Stuff for people who are still a bit untamed, young at heart and full of dreams.

Friday 31 December 2010

Playing on the Etsy Playfield

I'm just discovering the different gadgets on etsy. Like this one which shows some of my favourite items on etsy:

Monday 14 June 2010

I Need More Hours In A Day!!!!!

There are so many ideas in my head. I really would love to follow all of them up.

I do have to work on my "Altered Objects" and "Recycled Objects" jewellery line. There are so many things I would love to integrate into my jewellery pieces: nuts, bolts, keys, buttons, fancy paper, drift wood. I guess, the list is endless.But at least, the big spoons have finally found their destiny: Not as dingly danglies for the garden but as big, chunky necklaces. I'll take them to the craft market next week and see what the folks on Arran think ...


And the mirrors: I just bought a fabulous book with natural history illustrations. Now I want to collage more mirrors. No, no, don't get upset! I will not massacre the book but scan the pictures first before I rip them apart. And I want to use boxes and stools and tables and... and (you get the idea?)... for my mixed media stuff. Can't wait to get my hands dirty with paint!

Apart from moaning about my lack of time, I had real fun with my bunny necklace. No, I'm not working for the Playboy! I was commissioned to make a bracelet with a lot of green beads, many different rabbits dangling from carrots and preferably in a gold tone. Sounds really challenging, doesn't it? It took me a while to work this out. But I think I like the result:




Yep, I had to forsake the gold tone on its own because I couldn't find enough different bunny charms.



Couldn't resist to add Peter Rabbit! Erm, and as you can see the Playrabbit found a place too...


Who would have thought that there are carrots growing in my bead stash...

And this week I'm going to work on some really bright and bold statement pieces of summer jewellery. I feel like mixing really bold and opposite colours and chunky beads with some unusual items.. I'll let you see as soon as I'm there!





Sunday 23 May 2010

It's Official!

It definitely is spring. I was woken up by a cuckoo this morning. And by bright sunshine. A swallow is feeding her offspring just above my bedroom window; a beautiful busy little bird. And the hawthorn in front of our house is in full bloom. So is the rowan behind the house. There is already this specific haze above the sea which speaks of warm summer days and soft breezes...

Also, jetzt habe ich den offiziellen Beweis: Es ist Frühling! Heute morgen weckte mich der Ruf eines Kuckucks. Und strahlender Sonnenschein. Eine Mehlschwalben-Pärchen füttert seine Jungen alle fünf Minuten direkt unter'm Dach über meinem Schlafzimmerfenster. Hübsche, geschäftige kleine Gesellen. Der Weissdorn vor dem Haus ist in voller Blüte genauso wie die Eberesche hinter dem Haus...

I just discovered the lovely blog (something you would like, Lynn, Coral, Betty, Angela) by Maaria: http://herzlichst-maaria.blogspot.com/. Do not even start about me being "Suomenhullu", Angie! We established that about twenty years ago!

Ich habe gerade den tollen blog von Maaria entdeckt: http://herzlichst-maaria.blogspot.com/
Ihr werdet ihn mögen. So viele textile Ideen!

The last few weeks I spent quite a bit time on mixed media mirrors. I haven't got around to produce a tutorial yet, but it will come soon. Actually, once I've got more mirror blanks to decorate, which - living on an island - means a trip to the mainland...


In den letzten paar Wochen habe ich mich vor allem mit Mixed Media beschäftigt. Ein paar Spiegel waren dabei das Hauptresultat. Ich bin noch nicht dazu gekommen, eine Anleitung zu erstellen, aber das kommt schon noch! Um genau zu sein, wenn ich wieder Spiegelrohlinge habe. Wenn man auf einer Insel lebt, heisst das, einen Ausflug auf's Festland zu unternehmen...

This one is called Bloodred Love. I know, I know, the ever present vampire theme... I was more fascinated by the colour combination of black and red. And to add to the slightly sinister or mysterious atmosphere, a hint of midnight blue... Apart from collageing with papers and painting I have used three dimensional bits and pieces on it to give the mirror frame more structure.

