HippyDeep

oh and I made a bag for my craft partner too.

2011-03-06T17:50:00.000Z

she likes bright colours and creepy stuff...I am not sure I like this, but i think she will

and I made her a pair of earrings too..yes I over crafted again.

minions!

2011-03-06T17:44:00.000Z

I made these for a craftster swap. They are of polymer clay and they all have different functions, one is to solve difficult problems, one to find out stuff, one to do your shopping and my favourite, one to give you love when you are feeling down...

I am going to find these little guys very difficult to part with as they are so cute...they needed a minion house too...so I obliged.

Venice is awesome, patchwork inspiration

2011-03-06T13:11:00.003Z

Definitely food for the soul. but while I was there and in St Marks church. I took a load of photos of the floors. They are exactly like patchwork quilts in marble...really beautiful, these are some...excuse all the feet and shadows in the photos..they were taken surreptitously

Gnome-y teeshirt

2011-02-13T18:54:00.000Z

This is painted for a friend, for a personal craft swap. Its on the back and was just freehanded onto the fabric..and of course it got a spray of glitter once it was done!

Baby quilt..about 45'' square...for a friend's baby, who's arrival is imminent

2011-02-13T18:43:00.002Z

My friend has about a week to go in her pregnancy, she doesn't yet know the gender of the child and I wanted to make a quilt as a gift for the new baby.

I am a member of the yahoo group stashbusters and got a great gift of fabric from a wonderful new friend in the US..it had 5'' charm squares in the package so they were perfect for this...precut is wonderful!

getting the colour balance right for this quilt was a PITA...I had the cute ducks for the centre, added the next section and then the random charm square border..these started as squares, but I simply couldn't match up anything from my stash to go as the next piece..I really needed a dark yellow or green. I finally solved it by cutting down those pieces significantly, as they were totally dominating the quilt at this point

..once they were cut down, the played with the rest of the quilt a lot better...and so a pale striped fabric worked for the next section... Then the dark squares at the corners and a blue border to pull it together..

I am not 100% happy with it..the colour balance is a long way from perfect... but I learned a lot from getting the colours sorted on this one. I Learned how useful it is to look at the layout and the fabrics on a camera phone..both in colour and black and white..it really helped me to 'read' the fabrics..

I also experimented with some free motion quilting. Much easier on a small quilt like this. And some quilt in the ditch to emphasise the different areas.

the back is a really nice print from IKEA, I like the childish nature of the print.

Faux log cabin quilt, for a friends birthday

2011-02-13T18:33:00.001Z

I like this pattern, its not made in the usual log cabin way, but ends up looking like it. This is done in a barn raising arrangement....its from this pattern

http://www.angelfire.com/va3/jclane/FauxLogCabin/FauxLogCabin.html

This was made using all fabrics from my stash..I wanted a big bold all prints and no blenders type quilt and I actually really like how it turned out..

This is it folded up in my little reading nook, but it is destined for my BFF for her birthday. its a large lap quilt size, mostly quilted in the ditch as my little machine doesn't like large quilts!

I even used up a couple of the left over blocks for the back.

earrings, just a little pair for a swap

2011-02-13T18:17:00.003Z

In some fit of madness I bought a load of these pandora clone beads on ebay..OK they were very cheap..and since I don't have, or particularly want, a pandora bracelet, I have been wondering what to do with them..the solution

earrings

they are sitting on a pin cushion made from a piece of crosstitch fabric that I found in a little warren of an antique shop in bosnia..It had my inital on it, so I couldn't leave it behind.

A wrap and cloth for my tarot cards

2011-02-13T18:15:00.001Z

I do a lot of crafting for other people, but I wanted to make something small for myself. I made this sorta pouch for my tarot deck. The outside is red velvet and it is lined with green..colours that represent love. There is a pocket on the inside to take the cards and a pocket beside that will take candles/incense if I need them. The whole thing unfolds to make a cloth that I can set down to look at the cards...

and of course like all of the best things, it is tied up with red ribbon. I am still experimenting with free motion embroidery on my machine..not good at it yet..but I added this little heart.

