Crafters’ corner 2020

Aren't you just the clever clogs.

 

Very nice. At first I looked and thought, "what is she talking about ordering glass? The surface is already so shiny it is already reflecting the paperwork!" Beautifully done.

 

You've made a grand job of the 'trolley' Snorky.

 

Hello fellow crafters! Has anyone been up to any crafting this week? Ive had a jolly time...I feel like I am 8 years old again I've been glueing gems, making glittery decorations and christmas garland for the staircase.

the gem jewels will hang in the living room across the beam. The garland is made from paper packaging that I sprayed silver gold and black to match with the Piano and picture frames in the hallway.

 

I’ve been busy working on two Christmas commissions that I need to get to the UK before the Christmas post rush. I think I’ve had enough black pets to draw for a number of months!!

I’m looking forward to working on Christmas decorations. My favourite simple one is fir-cones in a gold mesh. The mesh is actually the metal that comes on a Rioja-style wine bottle. Lidl’s do a cheap wine that comes with the mesh, less than €4 per bottle when on promo, so it’s one of the stand-by wines in this house. I kept the metal wire for crafting. Some goes into cards (cut a straight length, then “peg” a stamped piece of card on, for a different Christmas card), but most are cut in half. The wire is then opened out - obviously opens to the diameter of a wine bottle - and fir cone popped in. Drop to the bottom, then twist closed. You have a gold-filigree fir cone, with a gold wire length to attach to a wreath, branch, led light-strings, etc.

 

Ooh sounds good Sian. Send a piccy of them when you've done the pinecones and mesh. I might want to copy you

 

I didn’t need much tempting to play with fir-cones, rather than draw a pair of dachshunds!

I’ve cut the mesh in half, creating two pockets like this


Then insert the fir-cone into the mesh...



It’s a case of arranging the wires to pass in the best line along the segments, but you just tighten up, and twist the opening closed. You can either leave a hook, like here, or close it off to make a loop. I generally leave it as a hook, and close it off if needed.


So simple, it’s almost embarrassing. But it gets round the problem of how to attach a fir-cone where you want it, without using glue. If you want a long “handle”, you can use one mesh for one cone, rather than half. But I find even on a wreath, you can wrap the wire around a stem quite successfully.

I can’t find the examples right now, but I have sometimes painted a dab of white poster-paint on the top of each cone “petal”, which is really effective!

 

That's great @Sian in Belgium I made sure I picked up some pine cones on the dog walk this morning. That wire is really useful-i'll use them to make a table centrepiece for christmas day. Thank you! X

 

Painted fir-cones hanging up to dry - as you do!!

....you do know the trick to make quick mini Santa hats, don’t you?

- cut a narrow strip of a toilet roll tube, around 1cm
- cut lengths of red wool (green or white also look good), around 12-15cm long (if you imagine half the length of the pieces of wool, that will be the size of the hat from edge of the rim to the top of the bobble)
- fold each length in half, wrap around the collar of tube, and thread through itself
- repeat until all the cardboard is covered
- tie near the cut ends of the wool, to create a “bobble”. The tie is also your attachment loop
....simples!

 

Decided to make a draft excluder thingy for the front door this afternoon. I've got loads of wool packaging from my Abel & Cole cheese deliveries and they are not reusing them at the moment due to covid etc, so I've utilised that to make the filling. Used an old bed sheet to make the wool into a pillow like centre. Then used up a bit of grey material and some
Christmas Holly material. Very basic but it'll do the job.

Had some woofers helping out...

 

Finished one afghan. I am now using ICEyarns I get from Turkey, really cheap and fantastic colours, a lot containing Lurex ...



I have started an afghan with this ...



... and have these ready for other projects ...

 

Sorry @Victoria, am I missing something? What do you mean by afghan please? I like the colour mix.

 

Morning @Sheal An afghan is a throw/cover for a sofa/chair, often seen made with granny squares, very American.

Yahoo fait désormais partie de Verizon Media

 

Interesting @Victoria. I've always known throws as - throws. Afghans as either dogs or coats. Back in the 60's and early 70's they were both fashionable.

 

still working on it...