Dieser hier heisst Blutrote Liebe. Ja, ja, das Vampir Thema. Ist ja so populär, ich weiss. Aber ich war mehr fasziniert von der Farbkombination schwarz - rot. Und um das Ganze noch ein bisschen mehr sinister zu gestalten, ein Hauch von dunklem blau... Abgesehen von Farbe und Papier Collage habe ich dreidimensionale Objekten verwendet, die dem Spiegel noch mehr Struktur geben.




I did the same in my Carissima Mia mirror. Only the colour scheme is far more on a bright side and the stuck on elements are small and cheerful.

Das Gleiche habe ich mit meinem Carissima Mia Spiegel gemacht. Nur die Farbwahl ist hier auf der heiteren Seite und die verwendeten Elemente sind klein und "niedlich".

This one here is called Diva, and I wanted to underline the feminine. So everything is in powdery colours, almost a bit ethereal. I used a tiny bit of transparent glitter. And of course flowers and stars for the diva. I think the final result is pretty much like a diva. Not exactly anchored in the ground but airy and heavenly...


Na, und der hier heisst Diva. Die Collage sollte vor allem sehr feminin wirken. Dazu habe ich rosa und blaue Pudertöne gewählt, und einen winzigen Hauch von Perlmutter-Glitter. Ich finde das Ganze macht nun doch einen sehr weiblichen, beinahe etwas ätherischen Eindruck. Naja, halt wie eine Diva, nicht ganz auf dem Erdboden aber himmlisch...

And now, I'm off to play with my flower beads!

Und jetzt geh' ich mit meinen Blumenperlen spielen!

Sunday 9 May 2010

Here Come the Spoons...

Honestly, I promise I will stop before this turns into one of these "X ways to alter a spoon" blogs. But I have to confess, the way in which this spoon project developed, is quite exciting.

The next two spoons I worked on, were absolutely unwilling to let themself to be broken (I had planned to change them into pendants). Not even heating them up brought any result. All I managed to do was bending their handles. I decided on making a spoon mobile for the garden with them. In the next step I coated them with alcohol inks (Adirondack) and made a little collage with different papers and wordings. I used Modpodge to stick the papers on.


Also, ich verspreche,dass das hier nicht in einen "X Arten einen Löffel zu verwandeln" ausartet. Obwohl ich zugeben muss, dass mich das Eigenleben meines Loeffelprojekts schon fasziniert.

Die nächsten beiden Löffel, die ich in Angriff nahm, wollten sich um nichts in der Welt brechen lassen. Alles was ich (auch mit erhitzen) zustande brachte, war, den Griff zu biegen. Also beschloss ich, dass sie Teil eines Mobile für unseren Garten werden sollten. Ich grundierte den ganzen Löffel mit Tinte auf Alkoholbasis. Dann fügte ich eine kleine Collage mit Blumen und Worten hinzu.



Alles, was ich nun noch machen muss, ist die Teile an Fäden zu hängen.

All that's left to do is to string the spoons into a mobile.

The next spoons were even more stubborn. I heated them until they glowed with the intention to break a part of the handle off (which worked) and to bend the rest into a loop for a pendant. Yeah, that was the intention. But the bending bit ended with a clear break very near to the spoon part. So I will have to drill a hole into the little "stump" of the handle.

Die nächsten Löffel waren noch eigensinniger. Ich brachte sie über offener Flamme zum Glühen damit ich einen Teil des Griffs abbrechen konnte (was auch klappte). Den Rest wollte ich dann zu einer Oese biegen. Pech war, dass der Griff schliesslich kurz über dem Löffelteil abbrach. Es blieb nichts anderes, als dort ein Loch zu bohren.

To make a pendant, I hammered the spoon part flat, inked the spoon with alcohol ink, made a little collage with different papers and finally glued a semi-precious stone cabochon and a little rhinestone to it. For the collage I used Modpodge. The stones were stuck on with superglue and at last, I gave the pendant a careful coat with diamond glaze.


