Bowl full O fun!

 

Last Month at a family reunion I went to the local farmers market. There I found a couple of women spinning wool yarn at their display. I spotted this gorgeous purple wool, and brought it home. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make with it, it was just to gorgeous to leave there! After a couple weeks I decided to make a bowl with pulltabs, and expand my catalog of items I make with tabs. Perfect thing for the wool! So here is my first can tab bowl! I like how the verigation comes through in each row like I switched yarns. I think I might make a few more bowls, maybe slightly larger.

The second item I am chatting up is this fun pull tab purse. It's a custom order and each row is a different shade of green. I actually have over 16 different greens in my horde! Some shades are pretty similar, but side by side are different.  I tried making a button loop closure for under the flap, and I think it turned out pretty well ( small pic). I had my daughter model the bag for me, and you can see my messy studio in the background!

Anyway I am now making a blue bag in multiple shades, and after that I have a project to represent my hometown for a juried in art show this fall. I haven't done an "art" show before so this should be interesting to try!  More pics and progress when I complete them.

trying new things

I am planning to push my creative boundaries a little. I did my first freeform wire crochet last week while at my Tuesday Makers meeting. I must admit it was a bit daunting, having no idea what stitch was going in next or in what direction I should work. But it is a pretty artsy piece, I decided to add a chain and make it a bib necklace. Wearable art, I am sure someone out there will appreciate it, but I know it's not everyones taste. I might keep it too, but being me I'll have to make earrings too LOL!!

I was at the local art galleries summer salon show this Sat. And it occured to me that I really need to get myself into the fall/winter one. Wondering if I should just do my usual or make more artsy stuff for that. Maybe a bit of both. Hoping I get the time to make a new purse design I've been pondering too.

Well right now I need to concentrate on getting Adaira ready for diabetes camp and prepping for my parents 40th anniversary surprize party this weekend.  Should be a crazy week as usual!!

BUSY week, orders illness, dentists oh my!

Wow has it been busy around here! Lets begin with the bad news shall we?:

1)Adaira is STILL sick, missed all last week of school, and is still home today, Tues. Sadly we found juice boxes downstairs as the culprit this time. How does one convince someone else not to self-destruct? And she isn't a teen yet, OMG what will the future look like if this is 12!!
2)The rain hasn't stopped and today it is also snowing, changing between the 2 off and on all day. The weather is nice for all the farmers, but it is a bit wearing on the mood around here.
3)Took Kaylen to the dentist this morning, and her teeth are excellent, ecept one must have cracked at some point and was rotten, her molars have deep, deep crinkles, naturally and needed caps. So I was thinking maybe it'll be a week or more. Nope thay had a cancelation in an hour, so we had lunch and were reading a magazine when they called us in a little over 1/2 an hour later. she got the caps on and had the tooth pulled. But then we couldn't get ahold of our ride home!! Luckily/sadly my teacher friend Jackie had the day off due to a bomb threat.

4) as we waited for Jackie, my phone rang. My son Geran is throwing up at school. So my afternoon has 2 sick kids and 1 with a sore mouth. I have a small pharmacy of meds here.

5)This is the second week I have missed my makers meetings!!

Ok and now the GOOD news:

1)I start babysitting tomorrow for $! friend Jaime has had me booked to sit for when she found a job, and she starts tomorrow. I only get the kids in the morning, and a bit of late afternoon as they go to pre school and kindergarten in the afternoons.

2)Tax season is over!! I get my husband back, and am no longer a "tax widow", ahh a 2 parent home.

3)The lady I re-made the bracelet for a few weeks ago wants a matching necklace. And is happy to wait until I go to the city next week where I can find the right bead mix I used.

4 and 5) I did my first home show at my husbands friends place this weekend, and did rather well, I had a lot of stuff on the sale rack, but people still bought a fair amount of new stuff, including some of the flower sets I made with Elaines beautiful beads. One lady bought a lot and custom ordered a can tab purse, a necklace , and a can tab tank top. The top I have never made, the possibility came up in conversation. 

                                                                                                                                                           6) Another friend ordered a purse from me. No rush as she has to save up for it.

7) I think I can be ready for the bellydance performance in June after all.

8)I finished a new style purse in a gorgeous coloured verigated aqua green cotton.

So I have a lot of orders to fill, and a job.This calls for chocolate!! 

Is That A Challenge!?

I have created a couple things for challenges recently.

The first one my friend Elaine (aka Tooaquarius, check her blog link <--) wanted to see how different each of our styles of jewelry making would look with the same beads. So she gave me a few and she kept some of a batch of her beads and we decided bronze/copper pearls and turquoise to go with. and here is my set:

And this week I started a thread on Artfire as a 2 week challenge:  http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=forums&page_no=1&op=view_topic&tid=5051  The theme is what inspired you to your current medium. For me that is a simply chained out 5 strand copper wire necklace with a bunch of brown and amber beads. The original was all glass, but I used some pearls, and semi precious stone as well.

