a kiss from France

Posted on May 16, 2013 by

Reblogged from Kate Davies Designs:

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I so enjoyed your translations and comments on this post, that I thought I'd continue the First World War theme with some of my favourite items in my postcard collection. Known to collectors generically as "silks", these machine-embroidered cards first appeared around 1900, and were produced in vast quantities during the twentieth century's first two decades. As an attractive and eminently portable form of sentimental greeting, these cards proved particular popular among British troops serving in France.

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Holy cow! My friend Karen Frisa shared this Kate Davies Designs blog entry about WWI embroidered French "silks" cards and I am utterly blown away. I feel like I've just been to a museum! LOOK AT THE PICS. Oh, what beautiful objects!
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Tile Cards for Mother’s Day

Posted on May 8, 2013 by

It seems like I’ve slowed down on the blogging. What can I say? Real life intervenes. There’s been a visit form my mom (yeah!), work and house cleaning. And those damn allergies! Anyone else having issues? Mine just make me so tired and headachy. Feel like I’m walking through dough.

Anyway, I know I owe you all some “California Craftini” and it’s a-comin.’ Those posts have started to take several hours, so be patient.

But while my mom was here, we made a buncha cards. I got hot under the collar for mosaic-type cards made with “tiles” punched out from various pieces of paper – scrapbooks paper that had multiple different squares on them, scraps, Florentine paper, postcard books, etc. We had a bunch of fun, too, me and my mom, doing these . . .

Butterfly card

Butterfly card

The cards all measure 6 inches by 6 inches. The individual tiles – the picture portion –  are just over an inch square.

Victorian Ladies

Victorian Ladies – Mother’s Day message inside

Then I use scraps (LOVE TO USE UP THE SCRAPS!!!) to frame them – the frames are 1.5 inches square – , and then on some I use coordinating paper to make panels to fill the card . . .

Merry and Bright

Merry and Bright

And, of course, you have to add some sparkle . . .

Birthday Wishes

Birthday Wishes

I feel pretty strongly that these cards, because they are so large, need some for of 3-D adornment, so you see I have used paper flowers, ribbon and I’ve “popped” the sentiment panel with padded tape.

Fun, huh? These cards are available in my Etsy store. Stop by if you need some last-minute Mother’s Day cards – I’ll even mail them for you.

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Crocheted Beaded Bangles

Posted on April 14, 2013 by

So last Thursday, after finishing my work for the day, I headed off to Target for some necessities. I both love and hate Target. I love it because of how convenient it is, how it gives 5% back to the community and how it just has so much stuff. And I hate it because I used to work there when I was in high school (Mens, Boys, Shoes, Women and Accessories EEEEK!) and it is still fraught with the killing boredom of the work for me.

Anyhoo – I go because I need one thing – in this case bottles of Diet Coke – and I come out $100 later. Very bad. This time I came out under $70, so job well done. One of the little extras I picked up was a bunch of silver-colored metal bangles – six for $5.

Not exactly like these, but almost

Not exactly like these, but almost

What can I do to tart these up, I thought????

So I brought them home, got out the crochet hook and some old ribbon “yarn” left over from other projects. Now, calling this “yarn” does not really convey what it is. I have several schnibblets of Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon left from purses I made with it years ago, as well as several schnibblets of Tess Designer Yarns Microfiber Ribbon yarn. Neither has any wool in it. I also got out some plain old 1/4 inch ribbon from Michael’s in colors that coordinate with the fancier Tess and Louisa Harding yarns.

Sari Ribbon

Sari Ribbon

You are familiar with the term “schnibblet” aren’t you? It is a highly technical knitting term for those damn little balls and bits of yarn you have left from projects that are too small to do anything with but too gorgeous to throw away. I have a box full.

Bangles crocheted with Tess ribbon

Bangles crocheted with Tess ribbon

First, I did single crochet around the bangle. That was kinda okay. The Sari ribbon is pretty – multi shades of blues, greens or pinks with a metallic center – silver or gold, running straight through. The Tess ribbon has deep hues of blue and green.

Beading around the ribbon

Beading around the ribbon

But somehow, this wasn’t tarty enough. So out came the beads – size 15 silver and gold.

Sari Ribbon bracelets

Sari Ribbon bracelets

And now I’m hooked. I’m going back to Target this morning to buy them out.

The first set

The first set

Wrapping them in this way – all the same way – seems to me to unite them into a set despite the fact that they are made with different ribbons.

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Posted in beading, Jewelry making, knitting | 11 Comments

A Path to Recovery

Posted on April 13, 2013 by

Reblogged from Peacefully Knitting:

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When I received this single skein of Rowan Softknit Cotton  in a beautiful shade of Indigo Blue  to review, I simply had no idea what to do with it.   A single skein of just 115 yards isn't much to work with until you are inspired.

My inspiration came from a friend who recently was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and asked me if I would knit a few hats for her as she was getting ready to under massive doses of chemotherapy.