Um den Anhänger zu machen, hämmerte ich den Löffel flach. Dann gab ich ihm eine Basisgrundierung mit Tinte auf Alkoholbasis (z.B. Adirondack von Tim Holtz).
Auf diese Basis kam eine Collage aus verschiedenen Papieren, geklebt mit PVC Leim (Modpodge ist genial). Als alles trocken war befestigte ich ein Halbedelstein Cabochon und einen Strassstein mit Superglue. Zu guter Letzt versiegelte ich alles mit einer Schicht Diamond Glaze von Judikins.


I made two more spoons after the same idea. The only difference was that I didn't hammer them flat. I just wanted to see how they looked without doing that and whether the collageing bit would work out on them since they were much smaller than the ones I used for the mobile. The result is something quite retro, if not Victorian looking:


Zum Schluss wollte ich mein Glück bei zwei kleineren Löffeln ausprobieren. Es interessierte ich, was passieren würde, wenn ich eine Collage in den nicht flach gehämmerten Löffel einfügen würde. Also, ich finde das Resultat sieht so richtig schön altmodisch, irgendwie Viktorianisch aus...

You see, there is no reason to chuck out all those old spoons out. They can always have a new life...

Kein Grund also, alte Löffel zum alten Eisen zu werfen, wenn sie doch noch ein gutes zweites Leben haben können...


Saturday 1 May 2010

Last Line Blogfest


Thanks to Roland D. Yeomans I discovered that there's a lot of creative writing going on blogspot. Weird that I never thought about that one...

I like the idea of Lilah Pierce's "last line" festival. Reading all the posts makes me wanting to read what happens before the last line. Funny enough, reading through some of them, the left side of my brain came up with all kind of possible stories for the endings. It felt almost like a Creative Writing game!

For all, who have something in their drawers with exciting last lines. Let us read them! Here's the link to Lilah's blogfest:
http://lilahpierce.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-first-blogfest.html

And here are my last lines from the first chapter of MWP:
"A movement at the corner of his right eye made him jump. They were near! His chest expanded painfully as he gulped for air and started to bolt. Some of the sconces along the damp walls held flickering candles, but the end of the hall was shrouded in darkness. Tim stumbled on. His heartbeat was racing. He dived into the shadows and found himself in a dead end. There was no escape. Only an old mirror covered the wall. His own pale face stared at him. Wide eyes glowed darkly underneath the shadow of his hood. His monk's robes were torn, and he held a golden object in his hand. The metal reflected the dim light of the candles much brighter than they actually were. For a moment Tim felt blinded. The sound of steps echoing from the walls had ceased only moments ago. It was dead quiet. Even the chilly air seemed to breathe silence. A water droplet fell from the damp ceiling. Splish! Then, silence again. The place felt eerie. Tim held his breath. And then, he saw it! Behind his back, a sword, gripped by muscular hands rose, hovered in the air and then, accompanied by a mighty roar, it crashed down towards his head...."

It's going to be a childrens' (10 - 12 yrs) book i.p. And no, I'm not going to frighten the poor weans away!

Sorry, kein deutscher Text heute, das blogfest ist leider englischsprachig. Morgen kommt der zweite Teil der Loeffel.

Thursday 22 April 2010

Scraps, Bits and Pieces and Broken Spoons Part 1 - Reste, Papierfetzen und zerbrochene Löffel Teil 1

How on earth can three weeks have flewn past just like this... It's not that I haven't done anything creative the last few weeks. Quite on the contrary. I just never got around to communicate.

Before I go ahead, I will follow the advice of Avarra and make this blog bilingual. The German version of the blog will be written in orange.

Hallo, Avarra! Ich habe Deinen Rat befolgt, und hier ist der Blog nun zweisprachig. Der deutsche Text ist in optimistischem orange gehalten...

Wie um Himmels Willen können drei Wochen nur so schnell vorbeigehen! Und wie konnte ich diesen Blog nur so vernachlaessigen. Nicht, dass ich keine kreativen Schübe gehabt haette. Ganz im Gegenteil. Aber irgendwie bin ich einfach nicht dazu gekommen zu kommunizieren.


