Jolene’s been busy laying about with her feet up, well, in fairness she’s been resting her ankle following an operation to remove the steel work that was put in when she broke it a few years ago.  She hasn’t been entirely idle though, she was commissioned at the Morningside Makers Market to customise a pair of Christmas stockings for a lady who was going to New Zealand to visit her grand-children over the festive period.

It was all a bit last minute, but Jolene relined the stocking uppers to the customers specifications and embroidered ‘Daisy’ and ‘Hamish’ onto the top before despatching them, post haste.

Things were slightly held-up as the customer wished to pay be cheque and we had to wait until we received it before despatching the items, typically we wait for cheques to clear before dispatch, and encourage shoppers to use paypal for payment, particularly if they are in a hurry.

OK, so I previewed these in my previous post however I finally managed to source some ribbon I was happy with and I’ve got them finished and pictured:

available from coriandr and etsy

Regular readers may remember a post I made a few weeks ago, Trial by Clay, in which I featured a rough attempt at a clay bird, I’ve since refined the notion and have been merrily creating a range of slightly smaller free standing birds with a simplified design in red and white, the scheme works well with the copper legs and necks that I’ve been giving them, recycled from our on-going rewiring project.

Available from Etsy and Coriandr

As well as the free-standing birds I’ve also been busy making hanging birds for use as Christmas decor, their not quite finished yet since I need to source some nice ribbon for the hangers and I just haven’t seen any that I think is suitable yet, bit of a WIP in that respect, although I’ll hopefully have them in the shops soon.

Recently we’ve been giving a lot of thought to our packaging.  It’s not something that comes naturally I’m afraid.  Occasionally, it works out just fine like with my button pendants; however that’s a very rare occasion indeed.

Last week I had a crazy notion to make some Christmas gift tags for sale.  Having deliberated for some time about the best way to present these, I settled on a good old baggie with fold over label and spent Saturday morning bagging them up.  I hope you’ll agree they could compete with any mass produced packaging.

There are four designs in each packet, the reindeer shown above with it’s bright red nose, the Christmas tree, the mistletoe and the Christmas roundel.

As with the dolls, birds and copper ornaments, these will be on sale at our upcoming Christmas Craft Fairs.  We’d love to see you there and we’ve just added another date for Penicuik High School on November 27th.  Time permitting there should be more sock monkeys and felt owls for sale too.  Keep an eagle eye on this space for an update.

I know, another Christmas post, but really it’s not that long until the big red cheery chap comes again!  I’ve made quite a few of these hanging birds but they don’t photograph well.  I think they’re shy!

They’re a simpler take on the fabric finches regular readers will be familiar with, which makes them quicker to make and therefore more likely to hold my interest…did I mention I have a very short attention span?

As with the Matryoshka dolls, these will be adorning our tables at our upcoming craft fairs.  If you fancy making your own birds (not exactly like this one, but very pretty nonetheless) check out the free stuff where you’ll find a couple of variations on the hanging bird.

The idea of printing on fabric has been something I’ve been wanting to try for some time now.  I’ve neither had the time nor the inclination until this weekend, when the urge suddenly took me to get my finger out and make something for a change.

In my head this was going to be a quick craft that would satisfy the need to have some cheap Christmas ornaments for sale at our upcoming craft fairs.  In reality it took me all day to find a suitable image and even longer messing around with different techniques of colouring the image and transferring it to the fabric.  As they say patience is a virtue and in the end I was rewarded with some pretty special hanging dolls.  The most recent ones such as the one second from the left have a watercolour appearance.

Here they are all printed up and waiting to be sewn.  I think I’m in love – is that a bit narcissistic?

Well we had our first fair in the run-up to Christmas yesterday, and whilst most people are avoiding the ‘C’ word in polite company there’s no doubt that it’s on people’s minds and that it emerges from unguarded lips, whispered in hushed tones as decisions are made as to whether little Jimmy would like this or perhaps Aunty May would appreciate that.  For our part we think that all mention of the ‘C’ word should be banned until November at the earliest.

Our last fair at this venue was disappointing, although this time around we were pleased to see a much greater foot-fall and far more people taking an active interest with a view to buying, to be honest though I’m as happy to stand and have a blether about what we do as I am if some nice shopper decides to make a purchase!

We had gone armed to this fair with a heap of chocolate dipped ginger bread men that we spent the previous evening making, a sample of a product aimed specifically at ‘C’ time.  They seemed to go down well, although they were free and were mostly eaten by the kiddie-winkles who, let’s face it, are generally delighted by anything with so much as trace elements of sweetie-ness!