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Tina at Peacefully Knitting shared this free pattern for a chemo hat on her blog today. She has a friend who has stage 4 breast cancer and designed it for her. I know many of my friends look for good chemo hat patterns and I wanted to share this one. I'll be keeping Tina's friend in my thoughts.
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Extreme Paper Quilling

Posted on April 10, 2013 by

This was in my inbox this morning, my daily message from a blog I follow called “Honestly, WTF.” It’s a mixed bag of fashion, art and jewelry how-to’s (guess why I subscribe). It features the paper quilling of Yulia Brodskaya. You know what paper quilling is – organizing long strips of 1/4-inch thick paper into picture. Take a look at this woman’s stuff. Then run off to Michael’s and buy a package of quilling paper, or tear up some construction paper. How long do you think it takes to attain this level of skill? She must have eyeballs that see in pixels . . . .

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Lisa’s Bead Closet

Posted on April 3, 2013 by

Last week, while traveling in Texas for work, I managed to get a few days’ visit in with my family and a couple of dear friends. One of them was Lisa, my college pal, beading buddy and all around best friend.

Me and LeeLee at the bead shop

Me and LeeLee at the bead shop

Lisa learned to bead maybe 10 years ago (am I right, Lisa?), self-taught via books the Internet and just generally being a smart(ass). I have featured her here on my blog before – she usually comes to visit me in November so we can go to the Bay Area Bead Extravaganza together, hit all the local bead shops and throw a little jewelry-selling party chez nous.

Bead this way . . .

Bead this way . . .

Hooking up with her in Houston – she lives in Katy – I asked her to bring her baubles. I am – as usual – just astonished at her creativity, inventiveness and skill. Here are some of my favorites . . .

Lisa made this one from a kit by a Japanese designer. It's just for her . . . boo too

Lisa made this one from a kit by a Japanese designer. It’s just for her . . . boo hoo

I bought this one for my mom

I bought this one for my mom

Love this "bubbles" bracelet

Love this “bubbles” bracelet

Lisa sells her stuff at local craft shows and on Etsy. You HAVE to go to her shop there. And she has a Facebook page where you can follow her beading. She uses a lot of semi-precious stones, sterling silver and crystals. VERY nice materials and I think her prices are excellent.

I almost bought these for myself, but ended up with a pair of hoops with black beads and dangles. Yummy

I almost bought these for myself, but ended up with a pair of hoops with black beads and dangles. Yummy

Bead weaving

Bead weaving

This one is a bunch of jump rings - I love it

This one is a bunch of jump rings – I love it

And one more – you can see more on my Facebook page, where I posted an album . . .

pretty dangles

pretty dangles

And then she made this for me – a mini Rocky, complete with little red tongue!

Rocky - about 2.5 inches long

Rocky – about 2.5 inches long

I am encouraging Lisa to get her work into some boutiques. Won’t you leave a comment here and tell her what you think of her work?

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in beading, Jewelry making, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Long Timey No Bloggey

Posted on March 20, 2013 by

Sorry folks, I have been working a lot lately – which is good – but that has left me little time and enthusiasm for blogging, which requires, or course, even more writing and more sitting in front of a computer. But when I ran into my friend and fellow knitter and beader Karen F. at a cafe this past Friday she shamed me (!!!) – okay, encouraged me – to blog again. It was very nice. Sometimes you feel like you are just sending all this energy out into the void.

So, here’s what I’ve been up to to:

KNITTING – Almost all my knitting time has been taken up by the Victorian Lace Today shawl I am teaching as a knitalong at K2Tog. This is a massive project – about 2,000 yards worth of lace. But mine is coming along, and even more importantly, the shawls of my students are not only coming along, but looking SWELL. Leading this class is turning out to be one of the most rewarding things I have done in knitting and it is in large part due to how creative, willing, enthusiastic and just downright fabulous the 11 women I am leading are. I will have pictures to share here soon – I was waiting until the students had enough fabric to photo and show, so stay tuned.

BEADING – I got bit by the bead bug again, so when I am not knitting I have been beading. In the last month or so, I’ve made a number of wire-wrapped necklaces, delving deep into my stash and coming up with the following.

Amber and Copper

Amber and Copper

I am not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing that I did not have to go to the bead store to complete any of these things. I have quite a stash.

Greek Vase mandala necklace

Greek Vase mandala necklace

The necklaces are now in my Etsy shop. I am hoping that by selling a few items I can justify how big my bead stash is. Oy.

Mother of Pearl, shell and Copper

Mother of Pearl, shell and Copper

I have also gone a bit overboard in the memory wire bracelet department . . .

These three can be worn together

These three can be worn together

I’ve made maybe half a dozen bangles, each with about 8 full wraps and a large variety of different beads within a limited color palette. I’m trying to play with texture and tone.

Red and black

Red and black

 

I was inspired by all those Alex and Ani bracelets (way too much $$ for me) and the Chan Luu bracelets (ditto). I am very, very happy with the results, which are also in my Etsy store.

Yeah, little bit overboard

Yeah, little bit overboard

And here’s a word-in-progress – what do you think of this motif for a pair of earrings?

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CARD MAKING – Not been doing too much of this lately. I’ll see something that will inspire me, soon.

Another cool thing – I got new business cards. I got one for cardmaking and one for jewelry. When I get my knitting patterns together in a way that I can sell them I’ll get one for that too. Do you like them?

Thanks Vistaprint

Thanks Vistaprint

 

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