I live in such a gorgeous part of the world,

2011-02-05T11:40:00.004Z

Check out this youtube video, Not made by me, but it shows where I live...pretty!
My village

I live in such a gorgeous part of the world,

2011-02-05T11:39:00.001Z

Check out this youtube video, Not made by me, but it shows where I live...pretty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM2BE9-jSDw&feature=related

craftster one of the best of 2010

2011-01-22T21:12:00.001Z

I'm a Craftster Best of 2010 Winner!

and very happy..it is for the spiral tie-dyeing tutorial that I created.

Fabric cover for a gratitude journal

2011-01-12T15:38:00.000Z

This is another project destined for a swap. it is simply sewn from a simple green corduroy fabric, with some patches appliqued on, I used some buttons and a ribbon for the closure. it holds a simple hardback notebook, which is replaceable when its all used up.

Did you know that one of the techinques that have been proven to contribute to long term happiness and contentment, is the practice of gratitude. i have been making lots of journals recently to give to people as gratitude journals. The idea is that you write in them every day or so, just make a note of three things that you are grateful for in your life.

I think this would make a fabulous gratitude journal, which is why i used the colour of the heart, green..and of love..pink

new necklace for me

2011-01-12T15:33:00.002Z

I succumbed to the lure of sparklies on ebay over the holidays. I bought a few of these silver pendants. This one was begging to be made into a necklace for me. it is pink topaz, amethyst and blue topaz, on sterling silver, The necklace part is just a mixture of glass beads that I had lying around.

A quilt in a day, from 9 fat quarters

2011-01-12T15:09:00.000Z

It was time to make a quilt..

I decided that I wanted to start something new and found these great instructions online, to make a quilt from 9 Fat quarters. I have some nice FQ that I had been saving for a special occasion. It is my new resolution to stop saving fabric....I plan to use it instead. I also had a very cute (Very expensive) FQ that I got in Galway last weekend)

I had just decided to piece the top that night, it was Sunday afternoon, but the cutting and piecing of the top went so fast..it would have been about an hour and a half. If I didn't have to rethread my machine about 10 times, not sure why..crappy thread perhaps...and if I hadn't got impatient about one mistake and instead of using a seam ripper...ripped it by hand..and yes, ripped the block, so had to resew the whole thing....

so it took about an 1 3/4 hours. Having more time in hand..and only sunday night, -back-to-work-tomorrow- blues to look forward to. I thought I would work on a bit of overachieverness and see if I could finish it..

and I did!! I used an old foxford wollen blanket for batting, and even pieced a strip for the back and put a label on it- using the embroidery function on my machine-

The whole thing took about 4-5 hours I'd say, allowing for mistakes, it is far from perfect, I did mostly quilt-in-the ditch on my regular machine, so there are some puckers, and the corners are awful..but it is a finished quilt, rather than adding to my many unfinished objects...and I love it to bits!

Two dresses

2011-01-12T00:35:00.000Z

One of the more frustrating things I made over christmas, was these two dresses, for my daughter and I. I used Burda world of fashion magazine patterns for both and was not at all happy with how the bodice patterns on each were drafted. Mine would have been better (and required a lot less fitting) if I had used a fabric with a slight stretch. I kid you not, but I ripped and resewed the bodice of mine about 6 times and the bodice of my daughters dress ten times!!

I was happy with how mine turned out..less so with hers. Mine is a taffeta(ish) fabric, lighter in weight with embroidery all over, it is fully lined. hers is a gorgeous silk satin, with vintage lace at the neckline.

Some quick jewellery for me

2011-01-12T00:30:00.002Z

I seem to spend a lot of time making stuff for other people and so this was a quick little jewellery set for me.

spiral print tie-Dye tutorial

2011-01-12T00:29:00.001Z

These pictures were taken in the last of the summer...trust me there is no going outside these days with all the rain and the coldness!..but the colours make me happy.

This is the finished result. i use fibre reactive dyes. I make up a strong dye solution, with just water. I only own dyes in the primary colours, so I mix up red blue and yellow dyes, power and water, in disposable containers!..you only need about 1/2 pint of strong colours. And then mix blue+red=purple etc, to give me the three secondary colours.

