These are my third attempt at these pendants, the second ones were too pale so I tried different images this time. I've changed the type of knife I've used to cut them and rolled them a little thinner too. Just got to sand and varnish them and attach a chain of some sort and they will be finished. I'm doing a kids workshop for a charity event in Newmarket next month so I will taking some along with me if I'm happy with these. A neat way of bring my art and jewellery together!
I've been thinking of doing these for a while now as I already sell jewellery locally and thought it nice to sell pieces with my art on too. Trouble is they were not as easy as I thought so bought this fab little tutorial from Analiese Designs. Et voila! Still need a bit of practise to get it perfect but I'm pretty pleased with the result so far.
Two weeks of Easter holidays have flown by so it's back to work for me (but who can complain when work means doing the thing I love the most and getting paid for it!) I have been sorting through my stock and either getting rid of stuff I have been hanging on to 'just in case' or actually finishing off things I intended to do but never got round to. Such as this pretty little notebook, made from an album I made yonks ago when I was first learning bookbinding. The book itself was a disaster but the pages still good so out they came and were rebound. I actually got two out of it, one has gone into my new chalkhillstudio.etsy.com shop, the other into Chalk Hill Studio proper. Why two shops?
My main website is for UK customers only as 90% of my business is for custom work and dealing with people in a different time zone is tricky when you need answers quick or have a large wedding order to complete so I opened an etsy shop for those wanting Chalk Hill products without the complications. In fact it has made me rethink what I sell and as a result am developing new exciting ranges as we speak. All I need are a few more hours in the day!
Had another go at the head and was only one stitch out this time so carried on with the body and 2 arms. Easy peasy this time. Already have an idea rattling round my head for my own designs but I will get this little ted finished first before it ends up in the 'to be finished later' box.
After spending the best part of 3 days doing computer related work I decided to take a break to tidy up my beads. I've got lots of odd packets lying around that needed to go away and I'm one of those odd people that like things ordered. If I had the time to not be messy I would have everything ordered; there is something immensly satisfying about the mere act of filing everything away according to size or colour or letter of the alphabet. I'm not compulsive about it, just find the process theraputic. A way of controling the chaos.
Of course I can't get beads out without help; my little artist in resident was there to 'assist' but of course she ended up getting distracted making her own creation and chucking the rest on the floor, but who am I to stop creativity in progress?
Well so much for the instructions being in english, this didn't turn out to be as simple as it first looked! Unfortunately the instructions assumed that you already knew how to crochet in a round and didn't explain how to get started, so after a few failed attempts and a fair bit of swearing I had to look in another book to see what to do. So once I got going I thought it was fine until I realised I had misread something somewhere and was doing a rib stitch not single crochet - bah! So what you see in the picture is attempt number.... er actually I've lost count, plus I gained 10 stitches somewhere so although the stitch is right the shape is wrong. Oh well. Might just leave it as it is and give it Anya to use as a hat for her dolls.
Today is one of those odd job days where you finally get to catch up with all those little unimportant tasks that you put off until tomorrow (whenever that is), such as collecting all the carrier bags full of wool that are distributed around the house and actually put them all together in one place. Then you suddenly realise where you put those size 3 needles you were looking for the other day.
Emails are being answered, magazines sorted, letters sent off, small projects finished and cups of tea drunk right to the bottom of the cup. A good day's work.
Here is one of the canvases from the pile shown in the last post, or rather a part of it. I've gone over the original with delicate layers of paint and image transfers which will hopefully build into something a lot more interesting than how it was before. It's not so much that the original painting was awful, more like it was unfinished somehow. One of those ones you look at and cringe at because you know full well something's not right.
Yesterday I came back with my application form for Cambridge Open Studios so assuming I get it completed in time I should be participating on my own this year - scary thought - but I also brought back a pile of prints and paintings that have been lurking in the gallery, some of them 4 years old! Funny how you see things when you haven't seen them for a while, a lot of them will be painted over. I am really excited about this year, my colours have come back and I have lots of ideas brewing. I've said this before but there is change in the air, it was a bit of a whirlwind last year but this time it feels more settled and flowing in one direction!
Shelves have gone up in my room too so the clutter is one step closer to being contained, there might even be room for my sewing machine which still hasn't made it out of the box - oops!
Been busy giving my websites a bit of a spring clean and a rebuild ready for this year, got a few ideas floating round my head for a few changes here and there but I'm keeping that to myself for the mo! So forgive any weird little goings on and layout changes as I sort things out, normal service will resume shortly ;0)
Busy preparing for valentines day, making the cards, preparing my websites, generally getting organised!
rather pleased with this one, the client in question wanted her favourite fabriano paper for the pages and chose this stunning dragonfly fabric for the covers. Think I might have to make another one for myself :D
I love this bit, when the pages are folded and the covers ready to be glued and stitched and it starts to feel like a book. Immensely satisfying.
I've had 2 days of printing and cutting and sewing and sticking for recent orders, none of which look particularly interesting so here are a couple of new knitting projects I've started instead. Knitting has become my new addiction (it used to be biscuits) and I'm in the honeymoon stage of buying wool and needing to start knitting with it immediately, regardless of what else I have going on. It's a good job I have lots of duplicate needles or I would be unpicking old projects to start new ones!
The difference is this time I have every desire to finish these; last year I was starting things which I fell out of love with fairly soon after starting them and they are still in a box somewhere. I might dig them out when these are done, we'll see :D
One of my 'things to be achieved' this year is to keep up with all the groups I joined last year, or to put it another way 'to finish what I started'. Not least is the crafting365 flickr group from the lovely Lupin. I've decided to start afresh for this year (mainly because it's just easier to keep track of the days) so here is a couple of pics of the blanket my son has been after for yonks - if he's lucky he might get it by the time he's old enough to not care any more. Maybe I should start my own group called 'a square a day' if someone hasn't done it already. 12 done and counting :D
Spent yesterday packing up parcels and making these for promo packs, hopefully with the current strike action going on at the royal mail they will find their way to their destinations!
Guess what I've been doing today....
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