When I was rummaging through my drawers, I found a box with old silver spoons. They were really lovely with their handles shaped like a rose. Unfortunately two of them were broken. So I decided to have a go at altering them into jewellery.


Also, da war ich doch gerade so am Aufräumen (Gott, wie ich das hasse!), als ich über eine kleine Schachtel mit alten Loeffeln gestolpert bin. Die waren eigentlich recht hübsch mit ihren Griffen in Form einer Rose. Leider waren einige davon zerbrochen. Ich dachte mir, sie noch länger in einer Schublade herumliegen zu lassen, macht eigentlich keinen Sinn. Und da beschloss ich, sie in Schmuck zu verwandeln.

First I hammered the spoon part flat and polished it with very fine steel wool until it looked nice and shiny. Not all blemishes didl disappear completely, and actually, they didn't have to. After all these are vintage spoons which had another life before.



Zuerst hämmerte ich den Löffelteil flach. Anschliessend wurde das Teil mit feiner Stahlwolle poliert bis es schoen glänzte. Nicht alle Unebenheiten und Kratzer gingen weg, aber das sollten sie ja auch gar nicht. Immerhin hatte dieser Löffel eine Vergangenheit und die darf man ihm schon ein wenig ansehen.

The first spoon was broken just where the handle and the spoon meet. So I had to use a file to remove any sharp edges. My first thought was to collage a picture onto the flat spoon and to turn the handle into a charm. For the latter I had to bend the handle into an eye shape, and that went completely wrong. I ended up with a strangely twisted handle which refused to be bent into any eye-type shape. Slightly frustrated I played around with the whole thing and came up with the idea of fusing the spoon and the handle together. The spoon part fitted exactly into the gap between the rose part and the end of the handle. I glued everything together with metal glue
and had a very Victorian looking pendant.

Der Löffel war an der Stelle, wo sich Griff und Löffelteil treffen, gebrochen. Also musste ich zuerst alle scharfen Kanten glatt feilen und polieren. Als nächstes wollte ich den Löffelteil in eine Collage verwandeln und den Griff mit der Rose in einen Anhänger. Also begann ich den Griff zu einer Oese zu biegen. Nur wehrte sich das Teil mit aller Kraft gegen meine Versuche und auch alles Erhitzen half nichts. Ich endete mit einem seltsam gebogenen Teil, das mit guten Willen als Oehr hinhalten konnte, aber nicht geschlossen war, sodass eine Kette einfach herausgefallen wäre. Ziemlich entnervt spielte ich mit den beiden Teilen herum, bis ich den Löffelteil durch die Oeffnung im Rosenanhänger schob. Und siehe da, es passte ganz genau! Mit einem Metallkleber befestigte ich die beiden Teile aneinander, und ich finde, das Ganze sieht sehr Viktorianisch aus.

The next step was to drill a hole at the bottom of the spoon. And all that was left afterwards was to attach short pieces of chain with Baltic Amber chips, freshwater pearls, an amber coloured glass leaf and a dragonfly charm.



Als naechstes bohrte ich ein Loch am unteren Ende des Löffels und hängte mehrere kurze Ketten ein, an denen ich Bernstein Chips, Süsswasserperlen, ein bernsteinfarbiges Blatt aus Glas und eine kleine Libelle aus tibetischem Silber befestigte.

Hung from a velvet ribbon or a chain the whole thing looks very Victorian/Edwardian.


An ein Samtband gehängt, sieht das Ganze doch ganz schön retro aus...


And that was the moment where I went hunting for more spoons...

Naja, und das war der Moment, an dem ich beschloss, dass ich mehr Löffel brauchte.

Monday 5 April 2010

Back to Jewellery Making

The sea outside is churning, no sight of anything beyond 100 meters. It' raining, cold and the slates on top of the roof are rattling vigorously. Since neither the dog nor the cat can be lured to go outside I have returned to my workstation and try to work on some jewellery pieces for little girls and those who still want to be little... Making jewellery for children is really fun. You can play with colours and use funny beads. The right thing for anotherwise quite dull day!

I just can't get enough of colours!