Start with piece of prewashed cloth (to remove any starch) I used a square about a yard long/wide. Lay it flat on the ground in front of you and grasp the centre point and start to twist

it will look like this if you let go...dont let go.

keep twisting, keeping the fabric fairly flat to the ground, until you end up with a tight spiral of all of the fabric, arrange the pleats as you go to keep it fairly neat.

For a rainbow spiral, take three long pieces of string, carefully put the first one underneath, bring it to the top and tie off, do this with the two other pieces so that you have the fabric divided into 6 sections (I know a rainbow has 7 colours, but this is a good approximation)

tie off the string fairly tight (tighter than in this pic) and tuck in the loose ends so you have a neat package

I use the soda soak method of dying, with procion fibre reactive dyes, this means that the (dry) fabric gets soaked for about 20 minutes in a strong solution of washing soda and water.

take out the fabric and squeeze out as much of the soaking liquid as you can, keeping the spiral intact. Set it on the draining board of the sink..or work outside..it is messy.

'Fill' in three segments with your three primary colours, yellow, skip one, red, skip one, blue , skip one...( you will notice from the photos that I screwed this up..but it still looks OK, tie dyeing is very forgiving. You don't have to completely soak each segment, some white is good and will look good in the end. Don't worry about staying inside of the lines..as long as you have complimentary colours adjacent to the ones you are adding, they will blend and look great. I use a big paintbrush to put the colour onto the fabric.

You can either put the spiral, very carefully into a plastic bag to allow it to soak for a while, this should increase the intensity of the colour a bit..or if you are like me, cut off the threads, rinse out the fabric to remove excess dye and glory in the eye-popping colour.

this is the very best way to revive tired bedlinen, makes a great centre for a quilt and is just fun,

once you are done you might find you have dye left over, so scurry all around your house for tired white cotton clothing, chuck them in the soda soak for about 15 minutes and then have fun!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2010 Winner!

wrap top from two old teeshirts

2011-01-12T00:19:00.000Z

I was doing a wardrobe purge and came across two old teeshirts, I didn't want to simply throw them away, so I experimented with a wrap top. I am pretty happy with the result, I had to do a lot of patching in pieces so that each pattern piece was complete (I used a Burda world of fashion pattern) and so I added some applique to make it look less random.

My daughter specialises in non-flattering pictures of me!

12 days of christmas swap

2011-01-12T00:17:00.001Z

Over at craftster I like to participate in the 12 days of christmas swap, where you make a gift(s) for your partner for each of the 12 days of christmas, here are some of the things that I made for mine. Some bags and slide pendants for her 3 sisters, I was given themes to work from.

PJs bottoms (aka lounge pants) and a sleep kit. I love a sleep kit, I make a zippered pouch and add earplugs, eye mask and lavender oil. I recommend them for travel, if you are a light sleeper like mine. You will notice from this pic and the next that the colours are absent..pretty much monochrome, My partner didn't like much colour and so I was limited, but as I said in a previous post, limits and boundaries are so good for me.They help focus my work and stop me adding too much colour, too much randomness to things.

I love this, this quilt was very difficult to part with (I didn't send the cat!!) it is IKEA fabric and I think the whole thing came together very well.

I also sent some blank cards, they were altered art, starting with some images from a calender, and for some reason upside down in this picture!

stencilled tee shirts

2011-01-12T00:11:00.000Z

I love the internet, a google search of stencil, will give some great images, we print them out, trace them onto freezer paper, cut out the stencil. Iron the shiny side of the freezer paper onto a (prewashed) t-shirt and then using screen printing inks, paint. I prefer screen printing inks as they are thicker and so don't bleed, they also have good colours.

here are some tee's that went as gifts, courtesy of Banksy and Starwars

poppets....

2011-01-12T00:08:00.000Z

Poppets are frankly a bit of a pain in the ass to make, they are fiddly and have a mind of their own. This one was a request from a swap partner, She was to be a sort of fairy gothy type, I sent her to her new home with a little photograph album. This I made from scrapbooking paper, using a stab stitch binding.

inchies

2011-01-12T00:04:00.001Z

I love inchies, but like many of the crafts that I do, I tend to have mini-obsessions that last a while. If you don't know what an inchie is, it is a one inch square piece of artwork, any medium.

