Make It! March under review

So maybe I didn't get quite as much made as I expected but I never set out for the theme to be a design-a-day challenge!
Anyway, I'm pleased with the results - I came up with at least two new designs (the fuzzy felted flower rings and the spool knit necklace) plus I repurposed some wire and fibre stars, making my first tiaras! I finally "made real" my drilled seaglass cufflink design and am very happy with the result! I also took a week out from working at the bench to set up my local artists' cooperative with a social media network - phew! that was hard work (and fun) to connect and is still ongoing. Then an extremely heavy cold landed me in Complete Exhaustionsville for over a week. Managed to pack in one jurying session, my season opener at the Blim Community Market, delivered my work for a gallery exhibition and a workshop for teens during Spring Break during all of this .....ah yes, and Spring Break!

Make It March day 7

simple drilled seaglass and sterling cufflinks

The sea glass tablets, collected from the beach in Scotland I used to play on as a wee girl, have been ready drilled for a while now. So yesterday I torched and pickled the wire then assembled the fittings.

Voila! They're part of what's turning into my "simplicity" collection - a range of simple, classic, unadorned pieces similar to this argentium sterling lace cuff.

Cufflinks above for sale on Etsy, $82 plus shipping.

Lace argentium cuff is a custom order only right now.

ring cycle

purple poppy: wire and fibre needlefelted ring

 

Finishing a project off is as good as starting a new one!

I'm really pleased with this ring. It's an almost first for me in wire crochet and a continuation in exploring a new technique to add into my wire pieces. This bracelet was the first one (and it sold!) and I hope to explore some more in less functional, more artistic projects (though I hope that all my pieces get worn sometimes). Maybe I'll have a whole bouquet of these little rings soon!

Make It March: wordless wednesday

glitterball pendant in silver artistic wire plus glass seed beads

Make It March: day 2

my window ledge photographic studio in action!

Well rather frustratingly, today all I did was take product pics and photoshop them for listing.

But I did get it all done, and the listings are now all bookmarked to add to my etsy shop this week so maybe tomorrow I can settle down at the bench and create?

PS: green fuzzy annelli necklace shown on bust now for sale

Make It March

 

In January I recovered from Christmas.

In February I set up a work from home routine and dealt with all the paperwork.

In March I will have to do my taxes, but as some light relief my blog posts here will have the theme "Make It March". I'm planning on creating some new pieces and listing work for sale ie. making stuff, and hopefully making some money to pay the taxes! It's not going to be as intense as Design-A-Day April from two year's ago but I will be posting WIP and finished pieces almost daily.

I already have some inspiration, as you can see above. This beautiful lampworked glass bead fits onto a handknit wire chain. I'm working on a clasp for the chain and testing out its strength in the final design. It's a kind of knitted orbitals design but with the bead strung instead of incorporated into the mesh as in this gold wire bracelet.

fuzzy friday

 

A new ring and a new technique.

Exploring needlefelting with wire crochet - voila! a flower ring (and the loos end of wire will be 'incorporated').

wordless wednesday: speechless with joy

 

 first gallery submission accepted .........

wire crochet kits

imperial wire crochet kit, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

New wire crochet kits will be appearing in my Etsy shop in the next week. Stay tuned for candy pinks (tinned copper with pink beads), ginger (copper wire with fiery beads), forget-me-not blues (silver wire with pastel blues) and the all-new imperial purples (tinned copper with a rich purples mix).

Kits will include wire, bead mix and crochet hook with step-by-step instructions (plus illustrations) and a simple wire hook clasp to complete.

So for those who cannot attend my wire crochet classes, this might just be the next best thing (or as a solution for what to get the crafty crafter in your life as gift!)

A definite one-of-a-kind project, and possibly the start of a new hobby?

Note: these are already available in my Artfire studio.

wordless wednesday: my studio

working at the bench (also my computer table)

new storage layout (and hidey hole)

on one side of the bench

my new summer workspace!

or maybe here!

Faberge - a history

Not sure why, but when I first made a multi-coloured wire crochet cuff it reminded me of work by Faberge.



The first cuff was crocheted in tinned copper with freshwater pearls. It was one of the first mesh bracelets I made. It sold at a craft fair (I think - record keeping was a little sketchy then) but the name hung around.

The next "Faberge" was in copper with an even more exotic mix of freshwater pearls. I liked it so much that the cuff was recreated three times.

Then a customer mentioned she would be interested in one in silver wire, so I made one in argentium sterling and LOVED the combination of shiny wire with pearls.





.... and then I went back to tinned copper ..... but tried a string of multi-gemchips. Voila! A new "Faberge" is born.

everyone needs ......?

.... more cufflinks?
Well, that's my opinion so my week has been full of reaching out to other venues to market/sell my wares.
and I haven't been creating much stuff as a consequence.
Hopefully one will lead onto the other.

Networking!

wordless wednesday

.... just finished some jury application packs (wish me luck!)

what can you do out and about?

portable crafting projects completed

Maybe some inspiration for what can be created with just wire, a crochet hook and some pliers?

design-a-day

crafted portably of course - glass and copper wire crochet

 

Yesterday was Canada Day - my tent blew away but I did make some good sales (rather than the great sail that my tent was making!).

Before my tent went aerial I managed to set up my smaller table to put on an "artisan at work" demo (since I was in an artisan showcase). The wire crochet drew lots of attention and I had some lovely chats with some fascinating onlookers. Hopefully I'll see some of them when I resume teaching classes in the Fall.