Again the fair had a pleasant atmosphere with an interesting mix of crafters and shoppers alike.  We even made a purchase ourselves, something we generally try and avoid, although it turns out that when it can’t be avoided it costs us our day’s takings and the rest, still, it’s difficult to put a value on a piece of original artwork.  I’ll be posting those images at a later date though, hopefully as part of a featured artist post.

In the meantime we’d like to thank everyone who managed to get along to the fair and also the other stall-holders who were a bit fab.

We’ve been renovating our house since moving in almost four years ago.  Progress is slow but steady and lately we’ve (read Alasdair) been ripping out the old electrics in one room that will eventually be our living room.  The old wire is a lovely thick copper wire that we just couldn’t throw away.  So, I made some Christmas hanging decorations, while Alasdair replastered the walls!

Simple one first…the star.  Made from heavy grade copper wire that has been lightly sanded and bent to shape.

So pleased was I with the star, that I decided to branch out and try an angel.  I must admit to having to raid some colouring books for the basic outline!

Pretty good, eh?  The star and angel set will be available from our stall at the fairs we’re attending this winter.  Who knows, they might be joined by a gingerbread man or two.

Just in case all that Christmas decor is making you feel a little out of season, I also made this rather fetching copper and vintage button bangle.  I am particularly proud of this, my first attempt at real jewellery from scratch.

With copper in such short supply, it makes me feel I’m doing my bit for the planet by recycling the wire rather than throwing it out.

Now, back to the renovating I think.  Today the central heating is having a good old clean out.

In spite of the fact that it should be summer and we are being teased with rays of sunshine trying to break the clouds, the small furry one decided to make a snowman today.  OK, so it’s a red snowman and it doesn’t actually resemble a snowman but she says it is a snowman so a snowman it will be…in the middle of summer!

This was really easy and quite enjoyable once I got around my anally retentive everything must be perfect way of thinking.

First we drew our shape on a piece of paper and cut it out.  Then we pinned the paper pattern to an old felted jumper and cut round it, leaving a seam allowance.  We then chose buttons and sewed them on…that took forever; if you have kids you’ll be aware of the thrills of the button jars and just how long they can occupy them for.  I held it and showed the small furry one where to put the needle, which was fortunately a blunt tapestry needle.  Of course I had to finish sewing it up when she got bored.  She stuffed it all by herself though before I sewed up his bottom.

I think this is a huge achievement for someone who only just turned 4 last week.  He’s sturdy and she is over the moon with him.  He’s been exploring caves already today and I think, by the sound of it, he’s about to learn how to draw!

BTW…she’s known affectionately as ‘The Small Furry One’ because she is indeed small and has a very hairy back!  And, I’m sure she’d hate me forever if she was old enough to know I’d told the world that.

This is more of a showing off post because I’ve just realised that for a lot of people there actually might not be enough time before the big day to execute this plan…store it in your mind for next year though.

So, it’s close to Christmas and you’ve been really good.  You’ve got all of your shopping done and you’ve pre cooked everything that can be…well done, you’re doing a lot better than me.  I know you’re sitting at home wondering what on earth to do with all your spare time between now and then.  Why not make your own Santa plate?

It’s really easy once you know how and thankfully Cathe at Just Something I Made came to the rescue with the best tutorial and pre-measured text for turning a dreary old plate into a wonderful Emma Bridgewater-esque plate for the kids to leave Santa and the Reindeer’s goodies on.  While you’re on Cathe’s site, check out some of the other great crafts she has turned her hand to…I’m seriously in awe of her creativity.

All you need is a porcelain pen, plate, 24 hours and a cooker.  See, this is why it’s more of a showing off post because there just isn’t the time unless you happen to have a black porcelain pen lying around or you want to risk not leaving the plate for the recommended time before cooking it.

Anyhow, because really I was just giving it a go when I started out I used the most cracked and chipped plate we had…apologies in advance for the dire state of the plate you are about to behold…but isn’t it so cool and I have actually started to dream about other possibilities.

Such was my lack of faith in anything that involves a fan oven I took this picture before I cooked the plate but I’m pleased to report that using the rule of heating the oven to ten degrees less than suggested avoided disaster and this plate has since been cooked, washed and dried and indeed scratched with a fingernail (to check it) and it’s still the same as it was pre-cooking.