I have participated in a number of inchie swaps on www.craftster.org and this is the ultimate result a collection of inchies made by me and about 10 other people. I think that the art form has the most impact when displayed as a group like this.

Close up before framing.

To make: punch out or cut carefully inch pieces of card or heavy watercolour paper, paint, decoupage, collage, decorate...repeat until you have a lot!

these are a few of my more recent crafts,

2011-01-12T00:00:00.001Z

This was a simple swap journal I made, japanese stab stitch binding over cardboard covers with scrabooking papers. I am having a small bookbinding obsession at the moment,

This (bad pic, sorry) is a soft suede bound book, again stitched, heavy watercolour paper inside with an exposed binding, leather ties and little brads for accents...such restraint is not something that i often manage!

for a swap a partner requested a little bird, this was from a tute online, The pictures are not fabulous, but they give you an idea of how he looked, he is about 4inches high

Work in progress a little blackbird with a wizards hat..plenty of glitter of course, he is made from poly clay

portable shrine for safe driving.

2010-11-15T18:16:00.000Z

My dear friend had a little bump with her new car, not her fault, someone else drove into her, fortunately it wasn't too much damage, but she started to feel really insecure driving. So she asked me to make up a protection charm for her.

The charm itself is made from apples and cinnamon that has been cooked and moulded, with lots of protective energies built in, and then dried until hard. But it wanted to be in a shrine, so I made this one from a little mint tin.

I covered the front and back with fabric and ribbon and added various amulets and talismans for good luck and protection, including a tape measure, to inspire her to always judge distances properly when driving! A hanging loop means she can hang it in the car, or stow it away in the glove compartment. Its tough to see in this picture, but the tin was lined with a map of Budapest, that I picked up while I was there.

Lets hope she likes it!

My newest medieval garb

2010-03-31T12:53:00.001+01:00

The real reason that portrait of Henry VIII made him look as wide as he was tall, is that in those times they wore yards and yards of fabric, layers and layers of stuff...as you can see below!!

the dress was made over one weekend, it is 1540s florentine, complete with banding on the bodice and hem. It was acceptible for women to not wear headgear at this time, they wore hair pulled back with silly strands on either side of the face..as you can see..lol! My friend to the left of this picture is wearing the tabard that features in a much earlier post in this blog. he wears it well!

The surcote is a yellow brocade and fur lined...wearing this on a very cold february day in the UK was a treat!

I also painted the banner that you can just about see over my head.

Some recent photographs in my back garden of a very very cold day

2010-03-31T12:30:00.000+01:00

I think this last might be my favourite, I love the colours and the shapes

Making Incense

2010-03-31T12:20:00.001+01:00

I adore incense and it turns out it is very easy to make. I dont use sticks, I burn incense on charcol discs. This is for two reasons, firstly, the sticks have a binder in them, mastic or gum arabic and its not always a smell that I want to add, secondly burning loose incense in this way makes it very easy to make. All you have to do is use a pestle and mortar to grind the elements of the incense fairly small, 'wet' ingredients such as orange peel, cypress and pine needles, should be dried first (you can do this in a microwave if you are impatient)

As regards amounts to use, start by burning tiny amounts of each ingredient seperately, so you can see what you like the best, then use your intuition to mix them in a proportion to suit your nose. Be careful what you use to support the charcol. I use this little oak leaf pot with a seashell balanced half way down, the air space underneath prevents the pot overheating and cracking. I made this pot at a pottery class years ago when I lived in London. The easiest way to support the burning charcol is to put it on a bit of sand, or use a metal container.

This is a pic of a christmas incense, it has frankincense and myrrh (of course!) some dried orange peel, cloves and cinnamon. I boosted the orange a little with some sweet orange essential oil, but its a nice christmassy smell.

I guess updating blogs is one of those good intentions that are always destined to failure

2010-03-31T12:09:00.001+01:00

This isn't a great shot, but I have started to make soap, this is a simple melt and pour soup, loads of aromatheraphy oils so it is quite mood boosting and feels declicious. The little sandcastle shaped thing in the left of the background is a bath bomb, also full of oils and glitter...who doesnt love having a bath full of glitter!