Sunny, isn't it?


With freshwater pearls

And they could come with matching bracelets, like these:

Friday 2 April 2010

Colouring eggs on Good Friday

Shiskine Valley on Good Friday

Yesterday was Good Friday, and it almost got me by surprise. Last year at this time I was already planning what I would plant in my wee garden. Not this year, its far too cold. The snow is slowly, slowly creeping up the hills but there is still a wintry chill in the air. But in sheltered places, there are signs of spring just waiting to burst into action. I saw masses of fresh wild garlic in Kildonan and Whiting Bay. Must make a few jars of pesto.



This years Easter eggs dyed with onion skin, turmeric,
beetroot and red cabbage.

Since I've been a little girl, Good Friday has always been the day when we were dyeing Easter eggs. Although on the Continent you could get all kinds of dyes, my mother preferred to dye our eggs with natural dyes. Around Easter the drugstores would sell different kinds of roots and woods which would transform your eggs into many lovely shades. If you never have dyed your Easter eggs yourself, here is a little instruction. You can't get dyeing roots and woods everywhere (at least not on Arran) but that's no reason to avoid colouring your eggs! There are more simple ingredients you may even have in your cupboard and if not, they are available just around the corner. Dyeing eggs starts with very light coloured, preferably white eggs. In Britain it can be difficult to find white eggs in the shops. Luckily I have quite a few enthusiastic hen keepers living near me. And some of them keep hens which lay white or very pale beige eggs. This year I went for duck's eggs. They're usually white or very light blue. And they're ideal when you work with kids. Their shells are much stronger and won't break easily. And they taste as good as a hen's egg.


Lovely eggs from Laura's adorable ducks


The next decision you'll have to make is for what colours you'll be going. This year I choose to have red, pink, purple and yellow eggs. But you can easily have violet, blue, green and orange eggs as well. The following ingredients are easy to come by: lilac/purple - purple grape juice, red cabbage, blueberries, reddish purple and violet hues - red wine, red onion skins, yellow - turmeric (kurkuma), green tea, brown - strong coffee, onion skins, pink - beetroot, orange - yellow onion skins, paprika, red - onion skins, some red wines, green - boiled spinach leaves.

For my colour scheme I decided to go for turmeric, beetroot, red cabbage and onion skins. Unfortunately I did not have enough red onion skins (I started a little late to save them) so I had to mix in a few yellow onion skins which made my eggs not go red but a shade of reddish brown. But I think, they're still lovely.

If you would like a pattern on your eggs, you can for example arrange herbs and grasses on top of your egg.

Chickweed and strawberry leaf


To fix the herbs to the eggs, you get yourself a pair of old tights or stockings. Cut yourself a tube about double the length of your egg from one of the legs and close one end with a knot. Now slip your hand into this bag, like this:



Then grab your decorated egg like this:


and pull the stocking over your hand and seal it tightly with another knot.


I know, I know, you are tempted to use the foot of the stocking. But don't do it! There are usually seams, and often it is tighter woven which might destroy your lovely pattern. Actually, you might even get a bit of a pattern from the knots. If you want to avoid that from happening you would have to ask somebody to tie the stocking closely with a piece of thread or string.
You can achieve patterns by wrapping string or cotton thread around your egg. That goes easier if you wet the string before you start wrapping. Make sure it is sitting tightly around your egg and handle it with care when you fix it in your stocking!


You can also work with a resist technique by drawing patterns all over your egg with a wax crayon. The dye will not cover areas you have drawn.


Of course, you can try with different coloured wax crayons but there is not much guarantee that the spared lines will keep the colour of your crayon. They will just be much lighter than the rest of your egg. It's a very subtle pattern that you will achieve. These eggs will not have to be wrapped in stocking.
Finally comes the big moment of dyeing. Place your prepared eggs into a suitable pan. Cover with water, add 1 - 2 tsp of vinegar and your dying material. I used the skins of about 5 onions, respectively 2 tbsp of turmeric, three beets or the chopped half of a small red cabbage in a small pan since I was only dyeing two to three eggs at once. With time you will gather more experience.



