Happy New Year to one and all.  Here we are just a few days ago looking happy and optimistic for the year ahead.

When we left you we’d finished our last craft fair of the year.  After this we went into something of an inspiration meltdown and there we have remained for the past month.  There have been minute flurries of activity in the needlefelting and knitting departments but nothing worthy of photographing and writing about.  Indeed we have struggled to put a sentence together about anything much at all and to be honest this small update is difficult.

We had a good old chin wag last night and made some decisions, partly for our sanity and partly to ensure the continuance of this site.  We’ll be spending the next year focussing much less on trying to please everyone else and going back to the humble beginnings of doing what pleases us.  There will, hopefully, be regular features and lots of craft from us and other people but we don’t intend to get all hung up on making stuff all of the time.  We’ve got a house that badly needs to be turned into a home so we must focus on that first and foremost and the craft will hopefully come from living in a much better place.

One thing that has happened is that I’ve decided to participate in the project whereby you take a photo each day for a year.  I’m off to a great start with 5 photos and hope that taking part will enable me to improve my photography skills.  I’ll be making regular round-up posts to show the week’s photos.

As for what else we have planned…you’ll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this ingenious project from ‘How About Orange‘.  She bought some very cheap bits of wood and transformed them into some beautiful keyrings with sharpie pens, which is what it’s all about really…making something from not much at all.  If you can’t find wooden discs you could always cut a branch into discs.

A Prince among wood sprites?

Surely he must be!  Look he has a crown on!?

I’ve put in place a self-imposed ban on making these sprites as they seem to be quickly taking over the house!  Until I start making more again I’m just going to drip feed the existing ones to you!

Available to buy here.

I have blogged about these before, so won’t bore you with the details again.  I have been trying to get some decent individual shots of them though and having struggled with lighting and props I finally managed to get some pictures for the shop, I’m rather please with them so I thought I might as well share them.

Click to view full sized images, there will be more to follow as I upload them.

These sprites are available for sale here.

As promised, here’s a quick how to for making your own wooden crochet hook.  These are easy to make but you will probably need to practice before the shape is akin to a mass manufactured crochet hook.  I know I need to practice more on the shape.  The thing is, these work regardless of how misshapen they are and you can have a whole set of different sizes with very little outlay.

You’ll need:

- A piece of dowel approx 18cm long.
My dowel was 6mm diameter but you can use whichever size you want.
- A hacksaw
- Sandpaper
- Craft knife
- Ruler (optional, measurements are approximate)
- Pencil (optional, only if you want to measure accurately)
- Pencil Sharpener (optional, you could use your craft knife)

Instructions:

1. With the hacksaw cut your piece of dowel to around 18cm long.

2. With the pencil sharpener, sharpen one end to look like this:

Rotate two to three times in the sharpener to get this shape but it really doesn’t matter since you’re just rounding the end that sits in your hand.

3. At the other end, measure about 2cm from the end and mark a line (or you can eyeball it).  Start carving with your craft knife rotating as you go to make a point like this:

4. Cut off the sharp end with a saw or craft knife if, like me, you can’t be bothered to go back out to the cold garage!  It should now look like this:

5. Sand both ends now to remove rough bits.

6. Continuing to work on the sharper end, make a mark with your craft knife around 1.5cm from the end.  Cut down slightly at a 45 degree angle.  A few millimeters away from that cut mark and cut down at a lesser angle to make a triangular cut out as shown below:

7. Keep working away at this cut out, alternating between cutting a 45 degree angle and a lesser angle.  It helps to hold the hook flat on a board and skim off layers towards the point, then cut down at the 45 degree angle to remove the ends of the slithers.  The picture below shows this work in progress.

Be careful to cut downwards and not across because the grain will split if you cut straight across or a too small an angle.  You’ll be sanding the rough bits later so don’t worry if it looks a bit ragged at this stage.

8. Once you’re happy with the size and shape of your cutout (it really doesn’t have to be perfect but you need to be able to catch a bit of wool with it…obviously!) sand the whole hook, paying particular attention to the base of the cutout part to ensure your wool doesn’t snag.

Here’s mine after it had been sanded.  Notice the angle of the cutout, cutting across the grain rather than into it.  And the other side:

That’s really all there is to it.  It just takes practice to get the shape right.

As a bonus, you could make your own knitting needles.  I cut all of my dowel into 18cm lengths before I realised but all you would need to to is sharpen one end until sharp and stick a large bead or button to the other and then sand really well … shh, don’t tell the knitting needle manufacturers!

I spent an hour or two this week ogling at Joel Henriques’ blog and artwork.  I was particularly struck by the simplicity and beauty of these wood and wire toys:

So inspired was I, that I had a go at making my own wire bird…I think it’s ok for a first attempt.  I’m pondering a range of wire owls…

I had to take it outside for a photo opp.  It’s still so dark and dreary here despite us being south facing.

