too soon for Christmas decorations?

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.

Glasgow West End Craft Fair – Saturday 10th July 2010

Preparations are well under way for our first craft fair of 2010, which will take place in Hillhead Library in Glasgow’s West End this coming Saturday.

In the true spirit of leaving everything until the last minute, we have a list as long as both our arms of work to complete before Saturday morning and, in the true spirit of procrastination (something that we are very good at) Alasdair is currently rewiring the house and replacing the plasterboard, while I am busy redesigning and packaging my button pendants.

Going off on a tangent for a moment, these boards to hold my necklaces were made partially from the paper I made a couple of weeks ago.  I mounted the paper onto mount board and stamped ‘madestuff’ along the bottom, cut a couple of notches in the top to hold the cord and (in a later version) threaded a piece of wire through to hold the cord in place.  I’m so pleased with the way they worked out.

So, the list of things to do is still as long as our arms; however it’ll be alright on the day and if you would like to come along and meet us in person, and see some of the many other wonderful crafts on sale from numerous other makers, we’d love to see you there.

The details are on our events page.

Taking Inspiration: The Peacock

Peacock’s are well known for their fantastic plumage and for proudly strutting their stuff, they’re also an immense source of inspiration for a huge number of people; as you’ll discover if you type ‘peacock art’ into google and look through the image results.  It’s easy to see why they should act on the imagination and why artists and crafters alike should wish to include aspects of them in their work, I was reminded of that recently when we visited a local farm park – see here – with the kids and there was a couple strutting back and forth, all the while studiously ignoring each others existence.

Their arrogance and aloofness reminds me of ‘those people’ who have an arrogance born out of forever being told how handsome or beautiful they are, how wonderful they are, how perfect … at least the peacock’s have reason to believe it of themselves.  Here are a few pictures I took while we were at the park:

click to full view

I’d love to do a Bonnie Bird drawing inspiration from these birds although I think I need to carefully consider the execution of such an exploit. So, in the mean-time, here are a few samples from around the internet of what others have been up to recently:

by Deadpan Alley

by Jen Skelley

by Verabel

by Sally Boyle

Vintage Button Pendants

I’ve been busy making layered button pendants today from some of my vintage button collection.  These buttons have been collected from various elderly relatives over the years and there are some amazing buttons within that collection, some of which make great pendants within themselves.

I’ve not even scratched the surface of the buttons I have, which makes it really time consuming to come up with combinations.  There must be millions of possibilities.  Here are a few that I’ve made this morning that are now dry.  There are others just waiting for the glue to dry.

All but the last one are available in our Coriandr shop.  I’m not at all happy with the quality of the last one…you can see the glue under the heart button.

Karolina-g ~ featured artist

For those who don’t know DeviantArt is a massive online artists community which spans the globe and contains the work of many thousand artists and crafters, amateur and professional alike.

I recently came across Karolina’s work while browsing through the submission feed and I’ve got to say it simply knocked my socks, her gallery is fabulous.  Karolina is an artisan hailing from Poland and whilst I can’t necessarily read her comments about her work it doesn’t mean I can’t fail to appreciate her work.

Just check out some of these sample pieces from the range of pieces that Karolina makes:

Karolina makes wonderful brooches which seem to be largely based on birds and bugs, I must say I’m developing a particular fondness of the bugs and strongly suggest you go and have a look at the ladybirds in particular.

Clearly taking a great deal of inspiration from the natural world around her, unless I miss my mark, Karolina also creates a range of beautiful ceramic pendants in the form of leaves and flowers like this one featured below.

Finally from this small selection of her work is an intricately sown necklace featuring another of her ceramic creations.

Aside from these types of items Karolina also creates a range of ceramic tiles featuring floral designs that are also worth a look and a range of photography which shows a keen eye for a good picture.  It’s this good eye for a picture which really makes her work stand out as she presents it in an attractive and informative fashion, highlighting details and elements of her work in an eye catching fashion.

It’s great to see well presented work on the web, it bothers me when people who have put a lot of effort into making something fail to put in an equal effort into presenting it.  Not the case here, check out karolina’s gallery, do it now!

You may also find Karolina at her blog, http://karolina-g.blogspot.com/.

~00OO UPDATE OO00~

You can buy Karolina’s work from either of these sites:  Decobazzar.com and Wylegarnia.com. 

These sites are in Polish, don’t let that put you off though, you should be able to get google to translate them for you, just enter the url into the google search bar, also you can use xe.com to convert prices.

more runic pendents

I’ve been busy extending the range of runic pendents available to include more ‘bind runes’, that is runes designed to have a particular influence on the wearers life.  Whether or not you believe such things the sentiment is rather nice and I think it’s nice to have a little hope that things might be better than they are … unless everything’s perfect for you, in which case, great!

The bind runes shown (back row, left to right ) are for  Health, Love, Wealth, ‘A’, (front row, left to right) Peace and Happiness, ‘little dancer’, Luck and, Success.

The bind runes meaning in detail:

Health: Maintaining a healthy mind and body requires a constant flow of energy. Sowulo represents the Sun and when combined with Kano and Inguz can provide the inner strength to repel negative energies and illness.

Love: Preserve a loving relationship by combining the powerful energies of Gebo and Wunjo to create a partnership giving success and pleasure.

Wealth: Wealth can take form in emotional, spiritual or monetary ways and Fehu is a rune of fulfilment. True wealth is achieved through generosity which leads to emotional, spiritual and financial fulfilment. Combining Fehu and Gebo gives the balance required to achieve this elusive goal.

‘A’: This is the gothis rune for ‘A’ and is the first of a range of runic intials I’m looking at doing, of course some runes are more interesting in appearance than other, if your interested drop me an e-mail via the contacts page.

Peace and Happiness: Total harmony with life is promoted by Wunjo which is combined with Berkana and Kano to dispel negative energies and bring happiness into the home

‘Little Dancer’:  Is my own design, has no meaning, is not runic and is included here because I like it :)

Luck: Combines Jera, benefical outcomes, the Wunjo and Sowulo to bring about joyousness and the energy to succeed in your endeavours. Patience may be required.

Success: Combines the fruit bearing, joyful rune Wunjo with Berkana which promotes personal growth and prospering ventures.

‘little dancer’ and ‘runic’ wooden pendants

In prearation for our forthcoming craft fayre Jo and I have stepped our crafting from something just short of a slow simmer to a frantic and frightening boil which essentially sees us crafting every night, obviously when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘Jo’ … personally I’m still pretty horizontal when it comes to crafting activity!

Despite my relative inactivity I have been able to turn out a good number of pendants over the last couple of weeks including my own ‘little dancer’ design, that can be seen below, and also some runic symbols imbued with all the power that their form allows them.

All the pendants were made from scratch from the felling of the wood, to the seasoning, to the design, wood burning (pyrography) and varnishing.  I managed to get a job lot of bails and have woven together some hemp cord to make the ‘chain’.

From left to right the runes are: Love Bind Rune; Universe Rune; Acceptance of Cosmic Law Bind Rune; Karma Rune; Protection Bind Rune, and, (just above the Protection Rune) a Success Bind Rune.

I’ve not uploaded these to the shop yet, although if you’re interested then just e-mail me through the contact page above and I’ll give you a price incl. postage.  These are now in the store and are priced $7.50 incl. postage, you can find them all here.

Coming Soon … plant pot decor, felt art, and lots lots more