I made a set of dotee dolls for a swap, the heads are about 2cm across, so this is a big close up. they were set of four that got scattered to four corners of the world..OK 3 to the US and one to Australia, The heads were moulded with polymer clay, I am not too happy about how they turned out, I prefer the one on the right, but they did look good as a set

This is a set of pillowcases as a swap request, simple fun line drawing, not an original design of mine, freehanded onto a couple of cotton pillowcases.

Rainbow tags

2009-11-23T17:30:00.000Z

I have been working on these tags on and off for ages. They are just an exploration of colour, So I did a rainbow (I've just realised that indigo is missing from these pix!) plus black and white.

The tags are about 5 inches tall and 3.5 across on a base of cardboard.

These are the different colours

The tags are eventually going into this alteredbook. I received the book as part of a craft swap from the always awesome http://www.craftster.org/. a few of the pages were already altered by the artist, but leaving plenty of them for me to work on, so far I have only one done!...the black page.

raggy quilt

2009-11-23T17:09:00.000Z

I have been promising my daughter a quilt for ages. This quilt became therapy for me when I got dumped by my love. The recovery from the dumping segued into recovery from flu, so a speedy piece of craft therapy took weeks and weeks! but it is now finally finished. The fabrics used in the quilt date over about 10 years and were bought in south africa, australia, ireland and sent to me from the US, so it is a truly international quilt.
This method is very simple, you cut squares of backing and top (plus interlining, I used an old wollen blanket) all of the seams are sewn with wrong sides of the fabric together, and the excess folded to the front. Once the whole quilt has been sewn together seam allowances are clipped to give a raggy finish.

This quilt is made of (mostly) polar fleece fabric and so its toasty warm and very very cosy. This was a stash busting quilt and so I have tried to balance out the colours as best I could, given the ones that I have. I think it worked ok. She loves it!

beaker USB key (stick drive) cover

2009-08-26T02:32:00.004+01:00

I used to love the muppets as a kid and one of my favourite characters was Beaker. it occurred to me that he would be a great shape for a USB Key.

Tutorial...how to.

1-wrap the USB drive in cling flim (saran wrap)

2- mould a flesh coloured polymer clay around it to cover it to within about 10 mm of the plastic cover.

3- Roll two little balls of white and press on for the eyes, tiny balls of black for the pupils

4- Make a reddish egg shape for the nose and press it gently on

5- cut a diagonal line down for the mouth, go slowly at this point and cut little by little until you are happy.

6-take out the USB key and gently put in some chopsticks, knife handle, something like that to hold open the shape while baking, Bake as directed, Do not overbake or you will discolour it.

7-When it is cool take a fluffy orange feather (or piece of orange yarn, fleece,) and hot glue it on for the hair.

8-Glue in the USB key, Hot glue didnt last very long for this with me, so try E600 glue or epoxy resin (such as araldite)

Mexican kitsch

2009-08-26T02:19:00.005+01:00

I love mexican style. I love shrines (as you might have guessed by now!) I love exubrance and bright colours and fun in artwork. I also love dios de los muertos. So I couldnt pass up the recent craftster.org swap on mexican kitsch.

This is what I sent my partner. She requested an altered book. I made this one by starting with a childs board book that had a plastic squeeker toy glued to the back page, I pulled out the toy and used fimo, polymer clay to make a skull, each page was then altered with a different mexican theme, day of the dead, frida, mexican wrestling, religious imagery

I also made her some lucha libre mask paintings, and a virgin of guadalupe bag. The bag is a simple square bottomed tote, with the virgin fabric sewn on. Let me know if you want to see a tutorial for this type of bag, it is very fast to sew up and can be made in a range of sizes.

Inchies

2009-08-26T02:06:00.004+01:00

Inches are another example of my love of boundaries in work. They are simply one inch square canvases.

Tutorial for inchies,

1-Take a sheet of heavy watercolour paper or thin card, using water colour paints, paint random colours and shapes all over the paper, Dont think about this part of the process too much, just enjoy being a kid and splashing paper all over. Just choose colours that you like

2- allow them to dry

3-Using a sharp blade, scissors or one inch punch (best) cut out one inch squares from the sheet of paper. You now have your inchie backgrounds.

4- Look through magazines, internet, stamps, junk mail, for small images that fit the scale of the canvas, if you cant find anything you like, then doodle directly onto the backgrounds.

