MadeStuff » inchies, skinnies, kittens and owls

inchies, skinnies, kittens and owls

I know it’s an odd combination, but it’s what I’ve been keeping busy with over the past week or so.

Inchies

Inchies are 1″x1″ pieces of art. The challenge is definitely in getting something interesting on a small piece of board. In this instance I created some 101 Dalmation inchies for a user on swapbot who wanted to give them as a parting gift to her friend. These have gone all the way to Singapore!

I wouldn’t really class these as art, I had fun making them nonetheless.

Skinnies

Second is the Skinny I made for the Simple Skinny swap, again via swapbot. Skinnies are 3″ x 5″ pieces of art. I have been meaning to have a go at the one stroke painting technique for a long time now and while this isn’t a particularly good example of the artform it’s something I am very proud of. I sewed on some seed beads to bring out the centre of the flowers. It really is much better in the flesh as it were. I hope the recipient likes it…it’s gone to America.

Clearly I need to practice stems a lot more. Or, maybe I just need new paint brushes!

Kittens

Most excitingly is the news of Beryl, our cat, giving birth to two kittens four weeks ago. Sadly one of them died and we have been hand rearing the other due to Beryl not producing enough milk. He’s doing exceptionally well now and we have finally felt able to name him today…meet Kipper (named by a three year old, can you tell!)

I love this picture, taken by Alasdair. He’s a nightmare to get food into but he is good fun for the rest of the time.

Owls

A sneaky preview at something that will hopefully be coming soon to the patterns page of the site. I’ve been making felt brooches and love the quickness of the craft. This owl was sent to a swapper in Israel and I will, with a bit of luck and time be adding the pattern for this and a couple of other brooches in the next few weeks…keep checking back, they are really simple to make and require very few materials.

Last piece of news is that we are preparing for our first craft fayre next month so are very busy and very excited at the same time. May it be the first of many, eh?

Alasdair has just finished another carving, this time the wood is from a Cherry tree. He should be letting you see it very soon. Also I’ve made some more felt birds, this time I’ve made one from cotton fabric so it has a frayed edge. I like the effect. We need some sunshine for optimum photography though…I thought it was summer!

Tags: art, bird, craft, embroidery, felt, handmade, paint, painting, sewing