Challenge Bracelets #13 and #14

Beige Recycled Button Cuff Bracelet

I still haven't forgotten about my challenge to make and document a bracelet a week in 2012. I am a little behind on taking photos though as I'm also trying to get up to 100 items in my Etsy shop too. (71 so far!)

I've got a couple of craft fairs coming up, the next one being at an Eco centre, so I thought I'd make a few more obviously recycled items.

Pale Turquoise and Peach Recycled Cuff Bracelet

And I'm part way through a free pattern tutorial for these too which hopefully I'll get posted in the next week or so.

Hand Dyed Thread - Challenge Bracelets #7 8 9 10 11 12

I love Etsy and I love finding artist made materials to combine with my reclaimed materials so when I found The Rainbow Girl I just had to try out some of her lovely thread so I bought these!

I found a few second hand bangles prime for upcycled so got together with a few simple macrame knots and started working away and came up with these stacking bangles.

I've listed them individually on Etsy so that people can choose what charm they fancy or combine them with other bangles they own for their own personalized set of bangles. 

Patchwork Bookmark

I love recycling waste materials into items that are usuable again so when I saw the Recycle Me Swap1 on Swapbot I joined in.The dark purple material used to be my favourite skirt. In fact I had two identical ones as I found another in a charity shop years after I bought the first and had virtually worn it to death. It was my standard going to a night club mini skirt. Indian embroidered fabric dyed in a gorgeous royal purple.

I'm still using parts of it in projects now and again. So far I can remember making a book cover from it as well as using it in this bookmark.

My clubbing skirt lives on!

I had a browse for photos of my wearing the actual skirt but no luck. but I did find this one of when I used to be out nearly every night!

Front Cover - And Stash Storage Solutions

 What a week! Finally this week I got to find out whether my jewellery design made the front cover of this weeks Creative Beads and Jewellery magazine. And it did! How exciting!

These style of pendants take me ages to make but I do love making them. I keep all my "lonely" beads in containers with other beads of the same colour. I also add anything else that might be useful such as odd sequins, buttons, broken jewellery.

And that is how my storage system has ended up how it is today.

These are my great Really Useful boxes. With nice clippy lids so that when they fall on the floor I don't have a bead-a-lanche.

I used to buy cheaper boxes from various shops buy found out to my cost that not all boxes stack on top of each other properly and when a shop discontinued a range, the next range they stocked didn't stack on top of the old range




My full strings of beads and bags of beads go in a separate storage system. more Clip lids boxes once again, but nice and stackable so I can take one box at a time downstairs to do a project (That's the aim anyway. I'm not very good at bringing them back upstairs until the living room where I do most of my work reaches a critical mass)

 As you can see, I have a  bookshelf for my craft  books too to separate from from my fiction which are downstairs. The tray to the left of the stack is my stash of choker wires, ready made necklace chains, hair barrette findings and fascinator clips.
 










Then we have the fabric stash. I have boxes of large pieces in  an area which would be far too embarrassing to take a  photo of, as with my yarn stash, but for smaller pieces I have a office filing system. The top set of boxes are fabric sort by one colour per drawer. This is for pieces of materials that are fat quarters and smaller.

The bottom set of drawers is for my ATC and collage supplies. Anything I could collage with really. Magazine cuttings, scrapbooking paper,card, tissue paper.

And of course my overlocker is on the top smiling down at me.

Patchwork Heart Experiments

Sorry I've been a bit quiet. I've been making a few prototypes and trying to figure out which direction to take to try and and get my shop up and running enough to start making me an income. Feel free to pimp out my facebook page and my Etsy shop if you like my work. I'd be greatly appreciated.

This week I've been having a play with some multimedia pendants. mainly using patchwork, embroidery and beading.

The pendant is only 4cms across so you can imagine how small the embroidery stitches and materials strips are. I've embellished it with seed beads and a Swarovski pearl on the tip of the heart.













This is the other side of the pendant. Instead of adding beads, I kept it more simple with patchwork, embroidery and a bit of couching.

I think I prefer the one without the beading, but G prefers the one with.

Which do you prefer?

Next!

Ive been trying to think of what to do now my crochet blanket is finished. Normally I just start making my next one straight away, but in my effort to declutter this year, which is going really well so far, I thought I'd finish off another of my larger projects.

Problem is, we knew they were larger projects which would take a while to finished so we put them in storage. Doh! They are either in the attic somewhere, or at the bottom of a stack of Really Useful Boxes.

So with best intentions left behind, I'm in the process of starting two (maybe three) new projects.


First in another blankets the same as I just finished. I love having one of these around to do.

Second is a tumbling block wall hanging similar to this one

Tumbling Blocks

But as I don't take the easy route with craft projects, I intend to use every little scrap of fabric I have lying around to make each patch using freestyle applique and hand embroidery. I'm hoping this will be a nice project that is portable as I can make one patch at a time and carry it around in my bag and attack it in any spare moment of time.

And the possible third is a pair of socks as I have some lovely yarn lying around which I'd love to have something made from to wear. But I am very wary of second sock syndrome.

Blankie!

I'm not what you would could call a yarn snob by any means. I love my acrylic yarn. Nice easy to care for snuggle acrylics in bright colours.

And I'm addicted to making blankets in one piece. This is the first finished blanket of the year. I only usually finish one a year I love making them. They are so relaxing for me to make. Just the same stitch over and over again. No need to weigh yarn to see if I have the right amount. I use any amount. From 6" to a full 100g ball. I don't mind at all. And I recycle yarn from whoever and whatever I can to make them. Unpick items and give them a good clean sometimes. Or ply up cone wool to a DK thickness. or swap other items for it. If I run out, there is always some than soon comes my way to add to the stripes.



Please Excuse the messy bedroom! :)

Feeling the Love!

I'm noticing quite a lot of heart around at the moment. Maybe it's just a coincidence, or are people getting ready for Valentines now that Christmas has gone away?

Valentine Postcard on Etsy. I just love the colours on this. I've bought a great felted bracelet from this seller before. It was lovely!

Musical heart button on Etsy I'm liking the scroll design on this one.

Hanging ornament on Etsy How cute!