5-Your inchie may be finished at this point, or you may want to cut out random (or not so random) words, or use stamps, or trusty sharpie pens, to write words, draw symbols, squiggles or further embellish the inchie.

6- I love to add highlights with glitter glue.

7-images and elements that you add to the inchie, always look more finished if they are anchored to the page a little more, perhaps draw around them, I love adding dots, I think it is a mistake that many people make, to just stick down elements, you need to consider how to embed them into the page, perhaps by layering, outlining etc.

8- I think that edging the inchie make it 'finished' you can either drag a felt tip pen around the edge or press the edge into a stamp pad.

9-Make lots! they look fabulous when all grouped together in a frame, or stuck directly to the wall in hidden corners of your house.

another shrine

2009-08-26T02:02:00.003+01:00

I love boundaries, it makes the creative process so much easier when there are limits, otherwise I spin into a confusion of possibilites, Shrines work really well because of the physical limits of the shape.

This shrine is of foam board, to celebrate the celtic Goddess brigid. I cut the sides, hot glued them together, used a blackand white image from the net, so the shrine was made to fit the image. I coloured in the images and the sides of the shrine.

The equal armed cross is a traditional brigids cross, made from rushes from the garden. I wanted the shrine to look a little unpolished, rough even as i think that the Goddess also lives in the less polished places in life.

bat shrine

2009-08-26T01:57:00.003+01:00

This is a fun little shrine that I made. Its in a matchbox, so it is quite small.

To make, paint the inside and outside of the box black (add some glitter if you are obsessed like me!) I used a little moon sticker on the back wall to give depth, I used some hot glue to string a little black thread diagonally across the box, with a little bat sticker (despite my previous posts, I am not against using embellisments, just in moderation)

The metal cross was set in on a slant (I wanted it to look like an old graveyard), it was a charm for jewellery, I simply snipped off the top hanging loop.

musings on creativity

2009-08-26T01:50:00.003+01:00

I live in ireland and we have bugger all in the way of craft shops. I am on holidays in Orlando at the moment and so have access to all the wonderful american craft shops and bookshops.

I have been in my element, spent a fortune on fabric!

My two loves are paper arts and sewing, I have been looking at a lot of books, magazines and articles on paper arts and while I hate hate hate the fact that so much of the wonderful papers and embellisments are unavailable to me, I think that on balance its a good thing. So much of what I have seen is very samey, people working with mass produced (not cheap!) embellishments, the work seems to become an assemblage of other peoples elements, I am not saying that its not creative, but maybe there is another step. To work with paint and glue and paper, make your own embellishments, rather than buying a 'set' from someone else.

What is creativity..to me, its about giving yourself permission to screw up, to fail, to create something that might not be perfect. I think everyone is creative. I think what stops us is the fear of failure.

What would you do if you werent afraid to fail.

thoughts on craftiness

2009-07-27T18:29:00.002+01:00

I have been, as usual, busily crafting away. I find that i am not really good at crafting for myself, craftswapping, via the always wonderful www.craftster.org, is what keeps me focused. I make a lot of stuff, I spend a lot on postage, but its always fun!

So what is it that makes it harder to craft for me, than for other people. sometimes I think that its the imposition of rules and themes that a craft swap does, that makes it easier...mostly I think its having a deadline and someone that I am keen not to disappoint.

so how do I make it a priority not to disappoint me??

accordian fold book in altoid sized tin

2009-03-06T09:41:00.004Z

EDIT: the uber-sexy BF is now the ex-sexy, however I like this piece of work so i am leaving it up...

I felt that the uber-sexy BF was overdue for more reasons that I am crazy about him, and I love altered books/collage etc. So I covered this tin and made a little accordian fold book to fit inside, the book was made from a strip of cardboard,embellised with images, rubber stamps, watercolours, ribbon and glitter...(Oh how I love glitter its like a disease with me!)