Now bring your eggs to the boil and then let them simmer for at least 15 minutes. Then check how they look like. If they are too pale, add more dyeing material and let them cook a little longer. You can actually take them out, rinse quickly under cold water (so they will peel better), put them back into the sieved dyeing liquid and let them stand over night to achieve a deeper colouring.



These are some of my onion and kurkuma dyed eggs. From left: Knot pattern on turmeric dyed egg, plants and herbs on an egg dyed with red and yellow onion skin, another turmeric egg, then a string pattern on an onion egg and at last a scribbled pattern.
The time you need to do all this? Not more than an hour altogether. I started first thing in the morning and had enough time to spend the rest of Good Friday cleaning up the garden, cutting back shrubs and watch my teenage son cutting the hedges with an electric hedge trimmer... And then - it got very cold and started raining again...

Thursday 1 April 2010

Colours


Watch out for my Easter craft ideas over the next two days


Today's weather lives up to the definition of April. Within an hour we had snow, rain and now bright sunshine. The sea started the day with rolling waves, and now there are only a few white horses left and it presents itself impeccably blue. Ailsa Craig and the South Ayrshire/Galloway coast seem nearer today and so seams the Mull of Kintyre. Yes, and there was that short moment when I could vaguely see the outlines of the Irish coast a few moments ago...


But let's not get too optimistic. The hill behind the house is still wearing a snowcap.

Today's weather and its incredible play of light and shadow got me back to my stash of Amber. I really felt like playing with it. My friend Coral brought me a bounty of semiprecious stones back from her holiday in Thailand. And all of a sudden I felt like combining unusual coloured stones with my sunny Amber pieces.

I like this simple necklace of vintage Amber nuggets (from Latvia where my mother's family comes from) and Chinese Jade. I call it Helsinki Sunset because I remember a beautiful evening in Helsinki when the sky and the sea took on this almost Caribbean colours.



I just like the contrast between the cool blue and the warm yellow, and I think the silver spacers bring the whole thing nicely together.

And then I went over board. I had a deep dive into Coral's stones and came up with a piece which I call Tropical Lagoon. This time the Amber got surrounded by Amethyst, blue-green chinese Jade, Swarovski Crystal rondelles and some Czech glass leaves, all held together by twistet wirework.




Obviously, when it comes to colours I can't get enough. Here comes number 3, called Dream of the Reef. Yes, I know, it sounds all very Southern hemisphered... I just can't wait to sit outside and work with my beads or to simply potter in the garden. This illusion necklace is an ecclectic mix of semiprecious stones and Tibetan silver charms, thought to brighten the mood on rainy days. Actually, all these jewellery pieces are available in my Arran Gems internet shop.






I set few lovely precious stones aside to produce this simple necklace. It reminds me much of some jewellery my mother used to wear. Therefore, I'm going to call it Wild Sixties.




I can just hear Junior walking through the door, as cheerful and happy as most probably any Scottish kid, enjoying the fact that this is the start of three weeks holiday. And I think, this is a good reason to celebrate. I think, I'll head for the kitchen and magic up a nice carrot cake...

Wednesday 31 March 2010

I Must Be Mad!

Yesterday's blizzard must have blown all my senses away. Instead of doing something sensible like clearing the path, doing the dishes or producing a shopping list I'm sitting in front of my PC and try to start this blog off... Seems to be more difficult than I thought. I guess, my creative writing students would be in stitches...

From my window I can see the sea churning. The sky is grey with even darker clouds racing across, driven by a still strong and chilling wind. My poor little Daffodils look battered and I'm desperately waiting for a glimpse of sunshine and a bit warmth. Who wants to dig out easter eggs from a layer of snow anyway.

I spent yesterday digging through my bead stash and found my collection of Amber and Turquoise. I guess the stormy waves and the lack of sunshine made me come up with this wavy necklace.



I got these big and chunky Amber chips from a friend on the island. She had inherited them from her mother but she doesn't like Amber very much. We made a swap. I produced some jet jewellery and stitch markers for her and I got these wonderful Amber pieces.