Good news though…the daffs are pocking their heads out…spring will be with us soon enough.

This will probably be the final batch of plant pokes until after Christmas as ‘other priorities’ take over … also, the workshop gets hellish cold at this time of year due to gaping gaps under the doors and roof which may as well not be there when the cold winter gales get going!

Click image for full view!

As ever these were made using the power carver, actually my new power carver following the untimely demise of my last one.  I went for a different model and whilst it doesn’t have the same grunt as it’s predecessor it’s actually not too bad once you get used to it’s foibles!  Next time I may need to invest in one of the heavier duty motors.

There’s a good chance that I’ll be putting the power carver to greater use in the future for larger carvings, currently I exclusively use traditional hand tools for these but the amount of time this takes just even from a roughing out point-of-view can be excruciating … time will tell.  Still at least the traditional tools can be used in the house … by the fire!

I’ve developed a real joy out of making these little characters, generally I’ll closet myself away in the workshop, put on some Razorlight and get into a general carving frenzy.

This batch were made using some of the last remains of the silver fir and elm, although I do have some european larch, Birch and Ash waiting in the wings for when the mood next takes me.

Here are a few group photos for your pleasure:

As much as I’d love to upload these to the shop we’re continuing to stock up for a glut of craft fayre’s in the run up to Christmas, our main event will be in Dundee with a couple of smaller events more locally.  Details will follow in due course anyway.

I’ve finally completed a new set of plant pot ornaments (plant pokes), extending the range to include a smaller variety of ‘wood sprites’ measuring between 3″ – 4″ tall as well as the usual range measuring between 6″ – 8″ in height.

These particular plant pokes have been carved in either silver fir or elm (the majority being the fir), before being treated with oil to preserve them against decay in moist plant pots and finally having their uppers finished in a tough varnish.

As ever every piece is an individual with it’s own character, everyone has their favourites and every sprite will shortly be looking for a new home. These sprites have been specifically created for a forthcoming event, details of which will be given nearer the time, although if you’re particularly keen to re-home one of the wee souls drop me an e-mail using the contact details on the contact page.

The items in the uppermost image are priced at £6.50 / each, whilst their larger counterpartsin the lower image are £8.50 (incl. postage and packing).

Work in progress:

- paper pulp sculpted head (fund-raising project)
- paper pottery bowls
- paper pulp sculpture

Ah yes, finally!  This has, without doubt, been the single most time consuming carving I’ve done, normally I keep track of the time taken in order to assign some sort of meaningful price to the object, however, as the hours ticked by and began to appraoch 20 hours of blister inducing carving I decided to ‘forget’ to record anymore hours?!

It did however give me a  good chance to get to know this particular character:

Larry is something of an unpredictable fellow prone to contradictory outbursts espousing first one position in an argument before immediately taking up the other, of course this may have something to do with the argumentative mouth-piece that resides on the back of his head.

Some have suggested that Larry has become unstable over the years, no doubt as a result of continually having to justify himself to, well, himself. Inevitably his ‘sap’ pressure has risen to levels where his health really has been compromised, indeed, you can see it in his bulging eye!

It maybe won’t come as a particularly huge surprise that Larry is indeed, a piece of Larch wood, taken from an over-sized beast of a tree that had taken over my sisters garden and requires a certain amount of ‘pruning’.  It’s an incredibly pale wood, almost pastel white, with a grain that’s almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wood.  It creates a very subtle contour which is best seen in, well, in real life!

The finish here is acrylic paint with a coating of a couple of hard wearing varnishes.

I now have a shed full of this wood, much will be burnt in the stove although I’ve already picked out a couple of prime pieces for carving, not least of all a trunk section with two partially intertwined branches rising out of it … branches doesn’t really describe them though, maybe slightly smaller trunks.  It’s about 3 or 4 feet tall and screaming out to be carved.

I may need largely gouges though!

Available to buy from the shop

The little owl has been floating about for a while and I was surprised he’s not featured in a previous blog entry, he’s made out of ecospun felt, with recycled polyester stuffing, and old buttons.  I think he’s a rather cute wee fellow, especially with the little ‘o’ embroidered on the front.  With luck Jolene will see fit to make some freinds for the fellow, but as things stand he’s a one of a kind!

Available in the shop.

I’ve also been trying to get some decent pictures of the ‘plant pokes’ for the shop, but hell have they been acting up!  I don’t know whether it’s been the poor lighting or just their irregular shapes but it’s been a complete ‘mare trying to get in focus shots!

Available in the shop.
SOLD OUT!  Please contact for custom orders.