The little envelope stuck to the front has a little note in it for him.

i love working on a small canvas like this as it allows tiny pieces of work to be completed quickly and its a lot less intimidating than a large scale work. Each side of each 'page' of the book was decorated and the first 'page' is a half page and the ribbon to hold the book closed is glued onto the first page as part of the decoration.

piece of art for a change

2009-01-26T19:00:00.004Z

This is a little piece that caused me no end of frustration. I patchworked the papers for the background, but didnt stretch the water colour paper first, so it buckled and bent in funny ways. I tried everything to straighten it but no joy, so i threw my hands in the air and let it go. The jigsaw pieces were punched out and mounted so they are proud of the base to cast a shadow. Its called Life and is inspired by other peoples work (the colour reproduction in the first image is probably the best)

Crafting to beat the january blues

2009-01-26T18:48:00.003Z

According to some research published in American Mind magazine, complex manual tasks can alleviate depression and with all the credit crunch doom and gloom around we need as much depression alleviating stuff as possible. here is a summary of the article
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=depressingly-easy

I am ridiculously busy at work at the moment and so dont have the head space for anything complex, so mostly I have been playing with gluegun, glitter and braid (definitely a thing to cheer you up!)

So christmas decorations for 2009!

I know its ridiculously early to make christmas decorations, but I defy anyone not to be cheered up by glitter, beads, braid and random crafting. OK apart from the one where I used glittery lipgloss instead of glitter glue, but I reckon it will dry before next cristmas...right??

Baggy PJ's from fabulous skully fabric.

christmas stocking swap

2009-01-26T18:37:00.004Z

These are some of the items I sent to my stocking swap partner, from the always wonderful http://www.craftster.com/

The idea of the swap was to make a stocking and to fill it with a mixture of crafted and bought items, As usual I over crafted, I made the stocking big and crammed it full. I am not sure I achieved what I wanted wit the stocking,The christmas tree is made of a fabric that is printed with pine trees, I also added appliqued decorations and parcels, and an inital on the back. Its about 20 inches long

There was a sock monkey and a felt tree decoration inside

Plus a vintage feel,glamorous apron, frilly and satiny, You can see the fabric in the background, some patchwork tablemats, a painted pixie t-shirt and a few other bits and pieces.

My partner said she is obssessed with the colour orange, so I tried to incorporate that as much as possible, without making it look like something that a buddhist monk would get!

travel bag

2008-12-01T14:26:00.001Z

I needed a bag for overnight trips, I had a small remnant of this fabric, I adore fabric generally and pounce like a demon on anything that is unusual, I also enjoy the technical challenge of making the most out of a small piece.

This bag is fully lined, piped seams, zipper on top and a sturdy webbing handle, from webbing from the always fantastic Frankles trimmings in the east end of London.

I made the beaded tassle to add interest.

art shrine, siren song

2008-12-01T14:17:00.002Z

This shrine a lot lighter, different shape as the space is somewhat less defined than the previous one, and quite different, it is a papier mache fish. I tried to creat a microcosm inside, it contains a shipwreck on the rocks, lured there by siren song, and of course treasure waiting to be discovered. I find that I cannot escape the themes of seduction and womenhood in anything that I do. (I am still waiting for the perfect tiny image or figure of a mermaid for this one.)

The bottom level is the bottom of the sea, with shells and treasure,

the next level up is the surface of the sea, shipwrecked boat and rocks and the ships bell tolling its doom.

the topmost section is bright and has sun bleached coral, (collected from beaches near the great barrier reef) representing air.

this is the whole thing in situ on a blue wall, I wanted it to blend more than standout of the wall.

sock monkeys

2008-12-01T13:39:00.000Z

I adore sock monkeys as does my daughter, so I had to have a go at making some, these are the boys, one of them is already on the way to the US (charlie), one is hanging around on the ceiling (harry) the other two are currently waiting on new hairdos and will be in my daughters stocking for christmas.

photos from our trip to switzerland

2008-12-01T13:25:00.002Z

We went to the south of switzerland, the ticino region, and it is a stunningly beautiful place.

