends there (Summer Flowers is a particular favourite) as well as selling Popcorn Tea (which has toasted rice added to the leaves, to give it a very distinctive taste!) I can't recommend them enough, their service is spectacular. And they do 'taster packs' of most of their teas, in the most dinky little tins, which I'm probably going to use to store beads in, once they're finished.

Right, that's enough wittering from me for the time being, but I shall be updating you on my journey of tea discovery as I work my way through the huge stash I've got. Chin chin!

My mojo is back!

I've been a bit lax on the old craft front (and on the blogging front) of late, mainly because my get up and go got up and went. The year of craft came to a bit of a standstill, I think because I couldn't decide on exactly what I wanted to do. If that makes any sense. Plus being busier than a busy thing at work meant I was fit for nothing of an evening.

But, after a couple of well deserved holidays, I think it's safe to say that I'm back in the swing of things. And my latest creation is something I've been wanting to do for ages. A chainmaille ring. And one of my favourite weaves, Byzantine. Given that the rings (sterling silver) were so small, it was a wee bit fiddly, but thankfully it didn't have me throwing a tantrum (for a change!)

Without further ado, pictures!







Not too shabby, really. I'm keeping this one for myself, but I might well make some more to sell. Soon.