My Artfire thread I am planning to continue as an every 2 weeks challenge, if anyone else is interested in continuing with me. As a basic shop I can't join any guilds there so this will get me some regular people to get to know as well as get the creativity going for a bunch of us. Now what will the next challenge theme be, hmm....... any suggestions?

swirlies and the re-do bracelet

Elaine of Tooaquarius is an excellent polymer clay artist and a good friend of mine. As such I use a lot of her work in my own. Anyway she showed me how to properly make swirly lentils, so one afternoon the kid and I were playing with clay, they make pokemon figurines and I did a few swirlies.

The other thing this week was a customer from a fall show bought a braclet she absolutely adored, (tells me it's her fav and that she gets compliments everytime she wears it.) But she caught it on something sharp and wanted it repaired. She mailed it in a plain evelope no insurance, and the post office machines ate it. All i got was a half shredded envelope and a part of a note. Luckily the note had her work phone number so I could call her. She asked me to remake it and said she'd pay. The first time i made it took days and days, so I wasn't thrilled but what do you do? I made the original 3 years ago, I have gotten a lot faster and completed it in a day!! what a great measuring stick for my growth as a crocheter!

So now back to the orange purse which had better turn out well after all these interruptions in makeing it!!

Easter 2010

Easter has come and gone for another year, PHEW!! My family and their extensions always get together good friday and rent the hall in Eastend to colour eggs together while the men play poker. 40 dozen eggs folks... and I think 16 or so kids.



wouldn't be fun without greenish blue digits after either!

Before the eggstravavganza we had supper with my folks and my brothers family. we got all 7 of the grandkids on the couch for an adorable photo moment.


Ok so aside from Easter the first United Church had a weekly rummage sale. I haven't gone for awhile. but the past one my pal jaime went to and called saying there was a bunch of yarn I might like. She picked me up and I got all this for $6. Sweet!

Speaking of whom I also just finished her purse order for her mom, zipper and all!


I also did a custom pair of earrings for a lady who is in my knitting and crochet group and recently our Tuesday makers meeting.



So that's what I have been busy at the last week!

Makers

Ok so recently i joined a local group of knitters and crocheters who meet twice a month at the library. I am the only crocheter so far and I crochet odd stuff, but it's a great group!
And I joined a weekly crafters group meeting on Tuesdays called Tuesdays with Laurie: Meet other makers http://swiftcurrentmakers.blogspot.com/ at the art gallery, which is in the same building as the library. We have met 3 times and on 2 of them there was a film crew for the local TV stations. It's a lot of fun and although new there's a variety of crafters including Elaine of Tooaquarius http://www.tooaquarius.com/. Laurie Wagner whi is the education co-ordinator of the gallery is the head of the group, and she does amazing work needle felting, there are 2 collage/asemblage artists, a painter, and several people who have stopped it to look and say hi but don't stay and craft with us.
Now my church has a group of crafters who want to meet on Fridays, so I will be a busy lady with 3 different crafting groups. Should be fun as they are all quite different.
Well I do have a 2 day show this weekend I suppose I should get off the 'puter and do something today... although a good soak and a book is tempting too...

The Demo

Yesterday we did the usual go to church, and I sold a strawberry shortcake to a family who gets me to bake cakes for them at least once a month. Got a message this morning apparently their cousins who were at the party the cake was for wanted them to pass on their compliments. How nice is that? Makes a good start to the day I tell ya!
So after church we had a quick lunch and off I went to the art gallery to set up for my display and demo of wire crochet for a couple hours. It went really well, I had quite a few people come to look and ooh and ahh. Always flattering, even had a request for teaching a class! There was a pottery class in the next room, one of the students came out to get something saw my diplay and was quite impressed, a few minutes later the rest of the class all came out at her insistance to see the crocheted wire jewelry. The one lady wanted to buy a set but didn't have $ with her so I gave her a card and told her I'd be at the gun and hobby show the 27th and 28th. Laurie the amazing gallery education co-ordinator bought a set too, it suits her really well. She's the lady in the wine coloured shirt with the purple and green fluorite set.

And a set of ladies came in and bought some of my rings. I really wasn't thinking sales, so all this was an unexpected bonus, plus I get $50 for the demo. Elaine was there for a while and took a few pictures for me. She rocks, and her demo is next Sun so I'll have to return the favour and shoot a few pics. Crafty friends are the best aren't they?

Maker meeting

Well today the local art gallery hosted the first "maker" meeting. Basically anyone who creates anything is welcome to come in for 3 hours and we can work on our projects have a coffee, chat, and network. Already we have a few ideas to work on together how cool is that? There were about 6 of us and a few people just popped in to say hi. Quite a few people said they'd try to come in Sunday for my wire crochet demo, so that's awesome :) Elaine, aka Tooaquarius was there, the gallery curator Laurie I bellydance with, The others I don't know, yet. Laurie just started doing needle felting and has an increadibly detailed felt doll in the works. It looks to me like an ambitious project for a beginner, but she rocks at it, this doll has dimples, joints that look correct, and even individual teeth showing in the mouth! 2 of the other ladies do collage one had a sort of steam punk look to a few of hers, which was fun. I had a few people interested in my art, which is great, but I didn't think to bring a finished project to display, silly me. But next week I'll bring something. Looks like my afternoons on Tuesdays are now booked. 15 blocks there and back is good exercise too.