This is from the terrace of a resturant at the top of a mountain, it was simply the best pizza and the most stunning view ever
Verscio, a very pretty little village, with its own mime theatre

The view from the train on the way home.

halloween swap

2008-12-01T13:12:00.001Z

I have been mostly focusing on craft swaps for the last few months, its currently keeping me sane during building work! These are some of the items that I have sent for a 13 days of halloween swap recently, I find my partners through the wonderful wonderful http://www.craftster.org/
For this swap I sent painted and printed t-shirts, embroidered hats, purses, bags and lots of appliqued items. And of course tons of jewellery. I love the imagry of skulls and the whole iconography of dios de los muertos

Medieval re-enactment, my other obsession

2008-04-17T14:57:00.001+01:00

I have been a member of the society for medieval re-enactment (SCA) for quite a few years now. I have to confess to knowing bugger all about history but I do love sewing, I particularly love making lots of elaborate garb. I made this tabard for a friend of mine, its mostly made in velvet with the images appliqued on. It took more time than I care to remember but it looks fab on him!

cheats wristlets

2008-04-17T14:54:00.001+01:00

A swap partner wanted a pair of knitted wristlets, but since the nuns at school, beat all the love of knitting out of me, I wasnt game to pick up a pair of pointy objects again, so I cheated, an old cable knit sweater was chopped up. stitched to stabilise the knitting and voila!

sewing

2008-04-17T14:43:00.001+01:00

I have also been working a lot with fabric lately, lots of swaps, lots of bags, lots of sewing.

here are some of the random bags that I have made for swaps for other people in the last few months.

This bag was made from vintage fabric and has a winged heart on the front.

I went a little mad on the embellishment of this one, the dragon fly is hand embroidered and beaded onto an iridescent fabric, to try and capture the beauty of the wings of dragonflies,

The back of the bag has two smaller dragonflies, also embroidered and beaded in the same way, the fabric is also vintage.

jewellery making

2007-04-26T10:08:00.001+01:00

my recent attempt at jewellery, Silver and glass bead earrings.
a bracelet made by my daughter. Good eh? (lousy picture though!)

recent random craft projects, cushion covers, needle roll, etc

2007-04-26T09:51:00.001+01:00

More recent projects, all of these were made for craft swaps, I really enjoy the process of craft swapping as it sets limits on what can be done, defines a theme and sets a time limit, which gets me off my ass and working! Has to be a good thing. This is a crochet needle roll and craft apron for a swap (I really should start making stuff to keep!)
And some cushion covers, the recipient of these had a thing for crows and also wanted some little stone from Ireland, the crow cover is obvious, I really wanted crow feathers for the top cover, but I couldnt find any, went wandering about old churches and tall trees looking for a rookery but no joy, all the crows were hanging on tightly to their feathers. For the last pillow case, I sewed in some little stones and shells into pockets created by the gauze ribbon (not very comfortable admittedly! but its her favourite)

More Artist Trading Cards, kittens this time

2007-04-26T09:45:00.001+01:00

I really love the size of Artist trading cards, you can produce a mini work of art very quickly, it gives me a chance to get something completed in one session, I have very little patience, and I like to get a project finished in one sitting. These cards are for a swap for someone who likes kittens,

And my first attempt at ATC envelopes, these are made from magazine pages and I am very happy with how they turned out.

spring craft bags and purses

2007-04-26T09:23:00.001+01:00

well I've been having major attacks of craftiness lately, the weather has been unseasonably beautiful here in Ireland all the flowers are blooming, I took some nice photographs, and interestingly when I took this one and looked at it closely I noticed two aphids trysting in the centre, what a place for a date!

with sunshine it seemed a shame not to do some tie dying , here's a photo trying to catch the colours of the sunset with the colours of the tie dye.

I have been making a lot of bags lately, but they have all been for swaps on craftster.org, so I decided it was time to make myself some, this one was made out of fabric that I received in a swap package, it was only 1/4 yard but I just managed to squeeze this little bag out of it.

This bag is for a swap, the fabric is reversible so I swapped around the central panel for contrast and added the riveted and bead detail to the front

This is more fabric I got in a swap, I love it! My girly pin-up bag!

I was looking in the Avoca handweavers shop fell in love with a very pretty skirt, but an insane price, so I made myself this version, with a matching bag.

my new craft blog!

2007-03-28T21:59:00.001+01:00

I wonder though if by writing about craft stuff if might mean less actual doing of craft stuff, but we shall see to see.

My latest craft obsession is Artist Trading cards, I love the size of the canvas and the freedom, I am currently workign with watercolour and pen and ink mostly, but I can see that the sky is the limit with these!