I've got another couple of craft fairs coming up over the next two weeks then it's summer holidays for me. For inspiration I've set up a design-a-day challenge for myself. It will run until the end of July and document my crafty endeavours thru the first half of The Wee Guy's school holiday. Check out the flickr set of work done so far.

Currently it's running at 2 out of the 6 listed projects being portably crafted, including the sumptuous copper wire crochet cuff shown below. This was completed during my first stint in the Blackberry Artist's Cooperative shop in Port Moody Art Centre on Sunday.

Faberge: copper wire crochet with freshwater pearls

similar for sale here

This weekend's inventory check was most encouraging and no frantic crafting is needed to build up stock for the Main Street car-free Vancouver festival this Sunday (I'll be between W20th and 21st Avenues on Main).

So, this week's portable crafting projects are a little more leisurely and introspective.

• silver wire beads (they went down a storm at the last craft fair so I'm making them again for this Sunday
• trying out a freebie knit pattern for a shrug, using some scrap yarn from my stash. front is on the circulare needles for portability while the back is on straight pins for at-home moments
  
• sleeveless cable waistcoat pattern from the Sublime aran knits pattern book (knitting up an absolute dream) - on circular needles = extreme portability

I also found out that nearly all my little felted bowls have sold so I can justify whipping out the crochet hook for these portable charmers too. Might just settle down to making some on Main Street this Sunday.

projects to go

clutch of wire crochet pendants for the Main Street car-free Vancouver festival

It was with some trepidation that I approached this morning's task - checking inventory for a craft fair. Not so bad, some of you might be thinking, but this event is only a week away and I don't have a whole heap load of time for stocking up! I was anticipating setting up numerous portable crafting projects plus some 'burning the midnight oil' sessions ahead. :(

Instead I was pleasantly surprised. Despite having what seems like all my inventory out on sale in local boutiques, etc. there was still quite a sizeable collection suitable for the street fair. (For you locals out there, this is the Car Free Vancouver festival being held next Sunday, 14th June - I'll be selling on the block between W20th and 21st). My huge workload vanished 'pooft' and was replaced by some relaxing afternoon crafting.I finished off some wire crochet bezels for sea glass chunks then strung them on pendant cords (see above).

There are still some important tasks on the horizon (bungee cords to hold the tent down, afix some nosestuds to business cards, and so on) but, on the whole, this week should be a leisurely trot thru some portable crafting while out and about. Might get to try some new ideas!

Phew!

inspiration!

wire crochet ring in gold artistic wire

Waiting for out-of-school activities to end can be a real drag, however I do enjoy hanging out at Place des Arts in Coquitlam where the Wee Guy goes for his art classes. I get to sit around in the gallery (where the incredible Tripolar exhibition by the Freemantle siblings is currently on view) and either contemplate on life as I sip my coffee and view the art, or can spend an entire hour crafting without distractions.
This was a recent result - I was asked at a recent craft fair if I made wire crochet rings.
Well I do now!

lacking focus

clutch of fidget rings in brass and copper with furnace glass

Time has most definitely not been of the essence recently, mainly due to an enforced run of solo parenting for the last week. When I'm not parenting I've generally been too tired to create, and this makes me more exhausted and in turn I get little other than the immediate childcare stuff done in a day ..... and so on! It becomes a catch-22 until I get some unfettered "me-time" to reboot. We've been mainly home-based too so I've not even been managing any portable crafting moments despite having a new waistcoat on the (circular) pins.

However, a few evenings ago I sat down at my desk and worked on two projects. Somehow the metal obeyed my command, I only shattered one glass bead during rivetting and the pair of fidget rings shown above were the end product. There's also a new flotsam wire and fibre brooch on the go but it needs a repeat felting so no pics so far.

Having some new projects on the go certainly helps me banish the crafting blues, and I've found it helps with life in general. I feel calmed and productive amidst the chaos of my role in family life, a job with no reference, feedback or career pattern. I guess this mother's little helper is fibre or metal plus assorted tools!

PS: they're fidget rings cos the glass rivet section sticks up a bit and is great for fiddling with, all rings should have a fiddle section!

the structured chaos of organised personal time

Last night I switched off the computer, removed myself from the lure of the interwebs and the seduction of twitter ..... and Made Stuff. This follows on from my previous blog post kvetching about not having enough personal time over Spring Break.

I poured a good big goblet of red wine and the creativity flowed(?).

accomplished =

• a new pair of copper earrings

• three flotsam wire and fibre items ready to be felted in today's batch of laundry
• the prototype for a new flotsam wire and fibre design
• set up some portable crafting projects for when I'm out and about
• an inventory check of wire crochet for upcoming craft fairs and B&M's
• prep for the promo items I need to make for the upcoming Got Craft! fair at the beginning of May

Once these housekeeping items were out of the way I then settled down to some real creating, something I've been 'itching' to do for a long time. I've been making wire beads for about a year now and using them in necklaces or as focal points. Recently I've started felting them (my beloved fuzzy balls!) but last night's project was a wee bit different.

I made a graduated set of fine silver wire beads and teamed them with some beautiful white agate to make a "purity" choker-length necklace. For some reason I gravitate towards pure white with the fine silver and the pieces always end up being "purity". Ho hum - makes sense to me I think.