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.

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.

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.

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